Deutero Q

Over the course of my ministry, I have encountered all kinds of people. Without a doubt, some of the most challenging have been the unteachable ones! Listed below are five characteristics I have observed in unteachable people.

1. Resistance to Leadership--Most of the unteachable people I have dealt with over the years have been unwilling to submit to God-ordained leadership. Unteachables are often "lone-ranger" types who are not actively involved in a local congregation; they hop from church to church. When an unteachable person settles in one particular congregation, he or she will often couch their lack of spiritual submission in this way: "I will follow my spiritual leaders only so far as they follow the Lord." Taken at face value, that sentiment is laudable; we should certainly follow our spiritual leaders as they in turn follow the Lord. But often lurking beneath the surface of such an attitude is a determined resistance to God-ordained leadership. The "I will follow only if..." sentiment is often a way to rationalize an unsubmissive spirit; unteachable people emphasize the only if rather than the I will follow part of the aforementioned statement. Unteachables are not especially fond of Hebrews 13:17.

2. Spiritual Subjectivity--One frequently encounters in unteachable church members an appeal to "God told me" language. Unteachables are convinced they have a special pipeline to God that very few other people have. My experience has been that unteachables often pay more attention to special revelations, visions, and the like than they will to Holy Scripture; personal revelation often trumps the Word of God for unteachable people. Curiously, many of these purported divine revelations run counter to the Bible (which of course reveals that they are not of God). For instance, I have had conversations over the years with people who said God told them to withdraw from church life. This directly contradicts Hebrews 10:25, however. To be sure, unteachability displays some pronounced gnostic tendencies. Personally and pastorally, I am wary of folks who regularly use "God told me" or "God told me to tell you" language.

3. Pride--This is the most dangerous attitude I have encountered in unteachable people. Unteachables consider themselves far more spiritually advanced than other people. Unteachable folks delight in telling others that they are "not being fed" by their spiritual leaders. In this regard, I once shared with a former church member that it can be easy to confuse what we want with what we need. My counsel to the spiritually arrogant in this regard is: eat what is set before you! The teaching and preaching of your spiritual leaders may not be what you want, but it may well be what you need. In fact, you might be surprised at how much spiritual nutrition your shepherds regularly place before you in their teaching and preaching.

4. An Argumentative Nature--Argumentativeness (a word not yet found in the dictionary!) is another trait I find operative in unteachables, who feel it is their duty to "correct" their spiritual leaders--and just about everyone else--whenever possible. Unteachables are more resistant than they are receptive to the teaching of their spiritual leaders; they see it as their duty to correct, challenge and make copious comments about anything and everything. They would rather teach than be taught and can be very defensive as well as argumentative. Unteachables feel the need to always be right.

5. Unwillingness to Change--Another trait of unteachable people is the tendency to want to change others into the kind of people unteachables think they should be. Rather than deal with their own personal issues, unteachable people want to change everyone else. I recognize that this tendency is not the exclusive domain of unteachables, but it is commonly found in these folks. Furthermore, unteachables cling tenaciously to their beliefs and are closed to alternative points of view. Unteachability often goes hand in hand with enslavement to religious traditions and unbiblical presuppositions.