11.4.19 Reed (See video HERE)
Are you a diverse learner?
It might sound ominous, but all it means is that you learn
differently from the majority. It
doesn’t mean you can’t learn or have a handicap. In fact, it might just mean that you have
abilities in some areas that the majority of people don’t have.
The temptation has been for people to stigmatize diverse
learners, but this is not supported by biblical Christianity which teaches that
the church is made up of many people of diverse talents and abilities and all
with an important role to play: “If the whole body were an eye, where would the
sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of
smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them,
just as he wanted them to be.” 1
Corinthians 12:17
But let’s face it, this natural, God-given diversity also
means that some people, like it or not, just naturally have more intelligence
ability than others. What of it? The Bible makes no distinction between people
who have been given greater gifts, but it is what we do with what we are given
that matters. We are to bloom where we
are planted! No matter what we are given
to work with, what we want to hear is: “Well done, good and faithful servant!
You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many
things.”
So it was with refreshing candor that a young man named Reed
shared unapologetically about his own learning difficulties. I had been trying to explain some aspects of
the Gospel that can seem a little complicated – especially to someone with a
Jewish background like himself, when suddenly he identified his own learning
challenges – he has ADHD and ASD – (autism spectrum disorder). This helped me to know I needed to alter my
explanation of the Gospel a little bit, and I did, giving him some illustrated
reading materials so he could maybe have more varied sources to hear the
Gospel.
And isn’t that how God reaches all people? We are never instructed to tell people “Just
read your Bible, it’s all in there”. The
Gospel is to be preached verbally, and I believe this instruction is given with
diverse learners in mind. Not everyone
can read well, they need to hear it from a faithful follower. Not everyone can listen well; they need to
see it in a faithful follower.
We know that faith comes by receiving the word of Christ,
but that word comes to diverse people from faithful believers in a variety of
ways. It might be a parable, or a more
direct teaching from God’s written word.
It might be preached through the unexpected words of a stranger or
through a long-term trusting relationship.
Jesus’ people might proclaim the gospel through abstract symbols in
music or the arts, or the rational logic of science or philosophy. Some need to hear it interactively in a small
group or the more focused and uninterrupted sermon in large church
gathering. The message about Christ is
the same but the format needs to be diverse.
I’m glad modern education is catching up to biblical
Christianity when it comes to educating diverse learners. They even have similar goals – the “least
restrictive environment”. Diverse
learners are to be fully included in the life of society, just as they have
been integrated into the life of the local church for centuries. Old and young, rich and poor, married,
single, extroverted, introvert – a church is healthy and thriving when all are
included. Diverse learners, you are
needed and wanted in the life of our local churches!
See our conversation HERE at https://youtu.be/f5eTDQoQx-A
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