Rooting in the Word

• What are people learning?
  
• As I begin to refine my set of notes that I teach 101 from, I begin to see (along with my co-teacher) that there are many points that are not well supported by the Word of God.
  
• Not that they were unbiblical points mind you, but rather than sharing the relevant passages (which weren't that hard to find), they are more backed by stories of people's personal experiences instead.
  
• I also began to notice that when people share encouraging words to each other, they rarely use the Word. Rather they say "well that person has been set free from that" or "this person experienced exactly what you're going through"
  
• So even at the 101 level people are already learning to rely on other people's experiences as the stuff of their faith.
  
• That people, rather than knowing the Word that speaks on their life situations, know the experiences of others on that situation instead.
  
• There are a lot of topics in 101, that if we rely purely on the word, would need to be dropped, because to explain them properly with the Word would be way beyond the scope of 101.
  
• I think its OK if they were dropped, I'd much rather people know that they have no understanding of something, than to think they know it, based loosely on what someone else felt about it.
  
• What should we be teaching?
  
• Word of God AND the word of us
  
• Personal experiences are great encouragements, and we should continue to share them as we teach and disciple.
  
• But they should never replace the Word of God as the center of our teaching.
  
• When we are in a teaching environment, we must center everything on the Word.
  
• If the Word doesn't say so, we can't teach it, period.
  
• We can share it, but we can't teach it as if it comes from the Bible.
  
• Even if that experience if commonplace, we must still share it as someone else's experience.
  
• Our experiences should support the teachings from the Word, rather than us finding passages that support our interpretation of our experiences.
  
• Ultimately transformation comes from the Word. If we are to get people to help grow themselves (as mentioned in "Personal Visioning"), we must, at every opportunity, point people towards the Word rather than ourselves as discipleship leaders.
  
• That's the only way people can empower themselves. Satan will always twist a marvelous testimony into "That can never happen to YOU."
  
• It removes the reliance on the leaders as the source of growth. The source is Christ, represented in the Word, and interactive through prayer. The leaders are just there to cheer you on.
  
• It places less burdens on leaders, and therefore, more leaders will be inclined to step up.
  
• Leaders don't need to be superstars anymore, because the learning is not centered around the leader's life, but rather the life of Christ.
  
• Community-based teaching environments
  
• At the rate our church is growing, we have to move away from having "classes", to having small groups.
  
• So each campus would have a few 101 small groups, a few Impact small groups, a few P1 small groups, etc.
  
• The only way that can happen is for the various curriculum to be self contained; that they do not rely purely on illustrations from the leader's life (or worse, what the leader has heard from other people's lives)
  
• Thus EVERY point made must be solidly backed by the Word, with the leader's lives as support.
• That even if the leader has not experienced this particular point, they can still teach it, because it is well represented in the Word.
  
• Again, away from superstar teachers that have experienced every point.
  
• That the target is more like Christ, not more like Ken, or more like Tae, or more like Pastor Paul.
  
• That the entire small group, including the "leader", are in it together; to be more like Christ as represented by the Word shared in the curriculum.
  
• Thus the teaching is surrounded by community; where people can put what they learned about God's love to use, where they will be held intimately accountable and be encouraged and supported.
  
• I feel this is a much better model to the typical lecture style class, where half the time the teacher is trying somehow to tie the teaching into each student's life, and making broad generalizations in the process.
  
• Community-based teaching environments ensure that the Word remains deeply personal.