Note to self: don’t start a new blog series right before a holiday. I will take forever to get around to continuing it….

Anyways, I started writing in my last post about how the church can become better at what we do.  Churches already do a pretty good job at what they do, but I also feel that there is room for more variety out there… or maybe, space to also do something completely different.

This, of course, is all a response to a post by Ryan about being better communicators. I responded that church leaders need to learn educational theory to be better communicators.  Ryan wanted me to expand on that, so naturally I posted about a new way to build church buildings.

Urrr… huh?  How do those two concepts fit together?  You see, in order to do something new with communication in church, you need an entirely different atmosphere. The current church atmosphere in most churches is of the “sit and soak” variety.  You sit and listen during the sermon.  That works for some.

However, I am going to go on a tangent about “active learning” and how we need it in church. Active learning won’t work in a passive church atmosphere. Note that I am not referring to worship style here. Some churches have a very lively, interactive worship time at church.  Once that is over, however, everything else is passive – everyone sits when the preaching starts, or Sunday School begins, or pretty much when anything else related to “discipleship” starts.  The result of this is that few people go out and do what they heard. Passive listening to preaching will lead to passive learning, which in turn equals a passive spiritual life.

What I am shooting for is an active spiritual life, which requires active learning.  Active learning requires active teaching.  Active teaching will require an active atmosphere – one where people are used to things happening all the time. Thus the need for a new church blueprint.

The ideas I explored in the last post are just one set of ideas for how to create an atmosphere that is active at church. People would become used to activity happening all around their building. They would also begin to realize that their church is different, and then they just might be ready for the different experience they are going to get during the sermon: an active learning experience.

Which I will go into more detail, Lord willing, next blog post.