Jen Wilkin on Recovering Bible Literacy

The Russell Moore Show

Russell Moore

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What if the church’s biggest discipleship problem isn’t disbelief—but disinterest in learning? Watch the video of this episode on YouTube here. In a recent subscriber-only livestream, Russell Moore welcomes Bible teacher and author Jen Wilkin to examine what her recent Christianity Today essay calls “the great omission”: the quiet disappearance of learning from the center of Christian discipleship. Wilkin contends that the church has often replaced structured, outcome-oriented learning with looser models built around community or immediate application. The result, she argues, is not deeper connection but a generation of well-meaning Christians who struggle to articulate even foundational doctrines. Through conversation and livestream chat questions, Moore and Wilkin explore how this shift happened—through the offloading of Sunday school structures, the fear of asking too much of busy people, and a reluctance to let learners sit in confusion long enough for understanding to take root. Throughout, they underscore a central conviction: the church does not need gimmicks so much as it needs courage to teach again, trusting that truth learned deeply can actually be handed on. Get access to future subscriber-only livestreams! Subscribe to Christianity Today–Click here for 25% off a subscription. Resources mentioned in this episode: The Great Omission – Jen’s article Keep up with Russell: Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying. Submit a question for the show at questions@russellmoore.com Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This paid message is from the Russell Moore Show. Here at the Russell Moore Show, we make space for the deeper questions of faith, the ones that don't always have answers. That's why we want to share a podcast we think many of you will appreciate, called With and Four, hosted by Dr. Pam King. Back for a brand new season, With and Four brings together psychology and spiritual wisdom
0:24.0	in a way that's thoughtful, grounded, and deeply human.
0:28.0	Each episode features thoughtful conversations
0:30.5	with trusted voices like Kristen Neff on self-compassion
0:34.5	and Parker Palmer on spiritual struggle and vocation among many others.
0:40.1	Follow with and four hosted by Dr. Pam King, wherever you're listening now.
0:46.0	I think the most foundational thing that the church has lost sight of in the last 30 or 40 years
0:51.3	is that at baseline, the definition of a disciple is a learner.
0:57.7	Hello, this is Russell Moore, and this is the Russell Moore show brought to you by Christianity
1:02.4	today. Here, we look for signposts in a strange time by standing fast to what really
1:09.1	matters, kingdom over culture wars, truth over tribalism,
1:13.1	pilgrimage over partisanship, sanity over cynicism, witness over winning, and Christ over everything.
1:20.2	Today we have a conversation to do just that.
1:44.7	Hey everybody, today I wanted to let you listen in to a conversation I had a few days ago with Bible study teacher Jen Wilkin, who was on a live conversation that we had only for Christianity Today's subscribers. Now, if you're not one of us yet and you don't have a subscription yet, click in the show notes,
1:51.1	and you can do that because we're going to have a lot more events like this coming up that are unique for CT subscribers.
1:58.2	So let's listen in.
1:59.2	Here's my conversation with Jen Wilkin.
2:09.1	Hey everybody. Welcome to this Christianity Today subscriber only live event. I'm Russell Moore.
2:15.6	Really glad to have you with us today. And one of the conversations,
2:19.2	we're going to be doing these pretty regularly with folks that you want to hear from. And
2:25.0	one that a lot of you haven't wanted to hear from is Jen Wilkin, who is a reader favorite. And she
2:33.0	has a new essay called Go and Make Learners.
	...

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