Where's your notebook?
This is something that's been increasingly on my heart the past two months or so. After Craig's comment on Friday ("I'm told you don't take notes because you're college students. There are sheets of paper for taking notes on available."), I decided it was time to comment on this publically.
Why don't people take notes at The Rock or Stonebrook? More pointedly, why don't YOU take notes?
I've heard a number of reasons/excuses/justifications for not taking notes. Most of them, in my opinion, are junk.
1. "The messages are available online." Yes, they are. And they're a great resource. Now, how often do you actually download the message & listen to it again? Also, notes can be flipped through during a quiet time or Bible study. It's hard to pull up a 40 minute message to catch a verse reference and your thoughts on it.
2. "I've heard it before." So you could give the entire message, with all it's verse references and points, from memory. Even if the bulk of the message is something you've heard before, chances are good that the Holy Spirit will bring different things to mind. The same message may strike you at very different points as you mature.
3. "I take notes all day long in class." This is the one that bothers me the most. This is, in essence, saying "I consider my classes to be more important than my relationship with God." If a general ed class totally unrelated to your major is important enough to justify taking notes, how much more so is wisdom about how to live your entire life?
Another somewhat related point is that I don't very often see Bibles out and being paged through. I'm guilty of this myself. "Well, the verses are all on the Powerpoint, so I don't need to bring my Bible." True, but there are other advantages to having a Bible with you & using it during a message.
First, being actively finding verses in your Bible improves your skill in finding verses quickly. Knowing your Bible better is never a bad thing. This also is beneficial when sharing verses with someone to back up an argument or point with scripture.
"Well, according to 1 Timothy 3, the church should be led by elders raised from within the church, not pastors 'hired' from outside the congregation. See, ... uh, hold on a sec. *flip flip flip* *page page* It's here somewhere... *flip flip* *search page flip* Uh, around here... uh... *page flip turn search* Here."
"Well, according to 1 Timothy 3, the church should be led by elders raised from within the church, not pastors 'hired' from outside the congregation. *flip flip* Here, 1 Timothy 3:1-7."
Another benefit is that the Holy Spirit can (and does) use the Bible to speak truth, even when it may not be related to the message. If the passage being discussed is in John 4, and you're reading the screen, all you see is the relevant passage. However, if you're turning through your own Bible, not only do you have instant context, the Holy Spirit can very easily direct you to something else, perhaps in John 6, that is relevant to your specific circumstances at the moment. By not having a Bible with you, this opportunity is lost.
Part of the problem currently is that note taking/Bible paging tends to be defined by the actions of the group as a whole. I've observed (through an admittedly small sample size) that churches tend to be at one of two extremes. Almost everyone has a notebook/Bible out, or almost nobody does. This means that "flipping" to the other extreme is not likely to happen on it's own. It requires a directed effort.
The good news is that peer pressure is fairly effective. Try attending a service full of notebooks without a notebook sometime if you don't believe me. It's uncomfortable, and makes one feel unprepared.
And, things can change at The Rock. It doesn't require an elder standing up front and saying "Bring notebooks next week to take notes" (though being called to this wouldn't be a bad thing) - it can be changed from a grassroots level. If the leaders and people who have been around The Rock for a while simply start to bring notebooks/Bibles and USE them, and encourage others around to bring/use them, including being prepared with multiple Bibles to loan out and spare paper/pencils for people, it should be very effective at encouraging others to be prepared & take the message out in a form that lasts longer than the evening's activities.
So bring your notebook & Bible Friday.
-=Russ=-