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Teaching that Transforms: Facilitating Life Change through Adult Bible Teaching
Teaching that Transforms aims to improve the ways in which the Bible is taught to adult learners. As grownups today leave the church in droves, academic professors Richard and Shera Melick recognize that it is in part because many who teach adults have little or no exposure to the distinctive characteristics of adult learners, rendering their lessons ineffective.
Affirming the traditional authority of God’s Word while considering the need to make it relevant to every generation in its cultural and educational context, the authors set out to present an easily understood method for teaching the Bible among adults which they describe as “transformactional.”
Indeed, the Bible is taught in order to transform a person’s life. And the next great result of that transformation is putting a stronger faith into action.
Affirming the traditional authority of God’s Word while considering the need to make it relevant to every generation in its cultural and educational context, the authors set out to present an easily understood method for teaching the Bible among adults which they describe as “transformactional.”
Indeed, the Bible is taught in order to transform a person’s life. And the next great result of that transformation is putting a stronger faith into action.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2010
3 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 29, 2011
My colleagues Rick and Shera Melick have done an amazing job filing the gap for a clear, comprehensive book on adult Bible study. They do a great job helping teachers to understand basic hermeneutics, covering current educational theory for adults, and then proposing a clear, biblical model for guiding adults into biblical truth. Will be one of my textbooks for this fall, but would be a great (if heavy) read for anyone who teaches adults the Bible.
February 28, 2025
Good insights into teaching with some useful practices.
January 13, 2016
As the subtitle indicates, this book is about teaching adults the Bible. The intended audience seems to be pastors (or, more to the point, seminary students) who are learning how to best teach adults in their churches the Bible in Bible study settings (generally, Sunday school). The first part of the book is devoted to "Understanding the Bible and Hermeneutics." Part two is "Foundational Theories of Adult Learning." Part three is a presentation of the authors' own Bible teaching method: "The Star Method of Transformactional Teaching."
The first part, which I believe to be the most critical part of Bible teaching, felt a bit half-baked. They were trying to squeeze in important information, but they brought nothing of interest to the table. The writing here is, at best, rather perfunctory. I think most teachers of the Bible miss the most important point: We should ask ourselves, "What is God saying here? What is the purpose of this passage? How would the original audience have understood this passage? How do we understand through the lens of Christ?" These basic questions would go along way toward fixing bad methods of teaching. Unfortunately, the authors seem to miss some of this entirely. At one point, they suggest the meaning of Romans 10 is that Paul is trying to evangelize his audience. (Actually, he was writing to Christians and making the case of why Jews need the gospel preached to them.)
The second part covered, in short order, many different theories of learning by scholars whose names I won't recall. This was not very illuminating. The main thrust is that people learn in different ways, and adults often need to know why they are learning something in order to be motivated. This, of course, is my gross simplification of nearly fifty pages of text.
The third part is an description of their teaching method. Basically, it's a "no student left behind" approach, in which the preferences of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners are addressed. Additionally, each lesson should cover issues of relevance, original meaning, principles, and application. According to the authors, each lesson should be accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation, including video and graphics, as well as a study sheet and creative activities. I have no idea how most Bible teachers would be able to present such a lesson each week, particularly if the teachers are volunteer "laymen."
The book had a few good ideas (mainly, the idea that not every student will want to learn in the same way), but I think some knowledge of the basic ideas would suffice for most Bible teachers.
Frankly, I think the advocacy of technology is overplayed. In our era of digital media, do we actually learn more and do we think better? Is education better today than it was, say, three hundred years ago? I doubt it. I think we are, generally speaking, poor thinkers. I don't think we need a lot of technology to learn. A teacher who knows the Bible well, and who knows how to communicate ideas and how isn't boring can teach effectively without a lot of bells and whistles.
My last comment: B&H Academic (the publisher) really ought to invest in better editors. Nearly every book I have read from this publisher has been riddled with typos. This book happened to have relatively few typos, but there shouldn't be any.
The first part, which I believe to be the most critical part of Bible teaching, felt a bit half-baked. They were trying to squeeze in important information, but they brought nothing of interest to the table. The writing here is, at best, rather perfunctory. I think most teachers of the Bible miss the most important point: We should ask ourselves, "What is God saying here? What is the purpose of this passage? How would the original audience have understood this passage? How do we understand through the lens of Christ?" These basic questions would go along way toward fixing bad methods of teaching. Unfortunately, the authors seem to miss some of this entirely. At one point, they suggest the meaning of Romans 10 is that Paul is trying to evangelize his audience. (Actually, he was writing to Christians and making the case of why Jews need the gospel preached to them.)
The second part covered, in short order, many different theories of learning by scholars whose names I won't recall. This was not very illuminating. The main thrust is that people learn in different ways, and adults often need to know why they are learning something in order to be motivated. This, of course, is my gross simplification of nearly fifty pages of text.
The third part is an description of their teaching method. Basically, it's a "no student left behind" approach, in which the preferences of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners are addressed. Additionally, each lesson should cover issues of relevance, original meaning, principles, and application. According to the authors, each lesson should be accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation, including video and graphics, as well as a study sheet and creative activities. I have no idea how most Bible teachers would be able to present such a lesson each week, particularly if the teachers are volunteer "laymen."
The book had a few good ideas (mainly, the idea that not every student will want to learn in the same way), but I think some knowledge of the basic ideas would suffice for most Bible teachers.
Frankly, I think the advocacy of technology is overplayed. In our era of digital media, do we actually learn more and do we think better? Is education better today than it was, say, three hundred years ago? I doubt it. I think we are, generally speaking, poor thinkers. I don't think we need a lot of technology to learn. A teacher who knows the Bible well, and who knows how to communicate ideas and how isn't boring can teach effectively without a lot of bells and whistles.
My last comment: B&H Academic (the publisher) really ought to invest in better editors. Nearly every book I have read from this publisher has been riddled with typos. This book happened to have relatively few typos, but there shouldn't be any.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews