Anthony D. Baker: Learning to Read the Gospel Again: How to address our anxiety about losing the next generation

From Christianity Today online. A spot-on analysis.

Maybe we ought to be teaching churchgoers to read the gospel. The first thing Muslim children learn about Christians is one of the last things Christians learn about themselves: we are a “people of the Book.” Perhaps we ought to ask how to make this observation from the Qur’an true, once more, among those who fellowship around the Bible. How can we form ourselves as a people of the Book?

Any decent elementary-school librarian knows that getting children to read is about giving them a chance to love a story—to miss it during mundane events like math and dinner, and to fight throughout the day for chances to hide away with the characters and adventures to which they’ve become attached. Of course, what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John offer us is a story, but not just a story. It’s also the linguistic vessel through which we encounter the loving, creating, and saving God. The central character in this narrative loves us back. After asking, “Do you love what you are reading?” the Christian educator ought to be able to add, “And are you loved by what you are reading?”

Read and reflect on the whole thing.