I got into technology early on, but not by my own choosing. It was in the Fall of 1978 at North Carolina State University. I was in my last semester of college, looking forward to teaching high school mathematics.

There were six of us graduating in December of that year. They called us together for an announcement that I did not appreciate at the time.

They said, “Someone is going to need to teach computer science, and we think it’s going to be math teachers.”

They then announced that they had added 2 credit hours to our graduation requirements (remember, we were just 4 months away from graduation), specifically requiring us to take a computer science course.

Punch cards. For the uninitiated, one card was like one line of code in today’s world. If you dropped your stack of cards, it was like shuffling the deck. Beyond the fun of using the little punched-out chads as confetti (and there were buckets of those), I did not enjoy that class. I barely passed.

And, just 3 weeks after graduation, I was teaching – wait for it – math and computer science at a local high school. There was not text book. I had to study every night to create the course on the fly. But that’s when it all began to make sense to me.

After one and half years of teaching, I entered seminary (with an IBM Selectric typewriter) to prepare for youth ministry. While not an expert in any shape or form, in every church I served, I was still the one on staff that had a better technology clue than most.

When I returned to Seminary in the early 1990’s, one of my jobs was in the data center for Union Pacific Resources – entering data for their world wide oil wells holdings.

That’s when I first learned that there was a mismatch in what databases were for, and what most people thought databases were for.

Most people thought (and may still do) that databases were a place to store data. I found that, because no controls were available for manual data entry, there could easily have been, for example, dozens of misspellings of the name of a single well. Multiply that by typos for location, output, and any of the other 20 data points we entered, and all one could really say was that the database was doing a great job of storing data.

That’s not what a database is for. A database is most useful for what you can get out of it, rather than how much you can put in it. And what you can get out of it is directly tied to HOW you put it in.

Paul admonishes Timothy (and us) in 2 Timothy 2:15 to “… rightly handle the word of Truth.”

We should always be concerned with good doctrine and all principles of Biblical interpretation. Principles of Interpretation (original language, the meaning of words, culture, audience, etc.) and good doctrine are the data, and we don’t want any spiritual typos in our data, so these are certainly part of rightly handling God’s word.

But think with me for a moment of what you get out of that database, based on how you put the data in.

Lecture, for example, is the best way to make sure of correctness of all the data points and doctrinal integrity for any passage of scripture. It also allows one to cover more territory, or less, depending on how much data you want to enter.

But every principal of education tells us that the average user of this input method will be able to get out no more than 20% of the data that is put in in this way. Reading is even worse. The expected use of data that is put in by reading stands at about 10%.

This is not at all to say that reading and listening to sermons is not productive. Believers should read the Bible and the Gospel should be proclaimed every Sunday (and every other day of the week).

But, take this test if you dare. Walk around on Sunday morning before or after your service, and ask random people, “What did our pastor preach on last week?”

You may find that 20% easily remember without prompting, but most won’t. And that decreases over time. Ask them about 2 weeks ago.

This is not bad. This should be expected. This is the way God made us to learn. Proclamation of God’s word is important. But if the members of your small group Bible study don’t do any better than 20%, perhaps you should consider how you’re putting that data in.

There are methods that are vastly more effective in getting data out. They involve well-structured discussion (saying and writing is 70%, saying and doing is 90%). I say well-structured, because how you get the data in is very important to how it comes out.

One way to consider this is the weight lifter vs the juggler.

The weight lifter in the image is an academic student. There is the unstated expectation in this type of learning environment that the participants will remember what the teacher/preacher says. If you want to know more, then study more and read more. Join a 2nd Bible study, or even a third. Gain as much Biblical knowledge as you can. The more knowledge you possess, the more able you will be to live for Christ and stand against the enemy’s schemes.

Yet every statistic shows what you and I know. The church is in decline. Baptisms are down. Small group Bible study is a declined option by masses of members of churches across the country. Is it possible they think they are carrying enough ‘weight’? Or perhaps they realize that the 20% of what is coming out of their database is not life-changing for them?

Academic discipleship does not produce the results we think they should because academic discipleship is focused on getting data into the data base, not on how it comes out.

The juggler, on the other hand, is also concerned about doctrine and principles of Biblical interpretation. But the data gets into the juggler’s database through connections, analysis, actions, and reactions.

The juggler will actively remember what they put their hands on, days and weeks later, because they are engaged in the process of moving and managing that data.

The Solomon’s Quest framework can help your Bible study leaders move from putting data in, to empowering those in their groups to engage with God’s word in a memorable, life-changing way.

Granted, you won’t get as much data in every week as a lecture, but those involved in a Quest study will, with certainty, get more out.

Follow Solomon’s Quest and reach out today to learn more.