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An assignment from Christian Education to discuss some "old wineskins" that are in use by the church today. My response: - Sunday School (or Sunday morning Bible Study equivalent) as the primary vehicle for Christian Education and spiritual formation. Sunday morning Bible Study is typically information, information, and more information. A 45-minute sermon from the pastor, then a 45-minute lecture from the Sunday School teacher. There is more to education and spiritual formation than listening to information. Listening to information is a very foundational part of life change. Memorizing information is a very foundational part of life change. Knowing information is a very foundational part of life change. But I have no idea why we stop there. Most Sunday morning Bible studies consist of 5 alliterated points about the life of Joseph or something very similar, with no real emphasis or purpose in integrating the heart of the Sacred Scriptures into their students' lives. We approach Bible Study as an opportunity to study the text and to read it and take out of it facts to support our theology. When in reality, the text should be studying us, reading us, and taking out "us" and putting in "God". Sunday morning Bible Study as analytical and scientific was a great wineskin for the modern world of yesterday, but fails to be a serviceable wineskin for students of a postmodern world. - Monologue preaching as the only vehicle for teaching Truth. Monologue preaching is an extremely beneficial method in Christian Education and in teaching. There is nothing like sitting under the teaching of a well-educated, authoritative, theologically sound communicator. More truth can be learned in a short time under a wise man than in a thousand times with a thousand teachers who are "half-wise." But there is more to Christian Education and spiritual formation than simply listening to a monologue expression of knowledge. Sadly, I think the current church has forgotten this fact and has chosen not to use the wonderful tools of dialogue, Hebrew midrash, communal learning, and experience (all rooted in Scripture of course) to help in the teaching process. Sometimes you just have to simply "do life" in order to learn some things. And by relying solely on constant monologue sermons as the primary vehicle for learning, I think we do ourselves and our people a great disservice. Its so easy for us to read a book, listen to a sermon on tape, listen to a Wednesday night, Sunday morning, or Sunday night sermon, etc. that I think we have flooded our brains with to much knowledge and our lives consequently lack any real wisdom. - Sunday morning services as they are typically designed. Throughout church history the church has always practiced a variety of "sacraments" and/or methods to facilitate learning and spiritual formation, which is the goal of Christian Education. Only recently have we reduced these various learning methods to irrelevant or obscure. Some of these things that have been practiced by the church to facilitate spiritual formation were: preaching, worship, prayer, solitude, conversation, life experience, the Eucharist (Lord's Supper with grape juice), giving, fasting, baptism, etc. All of these things have been used by the church to help advance the learning process. But today's church almost solely relies on the sacrament of preaching as the only vessel for learning and spiritual growth. While we still worship and pray, we hardly ever approach or practice these things as learning experiences. More often than not, they turn into self-centered prayers and singing. And rarely do we think of the Lord's Supper, financial giving, or baptism as an opportunity for Christian Education. And fasting and solitude are absolutely foreign to today's church. Our church services have turned into nothing but preaching. Which I'm all for. But why not incorporate prayer stations, more Christ-centered worship, times for solitude and reflection, stations for offerings, stations for those who want to take the Lord's Supper weekly, etc. It seems that in our service design efforts we have forgotten some very important ingredients to Christian education and spiritual formation. - Gospel Tracts. A Soap Box Rant That Has Nothing And Everything To Do With The Topic Assigned. An excerpt from an interview with Leonard Sweet. The entire article can be found here Wesley invented the tract and believe it or not, it was cutting edge at the time. Wesley and some early Methodists in the late 18th, early 19th century invented street evangelism and they would attract these huge crowds with their preaching and by giving away tracts. Why . . . In the 1790's, a book was equivalent to one month's salary, so people didn't have books. And they didn't have literature in their homes. So pamphlets and tracts were the cutting edge hardware of the 18th century. Literally, a book is one month's salary, and you're on a street evangelism team giving out books and tracts and pamphlets. Well, hello! In the 1990's the computer was equivalent to one month's salary! And here we are still giving out tracts, which our ancestor's did, but if we were doing what they did, we'd be standing on street corners passing out Palm Pilots, PCs. You want to talk about crowds that would wait in line and listen to what we have to say? Now, of course, that hardware would have to come with spiritual software. The early street evangelists just didn't have pamphlets, they had chapters from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, or Fox's Book of Martyrs, or Thomas A Kempis' Imitation of Christ. So you just don't pass out Palm Pilots, you put Bible software on them, if you're passing out PCs, you put the whole Scriptures in there! We're so inept at evangelism that we think passing out a piece of paper to someone and this is doing them a "favor"? I mean, in the men's room they put tracts on the urinals. And this is evangelism?! Who's gonna pick it up? It's the wussification of the church's mind and mission, and it's embarrassing.