Church-Wise: What Churches Need to Learn From Schools

Our American public education system, as we currently know it, was devised in part by corporate chieftains who needed, well...human cogs, right in the middle of an Industrial Revolution. Thus, we educated our kids in a way that produced standardized, easily-hirable and easily-firable, assembly line employees. It was a means to an end, and our schools did the things required to produce a certain type of student that was needed by our burgeoning factories and industrial complex.

Some forward-thinking schools are beginning to learn that the Industrial Revolution is over, and that we are well into an Information Revolution. They are making changes in the way they plan, the way they teach, and the way they structure themselves. If we are to be the dominant producer of the world's great minds, our kids need to be globally-mided and academically diverse. They need to learn critical thinking skills and how to problem-solve. They need a school that doesn't line them up in mechanical rows of chairs inside dull, beige walls, while they're stuck listening to some grownup flap their jaw all day about something or other.

These schools are shaking things up and creating a rich learning environment for the children in which the students' brains are engaged, all of their senses are involved, and they're allowed...no, expected...to enjoy the learning process. The kids don't sit all day, they go places and touch things, they're permitted to hydrate themselves or get a healthy snack to help keep their minds sharp, they get exercise. Things that keep them fresh and interested. Things that help them experience the subject matter, not just hear it recited to them. And it's working. Kids at these schools are learning to think and produce in a more globally diverse marketplace.

So why are our churches not jumping on board with this new understanding of how people truly learn? Are the people in our churches not the same people who are, or were, in our schools? Are schools and churches not attempting essentially the same thing: teaching and motivating people in a rich, supportive environment?

If you walk the halls of a church during "Sunday School" or Bible Study time, you will see the same thing many of us dreaded in school as children: a bunch of people listening to a teacher talk. And talk. And ask a question or two. And talk more. Our churches need to learn from our schools that a student should be engaged, involved, and enjoying the process of learning. It doesn't matter if the student is a third-grader in an elementary school, or a senior adult in a Sunday School class. Learning happens when you experience it. Take a field trip. Let them go to a farm and hold a sheep as you talk about the "Lamb of God". Take them fishing as they learn about becoming "fishers of men". Bake some unleavened bread together as you discuss how even a small amount of sin or yeast can have a great impact on your life or your bread.

People are bored of church. Less and less people are willing to "waste a Sunday" on something that does not inspire them more. We must learn from our schools that a disinterested, unengaged, uninspired student is more likely to "drop out" and never come back again.