Can Sunday Be A Time For Activist Training?

Training requires trained trainers.

Can Sunday be a time for activist training?

Let's see... 

Step 1: Trainer talks, trainees listen.

As mentioned last week, telling is not training. But telling provides a necessary foundation for training to follow. The pulpit is a natural place for telling.

Pastors, why not gear some Sunday morning messages toward cultural activism? Why not focus on specific opportunities for cultural engagement (great or small) that could be implemented during the coming week, or month?  

Take the Thanksgiving dinner that just passed.  

Cultural activism starts with opening our mouths when natural opportunities to speak regarding significant issues arise. But we need to know what to say, and how to say it. 

John Stonestreet, President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, recently shared tips on how to prepare for Thanksgiving conversations around "difficult" cultural issues. John's instructions could easily be adapted into a 20-minute Sunday-morning message: click here. 

Step 2: Trainer shows, trainees watch.

A dinner table prop is brought onto the platform with 5 chairs around it. Well-rehearsed participants take their places around a rubber chicken. Here, a true-to-life demonstration takes place, following a Thanksgiving dinner script written in consultation with the pastor. This practiced demonstration takes another 20 minutes. The "showing" part is as important as the "telling" part. 

Step 3: Trainees do, trainers provides feedback.

Trainers work with congregants in groups of 5-6 people. Groups form in the sanctuary. Trained trainers join each group. Visitors only observe. 

Trainers role-play non-believing relatives bringing up "difficult" cultural topics. Participants take turns engaging in conversation. Trainers provide constructive feedback. Without feedback, people are never trained. They may be entertained, but never trained. Step 3 takes 20 minutes. 

Training of trainers would be essential. I recommend my friend Keith Webb, of Creative Results Management. If 20% of the congregation were to participate in a weekend of training, a church could be in business. Ask Keith to customize the training for the above purposes. 

Step 4: Trainees do again--in real life.

This step can only be done outside the four walls of the church. Reports on how it went could be given at the following Sunday morning service, like Jesus sending His disciples out two by two, and having them come back to report how it went. 

A suggestion for Christian schools: start an after-school "Cultural Activist Club."

Difficult? Yes. Necessary? You decide.    

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman