In his book Experiential Storytelling, Mark Miller recounts his moment of realization:
“I was on my second of four points on dating when I had a sort of out-of-body experience. Although I was still speaking, I felt like everything coming out of my mouth had that Charlie Brown’s teacher sound (wa wa wa wa wa). And peering over the audience, there was a thick glaze beginning to coat the crowd’s eyes. They were being hypnotized: getting sleep, sleepy, sleepy …
“What was worse? I was beginning to fall asleep!
“I was dying up there—a very slow and painful death. It wasn’t for lack of good material. It wasn’t for lack of poignant illustrations. And it wasn’t for lack of effort. The problem was a disconnect on a grand scale. The disconnect wasn’t necessarily the fault of the messenger. Instead, the disconnect revealed a massive systemic dysfunction that has plenty of history, tradition, and baggage.”
As one of the most significant cultural changes in recent years, postmodernity describes a transitionary time in which our way of knowing and understanding our world has shifted. Experience is the new king of the mountain. This is the world in which we now live.
Experience Rules
A few years ago you would never have dream of paying more than a dollar for a cup of coffee. Now you can walk into a coffeeshop with cool music, watch the attendant make your double-tall whole milk triple-shot mocha latte, and settle into a comfy couch, thinking that a $3 cup of coffee is a bargain. Why? Because you’ve bought more than the coffee—you’ve paid for an experience.
When you go to the supermarket, rather than having someone scan your items for you, you can do it yourself at the self-checkout. The electronic gaming industry has made a fortune on interactive video games. And it’s not enough to simply watch and interact with the screen; now controllers “shock” your hands as you play.
The age of experience has also affected education. Methods like team-building exercises and ropes-course training are part of the growing philosophy of “experiential education.” Proponents of this perspective see traditional education style as a deductive approach that must have the transfer of information from an enlightened teacher to a room full of ignorant students.
Today’s emerging generations no longer need the informed to be the informer. Experience that is interactive not only attracts the younger generations, but is the key to educating them as well. Miller points out, “The real beauty of experiential education is that it places trust in the learner to derive meaning from his or her experience.”
The focus shifts from the educator to the student. This interactive approach actively involves the learner and assumes that people are created differently and that each possesses an individual learning style.
No Excuses
Unfortunately, many in the church fear that any turn toward the experiential learning process must be negative. Forward-facing seating, a pulpit, and three point messages—outlined in the form of an alliteration, of course—have become sacred relics. Yet, Miller explains, experience is one of the primary languages of postmodern culture.
What if we took our message and put it in a form that impacts people? What if we could show God through storytelling? Instead of giving people a list of spiritual laws, how about placing them in the story, allowing them to learn and interact with God’s character?
As Christians, we have the most profound story of all time. Why are we letting ourselves lull today’s generation to sleep?
Elizabeth Ries is an associate editor with Sanford Communications, Inc., Portland, Oregon.
Sidebar—Thoughts on Experience
Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue. ~Henry James
The only kind of learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered or self-appropriated learning—truth that has been assimilated in experience. ~Carl Rogers
You cannot create experience. You must undergo it. ~Albert Camus
There is no doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience. ~Immanuel Kant
What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand. ~Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius)
The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. ~Mark Van Doren, poet
Truth divorced from experience will always dwell in the realms of doubt. ~Henry Drause
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