Bryan Elliff has a wonderful and provocative piece called “Less Lecture More Learning: Ideas for a Better Sunday School Hour.” In that article, he describes situations where church members faithfully attend Sunday school classes for decades but still don’t know how to read or study their Bibles.
But, aside from this, one of the biggest contributors to the problem is lecture-style teaching. That may surprise you, but I think it’s true. Let me paint the picture. One willing and perhaps gifted person spends a lot of time at home preparing during the week. On Sunday, he marches to the front of the classroom to speak at the group for an hour. Maybe a few minutes are given for discussion at the end and the listeners file out to go to the worship meeting where they will listen to a speaker again.
The problem with this is that it doesn’t teach the people how to read the Bible. It just serves up a finished product that they think about for a few minutes. Most likely, unless the teacher is an exceptionally good speaker, they’ll forget it rather quickly. It’s kind of like inviting someone over for a meal once a week and expecting him to learn how to cook.
In other words, there’s too much teaching and not enough learning.
Elliff goes on to suggest some practical ways you can turn your lectures into an academy for vibrant learning. His suggestions are quite close to my model for teaching Bible study in church.
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