History, heresies, and failure to learn

Over the last few months, I've been more and more convinced that we need to do a better job of educating ourselves from history. Whether it's The Da Vinci Code, religions that deny the God-Man incarnation and full divnity of Christ, the nature of Biblical inspiration, or anything else, there doesn't seem to be anything controversial and/or heretical that hasn't already been a part of church history, all the way back to the first century AD.

I think these "issues" keep coming up because we fail to educate ourselves about history, and we fail to adequately teach these history lessons to our congregations. And because of these failures, many of these things that come up from time to time are shocking to many church members, and can in some cases result in people falling away from Christianity altogether.

During this next year, 2007, and perhaps even beyond, I sense my duty in our congreation is to go back to review and teach some of the very basics of Christianity, to reinforce the fundamentals, so that our foundations of faith will no longer be shaken. My sermons will primarily go through the Gospel of John, and I will try to incorporate church and denominational history to show how our beliefs developed into what they are today.

Additionally, I will challenge the congregation to read through the Bible this next year, together. I would like our worships and prayer meetings to be times when members are able to share with one another what they have been learning from the Bible, rather than me being the only one up front doing all the teaching. This seems more like the church God has in mind -- where everyone is a minister to one another, and where each person's spiritual gifts are being employed.