Seeing, Yet Not Seeing?

Mark 4:12 (NKJV)
“Seeing they may see and not perceive, And hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, And their sins be forgiven them.”

A few weeks ago, I lost the left lens of my reading glasses, which had been prescribed in Los Angeles. The upper part of the left side of the frame had somehow broken, causing the lens to pop out. It was especially heartbreaking because the frame had been specially customized and imported from Italy.

So I looked for it everywhere—my car, my office, and the church parking lot where I usually park. I knew it had to be somewhere at church because that was the only place I used those glasses. For the next few days, I searched for the lens, but all my efforts were in vain. I kept wondering, Where did it go? Eventually, I gave up.

Then last week, while cleaning my office with a vacuum, I suddenly noticed the lens I had been so desperately trying to find. It was lying right next to the air purifier—the very spot I had carefully searched with my eyes wide open.

I asked myself, How did I miss it?

Perhaps while I was searching, my mind was too occupied—blaming myself for being careless and feeling anxious about having to find it before Sunday worship. My mind was preoccupied and hurried, and that may have made me blind to what was right in front of me.

Jesus’ words, “Seeing they may see and not perceive,” were spoken about the religious leaders of Israel. They knew the truth of Scripture. They knew that the Messiah would come with the power of redemption for His people. These religiously devoted leaders possessed deep knowledge of the prophecies concerning the coming Savior. However, because they were so occupied with their own preconceived ideas about who the Savior should be, they failed to recognize the Lord standing right in front of them.

A preoccupied mindset is not just a philosophical or psychological concept that gives us a headache when we try to understand it. It can be understood simply as the expectations we build from our experiences in life. We create a framework for our faith, and within that framework, we decide how God should work—or should not work—for us. And when the Lord does not fit into the place we have prepared in our understanding, we can easily feel disappointed, confused, or even blame ourselves or others.

This week is Holy Week, the time when our Lord enters the final stage of His earthly life. Let us empty our hearts and minds. Let us look to the Lord without prejudice, simply as the Son of God, our Savior, who came for us, suffered for us, and rose again for us.

Principles of Education for Church Growth

2 Timothy 2:2 (NKJV)

“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

Several years ago, I heard a group of historians from Asia and Germany discuss the historical complexities of the Middle East and Israel. In their conversation, they anticipated the possibility of conflict involving the Gaza region, Hamas, and even Iran. I later included this discussion in an article published in a university journal. Their remarkably accurate projections were not the result of speculation, but of a deep understanding of the long and intricate historical background of Israel and the broader Middle East.

Simply put, history tends to repeat itself.

In 70 AD, the Roman Emperor Titus Vespasianus conquered and destroyed Jerusalem, after which the people of Israel were scattered throughout the world. For the next two thousand years, what sustained the survival of the Jewish people was their commitment to educating the next generation. Through religious instruction, they preserved the belief that they were called to reclaim the land lost to them—the land of Zion promised to David by God. This enduring sense of mission, passed down through generations, enabled them to preserve their language, identity, and historical consciousness.

Many of the Jews who later established themselves in the United States were Ashkenazi Jews, descendants of the Jewish diaspora in Central and Eastern Europe. They were educated by their families in the history of their culture and religion, and many achieved high levels of academic success.

In 2005, sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton examined the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers from a wide range of backgrounds. They found that many adolescents adhered to what they termed “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” (MTD)—a vague, diluted form of religion. According to this perspective, God exists and desires people to behave morally; however, He is not deeply involved in human life, and salvation is understood primarily in terms of being a good person.

This reduction of God to a distant moral figure has contributed significantly to the decline of Christianity in Europe, where many churches now stand empty.

What, then, must we learn from this?

We must examine the current reality of the church in the United States. Since the 1980s, as Christianity has experienced a gradual decline, many churches have responded by pursuing cultural adaptation. This often took the form of “contemporary worship,” sometimes referred to in places like Los Angeles as “art worship.” Numerous independent churches emerged, creating innovative and culturally relevant worship experiences and attracting younger generations, often distancing themselves from established denominational churches.

However, the question remains: how many of these churches have endured?

The reality is quite the opposite of what was initially expected. Many of these churches have disappeared, while established denominational churches have simply adopted certain elements of their worship styles.

The reason for this is not complex. While these movements focused on short-term revival through cultural expression, they often neglected the essential task of educating the next generation. At the same time, many established churches, satisfied with past growth, also failed to teach the core values and principles of the Christian faith to younger generations.

At this point, we must make a decisive choice: What should we pursue for true church growth?

There can be no lasting growth without faithful, Scripture-centered education. There can be no genuine church growth without sincere worship. Ultimately, the issue is not whether worship is contemporary or traditional. Rather, the crucial question is this: How does the church teach the next generation about the living God—the God they long to encounter?