Teaching in a simple church setting
We all know the most common forms of teaching in the IC, sermons and Sunday school. We also know all the jokes (like: falling asleep during the sermon is better than no sleep at all). The adult sunday school in most churches is much below church attendance in general. While both adult sunday school and sermons can be good ways to learn for some people, others seem to be fairly disinterested. I believe that this is in part due to learning style or previous experience (positive or negative) and only partly related to the content of sermons or lessons. I was hoping that we can explore effective ways of learning and teaching together, primarily by sharing with each other what has motivated us to learn more about God, church etc. and what has worked for us to teach others. I also think it is helpful to look at what psychology has found out about how God has made us, our emotional and mental functioning and how it affects learning. Another thing to explore is how Jesus taught people. The reason why this topic has become very important for me is because I believe that many people get out of the habit of learning in general and learning more about spiritual truth in particular, sometimes in their early twenties. That's a lot of wasted human potential and against the Bible's teaching to use our mind. If there are different ways to make learning interesting and exciting for all believers God will be glorified.
Another question that might be worth exploring: Given the different levels of experience, education and different ages in simple churches, how can there be teaching that fits all needs.
Another question that might be worth exploring: Given the different levels of experience, education and different ages in simple churches, how can there be teaching that fits all needs.
Tags: knowledge, learning, lesson, teaching, understanding
Views: 5
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Nik P. on -
Where is everybody on this question? I would think that everyone would be eager to share what's working and what's not in their home churches.
Let me start with a something short & see where it goes instead of putting all my eggs in one basket. (there's another egg reference, what's up with me?) I think it depends. Currently, with no children present and adults of quiet temperament, workbook-led lessons have been working for me. After this book, I do long for some meetings in which we prepare the same section and each bring a prayer, a song, a verse . . .
I've also taken a look into Bible storying, a method of evangelizing, discipling & even planting using a track of Bible stories with guided discussion. Jesus taught in stories, why shouldn't we? I look forward to see what everyone else is doing.
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Permalink Reply by Miguel on -
"I also think it is helpful to look at what psychology has found out about how God has made us, our emotional and mental functioning and how it affects learning."
I think this should be developed. I would be interested in statistically significant data (psychological) that shows any relevance between the presupposition that God made us a particular way and how that impacts our learning.
Fantastic... my mind is all a buzz
thanks
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Permalink Reply by Birgit on -
Thanks Nik and Miguel for getting us started. This is a huge topic and it might take quite a while to develop, even as a team effort.
I want to start with going back briefly to the time when I first considered Christianity seriously. I wish I could say that I simply wanted to know truth, to have a guide for moral living, to find answers to the world's biggest problems or some other noble cause like this. But honestly, my motivation was almost entirely selfish. I was 19, had just dealt with cancer and the treatment that goes along with it and was very worried about my future. I'm not even talking eternal life, the possibility of hell never even crossed my mind. I just knew that no doctor could guarantee me health, freedom from physical pain and freedom from emotional pain that is part of serious illnesses. What I was looking for was comfort, unconditional love, freedom from fear and worry, reassurance that there is purpose to my life. My strong motivation to learn how to deal with my situation, together with God's wisdom to bring people in my life who had answers led me to explore the truths and the hope of the Christian faith. Because my learning style was very heavily oriented towards book learning (I was a student at the university in education and psychology, with enough philosophy thrown in to be dangerous) I read all the books I could by C.S. Lewis and spent hours with fellow students discussing all the evidence for and against the existence of God, the authenticity of the Bible as God's word and the possibility to have a relationship with a spiritual being who I wasn't even sure is a person, much less a father figure.
You can see that my motivation to learn was quite high, it sure felt like my life depended on it. My learning style made me a good candidate for studying the Bible and Christian books, going to Bible studies and arguing about truth, even just for fun and to prove my budding intellectual abilities to other students around me. Listening to lengthy sermons was hardly different from listening to my professors lectures. One could always make the whole thing more interesting afterwards by taking the sermon apart, showing the faulty thinking or bible interpretation involved and then ignoring the whole thing until the next chance the following Sunday. God helped me to grow closer to Him in spite of all this. He met my needs by putting my in an environment where people were genuinely caring and friendly and the friendship offered to me was compelling and rewarding
There was only a small problem: From the moment on that the Holy Spirit took up residence in me I found myself very dissatisfied to have found the answer to all my problems without an effective way of sharing this answer with the people I cared about, esp. my family. I was eager and ready to share the Good News and attempted to teach them about the error of their ways and the love of God (in that order) by giving them lectures, handing them the books I had read plus a Bible and trying to get them involved in spiritual discussions that would last for hours. I got a big surprise: They lacked any motivation to learn, they were not interested in discussing truth, reading the Bible or Christian books and most certainly did not want to attend a church that they were not familiar with. On top of that I was getting the distinct impression that my family did not enjoy being around me very much anymore and just tolerated my new revelations. "What stubborn people", I thought at the time. Unfortunately it took me several years to find out that the problem was not them but the fact that God alone knew when they were motivated to learn. I also learned that they were more motivated to listen to my opinions when my life was more of an example of my "wisdom". People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. The way many people learn is totally different from me. They learn by doing, by meditating about things on their own, by seeing examples that connect to their own life and by reading personal stories and fiction.
My biggest surprise as far as learning style came with my daughter. She showed little interest in reading until she was 10, has a very short attention span for hearing other people talk and, like most kids her age, already knows everything. But she can see God in His creation, she loves music, drawing and painting and especially any kind of physical activity. She learns about God by watching nature when riding her horse through the fields, singing and listening to Christian music, and creating artwork of all kinds to glorify God. She also loves to help by buying things for the local foodbank, to help people with practical needs and to help animals in need. She learns by doing and thankfully her Sunday school teachers understood this.
So much for now, I went out of my own learning and teaching comfort zone and told a story rather than analyzing facts, not by choice, but when I could not think of anything to write after 10 minutes I asked God for help. I guess now I'll just blame Him for the results. :)
Birgit
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Permalink Reply by Dale Hill on -
We are accustomed to teaching being something that is prepared by the teacher and brought to the group. However, there is a different format, though it still requires the presence of one with a teacher's anointing.
This is the basic outline of my experience:
Group gathers and shares together in song, testimony, prayer requests, Bible verses. More than once for each, and not all in a grouping. (ie, some songs, testimony(ies) song, testimony, prayer, song, bible) The pattern is entirely random.
Inevitably, I would see a particular thread being woven throughout the time together. Eventually a space would open and I would share a few verses of Scripture that seemd to me to fit the thread.
that is how teaching took place for years; and how I long for that to be once again.
Last night as I was faling asleep, I became grieved over the fact that I was being required to 'prepare a sermon' for this Sunday. I would much rather be preparing my heart ot meet with God and His people.
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Permalink Reply by Nik P. on
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If you feel the need to fix the mis-post, just have your husband log-in and delete the entry. (The little x in the upper right of the post.) You could log in as yourself and re-post what you wanted to say.
I say this with trepidation because everyone rips on seminary here. . . but I did learn various "learning styles" and how to spot them. I am a "dynamic learner." I have to take the material and live it, applied to my own life. There were visual / auditory learners, but they were the minority. Unfortunately, schools and I.C.'s are geared for them. Discussions and blackboards. The kinesthetic learners needed to do it. They were in the lab or out in the shop. I would guess that these would be the SC folks on the soup kitchen line, relating what they were doing to scripture. Or, they would be dancing or acting it. I think I'm missing one. Anyone feel left-out who can tell me what I missed?
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Permalink Reply by Birgit on
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Hi Dale,
thanks for your response. You raised some important points. They bring up several things in my memory that I'll respond to in more detail later today (just headed outside to do chores). One thing your post reminded me of is that some people are naturally gifted to teach, as part of their personality, others seem to be gifted on occasion or regularly as more of a miraculous gift given by the Holy Spirit, others have the function (more or less formal role) of teaching. Either of these could teach with anointing or without, depending on their sensitivity to the Spirit leading them.
Sounds like the requirements that are put on you for what constitutes a sermon a fairly narrow. If you did something a little different then what people expect what do you think the reactions are that you might get? What do you think God would think of it?
Looking forward to hearing more...
Birgit
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Permalink Reply by Birgit on
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Hi Nik, thanks for helping me with the misspost. Sure helps to know that I can always get rid of the nonsense I said yesterday. :)
Concerning the learning styles, it seems to be linked to our senses: see, hear, taste, smell, touch. The last three seem to belong together, what you called learning by doing. Then there are different types of doing: writing, art, music, helping,...
and then there are the different types of intelligence: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal
Another factor to consider are people who have learning disabilities, with different degrees of difficulties in processing information. Maybe the most important thing is for teachers to keep all this in mind and to choose wisely whether learning can be done in a large group, small group or one-on-one.
Birgit
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Permalink Reply by Raymond on -
Hi Dale,
If you don't mind, I'd be interested in hearing more about your own disappointment over preparing a sermon versus meeting in your small community. Could you describe some more the differences in goals and expectations you see for each?
Thank you in advance for your sharing.
- Ray
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Permalink Reply by Nik P. on
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Birgit said:Another factor to consider are people who have learning disabilities, with different degrees of difficulties in processing information. Maybe the most important thing is for teachers to keep all this in mind and to choose wisely whether learning can be done in a large group, small group or one-on-one.
Birgit
I spent 17 yrs in human services before my call to medical ministry. I'd been involved in several different agencies, helping folks learn, from babies to geriatrics, from gifted to profoundly retarded, able-bodied to completely dependent, some medically involved, but mostly in a range of mental retardation.
When I was in charge of the curriculum for the entire building, things calmed down a lot when we broke people into smaller classrooms based on learning needs. I think the house church reflects these smaller rooms, rather than cramming folks into a mega church.
My husband has a learning disability and the LD office tutored him through college. I think dyads or triads of learning may naturally arise from a home church. I also think intergenerational learning has been lost in our society. Where are the grandma's to show me the way?
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Permalink Reply by Birgit on
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Nik,
I thought that you might have some background in relating to people of different backgrounds from reading your posts. In some way all that I have learned about education or psychology in the past can turn into baggage for me because it seems that there are so many possible answers to questions and I can figure things out on my own (like how to run or plant simple churches). I do think that everything I've learned is useful and has a place in simple church, either because I decide that it helps, or because I decide it won't work and I can leave it behind (at least in any particular situation). God gives us our intellect to use for His purposes. The way I see this topic shaping up right now is to see how far human knowledge/research informed by faith can take us to have Christian community the way God intends it to be. This can then make it easier to see how Christian community is dependent on God to intervene supernaturally.
The analogy that comes to mind is that of physical health of our body. We all know that if we eat right and exercise sufficiently we will likely have fewer health problems. It is within our ability to understand enough to put this into practice. But only once our reason is informed by our faith, that we have a moral obligation (to our kids, to our church, to our community, to ourselves and last but not least to God) to be as healthy as we can does this reason become relevant. At this point our fallen nature kicks in. You might call it the difference between knowledge and action. To not move from what we know to be right to practicing it is sin. We need God to put us back on track.
Back to the example of physical health: When our body does not function the way it is supposed to (sometimes through no fault of our own) human knowledge in the form of modern medicine, physical therapy, other forms of healing can be part of God's plan to restore us to complete health or at least improved function. When this fails most people start looking for God, even agnostics and some atheists do. As Christians most of us believe, but rarely are very consistent, that we should look to God for direction every step of the way, even as we use the knowledge that God has given us through experience and through research. God is not just interested in providing the miracle that will get us out of trouble when we run out of answers, He wants more than anything for us to move towards being the Bride of Christ, to have a relationship with Him and each other that is deeper than we can even imagine. God has something to say to us personally that adds to reason, research, and experience in the form of spiritual gifts: a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, a prophecy, a gift of healing, dreams, visions, a quiet voice, the Bible, music etc.
In the same way our learning about God and Christian community can rely on human understanding and experience and on God's input every step of the way. Some people have natural abilities, some people have learned abilities (education) and some have supernatural/spiritual abilities. We all have some of each to contribute to the Body of Christ and they need not be in competition.
I wanted to post this statement before going into any specifics of how theories of learning and motivation can be part of God's plan to bring about closer community and personal growth on this forum and in our simple churches.
Birgit
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Permalink Reply by Nik P. on
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Thank you. I look forward to the direction you take this and hope I can contribute.
nik
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Permalink Reply by Birgit on
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Hi Nik and everyone on this forum,
I'm sure you have as much or more experience on the issue I'm getting ready to bring up, and so does, in one way, everyone. I want to talk a little about what we can do to motivate each other to learn and grow.
I am going to start with some very simple statements that seem to be anything but simple to put into practice consistently.
You catch more flies with honey... and People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
I suspect there is not one person on this forum for whom this is new information and when I say that it does not just apply to flies or to animals in general many of you may not want to read any more of what I have to say, esp. if you know that I am an animal trainer by profession. Please read a little further. I am not saying that we should try to manipulate each others' behaviors by rewarding people for being nice and punishing people or ignoring them for doing the wrong thing like they are puppy dogs learning to sit on command and not poop on the carpet. I'm saying we are already doing that to each other all the time. We all are busy at least some of the time when we are interacting with each other, trying to influence, manipulate, change each other in subtle or not so subtle ways. We are "offering" benefits, perks, comfort to people who make us feel good by helping us, agreeing with us, complimenting us or who have the potential to do so. Many times we make every effort to court the people who we consider the most influential, powerful or important to our cause. We are quite often not conscious of these behaviors and this is why I'm bringing up the topic. Since we all know that God wants us to be loving, supportive and encouraging to other people's good efforts while not encouraging or supporting their mistakes it helps to be conscious of our impact on others most of the time we are relating with them.
It also helps, to know that we all have different levels of sensitivity. A critical comment might be easily brushed off by one person while another person might suffer emotionally for a long time to get over it. We all have different things that make us feel good, some people appreciate a compliment, some a hug, some a gift or a card, some like to just spend some good time together. The more we are willing to be aware of these differences the better we are at encouraging the good.
Giving positive feedback to others often takes very little effort and can be done often and generously. It can make a huge difference for how people feel about themselves. So far so good. On the other end of the spectrum is the negative input we all sometimes give. This can range from a raised eyebrow or a turned back to a comment that implies inferiority of the person talked about to plain aggression of various kinds. It might be so subtle that we can convince ourselves, though not the recipient, that we really were trying to be helpful, were only giving facts, speaking truth etc. And occasionally this is true. Some things need to be said, even Jesus confronted people.
Now imagine the last time someone hurt your feelings significantly or discouraged you. Assuming you did not push away or denied your feelings, the effect on you was probably greater if the person was fairly close to you. What did it take for you to not just forgive that person but to completely trust them again, if you have even gotten to that point. Maybe the relationship ended. Maybe there is still resentment or bitterness. Maybe you distract yourself from your feelings when they come up. Maybe you got revenge and your distrust of this person continues, or maybe the person realized what had happened and made an effort, over time, to restore your trust in them, progressing slowly because, trust, once broken, needs to be earned. Would you agree that it takes a lot of positive feedback to make up for one negative comment, even if it was not meant to hurt? I have read the books about behavior modification but won't give references unless requested. I know from my own experience that if we get one criticism among five compliments most of us will focus on the one criticism. Therefore I want to suggest trying the following (and yes, I've tried this out on all my animals and also on my students over the years as well as on my daughter and my husband): Try for a week to "catch" people doing or saying the right things. Just ignore the bad. If you can't do it for one week, try it for one day. Also try for one month to give at least five, or better yet, 10 times as much positive feedback as negative to each person you relate with. See what it does to change them and how it changes your feelings toward them. So far I've talked only about what works (with human nature), apart from whether it is a moral requirement for Christians. I have been on another forum which is not Christian, although it has some Christians on it, for a little while. The learning environment there has been so positive that emotional healing as well as learning is encouraged. People agree to disagree but are still willing to help each other grow which sometimes involves significant sacrifice of time and emotional energy. To observe this is beautiful and energizing for everyone. I know that our challenges as Christians may be greater here because we have all been taught, to varying degrees to defend our faith, and to do so successfully is very rewarding in the short term. In the long run I believe we will see more of God's blessings if we think very carefully about the if and when we need to correct and rebuke and when we leave that part to God. Hope all this made sense,
feedback strongly encouraged
Birgit
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