Some recent thoughts from Jeremy Berg:

So long as we save our best spiritual energy for the Sunday morning classroom and make Bible memorization or doctrine our primary homework assignment, we will continue to encounter many folks who have a lot of the right information but show little evidence of heart transformation.

So, this begs the big question: Where does deeper, personal formation take place?  For starters, may I suggest that it takes place outside the Sunday school classroom.  The problem with viewing Christianity as a classroom education is that it allows us to detach ourselves from the subject matter.  We casually discuss Bible stories, lessons, ideas and doctrines, and then go home feeling quite alright having had our neurons tickled a bit.  Yet, we managed to keep ourselves out of the curriculum and our focus on something else.

A survey of the Bible will demonstrate quite clearly that when it comes to faith and Christian discipleship it is everyday life that is the true classroom and the transformation of human hearts the universal Christian assignment.  But, most importantly, the God who is our great Master and Teacher is also our lab partner working alongside us in our group project of gently, patiently, gradually reordering our desires and turning our hearts toward His kingdom by the power of His Spirit.

Read the full article here.

Photo by David M. Goehring