Discovery and Discourse

There is an on-going debate out there among workers about the best way to help people learn the ways of God.  About 20 some odd years ago, some people came along saying that the old ways of doing things weren’t working very well.  If we want people to grow, they need to learn how to discover truths for themselves.  We need to give them the tools to discover and then let them explore and know the joy of discovery.  People got excited about this new strategy.  But then not long after that, there was a backlash that said, “Wait a minute, what about discourse?”  Through the ages people have learned quite well from a teacher, a rabbi, a master, who gives discourses, lectures, or sermons, sharing the knowledge and wisdom they have learned from careful study and experience.

Discovering new things at a museum

As can happen in debates, the dialogue degraded into accusations and mistrust.  Recently there have been calls for the complete rejection of one strategy or the other.  Depending on your preference, you are pushed to choose a side—one or the other.  But recent experiences have reminded us that so many quarrels of this nature offer a false choice.  We do not have to choose between one or the other.  The real strength is found in doing both wisely.

We are big fans of discovery.  There’s a lot to be said for it.  A good question can help a person to reflect on what they think and feel.  There is something exciting about discovering a truth or figuring something out on your own versus being handed the answer to you.  Things we have to work for, we tend to hold onto better.  People are just wired to find joy in discovery.  For the teacher, it feels more like walking alongside someone, listening to them, drawing them out.  It is interactive and powerful.  There’s nothing quite like seeing that “Ah-ha! I get it!” moment dawn on someone’s face.  Discovery is wonderful.

Discovering things in nature

Moreover, discovery is empowering.  A person who has learned how to discover truths for themselves does not always need a human teacher.  They have seen that they can depend upon the Spirit to give them insights and that is an important lesson.  Their confidence builds as they learn to look and see and discover for themselves.  

We’ve seen this on the islands.  As students discover things for themselves, the insights they have, not only into the Word, but into their own culture can be astounding and wonderful.  Insights we have not given them.  Like the recent insight of a sister who said, “In our culture, everything is transactional.  Everything you give in relationships is with the hope of what you will get.  That’s why it is so hard for us to accept grace.”  What a wonderful and powerful insight—made all the more beautiful in that it is coming from a cultural insider rather than an outsider.

But you need discourse too.  One of the first rebuttals to discovery is that many cultures do not have a tradition of discovery.  The teacher speaks, the students memorize the teacher’s words.  There is no place for questions or dialogue.  This is certainly the case on the islands.  And we have seen it.  In the beginning, discovery simply doesn’t work.  Islanders don’t know what to do with it.  They’ve never been exposed to it before.  For example, some softball questions we use to get discovery juices flowing fall flat on the islands.  When you ask someone, “What did you like about what we just read?”  The inevitable answer is “Everything.  It’s all great.”  We have heard this answer so many times, we have come to expect it.  It is the answer of someone who has been taught never to question, never to have original ideas.  It is as much flattery of the teacher as it is of the content.  How do we overcome this hurdle?  Discourse.  We need to model what we want others to do.

So we use discourse to model what we want them to do.  “What I like about what we just read is…”  And as we share our insights, we are showing them how to have insights of their own.  A wise teacher will probably keep their insights simple, accessible, and not draw in lots of outside sources (even if these things are informing the insight) so that we model something that the student can do.

Another rebuttal of discovery is, “How do we fix errors?  What if the insight someone has is wrong?”  Here both discovery and discourse can come into play.  A good questions can help guide us towards the truth: “Is that really what it says?”  But discourse is also helpful.  A good teacher can use the mistake as a jumping off point to share what is true.  There are times and places when background knowledge and study are important to correct understanding.  Discourse is the only way to add these important parts of learning.  

Recently we were reading the story of the Roman centurion who asks the teacher to heal his servant from a distance as he was not worthy to have him in his house.  My island friend thought the centurion was insulting the teacher at first.  To refuse someone to enter your home in island culture would be a sign of disrespect.  Naturally from an island perspective, this guy was insulting the teacher.  This is an example of when discourse is necessary.  I explained about the culture of that time, that in fact, the soldier was showing great respect for the teacher and the teacher’s culture which discouraged them from entering the house of a foreigner.  That this man of great power and authority, should lower himself to respect the culture of the people they have conquered, actually shows great respect and humility.

So, in our experience, we need both discovery and discourse. Discourse alone leaves people stagnating whenever they don’t have a teacher. Discovery alone can leave people with confusion and misunderstanding.  The real trick is not deciding between the two, it’s in balancing them and letting God move through both!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
 We had a wonderful week of vacation with Megan’s family and our flights went smoothly and well.  We hit the ground running and have already had some opportunities to connect with one of our fellowship families.  On the islands, cholera numbers are down to single digits!-Praise the Lord!  It looks like the epidemic is finally depleted, due in part to so many people getting to take the vaccine.  The search for a ferry boat to bring people between the islands is going well.  It sounds like they may have found a very good boat.


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Right now on the islands, many Island teenagers are taking the BAC exam—the big end of high school exam that decides whether or not you can go on to further studies.  It is highly stressful and takes a full week.  Pray for all our friends and students taking the exam this year.  As we have hit the ground running in the US— pray that we would use and balance our time well and have good times of connection with friends, family and groups. We are helping with a VBS this week— pray that the kids in attendance would discover the good news for themselves this week! Pray for our colleagues on the islands as they see doors open and doors close for studying with islanders— may God lead them to open hearts. Pray for our teammate as she begins helping with a multi-week orientation for new workers— that both adults and kids would be well prepared for the challenges and lessons ahead of them.