Updated 2/29/12

In a previous post entitled, The Cone of Learning, I asked the question:

What kind of impact is our ministry having on those who participate in them?

I suggested that the ‘Cone of Learning’ put forth by Edgar Dale back in the late 60s might have something to say to us – both about how we should program and assess what we’re doing – in relation to how our students best learn and retain information.

As much as we are concerned about students “knowing or believing rightly” [orthodoxy], we must be just as concerned about their “living or practicing rightly” [orthopraxy].

How much of our ministry is intentionally focused on connecting right knowing with right living?

I know that we assume that when we talk with students about the ways we think, or what the Bible has to say about how we live, or even the example of life lived out by Jesus; that they will know what conclusions to draw.

Or that when we intentionally take it a step further to talk about life application that because we have spoken the words that now students will adopt “what they’ve learned’” as a new way of living…

But isn’t it when we’ve gone into “practice” with them that the most noticeable change often occurs?

In them and in us?

Of all of the ministry opportunities that we provide for students, and that I myself experienced as a college student, it is the transformational experiences of short-term mission trips that God seems to use the most.

If you think about it, in how many of our ministry opportunities are our students:

• removed from their comfortable environments?
• exposed to people not like them?
• removed from their daily routines?
• given a completely different agenda?
• given intentional space to be with God?
• exposed to people with very obvious need?
• put in a position to work closely with those in need?

It would seem that the kind of “faith meets life” experience that we offer students in short-term mission endeavors have the potential to be some of the most formative…

What can we learn from these kinds of powerful experiences that should inform how we do small groups, local and consistent outreach and worship services?

I’ll give some thoughts on this tomorrow…

Where [in what kinds of ministries] have you seen [or experienced] the greatest levels of change or transformation?