Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Why I Agree with Expat on Education

I struggled with where I stood on the conversations about education that took place here. But I found my peace with it as I thought about my philosophy of bible education in my student ministries.

Which would I prefer:
(1) That a student memorizes 100 verses from the Bible (which is the typical model of Bible learning)
(2) That a student can give a reasoned outline of Paul's arguments in Galatians about freedom from the Law, and how that applies to the current Christian life, even if they can't word-for-word quote a specific verse.

I'll take door #2, Monty. Students can memorize as much as they want, and not know Jack about the Bible. What I want is students who are well versed in what the Bible is actually saying, and not just spouting evangelical "talking points". Not to devalue the importance and usefulness of memorization, but if there is nothing supporting the roteness, is it not meaningless? Give me the student who knows John 3:14&15 and how it interprets John 3:16, over the one who has memorize the latter any day, and twice on Sunday (to borrow from my good friend Byron Harvey over at the No Kool-aid Zone)

And that is why I agree with Expat. Again. This is getting scary...

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