Teaching with Depth

This week I am at a conference in the mountains outside of Asheville, NC. My family told me to take good notes - so I decided to jot down notes and ideas here. Although not exactly what was spoken, this is what I received from the presentation.
The speakers are looking at what it takes to reach the post-modern world. In the initial presentation they listed four things that the church needs to do to reach this key market:
1. Provide Depth (see further down to explain)
2. Provide Community
3. Provide Connections - or mentors. This generation wants to interact with someone who has walked the walk.
4. Responsibility - meaning the generation wants to leave a better world than they came into. This could be done in a number of ways including becoming socially active or recycling.
** One thing they said is that the generation does not necessarily need the coolist and biggest program or high dollar fluff. They want something that is real.

The session from this afternoon was on depth. The question was asked, "What is meant by depth?" and the answer could be about anything. It could be better Greek or Hebrew exegesis, it could be pulling out more meaning. Lots of things could be done to achieve depth - and not necessarily hit the mark.
Then, how can we achieve depth? Four things were listed to be aware of in a presentation:
1. People are looking for Mystery, not Logic. Facts can be learned by reading a book. They want to go further. We must explore the facts, and find the things that are not in the facts. We must find the hidden things. The things that will cause the mind to wonder and to begin working. We need to have the "wow's." But this does not mean lots of statistics. This means the things that make you want to look deeper yourself. In a sense, there is an entertainment aspect here, but not really entertainment, for it is meant to go beyond tickling the interest. The Mystery is meant to open the door for the person - and to make them want to go in to explore.
2. People are looking for Story, not Fact. Again, this is about helping people gain an interest. Stories have been around for a long time. We all ejoy some kind of story. Some are better than others. I have taken Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories" (The "Elephant's Child is my favorite, O Best Beloved), and kept the interest of third graders - even without pictures. (Of course the spanking parts really help, especially if I tell them with a loud, sharp voice). Stories fill in the spaces between the facts. The leader of the conference told the story of Nicodemus from John 3. He started with Nicodemus approaching the tent, with his hood up so he could not be detected in the darkness of night. Peter opened the tent flap to see who was there, and pulled it aside, not recognizing the guest. When the guest was inside, and saw Jesus in the back of the tent, he pulled his hood back, and everyone gasped, they recognized Nicodemus, one of the Pharasees ...
3. People desire Change and not Stability. Stability gets boring, we want something different. People in the recent election voted for "Change." They did not know exactly what it was, but it must be better than what existed before. And it is a little like living on the edge. This sytle of presentation will make us all work harder. We need to think of a fresh approach every time. But that is what people are looking for. Although God does not change ... yet He does. Take note: The Amelekites, Jericho, and the Midianites were all defeated in different ways. The leaders of the people were required to pray and find what method God wanted - and follow. We must pray and discover what method will work best with our audience, and design the presentation around the needs.
4. We live in a society of Distrust and not Trust. People especially distrust authority. There used to be a time they trusted Pastors, the President, etc... but not any more. They are looking for truth. They want to get to know us, our motivations, our sources. They want to see the genuine person before they trust us. Leadership used to come by standing in front of the group. It was a position of respect. Now it is from withing the group. People follow the person with passion - a person they have gotten to know - one of them. They want reliability.
Changes also include presentation style.
1. People no longer look for information. They want to explore. This is much better, for we remember far more of what we explore than what we are told. Let's open the door, build the curiosity and place people where they can learn.
2. Society has moved from Admiration to Identification. Again, they want the leader to be one of them. We all have faults. We are nervous when we stand in front of others. We have fears. We have shortcomings. The post-modern generation respects someone like them, because they know if the person like them did it, they probably can too.
3. We need to move from dispensation to revelation. We need to reveal or communicate ourselves to others. We don't need to just teach the facts of the Bible. But we need to teach ourselves and how we interact, and what we have learned, and how we have put this into practice, mistakes we have made, things we learned through the mistakes.
Teaching is to be a journey that others want to experience with us and through us.