My predecessor at Barefoot left a pile of book proposals on my desk and today I picked up a small stack of them during a slower moment in the day and began to skim them.
At first glance at, two things surprised me about the proposals. First, the proposals were eerily similar in their content. All of them (probably 6 or so) were about helping students more fully understand the story of God. Of course each of the proposals were different in their approach to help students in that way, but they were all far too analogous. Second, each hopeful author listed as the top reason as the primary need for his or her product on the market as this; students don’t know the stories of the Bible.
Is this true in your ministry context – are students ignorant when it comes to the stories in the Bible? Are we in need of more curriculum, etc. that helps students more fully understand the story of God? What is the cause of this reality (actual of perceived)?
Over the last few years I’ve deeply engaged in a learning model most commonly referred to as applied or experiential learning. The applied learning model (think: David Kolb) has been around quite a while and it has taken on a variety of different forms. Probably one of the most simplistic ways to describe applied learning is “hands-on” or “practicable” learning. Of course, applied learning is about so much more than just hands-on experiences but at its core it is about creating moments for students to link theory and practice or thinking and doing.
I mention applied learning because I think that so much of the reason behind a statement like, ‘…students don’t know the stories of the Bible” has less to do about the students and more to do with the way youth workers attempt to educate them. Perhaps it is better said, “Youth workers are not helping students to learn the stories of the Bible.”
In what ways are you helping students to know the stories of the Bible? Is it the way you are choosing to educate or are the students in your ministry just not getting it? Or are you content with how the students in your ministry are leaning into and living out the story of God?
Among other characteristics, applied learning is about:
- Ongoing assessment of the subject matter and the environment in which the matter is passed on
- Beginning with the learners in mind, rather than the educators
- Facilitating opportunities for guided reflection that leads to the ongoing ability to link ideas with practices
- Facilitating dialogical opportunities that lead to shared or communal learning
- A holistic approach that integrates the subject matter with the daily life of students
- Embracing of a variety of methods that encourage and value different types of learning styles
I’m really curious to know… Do you value applied learning? Are you implementing applied learning methods in your youth ministry? If so, which methods and if not, why not? Do you think that there is any connection between students not knowing the stories of the Bible and the way we educate them? Or is it as simple as just not teaching them the most helpful subject matter?
This, for me, is a timely post, as we are reformatting our 6th-12th Sunday school ministry. Currently our curriculum plan is disjointed; 2-3 different curricula are used, and no multi-year scope/sequence has been implemented. We’re looking to have our revamp done by fall…but in the meantime, I must agree with your latter statement. In our situation, its the youthworkers–myself included–that are not helping students learn the stories of the Bible: Chronologically…exhaustively…experientially…and so forth.
Now,in regards to ‘applied learning’…are there any books in particular you could recommend?
This is a very timely post for me as well. Applied learning is appearing more and more to me as the way students will actually begin to engage their world, simply because the Bible reads a bit differently when their is a human face connected with it. Last week, myself, a few of the leaders in our youth ministry, and a bunch of our students were involved in multiple justice and service initiatives in a nearby city. During this time our students began to actually see the people Jesus is talking about when it comes to those that are poor, lonely and treated with injustice, it was no longer just a biblical concept for them. Because of this our volunteer leaders have decided to take the first steps in helping our students form relationships with students that live in our downtown area…we are hoping and praying this begins a movement with each one of them and within our community to live life with those that are not as fortunate as they are and to truly ask the question “what is the Kingdom of God supposed to be here”. This will lead to great movement within our city.
Before it can be applied, teens need to know what the Bible says.
Reading and studying the Bible as a whole, not in tiny vignettes, is vital if the application to follow is to do justice to the context.