No, I’m not complaining about churches or trying to buy and then sell churches for a prophet profit. Actually I’m talking about a little development in education called the “Flipped Classroom” and why it might be relevant for churches today.
What Is The Flipped Classroom?
The “flipped classroom” is the idea that instead of learning about a topic in class and then practising the topic at home (for example, at school your teacher explains how to do long division and at home you answer problems on long division) students learn about a topic at home (via a cleaver and sometimes interactive video) and then practice the new learned technique in class.
This, in theory, means that a student can slow the video down or re watch a video clip to make sure that they have understood a lesson. The they have access to the teacher in class to help them out with any questions they still have.
[via coolinfographics.com via Chris on Pinterest]
Is It Important?
Some advocates say this is going to change the world and education as we know it! The slowest students can learn at their own pace, the faster students can also get on with using the knowledge quicker. Everyone’s a winner! On top of that we can now use class time for students to collaborate and learn important team work skills as well.
Critics say that actually this isn’t all that new, teachers could do it with books. Also, learning by receiving information isn’t the best way to learn anyway.
However it may be, it is a huge change from previous methods of learning.
How could this be applied to churches?
Churches
Imagine that instead of coming to church, listening to a sermon for [insert your churches sermon length] ending with a few questions which no one talks about (except maybe a brief mention over coffee), the congregation listened to the sermon before coming (it could even be a famous preachers sermon or the pastor could record one). Once they turn up to the meeting, everyone discussed the implications for themselves, prayed for each other and perhaps, even, left the church building and put their ideas into action.
Small groups
A small group would be another great setting for flipped learning. The members could watch a sermon or short message before hand and then share what they thought about it when they all meet up. It might also mean that instead of rushing the study, missing out on another aspect of the small group because of the time it takes to really look deeply into God’s word, people would save the time listening and reading the passage (and listen to a great delivery rather than the monotone readings that can occur.)
The flipped classroom has definietly raised questions about how schools teach students so maybe it’s time we started to ask those questions in churches. Is Flipping the Church service a better way for people to listen to sermons? What could that time be used for in a church service? And more questions.
Have you “flipped” a church activity before? How did it go?
Jonathan Blundell says
LOVE IT!
Several years ago we had conversations very similar to this idea for small groups and the church as a whole.
Our premise was that the Church shouldn’t be responsible for spiritual growth – it should be taking place at home and the local church was a place to gather together for caring for one another and celebrating what God has done between meetings.
As Frank Schutzwhol has said – We often treat church like a gas station. We’re running low on spirituality each week and so we go to church expecting a fill-up. We expect the pastor and worship team to fill us up with our weekly quotient of spirituality. Of course a few weeks or month of not getting filled up and we move on to the next “gas station.”
In reality the fill-up never lasts as long as we expect it to. By the middle of the week we’re usually running low again – sometimes by Monday morning or even before we get out of the church parking lot. So we add in more programs to give us a boost during the week so we’re not completely running on fumes by the time Sunday rolls around again.
In reality we should be filling ourselves up each and every day on our own.
Then when Sundays roll around we should be so filled up we can’t help but overflow all that God has shown us and done in our lives.
Sundays (and small groups, etc) should be a celebration time where everyone is overflowing with all the joy and goodness of God.
We imagine that this might be what Paul talks about in his letter to the Corinthians:
So here’s what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight. If prayers are offered in tongues, two or three’s the limit, and then only if someone is present who can interpret what you’re saying. Otherwise, keep it between God and yourself. And no more than two or three speakers at a meeting, with the rest of you listening and taking it to heart. Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other.
Thanks for the great comparison and idea! I’m with you.
Chris Wilson says
I think the strongest defenders of the traditional Sunday preach (always by the same pastor) would probably say that their churches do fit in with the corinthians model and in some ways having a moment where everyone can “share their thoughts” or prayer request (usually over coffee after the service) means that by the letter of the law they can do it.
I don’t think they usually do! But hey. I’ve had some good chats on Google+ today that seem to all look at things this way. It’s exciting!
Jonathan Blundell says
Chris I think you’re probably right. As we talked over the ideas among our church leadership we told our pastor, “You know, if this works you’re working yourself out of a job.”
He smiled and said, “I’m totally fine with that.”
It takes a bold leader to be willing to step up and do what’s best for those under his care vs his own career path.
Perhaps unfortunately the church is still trying to figure out how to get people over the traditional model.
Chris Wilson says
I don’t think it would neccesarily mean no job but certainly a different job and possible no job. It’s great to hear about what’s going on in your church though. I agree, you have to be very bold (and a little crazy) to break the old ways.
Chandos says
The first thing negative that comes to mind thinking about this is what about visitors? How would a model like this make them feel welcome, especially someone who doesn’t know Jesus? And I don’t ask this in a mean spirit, but really looking for an answer. An outside the box idea like this is really neat and could be impactful, but how do you make visitors feel welcome and not left out?
Chris Wilson says
Good question.
A couple of assumptions that could well be wrong.
People are coming to this church for some reasons. It will either be
1) They found it online
2) They were invited
or they saw the building.
The last would probably be most problematic as they might find the whole formate more unusual then they expect and might be less likely to watch a sermon or something like that. However, I am willing to bet that the greater amount of interaction would be more welcoming than sitting down, listening to someone preach from the front and then making the way outside for coffee.
It is possible that someone could just wonder in off the street and not having “done the reading/watching” for the week might feel very unwelcoming. Of course, it provides the opportunity for a group to explain and summaries what they saw/read.
What do you think? I could well be wrong on this one.
Internet Chaplain says
So good. I’ve been thinking about this lately too, and am wondering where it could go. I wrote up some loose thoughts/experiments/ideas over here as a start: http://flippedchurch.tumblr.com/
Brad Rhoads says
Has anyone actually tried a flipped church yet?
Petersense says
As an English teacher and church group leader, I love the idea of flipping classrooms. It seems like it would open so many more doors for deeper discussion and using group time for discipleship, clearing up sketchy theology, or service. My concern is that we would have the same check-out mentality towards church that was created with the TV/online sermon movements where people felt they could get the teaching at home and no longer needed to gather corporately with a church/group. How do you keep people engaged and showing up for the group/corporate time? My second concern is for churches whose membership is mostly passive (they are comfortable with showing up, sitting in a row, fulfilling their “obligation” to attend church, and then moving on with their lives the rest of the week). It seems these people would be less likely to put in the time to watch a video during the week and come with any kind of productive comments/questions for the community time. Having tried “group discussion” with groups of students who just want to be fed test answers and don’t want to discuss, I know how miserable it can be when people have viewed the material and have nothing more to say than “It was good” or “I didn’t like it.” How do you engage those who prefer to be spoon-fed, rather than feeding themselves?
George P Sparks says
We are implementing “Flipped Mastery”, calling it “Discipleship Mastery”, in two churches and two seminaries in Russia.
The educational research we found most applicable was by Benjamin Bloom. We wrote an article for the April issue of Flipped Learning Review mag on Bloom’s research’s support of flipped mastery- “Bloom’s Dream Comes True”. You can see the article at https://flr.flglobal.org/april19issue/
Jon Bergmann says
Chris: Great article. Bummed I haven’t seen it before. I have thought often about this topic as I am one of the founders of the Flipped Class model (in your infographic)
In my role as a bible study leader, my wife and I have flipped our bible studies. We did this with the young married at the church. Instead of having them do the pre-work at home, we give them 15-20 min at the beginning of the study to quietyl study a passage with a few guiding questions. Then we discuss the passage, its implications, applications, and meaning. This has proven highly successful. Note this model is called the In-Class Flip.