George Lucas and Effective Bible Training

In a special advertising section of the October 6 Wall Street Journal, several CEOs and “thought leaders” share perspectives on rejuvenating the business sector.  George Lucas chimes in as an “expert” on the educational needs of a future generation.  His answer?  Return to the basics.  Hurry, all you education gurus out there, go back to educational practices that are centuries old and discard all your current experiments in effective teaching and learning.

Lucas says this is the best way to deal with mountains of information produced especially during this digital age.  He explains, “Over the years, the oldest forms of learning seem to be the most effective forms of learning.”  What are these oldest forms of learning?  He divides this into two parts.  The first is the Aristotle/Plato form of a teacher engaging and encouraging a small group of students, and the second is the hands-on “artisan school of learning.”  According to Lucas, “Once we got into the Industrial Revolution, those two forms of learning got swept aside.”  Amen George.

He goes further to state that this type of education significantly improves the character of the people engaged in it.  Character comes from working in small groups, Lucas surmises, where members of the group learn to work together on projects and share in the success of the outcomes.  This must be an extension of the lessons of Star Wars where character counts and develops in the context of a group of galactic heroes.  Yoda and the Jedi had it right all along.

Let’s leap from these thoughts into the context of effective biblical training.  A teaching philosophy determined to be effective with pastors and church leaders is the use of a traditional classroom setting with a mentor and several apprentices.  The assimilation of practical knowledge and skills is an outcome of this philosophy.  Students are personally involved with the teacher/mentor over a period of time where they learn to apply basic and then complex knowledge.  The teacher combines lecture, question-answer, and discussion to insure productive interaction in a culturally relevant manner.

This sounds an awful lot like what Lucas espouses.  It also makes one think of Jesus and the disciples spending time together.  The disciples learned from the Master and they had direct contact with Him.  Inept at seeing spiritual matters, the disciples stayed close to the Master for instruction.  Jesus involved the students in order to enhance their abilities and skills.  This was all in preparation for when He left them.

In this digital age, let’s reconsider the need for this type of training among believers.  When you see a younger generation, and sometimes your own peers, using an I-Phone to read the Bible a verse at a time you have to wonder if they get the application.  There is a connectedness that is missing from this type of learning.  The body is cut off from the Head.  We need to understand how to live the life as a believer and the effective way to get this understanding is to be a part of a body of believers where learning is a priority.  Yes, there are times in life when we need to spend time alone with God, meditating on His word.  But there are also times when we need the context that we can only get from being involved with others.  Thank you George Lucas for reminding us Christians of this.  May the Force be with you!

Dramatic Need for Hispanic Church Leader Training

In response to rapid Hispanic church growth in the United States, the Bible Training Centre for Pastors (“BTCP,” www.bibletraining.com) has formed a consortium of ministries that will address the training needs of Hispanic pastors and church leaders.  Founded in 1990 by Dennis Mock of Atlanta, BTCP has extended non-formal theological training to the world’s untrained pastors in 85 countries through the help of unique partnerships with other ministries.  Over 57,000 pastors and church leaders have been trained since 1990 around the world due to the work of BTCP.  Near 35,000 currently are in training.

According to Mock, President of BTCP, there is “no known strategy to be found” for addressing the theological training needs of Hispanic pastors in the United States.  The needs are dramatic, Mock insists, because of low educational levels, lack of resources, and limited availability of facilities.  “The vast majority of these bi-lingual, bi-vocational Hispanic pastors will never be trained in traditional Bible colleges or seminaries,” says Mock.

The goal of the newly-formed Hispanic ministries consortium is to develop and implement a large numbers strategy to take non-formal theological and ministry training to the untrained Hispanic pastors and church leaders in the United States.

Research corroborates these needs.  In a study of Hispanic Bible institutes from 1998 by Dr. Elizabeth Conde-Frazier of the Claremont School of Theology, the need for training will reach unprecedented proportions soon.  She states, “The Hispanic population is projected to be the largest minority population in the nation.  This places the Hispanic church in a key position as a positive contributing factor in the life of Latinos in the United States.  If, however, the leaders of the church do not receive the theological training necessary for contextualizing its ministry so that it responds adequately to the complexities of issues affecting the well-being of this group, then their future stands to be adversely affected.”

With a systematic and integrated curriculum and a solid educational philosophy, BTCP’s Consortium is now positioned to be involved in the training needs within the U.S.  The well-being of the Hispanic community is affected by the spiritual wholeness of the community and its future.  This is an opportunity for strengthening Hispanic churches that must not be neglected.

The Consortium’s new Director, Miguel Montenegro, has already started multiple classes in 12 states with over 1050 leaders in training.  According to Miguel, “Hispanic pastors need more than just basic training to be able to teach and lead their congregations.”  Miguel and his wife Maria seek ministry partners who may help train leaders and support the work of the Consortium.

For further information on this Consortium, please visit the BTCP website at www.bibletraining.com or e-mail consorciohispano@btcp.com.

A Third Man? Christian, Think Again

Not too long ago I used to run up and down the road doing development work for a college.  During that time, I would stop by the public library and pick up some of the newer books on CD to take along for the ride.  This was a new experience for me.  I know that sounds a bit behind the times, but I discovered the joy of following a story in much greater detail and length than most of us experience among our tweets and texts these days.

One particular joy unwrapped itself in the telling of Ernest Shackleton’s great adventure to Antarctica on the Endurance.  Caroline Alexander’s The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition provided the perfect escape from the day as I moved to and fro.   If you don’t know this extraordinary feat of an expedition, you must find the book.  I have been captivated only a few times like this.

For time’s sake, I can’t get into a detailed retelling.  But I do want to focus on one moment where I sensed something beyond me, something that was quite spiritual.  In fact, I was moved to tears.  Toward what was to be an end to their journey and at the most extreme fatigue and impossible circumstances, Shackleton and two of his crew, Worsly and Crean, walked across a mountain without any equipment for mountain climbing.  It would have seemed that death was close, however they moved on in determination to save their expedition and the lives of the other men waiting behind.

They made it under conditions beyond human endurance.  At a later point in comparing notes about the trip, Shackleton shared that he had a strange feeling that there was a fourth person in their party.  Crean confessed the same thing.  All three remembered a strong arm helping them down the mountain.  Hallucinations are not unusual under extreme conditions of suffering, but all three men shared the same account of a fourth man.  You’ve got to read this book.

Well, I started thinking about this the other day when I read in the Wall Street Journal about a new book coming out next week called The Third Man Factor by John Geiger.  Geiger retells the Shackleton experience among other accounts of humans that survived and transcended extreme conditions.  Each of these accounts describe some force, some presence, that helped them survive or that guarded them from danger.  Geiger surveys the theories behind the third man phenomenon and seems to endorse a biochemical explanation for this response.  He does not shoot down any of the other theories for the third man, including the spiritual.  But I am curious about this quote by the author, “Imagine the impact on our lives if we could learn to access this feeling at will.  There could be no loneliness with so constant a companion.  There could be no stress in life that we would ever again have to confront alone.”

I just reached down from the laptop to pet our cat Celeste, a constant companion as we sit on our porch.  But I don’t think Geiger was talking about pets.  Geiger comes to the edge of admitting a spiritual presence, but leaves us with his physiological theory of accessing this companionship at will.  I felt sorry for Geiger, or I should say I feel sorry for Geiger because he is afraid to accept the existence of God.

Christian, think again.  God is with us.  He is ever present.  His name is called Immanuel, which means “God with us.”  One of His characteristics is His omnipresence.  Are you award of this as a believer, as one who is experiencing salvation?  I take great comfort in reminding myself of this each day.  When I awake, when I work, when I play, when I lie down again, God is with me.  I don’t have to summon some biochemical response to remind me.  The Holy Spirit reminds me.

If you don’t realize this as a believer, find something in God’s Word to awaken you.  One of my favorite thoughts is expressed in James 4:8, “Come near to God and He will come near to you.”  Approach Him with clean hands and a pure heart.  God has said, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5 as quoted from Deuteronomy 31:6).  Does that not excite you?  Wow, the God of the universe is with me!

It is reassuring for the Christian to know these things and it helps us understand when others try to explain the phenomenon of a presence they can’t explain.  We are His creation, we belong to Him, and He is present with us all the time.  Our senses are surely heightened when we are in stressful situations and I am thankful that God made me that way, so that I  draw near to Him during those times and am reminded of His presence.