Leaven Leaven

Volume 7 Issue 2 Adult Nurture Article 5

1-1-1999

Toward a Philosophy of Christian Adult Education Toward a Philosophy of Christian Adult Education

Charles Lee

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76 Leaven, Spring, 1999

Toward a Philosophy ofChristian Adult Education

I could have taken one of two directions in writingthis article. One would have been to pursue a typical te-dious research route and try to sew together various viewson theology, definition, theory, methodology, curriculum,psychology, and so forth into a coherent, useful wholethat is representative of what is happening generically inthe pre-twenty-first-century church. The other would havebeen to describe what is working at Southeast ChristianChurch in Louisville, Kentucky, where I have been minis-ter of adult education for nineteen years. I chose the lat-ter, not because it was the simpler of the two, but becauseI have seen it work, and I believe it can be applied inchurches that are serious about nourishing their adults.The application of these ideas is not fully implemented atevery point at Southeast, but we are working on it.

Focus on AdultsThe foundation of a philosophy of Christian adult

education for any church is to view the adults as theprimary focus of the educational program.

Jesus established a church, defined in its simplest senseas a "called out" group of people who have a commonrelationship with each other. Hebrews 10:24-25 under-scores the fact that association is essential to relationshipby encouraging Christians to avoid the mistake of losingtouch with one another. The clear message is that we mustgather together or we will lose relationship. Sociologyacknowledges this principle:

By CHARLES LEE

[O]ur humanness must be sustained through socialinteraction, and fairly constantly so. When anassociation continues long enough for two people tobecome linked together by a relatively stable set ofexpectations, it is called a relationship. J

Relationship is more than people being with people.The term carries with it an intrinsic characteristic, namely,the bonding of human beings. This bonding is twofold:

People are bound within relationships by two typesof bonds: expressive ties and instrumental ties.Expressive ties are social links formed when weemotionally invest ourselves in and commit our-selves to other people. Through association withpeople who are meaningful to us, we achieve asense of security, love, acceptance, companionship,and personal worth. Instrumental ties are sociallinks formed when we cooperate with other peopleto achieve some goal.'

Relationship cannot sustain itself without substance.Proximity and activity alone do not create or enhance re-lationship. That is why the church is composed of "dis-ciples" (Matt 28: 18-20; John 13:35)-people involved inthe process of growing, maturing, learning. It could besaid that learning is that which nourishes the body, andrelationship is the dynamic by which the body functions.If the church is to reflect how it is essentially defined, it

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must be composed of disciples in relationship. The NewTestament refers to this entire phenomenon as "fellow-ship":

Life in Christ is concerned with relationships. Itsprings from an intimate relationship with theFather and his Son, Jesus Christ (cf. John 17:3).It is brought about by reconciliation to God inChrist (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:19) and to others whohave been so reconciled (2 Corinthians 5:17,18;cp. Ephesians 2:9). Being mutually members ofthe family of God, we are also brothers and sis-ters of one another. Brotherhood is not dependentupon conformity to doctrinal systems but upon acommon parentage. Christian fellowship is amanifestation of brotherhood in Christ.'

Defining the church as disciples-in-relationship givesrise to an important assumption, namely, that adults areat the center of the definition. Children and youth can bedisciples, but, with only a few precocious exceptions, theirability to practice relationship autonomously both in theexpressive and instrumental realms is limited (1 Cor13:11). That is why we provide not only teaching but alsoadult supervision for children and youth. A major mistakeof many churches is to emphasize programming for chil-dren and youth while overlooking the development of aquality adult education program. To argue that we musthave such an emphasis because the children are "the churchof tomorrow" only underscores the point that the churchis, by definition, primarily adult.

Definition of Christian Adult EducationAdulthood has been defined in a number of ways. In

a culture virtually devoid of any clear-cut rite of passage,we have developed a somewhat arbitrary system of as-cribing adulthood, granting certain privileges and respon-sibilities at a given age. Some, like Lucien Coleman, havedefined adulthood as a series of stages in which certainprimary concerns and needs become significant. Otherssee adulthood as simply the ability to adapt: "[Adulthood]is the capacity of the evolving self to make successive andsuccessful connections to an unpredictable and changingworld.?"

We are now living in an era in which the criminal be-havior of those who would have been defined as "chil-dren" less than a decade ago is being treated as adult be-havior. For a variety of reasons, we have had to return to

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the question of what is and what is not "adult." My defini-tion of "adult" is not very profound, but it does cover mostof what the word implies: An adult is someone who livesby the assumption that the rules apply to him or her. Chil-dren and youth, by nature, have a difficult time living bysuch an assumption (Prov 22: 15). The individual who hasarrived at the conclusion that he or she has the personal,autonomous responsibility to be the kind of person de-scribed in Psalm 1 is, in my opinion, an adult. (Will thisnot open up the possibility that some young men andwomen could attend adult educational programming?Absolutely. We have a number of such situations at South-east, even though we offer an outstanding youth program.)Any philosophy of adult Christian education needs to startwith the presupposition that the people it serves live bythe assumption that the rules apply to them.

I have always appreciated Ernest Ligon's simple two-word definition of education: guided change. His assump-tion is that since change is inevitable, education providesa systematic way of changing. "Guided" implies system,and "change" implies the natural processes of maturation.Christian education could be defined as "biblical guidedchange." This adds the element of content to the defini-tion. Adult Christian education would then be "biblicalguided change that develops disciples into mature menand women who wish to live by the rules." This definitionincludes content, system, maturation, and objective.

Objectives of an Effective Christian Adult EducationProgram

Having offered an argument for primacy of adult edu-cation and a definition of Christian adult education, I wouldpropose that the following six objectives characterize aneffective Christian adult education program:

1. Deliberate retention of new adult members2. Systematic Bible study with a view toward prag-

matic mastery of scripture3. Provision for the practical needs of adults4. Development of relationships among adult mem-

bers5. Development of a commitment to ministry6. Development of a commitment to evangelism

I want to cover first what is involved in each of these ob-jectives. Then I will offer what I believe are the best waysto accomplish them.

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Deliberate Retention of New Adult MembersIt has been said that the first place new members look

for is the back door. That is not true, of course, but it sug-gests that the retention of new members is a universal prob-lem. Thom Rainer, dean of the Billy Graham school ofEvangelism at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, hasdeveloped an assessment of what kinds of programs workbest in retaining members. Interestingly enough, he hasdiscovered that the most effective program for retentionin the churches he has surveyed is the Sunday school. Inview of the current trend to drop the adult Sunday school,this finding suggests a serious reconsideration of suchthinking.

Retention must be deliberate; that is, it must be a de-termined, planned, well-organized effort into which newmembers are placed no more than two weeks after theyjoin the church. It must be developed on the philosophythat expectation leads to retention. New members need tohear leaders say, "We expect you to participate in certainprograms if you want to grow as a Christian and be anactive, informed member of the congregation." In mostcases, it can be said that new members want to be toldwhat they are supposed to do. If that is what they want,then let's tell them what to do! If we wait three months totry to involve them, they will not listen. If we are wellprepared with a program for them from the very begin-ning, we can expect them to follow through. Expectationleads to retention.

Systematic Bible Study with A View towardPragmatic Mastery of Scripture

As a warning to our time, we have been inundated oflate with reports from pollsters regarding the biblical"dumbing down" of American adults:

Although 93% of American homes contain at leastone Bible and 33% of American adults say they readthe Good Book at least once a week, recent surveysreveal the Word may not be sticking. According to aGallup poll:

54% of American adults can't name the authorsof the four gospels

63% do not know what a gospel is58% cannot name five of the Ten Command-

ments10% think Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.'

We could soon be faced with a crisis in American Chris-tianity unless we resolve now to take serious action re-garding biblical illiteracy among adults in our churches:

The churches of America face no greater challengeas we approach the next century than overcomingbiblical illiteracy. The prospects for doing so areformidable because the stark fact is, many Ameri-cans don't know what they believe or why. Our faithis often not rooted in Scripture. We revere the Bible,but we don't read it. Some observers maintain thatthe Bible has not in any profound way penetratedthe culture."

I am amazed that in the face of these growing statis-tics we are hearing so much about building relationshipsin adult programming. Is the answer to biblical illiteracythe development of relationships? As important as rela-tionship is to God's family, without strong biblical sub-stance it is in danger of becoming raw interpersonal exis-tentialism. I believe we should be equally dedicated to thedevelopment of teaching Bible content to adults. Perhapsthose who are pushing relationship see it as a means toimprove biblical literacy. I personally hope so. Whateverthe motives may be, the objective should be a commit-ment to cognition and caring, literacy and loving, not justone or the other.

Primary to a philosophy of adult Christian educationis the provision of systematic Bible study with a view topragmatic mastery. This objective is not impossible if weresist the temptation to make "scholars" of adult students.That was a mistake of earlier educators who were exces-sively caught up in the Socratic notion that "to know is todo." It was assumed that disciples would become effec-tive Christians if they just knew what was in the Bible.That, of course, is true, but it is equally untrue. We havelearned, rather painfully, that knowledge of scripture alonedoes not necessarily translate into "living a Christian life."Although the trend toward application in our day is healthyin this regard, it must never replace the pursuit of a sub-stantive knowledge of the Bible. If we allow the affectiveto swallow up the cognitive, we will end up with a gen-eration of adults who insist that people should love Godbut are incapable of telling them why. By accepting thefact that most adult students are not inclined toward schol-arship but do wish to have a reasonable and useful degreeof Bible knowledge, the following objectives should be

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The Bible can betaught like anunfolding story,because that iswhat it is!

part of a systematic endeavor to help adults become bibli-cally literate.

Summarize the Bible, including the intertestamentalperiod. Most adults would be delighted to be able to "tellthe Bible story" in broad terms to someone else. We canattain this objective if we will teach the Bible chronologi-cally, not canonically or topically. Frankly, a curriculumthat is linear will remove much of the drudgery of Biblestudy because it will, by nature, be story. Such an approachcan be fun; it can be fulfilling. The Bible can be taughtlike an unfolding story, because that is what it is! WalkThrough the Bible Ministries has successfully pioneeredthis idea. Creative teachers will look for ways to help adultsenjoy learning how to tell the story and to keep them frombecoming overwhelmed with the details or lost in a topi-cal forest.

Effectively use basic Bible references. Einstein saidthat he never memorized something if he knew where tolook it up. Adults flounder in their search for biblical helpbecause we do not teach them how to use the excellentreferences available to them. Handbooks, concordances,and study Bibles abound with references of which mostadults are not even aware. Teaching adults how to use thesereferences is valid Bible study for Sunday school classesor electives.

Employ an inductive study of scripture. A resurgenceof interest in inductive study through the influence of pre-cepts has awakened us to the fact that this is not just a toolof the preacher or professor. Much confusion on a varietyof subjects is swept away when students learn how toemploy the inductive method.

Derive principles from scripture and make life appli-cations. This final objective is the most difficult of all, but

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it is worth attempting. There are life principles in scrip-ture that can be sifted out and laid over the contemporaryexperiences of adults. Learning to spot these principles isvaluable. The most effective pulpit ministers of our dayuse this approach in their expository preaching. A goodteacher will not only employ it in preparing a lesson, heor she will stop and show the students how it is done whileteaching them. Here is where interactive methodology canenjoy its most beneficial application, as adults work to-gether to identify principles rather than just share existen-tial applications.

Provision for the Practical Needs of AdultsAdults change and respond to change in an ever-adapt-

ing process. Christian adults are citizens, participants inthis inescapable process. They are greeted daily with chal-lenges to their values and presuppositions. It takes timefor morality to undergo new applications, but mores tendto change rapidly. What society viewed as "good" ten yearsago it may no longer acknowledge. The Christian adultmust function as citizen, worker, family member, provider,protector, socializer, employer, leader, and more-and doit all in the context of Christian values. A philosophy ofChristian adult education acknowledges the need to pro-vide a variety of educational opportunities to address thesechallenges. This cannot be done in a Sunday school classalone. Many needs can be addressed only by providingspecific studies, focused groups, and special programs thatoffer a detailed response to challenges that Christian adultsface in the marketplace.

A practical ministry must acknowledge the painfultimes of Christian adults and offer substantive help, notjust hand-holding. I believe that every sin specified in scrip-ture is an opportunity for ministry. It is in the realm of oursinfulness that we encounter most of the painful circum-stances of life. Not all, but most. A philosophy of adultChristian education must include ministering education-ally to those whose lives have been victimized by the sin-fulness of others or (and this is the most difficult) whohave been swept into pain by their own sinfulness. Chris-tian adults can be educated about their particular plights,including both strategies for developing endurance andprocesses that can work toward the resolution of criticalsituations. The provision of counseling is vital, and thepractice of prayer and patience are indispensable, but adultscan be helped to help themselves if they are given the op-portunity to learn more about the painful challenges they

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The small group is not,in my opinion, the bestcontext for cognitivelearning

are facing. A well-rounded educational program that seeksto provide educational help for adults in the practical realmshould be developed from two sources: (1) the specificneeds of adults in the congregation and (2) a careful as-sessment of the cultural pressures that are present in thecommunity served by the local church. Done well, such aresearch effort will provide ample information on whatkinds of workshops, seminars, and closure classes shouldbe developed.

Development of Relationships among AdultMembers

Adults need relationships. John 13:35 is often mis-taken for the way in which we win the world to Christ.That is why we put "Welcome" signs in front of the churchbuilding and call it evangelism. But our love for one an-other only identifies us. It is our commitment to the min-istry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5: 15-17) that draws othersto Christ. Then, once we are in Christ, John 13:35 be-comes the rule by which we act toward fellow Christians.We must provide the opportunity for adults to developintimate friendships if they are going to be mature dis-ciples. By far the best method to bring this about in ourtime is the small group.

The development of small groups in Americanchurches is a remarkably successful phenomenon. We haveseen people grow in their commitments to Christ and toeach other, creating a context for vulnerability and account-ability that is unlike that of any other methodology. AtSoutheast, we call our small groups Home Bible Fellow-ship Groups. We have defined them as follows:

A Home Bible Fellowship Group is designed to be aplace where you can grow in Christlikeness, walkcompassionately alongside others through life's

problems and pains, celebrate the goodness God hasgraciously granted you and others, discover thestories of others and have your story heard as well,express and receive love and serve and be served.'

We have also seen an enhancement of the learningprocess through small groups. Roberta Hestenes stronglyencourages the use of groups as means to rediscover theBible:

The Bible tells us the story of God's mighty wordsand actions .... To seek to know this story betterand discover our own place in it, we study the Bible,and because this story is the tale of a people, acommunity of faith, we find it helpful to read it withothers-to study the Bible in groups."

The greatest contribution of the small group, however,has been the development of relationships among adults.The small group is not, in my opinion, the best context forcognitive learning. It is, essentially, a method among manymethods characterized by strong application of andragogy,driven by an affective dynamic, and guided by a facilita-tor. I believe that a facilitator context is always potentiallydangerous if the participants do not have a reasonabledegree of objective knowledge about the Bible. Truly suc-cessful andragogy depends on prior pedagogical method-ologies. Too many current advocates of small groups ap-pear to overlook this. Malcolm Knowles, in his studies ofadult learning processes, does not intend that adults beplaced in a context of freewheeling existentialism beforethey are given some substantive instruction. Commentingon his pedagogical/andragogical models, Knowles says:

These two models do not represent bad/good orchild/adult dichotomies, but rather a continuum ofassumptions to be checked out in terms of rightnessfor particular learners in particular situations. If apedagogical assumption seems realistic for aparticular situation, then pedagogical strategies areappropriate. For example, if a learner enters atotally strange content area, he or she will bedependent on a teacher until enough content hasbeen acquired to enable self-directed inquiry tobegin."

An effective philosophy of Christian adult educationincludes the development of relationships among the adult

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members of the congregation. This will be best accom-plished by creating small groups in addition to other pro-grams.

Development of a Commitment to MinistryCharismatic Christians have long contended that ev-

ery generation of believers, not just those who were partof the first-century church, should expect to receive spe-cial gifts from the Holy Spirit. Have we not in our dis-agreement with their position actually "thrown out the babywith the bath water"? The Holy Spirit does endow Chris-tians with gifts of service and ministry to the Body. Pas-sages like 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4do affirm that there are "gifts of the Spirit" that are in-tended to create a body of believers who help one anotherbecome mature in Christ.

At Southeast, we have developed a "Spiritual GiftsAssessment" that has helped us create an effective volun-teer force. Volunteers enter their areas of ministry, not byresponding to appeals for help, but by analyzing closelywhat their spiritual gifts are. Each member's "style" ofpersonality and proclivity toward a certain area of minis-try ("passion") are added to the assessment, and a deci-sion is made as to where he or she can best serve. Anysuccessful philosophy of Christian adult education shouldinclude both careful assessment of the gifts, personalities,and passions of adult members with respect to itsministry(ies), and training for those ministries. An un-trained volunteer almost inevitably becomes a wasted re-source. For example, when we find someone at Southeastwho is gifted in teaching and has a passion for workingwith adults, we take seriously our responsibility to seethat he or she is prepared for the job.

We require that our adult Sunday school (Adult BibleFellowship) teachers be certified. They must either finisha one-year course of study that equips them for the job ofteaching an ABF full-time or take a one-hundred-ques-tion "CLEP" test that determines whether they are exemptfrom the classroom work. All candidates, including thosewho CLEP out, must work with a mentor for an indefiniteperiod of time, becoming eligible for certification whenthe mentor so determines. Each mentor is a certified ABFteacher and can prescribe any kind of program he or shedeems necessary to help the candidate become proficientat teaching adults. After certification, candidates must beapproved by the Southeast elders. Approval is based onspiritual maturity, exemplary lifestyle, and other factors

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that the elders determine to be important in those whowill teach and lead adult members. Other data are a partof each ABF teacher's profile, including personality as-sessments, teaching styles, and basic training courses indoctrine and theology. We also require that ABF teacherssign a "Teacher's Statement of Faith." Two of the biggestproblems in Christian education are teachers who quit andteachers who won't quit. Certification is, in my experi-ence, an extremely effecti ve way to deal with both of thoseproblems. Any effective philosophy of Christian adulteducation includes provision for assessing the gifts of adultmembers and a training program within the ministries thatthey select.

Development of a Commitment to EvangelismEvangelism should not be something that Christians

do; it should be a state of mind. Matthew 28: 18-20 opensliterally with the words "As you are going." A useful defi-nition of a Christian is "Someone who makes it easier forothers to believe in God and can tell them why." Adultscan be encouraged to live ethical lives that are graciousand sensitive to others, but they will never be completelyempowered to evangelize until they can adequately an-swer questions about their faith (1 Pet 3: 15-16). I believethat contemporary Christian adults need three things tobecome effective personal evangelists: (1) a church pro-gram that they can be proud of-biblically sound, dy-namic, responsive to the realities adults are facing, andwilling to make methodological changes; (2) a signifi-cantly adequate pragmatic knowledge of the Bible; and(3) basic people skills.

Most Americans assume that Christianity at somepoints means a gathering of believers, or a church. Conse-quently, there is inevitably a point in personal evangelismwhen a nonbeliever is invited "to church." Frankly, manyadult Christians today are not good personal evangelistsbecause they are frustrated by the inadequacies of thechurch they attend. The solution is the task of the leader-ship and needs to be addressed by them. For the adultsthemselves, training in the skills of working with peoplewill always be valuable. It is one of those educational pro-grams that never become obsolete. The business worldstill takes Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends andInfluence People seriously. Most contemporary literatureon success is simply a rewriting of the axioms of effective"people skills" established long ago. Teaching adults towork with people can be accomplished if we are willing

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The hardest, yet mostimportant, work is toequip adults with anadequate knowledge ofscripture

to use these resources and not simply dismiss them as"worldly."

The hardest, yet most important, work is to equipadults with an adequate knowledge of scripture. Socrateswas partially right when he contended that "to know is todo" because we arrive at faith by hearing the word of Christ,(Rom 10:17). The saying "People don't care how muchyou know until they know how much you care" is correct.But the operative word is "until." That conjunction makesthe knowledge just as valuable as the caring. People docare how much Christians know, or they would not askquestions. An ability to answer those questions is crucialto the effectiveness of evangelism in the Christian adult'sdaily life. That is precisely why I Pet 3: 15-I6 links "car-ing" with "answering."

The Need-Meeting Dynamics of Adult GroupsBy definition, the church is a group, and people de-

velop their identity in groups. One of the observations ofsociology with which we can agree is that a human beingwithout another human being loses definition. Whenpeople say that they can be Christian without being partof a church, they are defining themselves downward. Un-less forced upon the individual Christian, fellowship withother Christians is indispensable to one's complete iden-tity in Christ. We cannot show our love for one another ifwe are not in proximity. The Christian Churches/Churchesof Christ have for years contended that what defines indi-viduals as Christians also defines them as part of Christ'schurch. We do not baptize people into a congregation; webaptize them into Christ, which makes them a part of theuniversal body of Christ. Being part of a local congrega-tion is a choice made by the individuals.

Early church-growth teachers described the church asdiscrete, interconnected groups, each with a functional

identity. At Southeast, we have looked more closely atthis group idea and found that the distinctions are morethan just functional. It is a fact that the dynamics (factorsor forces that create a "comfort zone" in which certainkinds of activities are permitted or excluded) of a givengroup are altered by the number of people in the group. Iftwo people are talking and a third person walks up, thedynamics are changed. In large assemblies there are cer-tain factors or forces present that are not found in me-dium-sized groups or small groups, and vice versa. Theseobservations have become a vital part of how we struc-ture specific components of our adult education program.We have also determined that there are certain needsbrought by adults to the larger context of edification. Whenthese needs are met within the "comfort zone" of the group,adults learn better and respond more favorably to the en-couragement to grow in Christ. The needs and groups havebeen defined as follows.

NeedsUniversal identity: a sense of belonging to a universal

body of believers, to those who have the same strugglesand a need to worship God with one another

Anonymity: the freedom to be "unidentified" while ina group, whether to worship personally or just be a lis-tener/watcher in a learning context

Close relationships: friendships in which the deepestneeds and truths of one's life can be shared

Casual relationships: friendships on a less intimatelevel

Dialogue: the occasion to raise questions, discussmeanings behind what is said or taught, and search forinformation and clarification

Objective learning: substantive Bible information; the"knowing" part of learning-that which is cognitive

Subjective learning: personal interpretation and "re-lating" of Bible content; the "feeling" part of learning-that which is affective

Vulnerability: an openness regarding one's life, in boththe spiritual successes and failures; a willingness to shareone's very personal life situations so that prayer and en-couragement might be prompted in others

Accountability: a willingness to be challenged to re-sponsible growth in one's Christian faith and life and tobe mutually answerable for the sake of overcoming weak-nesses

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GroupsChurch: larger assemblies in which the objectives are

to participate in worship and praise and, often, to hear asermon or witness a special artistic presentation (drama,concert, etc.)

Class: medium-sized groups (sixteen or more) thatassemble to learn objective biblical information, experi-ence both casual and intimate fellowship, and engage inministry together

Circle: groups of three to fifteen that meet to sharetheir deepest needs, develop intimate spiritual relation-ships, encourage one another, and identify how scripturerelates specifically to their lives.

How the Natural Dynamics of the Different Groups MeetAdult NeedsIntensity Levels of Dynamics

1 = Very High 2 = Moderately High 3 = ModeratelyLow 4 = Very Low

NeedUniversal IdentityAnonymityClose RelationshipsCasual RelationshipsDialogueObjective LearningSubjective LearningVulnerabili ty

Class22212123

Circle44131

311

Church11414244

It was noted earlier that meeting the needs of adultsdepends on choosing the right kind of context. The fol-lowing is a list of the six objectives of an effective Chris-tian education program discussed above, showing whatwe believe to be currently the best kind of group for reach-ing that objective. Selection has been made on the basisof the dynamics that are natural to each group as noted inthe diagram above, ideally providing the most effectiveway to reach the objective itself. For a variety of reasons,other adult programs may conclude differently. The "BestContext" listing is given in the order of which group moreadequately initiates the program and which is better forretention of the objectives. Obviously, one-on-one has itsown special dynamics in which there is a mentor/protegerelationship that cannot be duplicated in the three kindsof groups.

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1. Deliberate retention of new adult members. Bestcontext: initially small groups; both non-closuremedium-sized groups and small groups for reten-tion. Curriculum: overview of salvation by gracethrough faith; qualities of Christian life; programof church (classes, groups, events); design for at-tendance and participation.

2. Systematic Bible study with a view toward prag-matic mastery of scripture. Best context: non-clo-sure medium-sized groups; closure medium-sizedgroups. Curriculum: chronological; inductive, whenappropriate; expository (principles and relevantapplications); methodologically varied. See BrettDeYoung, "Getting the Most Out of a PublishedCurriculum," in Tipsfor Teachers: Adults (Cincin-nati: Standard, 1995), 44-45.

3. Provision for the practical needs of adults (elec-tives). Best context: closure medium-sized groups;small groups for retention. Curriculum: researchedand developed by instructor and reviewed by a staffmember; studies offered at various levels (begin-ner, intermediate, advanced); Bible (in-depth, fo-cused Bible study, theology, doctrine, etc.); issuesthat are always vital (cultural, political, worldview,cults and sectarianism, marriage and family life,work ethics).

4. Development of relationships among adult mem-bers. Best context: small groups, one-on-one, non-closure medium-sized groups. Curriculum: sevento ten questions based on the sermon of the previ-ous weekend; Serendipity Bible, Fisherman BibleStudy Guides, Discover Life (Church DevelopmentResources) and Christian Character Bible Studies(InterVarsity).

5. Development of a commitment to ministry. Bestcontext: initially closure medium-sized groups;small groups for retention. Curriculum: spiritualgifts assessment (developed by Lees Hughes, In-volvement Minister, Southeast Christian Church,Louisville, Kentucky); personality inventories(Littauer, Meyers-Briggs, DISC); personal inclina-tion or "passion" for area of ministry. Note: Areasof ministry and participation can become smallgroups: ushers, greeters, communion preparers,

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office workers, maintenance workers, sports teams,etc.

6. Development of a commitment to evangelism. Bestcontext: small groups, on~-on-one mentoring; non-closure medium-sized groups for retention. Curricu-lum: Book of Acts; missions (exciting stories of thegospel message today);' short term mission trips,including reports from participants; "how to" evan-gelism studies; utilization of "people skills" litera-ture (Carnegie and others).

After forty years in the ministry, I have learned thatno one ever "arrives" in his or her particular field. Thechurch is an organism, alive and growing. What once waseffective may later become ineffective. Christian adulteducation is only one part of the body of Christ that needsconstant oversight, research, and renewal. Obviously, aphilosophy of Christian adult education that works in onechurch may not be entirely viable elsewhere, though itcan inspire ideas and procedures that will be useful. Theconcepts presented in this article have been offered withthis objective in mind.

CHARLES LEE is adult education minister at SoutheastChristian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Notes1 James C. Vander Zandan, Sociology: The Core (New York:

McGraw-Hili, 1996), !OJ.2 Ibid.3 Clint Gill, "The Fellowship of Saints," Christian Stan-

dard, 28 June 1998, 8.4 Cheryl Mercer, Grown-Ups: A Generation in Search of

Adulthood (New York: Putnam, 1987),40.5 New York Times Magazine, 7 December 1997.6 Princeton Religion Research Center, Emerging Trends 18,

no. 2 (1997).7 Murphy Belding, Small Groups Manual (Louisville, Ky.:

Southeast Christian Church, 1998).8 Roberta Hestenes, Using the Bible in Groups (Philadel-

phia: Westminster. 1984), quoted in Emerging Trends 18, no. 2(1997).

"Malcolm Knowles, "Contributions of Malcolm Knowles,"in The Christian Educator's Handbook, ed. Kenneth O. Gangeland James C. Wilhoit (Glen Ellyn, m. Victor, 1997),97.

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Lee: Toward a Philosophy of Christian Adult Education

Published by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 1999