Double literacy loss is among the significant challenges facing the church today. It’s a phrase that describes the shrinking habits of reading among young people, compounded by a lack of sustained attention given to Scripture—even among those growing up in church.
I recently devoted an episode of Reconstructing Faith to this phenomenon (“Reading the Bible When Nobody Reads”), where I talked with author and professor Brad East. He advocates fresh approaches and methods to increase Bible engagement for the next generation, especially considering a dwindling number of “church grandmas,” who, even if they may not be big readers who sit down with literary classics, know the Scriptures deeply because they’ve invested in Bible reading over a lifetime.
I think of not only their daily reading habits but the kind of knowledge they could reproduce spontaneously in a classroom or a conversation, that they could only learn through years of in-depth personal study of the Bible. That didn’t begin when they were 50. It began when they were children or young adults, and it continued for the rest of their lives.
The church grandma wasn’t a super-reader in the Dostoevsky or Dickens sense, but she was a super-reader of the Bible. “They really did begin their day and end their day in the Word,” Brad says, “in leisurely, patient, quiet time in the presence of God as he made himself manifest in the Scriptures to them.”
My Church Grandpas and Grandmas
This is my heritage. I was blessed to know four of my great-grandparents personally, and my grandparents have also been committed to the Scriptures.
- My great-grandma Ollie’s education didn’t go beyond the eighth grade, but she knew her Bible and could recite portions by heart.
- My great-grandpa Champ lived for most of his life in rural Tennessee. Whenever I’d stop by to see him when he was in his 90s, he’d quote Scripture or reflect on a sermon he’d recently listened to on a cassette tape.
- My grandparents, too, have been rooted deeply in the Word. My Grandpa Wax devoted years of his life to printing Bibles for distribution all over the world.
- My Grandpa Bill taught a Sunday school class for middle school boys, and nearly every time I visited his home, he’d ask about something he’d read that morning (“Trevin, what do you think Paul means when he says all the promises of God are ‘yes’ in Christ Jesus?”). Inevitably, he’d choke up and hold back tears as he reflected on God’s grace.
- My grandmothers, both still living, begin each day in Scripture (sometimes with my 30 Days series!).
- Likewise, my parents study and savor the Scriptures. My dad is constantly memorizing psalms. My mom has stepped fully into her role as a church grandma by setting the remarkable goal of reading through the entire Bible each year for the next 14 years and writing down comments, prayers, and counsel in the margins of note-taking Bibles she’ll pass down to each of her grandchildren. (Two of our kids have already received their “Grandma Bibles,” and they’re treasures to behold.)
The beautiful truth about church grandparents is that anyone can become a super-reader of the Bible. You don’t need a degree. My grandparents weren’t part of the “knowledge class.” Some went to college; others didn’t. Some read widely; others were content with Reader’s Digest or the latest from John Grisham. I probably won’t be discussing Dostoevsky’s The Idiot or Kierkegaard’s existentialism with my grandmothers anytime soon. But we sure can talk about the Gospels. They know the stories of Jesus backward and forward. They’ve immersed themselves in the Psalms. They explore the Epistles as regularly and perhaps more reverently than most New Testament scholars. The Bible is life to them.
Vision for Future Church Grandpas and Grandmas
Here lies the heart of our challenge in an age of double literacy loss. On my podcast, Brad contrasts the church grandma with the typical Christian college student raised in church. Many students are unfamiliar with the most basic biblical characters or where they fit in the Scripture’s storyline. Some struggle to explain the difference between the Old and New Testaments.
“Even if we weren’t worried about technology and even if we weren’t worried about literacy,” Brad says, “there’s something in the water where young people raised in the church are not being catechized in rich study and knowledge of the Scriptures.”
I fear he’s right. And that doesn’t bode well if we want to see the future full of elderly saints steeped in Scripture. Church grandpas and grandmas don’t emerge overnight. They don’t start their daily Bible reading habit after retirement. Their spiritual heritage is built over decades—slowly, patiently, meditatively, listening attentively as the Lord speaks through his Word.
So, yes, we should employ various methods that help people engage with Scripture beyond traditional reading—audio Bibles, reciting Scripture regularly in worship services, Scripture-saturated songs, and podcasts that foster meaningful engagement on the go. We must think creatively, acknowledging that not everyone in this generation will engage Scripture only through individual reading. (The “daily quiet time” is a wonderful but recent development in church history.)
Yet alongside these creative efforts, I hope we can still cast a fresh, compelling vision for cultivating future church grandmas and grandpas. If we can teach young people about sound financial practice—how to save and invest with an eye to future dividends—why can’t we help them consider the long-term spiritual investment in regular Bible reading that will bring about spiritual fruit for their children and grandchildren? Every time we contemplate the Bible, we make another contribution to a spiritual fund that holds generational benefits.
Flash forward 40 years from now: Will our grandkids spot our worn Bibles by the recliner? Will they see us captivated by Jesus and his Word? When we’re old and gray, or after we’re gone, will our grandchildren and great-grandchildren say with conviction, “Papa knew the Bible” or “Grandma loved God’s Word”? Will our lives radiate the holiness and sanctity marked by truth absorbed deeply over years of quiet devotion?
For the sake of the future Timothys out there, I pray for the proliferation of church moms and grandmas like Eunice and Lois (2 Tim. 1:5). I pray God will raise up grandparents who embrace habits of life and love, marked by devotion to the Scriptures. I want to leave my grandkids the legacy my grandparents left me—a Scripture-saturated life, for the good of those who run behind me in the race of faith.
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