Illiteracy

So, in this book I'm currently reading by DA Carson, he talks about the problem of Biblical Illiteracy prevalent in today's society, both in the church and outside of the church. I realize that to those outside the church biblical literacy isn't at the top of thier priority list. However, the issue that is extremely depressing to me is that those in the church have little knowledge of the Bible. Even just finding a book in the Bible is difficult to a majority of people in the church who are below the age of 40. The issue is that if they can't find a book in the Bible, what does that say about their understanding of the Bible. I've noticed a trend (one that I'm a part of) of younger Christians going to Bible College so that they can learn the Bible. Is it just me, or shouldn't that be the church's job? After all, what is the primary function of the church? Shouldn't it be to function as the body of Christ? How can the body function when it doesn't even know what it's job is, or what it believes? Another disheartening result of not knowing the Bible is that it shows the importance of one's faith. When we don't know what the Bible is intending to communicate (notice that this isn't what it "means" to us which is a whole nother post to come), we can't follow it. When that happens, suddenly we are much more prone to being swept up in something that may sound good, but in actually is quite unbiblical. There is a tremendous need for churches in western culture to do a much better job of teaching it's members both how to read and study the Bible (not in a reader response method) and what the Bible is actually communicating. I hold a very strong belief that if the church was properly doing it's job, then less people would feel the need to go to Bible College. Now I am in no way against Bible College, however one shouldn't go and spend thousands and thousands of dollars to learn something that the church should be doing.