Our focus for the day was to explore what it means to "train" people in the faith.
Our facilitator was Dr. Jerry Sittser, Professor of Theology at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA.
We spent over 3 and a half hours in rich, engaged dialogue before breaking for a 2 hour lunch and some casual conversation. We came back together with Jerry for another hour and a half in the afternoon before breaking for the day (from any more "formal" engagement)... which was a welcomed departure from the inundation of information we had been on the receiving end of.
As a church historian, Jerry shared story after story from the early church Christians, as well as the desert fathers and mothers, regarding how they engaged in spiritual formation - training to be 'spiritual athletes.' It was such a rich time... and as I continue to process his message, and translate it into the context of campus ministry, I intend to post further thoughts here.
But if there was one major thought - or question - that seemed to stick out for me yesterday it was this:
There's a BIG difference between teaching and training - so how effective is our ministry at training up students in the faith?
The differences between teaching and training may, at first, appear minimal. But consider the difference between:
- exposure to something vs. being able to use it
- information vs. formation or transformation
- mental vs. holistic
- shaping cognition vs. shaping behavior
Yes, teaching is ultimately a part of training, but it's only a part of it. So, the implications of this simple question are rather profound - it may require us making simple OR even significant changes to the way/s we do ministry. But if 'changed lives' are the end result, wouldn't it be worth all of the 'extra' work that might be involved?
That's all for now, but I'll definitely spend some more time exploring the teaching vs. training approach to what we do in the days and weeks to come.
In the meantime, what do you think?
- Are the difference/s between teaching and training worth being concerned about?
- Are your ministries more informative or transformative?
- Are you seeing students leave your ministries with changed lives, or simply changed ways of thinking?
Thanks for joining the conversation!
