Thoughts from Total Church:
What do we mean when we say a church is a “Word centred church?” Chester and Timmis think that we are really just saying that the church teaches a passage from the Bible through a monologue every Sunday. Thus, they say that being “Word centred” really means “Sermon centred”. Chester and Timmis comment that the danger in this assumption is that it assumes that the Bible can only be taught this way, nudging some of Jesus’ primary methods of teaching – stories, sayings and dialogue, into a subordinate position.
They go on to point out that there is little evidence in the New Testament for sermons as we know them today – on a Sunday, from a pulpit. They continue to evidence their argument from NT scripture, saying “sermons” in Acts were Holy-Spirit-triggered unprepared defence speeches before a court or a mob. Not classic “three pointers” using “Powerpoint”, with the band fading in during the appeal at the end.
Their onslaught of Sunday sermons continues when they claim that Sunday sermons are a Constantinian invention, not a NT Holy Spirit inspired model. To reinforce their point they refer to evidence from IBM and the UK Post office. Both institutions carried out studies a few years back that showed that people who learn by hearing alone retain 10%. Whereas, people who learn by hearing, being shown, and experiencing, retain a whopping 65%!
Have a read at the chapter yourself Total_Church_-_Ch_7_Discipleship_and_training.
When I read this chapter I instantly thought of the “collective equipping idea” someone (I can’t remember who) proposed recently. The idea assumes the aforementioned information is correct and argues that the only person who gets the real equipping is the monologue presenter who spends hours preparing and not the recipients who according to IBM retain a mere 10%. Basically, instead of the teacher spending hours alone preparing, the church as a whole would study the passage or Bible topic in advance. They can discuss this passage at “Homegroups”, or comment online, possibly on a forum or email, regarding both their thoughts, and what the Spirit has been teaching them in prep for the teaching on Sunday. The teacher would be able to comment on their comments during his or her delivery of his sermon, and cover areas of interest and questions on the passage. This “collective equipping idea” has potential to provide greater teaching scope, more intensive corporate engagement of God’s word, and ultimately, better equipping of the “Saints”.
Do you think methods of teaching God’s word using stories, sayings and dialogue is subordinate to Sunday sermons?
Maybe you are someone who likes to listen to sermons. What do you think about Chester and Timmis comments on James 1:22: “Sermons count for nothing in God’s sight… James says great teaching counts for nothing… what counts is the practice of the word”?
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- Redefining the C word.
- Paid Church Workers: Worthy of ‘Double Honour’?
- The Emerged Church?
- Step 3: Obedience
- More on Paid Church Staff
{ 2 comments }
Very good and valid points here. I work for an e-learning company an while I’m not an expert in how the brain works there is quite a bit I’ve picked in my line of work about how we learn. Not just learning to pass a test but learning to actually changing behavior. This study by IBM is a much used one and is very true and most teachers will know this. Making people sit and listen is truly one of the most ineffective ways teaching.
The process that you describe is what succesful business and organisations have been using for quite a while to train and transform their people to take them to the next level. Why isn’t the church doing more of it?
There are some amazing tools out there (many of them are free open source solutions much like Word Press that your blog is based on) that can be used to do this kind of thing easily.
Norman, give me a shout and would love to discuss how this could be done.
Thanks Sam.
Good to have you on.
“Making people sit and listen is truly one of the most ineffective ways teaching.” – I guess that is why some people love home (or) cellgroups better than the Sunday service: people get to interact, engage, and ask the questions there and then.
Are there any good working examples (that you know of) of this “collective equipping” out there similar to what I am talking about?
I’d really love to talk to you about this Sambo. I say coffee in Skerries soon
N
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