A misguided barometer used today in churches and Christian education settings is, “We are giving them big doses of God’s Word every week. If they are not learning, it’s their own fault.” The question is, “What are the God-given evidences of learning?” Evidences of learning occur when we see manifestations of Christlike character being lived out in their lives.

Without proper nutrition our bodies will deteriorate. The same is true with our spiritual being. We need a healthy, steady diet to grow and sustain our spiritual being. However, we must ask, is the steady diet many Christians are getting across North America the one God has prescribed? An old saying I remember hearing, growing up in Kentucky, regarding preachers or speakers was “All the meat and no potatoes.” This meant the speaker had all the substance without any sustenance.

“Substance” refers to physical matter or material, while “sustenance” expresses support or nourishment necessary for life. Substance is good but it does not produce any evidence of learning or spiritual maturity. Evidence of learning cannot be found in the lives of many Christian’s because they are not receiving the sustenance, which brings about life-change. Are many of our churches serving up “all the meat and no potatoes”.

Pastors, teachers, Christian educators, and Christians in general are always looking for “spiritual maturity” in other Christians. Unfortunately, as one writer put it, we are using misguided barometers. Most often the spiritual maturity criteria we use to fill a position is: 1) Attendance, how often are they here? 2) How many jobs in the church do they have? 3) How long have they been a member? 4) Do they attend Bible study?

While regularity of attendance is important and should be looked at for most positions in the church, is it a criterion for spiritual maturity? All four are good considerations, yet not one of them reveal evidence of learning and spiritual maturity. Billy Graham has written and stated that he believed up to 50% of the members sitting in our pews every week are lost and on their way to Hell.

The level of spirituality or carnality will exhibit evidence of learning or lack of it as people attend the church and its functions. Evidence of learning comes through actions lived out at church and elsewhere seven days a week.

What barometers are you using to determine evidences of learning? What adjustments do you need to make in your discerning evidences of learning in your life and in your church? Next week we will look at evidences of learning and spiritual maturation.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

“We’ve always done it that way,” a statement heard often in church circles. A statement that often follows is, “And it has worked for us in the past.” A misconception lies in the second statement. The question rises, “Has it really worked?” What are the evidences revealing the fruitfulness of recent years? Let’s take the teaching in your church.

How has the Holy Spirit manifested Himself through the teaching/learning processes in your church? What life-changing discipleship growths are evidenced from the teaching settings in your church?

If you are using content driven curriculum without pointed application, the facts show that teaching is not changing lives. In many settings what we think we are teaching and what they are learning are two totally different things. Thom & Joni Schultz of Group Publishing demonstrate this very well in their book, “Why Nobody Learns Much of Anything at church; and How to Fix it.” (Long title, great book)

Content deals with information, facts, figures, and material. Application relates to transformation. Wisdom, rather than knowledge, is a quality of application. While content relates information and material, wisdom is the understanding of to what purpose the knowledge  learned can and should be used. Application bears upon maturity rather than material covered.

Along with knowledge, we must give our listeners wisdom to use the information to transform – change – their lives. In the process of imparting knowledge to our learners, we must strive to assist each one in acquiring the wisdom of using the knowledge procured. As we transfer material, we must advocate the advancement of their spiritual maturity which is only evidenced through application.

Look at Matthew 16:2-4. Underline each phrase or sentence that reveals content. Circle each one that points to application, (dealing with transformation, change, wisdom, and maturity).

Without cherry-picking this scripture, I opened my Bible and put this to the test.  There ae seventy-three words in these verses. I marked 52 (71%) as application. Verses 2&3 are application driven. Verse 4 is content driven. Try this with any of Jesus’ teaching. You’ll find His teaching focus was 70% or greater toward application. Even the Sermon on the Mount. Without application, life-change will not take place.

Teaching that does not avail in transforming lives in spiritual maturity is not our calling. It will lead teachers into an information dispensing trap. Is your goal to be an information dispenser or a conduit for life transformation? We are called to teach (Gr; didasko). Didasko is the act of causing someone to learn. To learn is to gain not only knowledge, but comprehension and mastery of.

Abandon the “We’ve Always Done it that Way” syndrome and teach as Jesus taught.

This is the final installment of application driven teaching. For more information or if you have questions, reach out to me.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Following the two previous posts, receiving inquiries about application delivery through Bible study, the following are some thoughts and ideas I shared with some added content.

Where I have learned the greatest is from Jesus Himself. Jesus asked questions. I am a student of the question. However, you must learn to ask the right questions, and the delivery of each question is critical. As you learn to ask the “right” questions, strive to give application-driven questions more emphasis in your teaching.

1, Ask questions pertaining to the truth of God’s word you are studying. Ex: “What are actions we can take individually this week to demonstrate this topic?

If you are studying on being a servant of Christ, Ask the above question or say, Let’s list five actions we could take-on this week to demonstrate Christlike servanthood. (You’re not asking them to take on 5 but stirring their thought processes of ways to serve.)

You could also ask people to commit to one another in the room that each will be a servant to someone this week, out of their normal sphere. Give a suggestion as, “It might even be holding the door for someone with a smile and warm greeting.” Then call for other ideas. You have just sparked their higher order thinking in how to be a servant.

2, Issuing a challenge during each session is also a tool for addressing application. Whenever I preach or teach there is always a challenge issued. Sometimes it is very specific, and other times it may be more subtle.

Whatever you do in line with these first two, always call for testimonies the following week as you begin the session. Not everyone will share, but those who will , will be planting seeds of thought for everyone.

3, Consider how the class can practice application together. Plan ministry endeavors, to do as a class. (Serve together at a local ministry to homeless, indigent, infirmed, or community needs.) Share with the class the belief that the class needs to serve together putting into practice the truths of scripture studied on Sunday mornings. Share your ideas, then call for ideas from others in what you could do as a class.

4, The illustrations and stories you use in class can also be prompts for ideas for application for individuals and the class as a whole. Share a story as Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. One person, One idea, over 300 million books have been gifted worldwide with remarkable results in children’s preparedness and learning. Then share something, “We may not reach 300 million but what could our class do to reach into our community for Christ? Share stories of inspiration, then ask a similar question.

5, Familiarize yourself with the S.O.A.P. method of Bible study. (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer.) Google it to learn more.

This is not all inclusive, but it will kickstart your application-driven delivery growing disciples. How do you currently use application processes?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

A misconception about content-driven curriculum has been, ‘The teacher will be able to relate the material to his or her learners.’ This is a misperception that took me several years to come to grips with. Many teachers, i.e. Christian educators, do not know how to relate anything other than what is in print in front of them to their listeners. Albeit most teachers can be trained. All that is required is a willing heart and a teachable spirit.

My wife was teaching fifth and sixth graders at a church where I was serving in my early ministry. It was her first-year teaching and she was having difficulty with her lessons. I would periodically sit down and help her. When I sat down to look at the lesson, ideas and application began to leap off the page at me. I was glad to help and thought the reason she could not ascertain teaching possibilities as easily as I could was perhaps due to her inexperience and the fact that she had not grown up in Bible study.

A few years later while serving another church, Pam again accepted teaching responsibilities in the fifth and sixth grade class. While making my rounds one Sunday morning, I noticed her class playing Bible games twenty minutes into the hour. I was pleased knowing that games are a real source of learning for grade school children. However, Pam expressed later that she just could not get anything out of the lesson to last more than fifteen minutes. She was getting frustrated with it.

Concerned that we might need to change curriculum, I decided to reevaluate her material. To my surprise, within ten minutes I had made notes and comments, highlighted, underlined and scribbled in the margins enough teaching possibilities to last most of the teaching hour, and I had only focused on the first of three sets of scriptures for the day.

My surprise had not come in what I had accomplished through my review of the curriculum. Rather, it was a much deeper realization. That evening I realized not everyone in Christian education settings has the creative ability to construct a life-changing application-driven lesson from material.

Also, that evening I realized the need for equipping teachers. Proper ongoing training assisting them in delivering scriptural truths in ways to transform lives. I was struck with the realization that Christian education had been failing in its intent and purpose for years, in part due to the lack of proper training for teachers. If we expect our foot soldiers, teachers, to be able to teach to change lives we must provide proper ongoing training.

Please do not overlook the importance of ongoing teacher training. For more information on resources and delivery methods of training contact your denomination leaders or reach out to me. I have a passion to assist churches and teachers in being their best.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

For a person to learn he/she must be actively engaged in the learning process. Attendance, sitting in a chair listening to an orator is not learning. In my first book, Teaching That Bears Fruit, chapter five is titled Curriculum and Application Driven Teaching. The curriculum we use in small group Bible study, plays a role in the learning process. The way we deliver the content plays an even stronger role in the learning process of each individual in attendance.

Many Christian educators at all levels teach history, information, and facts. These are all good and needed. However, when we stop there and many do, I contend we are building trivia buffs, not disciples. Facts, figures, and information do not transform lives. The Holy Spirit transforms lives through the application of the truths of scripture.

When selecting curriculum there are several questions to ask. Without question the very first is Does this curriculum lead to life changing learning or is it relating information, facts and figures? There is a myriad of curriculum out there from many varying publishers.

You can purchase curriculum that relates directly to your denomination or from a publisher who writes about biblical doctrine stopping short of crossing denomination lines. Example; An independent publisher might write using scripture to validate baptism without stating any practices or methods of baptism.

In addition to the two mentioned above, you need to consider content versus application driven curriculum. Studies show time and again that without application, life-changing learning does not occur. Not everyone leading a classroom can create his/her own application (perhaps more about that next week).

Application is being able to put into practice what is being shared from scripture in our daily lives. We like to think that will happen automatically. Yet, it does not. The brain is not wired that way, and people do not comprehend information that way. Storing information and actual application of that information materializes from two different parts of the brain.

Scripture instructs us to teach others to grow in the faith. How did Jesus teach? He not only used scripture, that was always His foundation as it should be ours. Along with the content of scripture, He demonstrated daily, and instructed others in application of the truths of scriptures. “Go, and sin no more.” “Get up. Take up your bed and walk.” Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic …”

Jesus’ teaching that we have recorded in scripture is 70% application and 30% content. Teaching application was that important to our Savior. Ask yourself, Am I (Is my Bible study group) more content or application driven? What will you ask God to do in your life this week to make you a more application driven teacher in areas of life you have influence with others? Application engages the listener in the learning process and works to transform lives.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

If you’ve not participated in one you’ve likely seen and heard of book review groups. These are groups who individually read a book then come together to discuss their thoughts and feelings about the book and its author. These can be good groups with good outcomes especially if you are reading books of educational purpose as leadership, self-control, business practices, or Bible related books.

In the church we have Bible study groups, Sunday School and discipleship groups. I heard a statement today that made me think, “Are our Bible study groups more like book review clubs or truth learning ventures. Then I expanded that question to…

Is Your Bible Study Group a book review club or a community? Our church Bible study groups should reflect biblical community more than just a once-a-week meeting to discuss a scripture section. That discussion of scripture is paramount, yet is it building stronger Christians or mere trivia buffs?

To produce endurance and enhance the spiritual growth of a believer requires components that come through community. In biblical community we find…

• Core beliefs – Members hold to the same core beliefs and biblical practices. This was modeled beautifully for us through the Apostles and the early church. (first six chapters of Acts)
• Mutual fellowship and support – Members help each other through practical needs, concerns, and friendly accountability, reflecting God’s Love, grace, mercy. Believers, through faith support one another with prayer, encouragement, and offering practical assistance.
•  Engaging together in life – Not only one hour a week meeting, community is living life together, not in communal living, but doing things together to strengthen one another and building spiritual and physical bonds that transcend family and societal ties.
• Serving together – Each person and every family has needs, not only physical needs but also spiritual and mental. You have strengths that others in your group do not. Others have traits, talents, and giftings that you do not. When we come together to serve others, we combine our giftings to serve Christ by serving others.

You were designed to serve in community. Don’t be a book review club. Isolated, one hour per week Bible study groups do not build strong Christians. Building a biblical community within your small group does! What will be your first step to increasing the biblical community in your life and the lives of your Bible study groups?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Another biblical metaphor used by Jesus Himself is salt. ““You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” Matthew 5:13

Each one of us who claim Jesus as Lord and Savior should envision ourselves as salt. Salt is used as a preservative. Have you ever considered yourself as God’s preservative? You are. As the salt of the earth, believers on earth are God’s preservative of the world as we know it. When God removes His salt, His preservative, then comes the judgment.

Also, salt is used for flavoring. As a child of God, you are God’s flavoring for the spread of the gospel. We are to be God’s flavoring of life (abundant and eternal) to those around us. When the salt of the earth loses its flavor how then will it be seasoned for eternity? What transforming flavoring can be credited to your being God’s salt in the lives around you? Pray, asking God to use you as His transforming seasoning in those around you.

Salt also brings thirst. Salt can sting in a cut or open sore, or even in your taste buds if not used in the right amount. The sting of salt begs for water to quench a thirst or wash away the sting from an open wound. Likewise, you are to be the salt of the earth and at times that salt will sting those around you. Pray that that sting would awaken a thirst for the living water that comes only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Salt cannot help but be a preservative, seasoning, and a thirst awakening agent. Jesus called you and I “the salt of the earth”. How are you this week being all three, a preservative, seasoning, and a thirst awakening agent for Christ our Lord?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

God uses some really great word pictures in His Word, the Holy Scriptures. Hosea 14:5 is one of them. “I will be like the dew to [my people], Israel.” Have you considered God’s reasoning for this statement?

Where does dew come from? Does it rise from the ground in the night? Does it fall from the sky? Why does it appear some mornings and not others?

Dew neither rises from the ground or falls from the sky. Dew only appears when certain climatic conditions align. As temperatures drop overnight, moisture in the air condenses and adheres to cooler surfaces like grass. Dew never appears on hard, heat-keeping surfaces as concrete or blacktop.

God ‘s word says He will be like the dew to His people. When the conditions of your heart are right, God does not fall on you, God does not rise to meet you. God mystically appears not rising or falling, but He is there. When our hearts are right with God and with man according to scripture, God manifests Himself to guide us and keep us on His track.

Do not be like concrete or asphalt where God cannot manifest a good work in you. Align your heart, mind, and soul so He can adhere to you as the dew to blades of grass. This is where God begins to work in and through you manifesting His power and love.

Yes, God is like the dew to his people!

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

As believers we are called to live in biblical community with fellow Christians. Have you ever wondered what biblical community really is? Biblical community is a group of Christ-centered believers not only sharing worship, prayer, and spiritual experiences, but sharing life with mutual respect and support, and a shared purpose to reflect God’s love.

Building biblical community requires fostering faith-based relationships that embrace compassion, mutual support, and unity among members with a mindset, draw everyone closer to God. With faith as the foundation of our community, build upon it with consistent heartfelt prayer for one another, compassionate empathy, and corporate assisted support.

Keys to Biblical community also include;

• Genuine relationships – vulnerability on everyone’s part to share and to listen to the cares, concerns, and situations of others. All masks are stripped away. We want to be around each other. We feed off each other for strength, support, and resourcefulness.
• Practicing mutual accountability – Friendly accountability does not tear down and destroy but builds one another up and encourages everyone. “What can I do to help you through that situation?”
• Humility in action through service – Everyone ready to serve one another as each is gifted and available. “Health permitting, I will be there, no matter what the need or time.”
• Personal respect for all others – treating others with respect and dignity, showing kindness and attentiveness, builds trust and reciprocating values. Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, by your love to one another.” John 13:35
• Transparent in authenticity – practicing authenticity creates an environment of trust and transparency. When people trust your actions toward them, they will reciprocate the transparent authenticity. Without transparent authenticity coming from you, you cannot expect it in return.
• Teaching Biblical stewardship – stewardship is more than finances. Biblical community cannot exist without biblical stewardship. “I avail my time, talents, and resources to the individuals in my biblical community as they have needs presented through our community.”
• Spiritual maturation – living out what is studied in the Bible, members of the group support, encourage, and resource one another in spiritual growth through sharing personal experience and through shared experiences.

Building a culture of biblical community could be one of the greatest elements of discipleship your church could ever encounter. Today, perhaps the best way to build biblical community is through small Bible study groups (Sunday School or other long-term groups).

How will you begin praying today for greater commitment to biblical community. Biblical community will not happen without continual prayer for one another and the community of Christ.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

A little fun post this week. One of my first writing projects was a work titled Improve Your Job Seeking Skills. Having conducted more than 5,000 job interviews, I had acquired quite a lot of information and experience. One session/chapter was Preparing for the Interview, partly dealing with the question, “How much perfume, cologne, or aftershave should you wear into an interview?” Whether you are going to a job interview, or any other place this is something to consider, and many people get it wrong.

If you were meeting with another person for lunch at a public restaurant or for a job interview and you knew this person was allergic to perfumes/colognes, how much would you wear? I trust you answered “none.” Is it worth taking the risk if you do not know whether the people you will be with each day are allergic?

Following a fifteen month Interim pastorate in another city, my wife and I returned to our home church for Sunday service. A husband and wife who had joined while we were away walked down the aisle past us and sat two to three rows in front of us. As they passed near our seats a heavy scent of perfume consumed the area – and it consumed the entire area the whole service. As we left church I told my wife, “Never again will we sit that close to her.” It was a nauseating 90 minutes. She simply did not realize the heavy chemical scent her perfume carried.

How many scents are you leaving the house with each day? When you shower you likely use soap, correct? I highly recommend it. Is soap scented or unscented? As you wash your hair you use shampoo. Is shampoo scented or unscented? Do you use conditioner? Scented or unscented? In addition, my wife also has other scented items in her shower, sprits, moisturizers, etc. Before leaving the shower you have 3-5 scents.

You will then put on deodorant. Scented or unscented? Hair products, spray, gel, mousse, they are all scented. Do you put on any lotion, hand, body, baby? Scented. Before you leave the bathroom don’t forget to brush your teeth with your scented toothpaste. Men, shave cream or some liquid to stand your beard up for a closer shave? They are all scented. Women, isn’t your make-up scented? Different manufacturers, different scents for each brand applied.

Anyone counting? We’re up to eight to twelve scents already. What about your clothing? They were washed in laundry detergent, correct? Scented! Fabric softener and possibly scented beads, both scented. That fabric softener sheet you tossed in the dryer, scented.

You have already added 12-16 scents to your body without the thought of coffee or breakfast scents. Do you really think one more – cologne or perfume is necessary? I think you can leave it at home in the bottle. I wonder how much money I have saved over the years not purchasing cologne or aftershave – and no one has ever noticed.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.