Four separate recent incidents have got me thinking about the issues of faith, learning, and educating in faith. In the first incident, a seminary student shared with me her experience at a \u201ccontemporary worship service\u201d at a local church. She shared that after the service she was talking to a member of that church. The church member (also a denominational worker) shared that the minister of the church, and at other \u201ccontemporary or postmodern churches\u201d are \u2018dumbing down\u2019 the worship service and messages.
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\nThe second incident was a conversation with a pastor who shared about needing to \u2018dumb down\u2019 (not his words) how he communicates to his members (he pastors a large church). This is an intelligent, well-educated, and well-read pastor who has come to terms with the pragmatic necessities related to communicating to the \u201caverage church member.\u201d He cited the fact that two-thirds of the population is \u201cconcrete thinkers.\u201d As an example he shared about a recent sermon series titled something like, \u201cSeven Things God Wants You To Do.\u201d And while he grates against that approach and the simplistic nature of that directive message, he shrugs, admitting that most of the people in his congregation want to be told what to do.<\/p>\n
The third incident is an item from an article by Charles Murray, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, from a January Wall Street Journal<\/i> series on education “Intelligence in the Classroom.”<\/a> Murray states that \u201chalf of all children are below average in intelligence. We do not live in Lake Wobegon.\u201d Given that intelligence is an attribute (\u201cg\u201d), argues Murray, there\u2019s only so much a teacher or the schools can do to make students \u201csmarter.\u201d <\/p>\n We\u2019ve long known that one\u2019s faith is tied to one\u2019s intellect and to one\u2019s affect (emotion). Put another way, spiritual maturity requires a critical intellect and emotional maturity. Or, as I\u2019m fond of reminding people, \u201cDon\u2019t expect spiritual maturity from an emotionally immature person.\u201d <\/p>\n The fourth incident involves the on-going diatribe among seminary faculty and administration about the quality of students in seminary. This is not relegated to just seminaries, of course, the same rants can be heard in faculty lounges and gathering of academics across the land at all levels of the educational enterprise, from junior colleges to graduate school Ph.D. programs. The litany often is couched in the language of needing to \u201crecruit better students\u201d for the seminary. All well and good, recruitment is necessary and a few more elite Lake Wobegon overachieving pupils in the student body population raises the atmosphere for all involved. But, remember, the article says that at least half of children are \u201cbelow average\u201d (and always will be) and two-thirds of the adult population will always function at the concrete-operational level\u2014challenged by their inability to process abstract concepts (it helps, at least, to explain television, pro-wresting, and NASCAR). <\/p>\n As Murray Bowen said, \u201cYou can\u2019t make a bean plant grow by pulling on it.\u201d Perhaps the job for those of us in the seminary isn\u2019t to \u201cget better students,\u201d but rather, to make better students of the persons we get. If we really believe that God calls everyone to ministry, and a few actually answer the call and as part of their faithfulness go to seminary, then I suspect our focus needs to be that of being responsible stewards of those who answer the call and come to us for preparation for ministry\u2014regardless of intellect, ability, or perceived potential. God uses whom God calls. <\/p>\n And for those of us in churches, it may be well to remember that despite the need to be responsible through challenging, prodding, and cajoling people toward a more mature faith by practicing effective educational practices, God\u2019s call has more to do with being faithful in obedience\u2014which is the universal call to both strong and weak, smart or average. Four separate recent incidents have got me thinking about the issues of faith, learning, and educating in faith. In the first incident, a seminary student shared with me her experience at a \u201ccontemporary worship service\u201d at a local church. She … Continue reading
\n<%image(20070217-IGMatrix100.jpg|100|131|Stuck in the matrix in my own head.)%><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"