This week’s book excerpt comes from Gary Newton’s Heart Deep Teaching. The subtitle of the book is “Engaging Students For Transformed Lives.” I hope you view teaching as part of the process of spiritual transformation, and not just a transfer of information from teacher to student. In the book, Newton says the following about using multiple teaching approaches to engage group members in active learning:

While the most appropriate way of communicating information may sometimes be teacher centered such as lecturing – presenting, preaching, telling, or exhorting – the best way to help people change is to involve them holistically in the learning experience. Each lesson needs to involve a variety of learning activities to accomplish the lesson goals and engage the learners (emphasis mine). Since the goal of discipleship is spiritual transformation of the person into Christlikeness, we must engage people more holistically in learning experiences that actually accomplish our goals (Heart Deep Teaching, 107).