Tomorrow with my Year 12s, we’ll spend a good deal of the English lesson doing an educational drama activity. Ye olde plot summary freeze frames. An oldie but a goodie, as they say.

There are a number of reason for this.

The first one being, I know that not all of them have read the book currently being studied (Fahrenheit 451), from cover to cover yet. And, they may never. Then of course there are the complete opposite students who are probably on their third reading by now…

So, having not read the book, it’s a good idea for them to embody the plot.

And even if they have read the book, there’s no harm doing the activity as well.

In fact, there’s plenty of educational research out there about learning through doing – that’s nothing new.

Whilst plenty of experiences you can have at the hands of the Church are not positive, that is the case anywhere.

If we learn through doing, then we learn by getting involved where people are ‘doing Christianity’. This is, of course, known as the Church.

You can learn by reading about Christianity (perhaps on a blog). You can listening to a podcast about Christianity (neither is a bad idea). Yet, until you start to learn by doing, there’s a decent chance that you won’t, well… learn.

Of course there are many who sit for years in Church before they learn what it’s all about for themselves.

I can think of many people who have shared that personal story. Just a few weeks’ back at my Church someone shared how he had been sitting in Church for 15 years before he ’embodied the plot’ for himself.

Merely sitting in a particular building or with a particular group of people doesn’t make being a Christian rub off on you.

Everyone has a different story.

But whoever you are, ‘Learning by Doing’ is a great thing.

‘Teaching by Modelling’ is too. I know the Church could work on that. I know I could work on that too.

And perhaps if those of us already in Church can keep learning by doing ourselves, we might almost automatically become better at teaching by modelling.

Which might make those outside of the Church, more interested in coming in.

Perhaps even you.

Yours in a freeze frame,

Alison