When I was growing up, there were many older women (and some men) in the church who seemed to have Scripture woven into their very being. They could quote verses from memory, they always knew exactly which passage spoke to whatever situation you were facing, and their well-worn Bibles told the story of decades spent in God’s Word. Now I wonder, Will my grandchildren be able to say the same about me and my generation?

Trevin Wax tackles this exact concern in “Is There a Future for Church Grandpas and Grandmas?” He’s identified what he calls “double literacy loss”—a troubling trend where young people aren’t just reading less overall but are growing up biblically illiterate even within the church.

His family stories are powerful: great-grandparents with eighth-grade educations who knew their Bibles better than most seminary students, and grandparents who treated Scripture as daily bread rather than weekly medicine. These weren’t seminary professors or professional theologians—they were ordinary people who became “super-readers of the Bible” through decades of faithful devotion.

What will future generations say about how we engaged with the Bible? Will they remember us as people whose lives were shaped by Scripture? If you’re wrestling with these same questions, Wax’s article offers both a wake-up call and a roadmap for the decades ahead.