In a post last month I raised the issue of Third Way preaching, and this is what I said:A genuine Third Way will get beyond the Sunday morning sermon as the primary form of spiritual formation and education in a local church, and neither Belcher nor Pagitt seem to approach preaching through the lens of a larger formational program with clearly defined outcomes. A genuine Third Way will form a well-rounded and adaptable formation program that guides all sermons, all teaching, and all activities in the church. Sermons will be seen as one part of the formational ministry of the church. In other words, Third Way preaching is rooted in the overall outcomes of the church.
I'd like to address this issue this month in a weekly series of outcome-based preaching. Today's post addresses the big idea of outcome based education and how it can impact churches.
The focus shifts from what the pastor-teacher knows and what the pastor-teacher says and how the pastor-teacher performs and that the pastor-teacher informs the congregation to each person in the congregation being a learner whom the pastor is equipping for learning and living.
Let me make a point very clear: Third Way preaching shaped by outcome based theories is not an attempt to minimize the importance of preaching or of the gifts of pastor-teacher. Instead, it is an attempt to get pastors to shift self-perception from:
1. The one who knows, and sometimes perceived as the only one who knows.
2. The one who informs.
3. The one who thinks that teaching/informing on Sundays especially is magically absorbed (completely, or mostly completely) simply by listening to the pastor-teacher.
Instead, the pastor-teacher who knows his or her gifting to preach and teach and inform sees that gift as designed to:
1. Equip congregants to be learners and students; to be folks who also know.
2. Exhorts congregants to become better learners and students so they can acquire information themselves.
3. Educates congregants to live what is being learned by providing opportunities -- or illustrations -- for the congregant to "apply" or "discern" how to live out the information in this world. Instead of thinking what is said magically goes into other heads, the pastor-teacher "enables" congregants to work out the information into real life.
A question: Since we are talking about a shift in self-perception rather than a revolution of what is being done, what are the things that pastor-teachers can do to help this shift?
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RJS,
I would hope that most pastors would see themselves as educators and not just as preachers or evangelists.
The most critical issue for pastors who see themselves as pastors-educators is to understand how education actually works. As pastors read books on leadership and motivation and the like, I would hope they would read books about education (and speaking and preaching etc). Books today on education clearly -- very clearly in fact -- reveal that education doesn't happen when people sit and listen. For education to take root, "students" must be both exposed to new information and then be given the opportunity to "practice" what is being learnt -- and that practice goes in all kinds of directions depending on the nature of the information.
And the fundamental question an educator asks before a class session is this one: What do I want the students to be able to "do" as a result of this class session? The question "What do I want them to know?" leads to the "What do I want them to be able to do?" question.
Well, this is still adding to what I think is the major problem altogether!
We are trying to analyse and dissect everything down to an art form whereas Peter, Paul etc had nothing of the sort in their day and they seemed to do okay - turned the world upside down.
We have, and it seems like, we continue to want to turn everything professional.
The simple instruction to follow the example of Paul as he followed the example of Jesus is nothing more than just doing and saying what the Father told Him to!
It should be the same with preaching and teaching - a simple dialogue with the folk that God has asked you to lead that comes from saying and teaching what God wants you to.
Trying to impose the teaching of other people, who are thousands of miles away from your country or city is ludicrous. Their context is totally different and I firmly believe we should be seeking God for what He wants us to do in our community because that is what will work!
The time and money spent on trying to follow the latest fad is pathetic - since when did the Holy Spirit relegate His function to books, DVD's and conferences?
Now, if 'leaders' who are nothing more than servants, started spending that time and effort in seeking God for what He wants taught, then, IMO, most of the hassles we have would fall away. Here we have to trust in the integrity of the leader to apply himself to this task.
Now, when he knows what God wants, which will invariably be worked out in his own life first, then he is leading and teaching by example.
But when 'leaders' spend most of their time and effort in bookstores or on the net tying to establish what the next 'discovered secret' thing is that God is apparently doing, so that he can mimic it in his area - well, Hello Dolly!
Shooe, hard to explain in such a short message, but I hope you get my drift.
Sorry Scott, I got this link here from Randy Siever on Fcebook so I won't be checking back here - if this turns into a converstaion do you perhaps wanna let me know via FB please?
God bless Bro!
RJS #25, I believe an important part of my role as a pastor is teaching. But I tend to view teaching as a tool for the primary task discipling. I am a discipler. So, as a discipler I think that all of the subjects listed are being taught and modeled over the course of time.
What is the congregation supposed to learn? Truthfully, the congregation is to learn to follow Jesus as His disciples. And that's what makes this a challenge for me, and it is something that I am trying to find my way in personally. I am being challenged by the thinking of pastor as educator in what might be considered a more traditional sense.
My undergrad work was in Christian Education proper. I have now been pastoring about 25 years. I am part of a denomination with a long list of unwritten benchmarks, related to knowledge and experience from worked-out knowledge, that are required to be identified as a mature (or maturing) believer. My experience thus far would seem to point to a reasonable grasp of Biblical or Christian information by many (the result of education) but in many respects little to no transformation. Therefore, we've been teaching, but what we're intending to teach isn't being learned.
I have no settled conclusions in this, but since I am trying to find the transformative work of the Spirit as the primary outcome, I find perhaps more than challenge in this thinking. Of course, I am not opposed to education, and I am educated and continue on in my education. I agree with the first 1-3 in the post, it's the second 1-3 list that I struggle with. The struggle is not in disagreement per se, but it's a struggle nonetheless.
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