THE STAGES OF LEARNING

Hebrews 5:12 (KJV)

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

A few years ago I became very interested in studying the history of the founding of the United States. I got some books on the subject, I watched documentaries on the key players, mostly from the American side but also a few from the British side, I also enrolled in several of the college courses available online. 

What I discovered is that, for the most part, each documentary, book and college lecture was a rehash of another. The emphasis of each might be slightly unique, but the depth of the material was just about par. 

The value of the courses, I soon determined, was not in the lecture but in the list of sources each provided. 

Those sources, usually first hand or very nearly so documents, is where all the fresh water is. 

That set me to thinking about the levels of education, especially in higher education:

The Lecture Stage

Painting with a very broad brush, I refer to all undergraduate education as lecture based. 

I realize this brush isn't completely fair or accurate but please, hear me out. 

The lecture level of education offers summary information. The student hears what another has learned. 

There is of course some room for other things; 

• The younger students have some memory work. 
• The student will receive some basic research skills, should they choose to advance to the next level of education. 
• Some courses provide hands on time so the student can apply what he has learned; he has to be able to translate what he has learned into a marketable commodity. 

Likely any further education will be in this practical area. 

The student simply learns to improve his skills and increase his market value,

The Research Stage

Students who come to this stage of education have generally developed such a fascination with what they have learned that curiosity drives them to further learning. 

This level of learning, however, can’t be obtained in a typical classroom/lecture setting. 

This level of education requires research. 

The student must find original sources or at the very least source only once or twice removed from the original sources. 

At this stage the student will generally run in to one of two situations:

• There will be scant amounts of original documentation to work with
• There will be an overwhelming amount of material to work with

The Presentation Stage

The student becomes the teacher and shares what he or she has learned. 

Education at this level becomes very much like an art.

I recently listened to a presentation concerning President Lincoln. 

The presenter, a staff member of the Washington Post named Lillian Cunningham, explained the dilemma she faced with preparing her 54 minute long presentation on President Lincoln; 

there is so much material that if she had just chosen to read off a list of Lincoln’s accomplishments while in the Whitehouse, it would be too long to fit in her slotted time. 

She chose to only speak of Lincoln as a writer.

So you see where the lecture level of learning comes short; the presenter always filters through the material at their disposal to give you what they have personally determined would be of most interest to you. 

Or else, in the case of finding too little original material, the presenter uses conjecture and imagination to develop a story line (lecture or series of them) that will 

• appeal to students, 
• win an audience and thus, 
• become marketable.

I realize that a person could argue the specifics of my description but my point is to bring about this application and parallel. 

These three stages could also represent the stages of Christian life and growth.

*I. THE HEARER STAGE

Both the unsaved and the new convert to the Christian faith have a hearer stage. 

Romans 10:13-14 (KJV)

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

Faith is passed from one soul to the next through the medium of preaching. 

A person gets saved through hearing the Word of God and a person takes their first steps of faith through that same medium of preaching. 

Every one of us must be a hearer of the Word of God

*THE STUDY STAGE

2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

The Word of God is replete with passages urging the Christian to advance past being only a hearer of the Word of God:

James 1:22 (KJV)

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

*Hebrews 6:1-2 (KJV)

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

*2 Peter 1:4-10 (KJV)

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

*THE PREACHING STAGE

Hebrews 5:12 (KJV)

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

Acts 1:8 (KJV)

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 

At this point the cycle of God’s Word has gone full circle. 

The student (still yet and always a student) has become the teacher.

Those Christians who grow the most and have the fullest experience in their Christian life engage themselves in all three stages.

• They hear the Word
• They study the Word and
• They teach/preach the Word