On Teaching and Church
So I never finished that big post I was working on. It took on a life of it's own and got away from me. In the meantime, here is this thought to ponder... In my education courses we learn that GREAT teachers give their student strategies to help them engage in higher-level thinking, make connections and examine things critically. They help them to learn to be independent and intrinsically motivated. In other words they don't stand at the board lecturing their students for an hour, but rather create an environment where students can learn, explore, question and create. This progressive model of teaching needs to make its way into the church. I find that even in most progressive learning churches the emphasis is still on the song service and a sermon. I've already written about my issues with most modern church music, so let me just focus on the sermon. According to the best teaching pedagogy today, teachers should give a 10-15 minute INTERACTIVE mini-lesson and leave ...