A few
years ago I became very interested in studying the history of the founding of
the United States. I got some books on the subject, I watched documentaries on
the key players, mostly from the American side but also a few from the British
side, I also enrolled in several of the college courses available online. What
I discovered is that, for the most part, each documentary, book and college
lecture was a rehash of another. The emphasis of each might be slightly unique,
but the depth of the material was just about par. The value of the courses, I
soon determined, was not in the lecture but in the list of sources each
provided. Those sources usually first hand or very nearly so documents is where
all the fresh water is. That set me to thinking about the levels of education,
especially in higher education:
The Lecture Stage
Painting
with a very broad brush, I refer to all undergraduate education as lecture
based. I realize this brush isn't completely fair or accurate but please, hear
me out. The lecture level of education offers summary information. The student
hears what another has learned. There is of course some room for other things;
the younger students have some memory work. The student will receive some basic
research skills, should they choose to advance to the next level of education.
Some courses provide hands on time so the student can apply what he has
learned; he has to be able to translate what he has learned into a marketable
commodity. Likely any further education will be in this practical area. The
student simply learns to improve his skills and increase his market value,
The Research Stage
Students
who come to this stage of education have generally developed such a fascination
with what they have learned that curiosity drives them to further learning.
This level of learning, however, can’t be obtained in a typical
classroom/lecture setting. This level of education requires research. The
student must find original sources or at the very least source only once or
twice removed from the original sources. At this stage the student will
generally run in to one of two situations:
- There will be scant amounts of original documentation
to work with
- There will be an overwhelming amount of material to
work with
The Presentation Stage
The student
becomes the teacher and shares what he or she has learned.
Education
at this level becomes very much like an art.
I
recently listened to a presentation concerning President Lincoln. The
presenter, a staff member of the Washington Post named Lillian Cunningham,
explained the dilemma she faced with preparing her 54 minute long presentation
on President Lincoln; there is so much material that if she had just chosen to
read off a list of Lincoln’s accomplishments while in the Whitehouse, it would
be too long to fit in her slotted time.
She
chose to only speak of Lincoln as a writer.
So you
see where the lecture level of learning comes short; the presenter always
filters through the material at their disposal to give you what they have
personally determined would be of most interest to you. Or else, in the case of
finding too little original material, the presenter uses conjecture and imagination
to develop a story line (lecture or series of them) that will appeal to
students, win an audience and thus, become marketable.
I
realize that a person could argue the specifics of my description but my point
is to bring about this application and parallel. These three stages could also
represent the stages of Christian life and growth.
The Hearer Stage
Both
the unsaved and the new convert to the Christian faith have a hearer stage.
Romans
10:13-14 (KJV)
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not
believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and
how shall they hear without a preacher?
Faith
is passed from one soul to the next through the medium of preaching. A person
gets saved through hearing the Word of God and a person takes their first steps
of faith through that same medium of preaching. Every one of us must be a
hearer of the Word of God
The Study Stage
2
Timothy 2:15 (KJV)
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
The
Word of God is replete with passages urging the Christian to advance past being
only a hearer of the Word of God:
James
1:22 (KJV)
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves.
Hebrews
6:1-2 (KJV)
Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of
Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and
of faith toward God,
Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands,
and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
2 Peter
1:4-10 (KJV)
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith
virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience;
and to patience godliness;
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness charity.
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you
that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see
afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make
your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
The Preaching Stage
Hebrews
5:12 (KJV)
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have
need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of
God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Acts
1:8 (KJV)
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is
come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
At this
point the cycle of God’s Word has gone full circle. The student (still yet and
always a student) has become the teacher.
Those
Christians who grow the most and have the fullest experience in their Christian
life engage themselves in all three stages.
- They hear the Word
- They study the Word and
- They teach/preach the Word
Marvin McKenzie
In
the Fields
