Informed, but Not Transformed
Brian McLaren
Ephesians 4:20
Those who teach have a higher calling than simply to transfer information.
I’m an educator at heart. I love to teach. Before becoming a pastor, I loved teaching literature, writing, even grammar. In my spare time, I loved teaching music. I still love to take people into the woods and teach them about plants, birds, reptiles, weather, ecology. Anything I know, I love to share with others. Most of all I love to teach people about God, the Bible, the gospel, the Christian life.
But the word about in the previous sentence causes me pause. I don’t want just to teach people about God, about the Bible, and so on. I want to drop the preposition in the same way the apostle Paul does in Ephesians 4:20 (NASB), when he speaks of the need for people to “learn Christ,” not just learn about Christ.
When I taught people to play guitar, I wasn’t just teaching them about the guitar, how strings vibrate, what frets do, or why the grain of the soundboard is important. True, I share this information; it does have some value. But I was interested in teaching guitar.
When I taught writing, it wasn’t just information I was interested in transferring. I wanted to help my students become the kind of people who could think clearly, feel honestly, and convey those thoughts and feelings in phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. It was the same with literature. Yes, there is an about dimension, but it was always in service of the direct, transforming, empowering encounter: learning literature, learning interpretation, learning poetry.
Beyond About
This difference between learning and learning about parallels an important shift that is signaled by the change from “Christian education” to “spiritual formation.” True, in many quarters people slap a sexier new label on what they’ve always done. But elsewhere the shift in language reveals a profound shift in values, from teaching about God to teaching people God, from teaching about the Christian life to teaching people to live it, enjoy it, practice it. At its best, the change in language signals a shift in priority from transferring information to training for transformation.
This flows from a reality many pastors and church leaders secretly acknowledge but seldom verbalize: that too many of our most “educated” Christians are some of the meanest. They may know the most information about the Bible but are the least Christ-like.
Too often there seems to be a direct correlation between knowledge about theology on the one hand and arrogance, contentiousness, and an uncharitable spirit on the other.
No one is in favor of ignorance, but mere knowledge that “puffs up,” as Paul points out, isn’t much better.
In my evangelistic conversations and in my visits to a variety of churches, I am becoming more and more sure that, both for our current church attenders and for the unchurched we wish to reach, one question is increasingly paramount: Can your church help me experience God and experience personal transformation? By this question, they’re telling us they don’t just want to learn about. They want transformation. They want to learn Christ.
We have well developed curricula and structures for teaching information, but we are still quite primitive when it comes to training for transformation. But that problem is also an opportunity, for us leaders, to seek transformation ourselves, from being educators who teach about, to being spiritual mentors and trainers who first and foremost practice a transforming faith as a way of life ourselves, and have effective ways of bringing others onto a transforming path, too.
Of all the many things I am optimistic about in the church these days, this is one of the best.
—BRIAN MCLAREN is an author, speaker, pastor, and networker among Christian leaders.
Reflect
1. What impact should McLaren’s statement that “some of our most ‘educated’ Christians are also the meanest” have on how you go about your role as a teacher?
2. When have you experienced teaching that led to transformation? What made that teaching effective?
3. What are some ways that you would like to grow in Christ during your time as a teacher? What are some commitments you can make to aid you in the process?
The above article, “Informed, but Not Transformed” was written by Brian McLaren. The article was excerpted from our sister publication LEADERSHIP journal, © 2005 Christianity Today International. For more articles like this, visit www.Leadershipjournal.net.
The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.
This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”
