Alan Hirsch’s book The Forgotten Ways is absolutely kicking me around, it is a beautiful thing. He says this about teaching:

Following the consumerist agenda, the church itself has become both consumable and a service provider, a vendor of religious goods and services. But this “service-provision” approach is the very thing that Jesus didn’t do. He spoke in confusing riddles (parables) that evoked a spiritual search in the hearers. Nowhere does he give three-point devotional sermons that cover all the bases. His audience had to do all the hard work of filling in the blanks. In other words, they were not left passive but were activated in their spirits.

Wow. The first time I read that statement it threw me for a loop and made me ask some tough questions. Does my teaching activate people to seek after Jesus long after they have left our time together? Does my teaching cause people to struggle through their faith? If faith is such a complex and often difficult thing, shouldn’t our teaching mirror that to help people grapple with complex issues of the faith?

Having now thought through this for several days I am more convinced than ever that maybe the best teaching is the kind that sends people home disturbed from their typical hum-drum spirituality. Maybe the best teaching shoots holes into the little box that we tend to put around our big God. Maybe the best teaching sends me, and everyone else out the door with some struggling left to do.

I think our spiritual journey is a beautifully messy walk taken together. Maybe our teaching should be a little more messy as well…

Any thoughts?