I recently came across this RSAnimate video about “Changing Education Paradigms,” which is quite thought-provoking. (Yes, I have embedding issues, but just play along.) It makes some insights about the dated structure of education, and it struck me that many of these draw uncomfortable correlations to the Church. For purposes of discussion, try substituting “Church” for some of the key observations and see what you think. Here are a few I found interesting:

The church is trying to figure out how to raise children who have a cultural identity, but can also pass on the “faith gene.”

Is the Church trying to meet the future by doing what it has done in the past? “… and on the way they’re alienating millions of kids who don’t see any purpose in going to [church].”

Was the current structure of the Church “designed and conceived for a different age?”

“Our children are living in the most intensely stimulating period in the history of the earth… and we’re penalizing them for getting distracted from boring stuff.”

“Changing the Paradigm”: Is there a correlation between the outdated, industrial analogy of education and the current structure of church (basically introductory music and a lecture)?

The Church’s perspective on “Divergent thinking:” Discuss. (Heh.) Seriously, in clinging to a rigid, modernist approach to our theology, have we eliminated any possibility of “the process of having original ideas that have values…” the “essential capacity for creativity”? Does the Church kill our God-given capacity for divergent thinking?

Churches would agree that “great learning happens in groups, and collaboration is the stuff of growth.” So why are small groups the peripheral, and not the main event on weekends?