The Powerful Difference Between Lecture and Lab

There are untold thousands of Christians who can take the "God test" and get all the answers right, but who remain unformed and unchanged.
Just because a person has read a flight manual doesn’t mean that person knows how to fly an airplane. When it comes to flying an airplane, the person who has only read the flight manual is a good deal more dangerous than the person who has never studied such materials—for no reason other than that the unlearned person is fully aware of how little he actually knows!

This is also true methods that are employed in discipling followers of Jesus. Almost all our methods are message-centered. By message-centered I mean lecture. In fact, our churches are designed for lecture—row after row of neatly arranged chairs all facing a stage where one or two people lecture so that "learning" can take place. This is precisely because our churches are genetically related to universities. This genetic relationship exists precisely because we value knowledge and safety. We want things that we can preach precisely in four, or perhaps six weeks, and we want the process to be safe—which is to say, free from risk.

Knowledge, doctrine, and theology are all important (I don’t know anyone arguing for a dumber gospel), but they are not nearly as important as the way in which they are learned. Safety is a good thing, too, but not at the expense of a risk-taking culture that allows disciples to have the sort of life experiences that can grow real learning and knowledge.

The rest of the story is at http://www.sermoncentral.com/pastor...n=scnewsletter&utm_content=SC+Update+20120322