Children’s Ministry and Culture

There is a review of two books in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121218930427334197.html?mod=todays_us_weekend_journal) that describe an astonishing discovery in the field of neuroscience. Now, you’re probably ready to drop this whole post right now because you might not think this is relevant to ministry to children but I would urge you to hold that conclusion.

The two books, Mirroring People By Marco Iacoboni (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 308 pages, $25) and Mirrors in the Brain By Giacomo Rizzolatti and Corrado Sinigaglia (Oxford, 242 pages, $49.95) relate a discovery that, according to one neuroscientist, ”will do for psychology what DNA did for biology.” It is THAT fundamental and THAT extraordinary.

The discovery is related by Rizzolatti who, in his lab research on monkeys, detected the area of the brain that governs simple mechanical movements such as picking up a cup to drink it. A monkey was sitting quietly in the chair, waiting for her next assignment,” Mr. Iacoboni writes. “Suddenly, just as Vittorio reached for something . . . he heard a burst of activity from the computer that was connected to the electrodes that had been surgically implanted in the monkey’s brain.” The burst of activity was exactly what would be expected — if the monkey were reaching for something. If one of your neurons behaves the same way when another person does something as it does when you yourself do the same thing, it is now known as a “mirror neuron.”

Notice the SEQUENCE!!!!! FIRST the monkey learned the behavior then it was reinforced through watching someone else do it. But look at what it happenning! The monkey doesn’t have to pick up a cup in order to enjoy the experience!

I have two thoughts on the implications of this, though I will have more thoughts as I think further about this discovery and pour over these two books.

First, I am deeply repelled by early childhood lessons that are passive in nature because they flip this sequence! “Watch this Veggie Tales Video” or “listen to this story” rather than EXPERIENCE this first and THEN watch or listen or hear. I’ve stated this before but most early learning research has noticed that a child cannot identify with video conversations they have not first acted or seen physically demonstrated while acting it out. Sequence will only instruct those mirror neurons to fire if the experience precedes the observation.

But the second implication is what is really bugging me. I really am a terrible passive audience member so I reflexibly encourage my own irritation as I watch elementary children sit and watch a show, or a lesson. But these mirror neurons tell me that learning can indeed take place in a passive setting! Their neurons are firing AS IF THEY THEMSELVES WERE EXPERIENCING THE ACTION! So I need to relax! But notice the implication of even this observation. We can actually cease to NEED an experience because of the REPLACEMENT of a passive learning setting! Why? Well we can get the same emotional, physical and social feeling and it’s confirmed by our neural response. So THAT’S why so many adults sit in church and do nothing! Their brains are leading them to BELIEVE they are in fact doing something IF, of course, they had done so in the past. Think about how we feel watching Extreme Makeover, Home Edition! I bet the mirror neurons that govern tithing or giving or service are in fact stimulated in the same way as if it were US who were doing the giving! I can actually experience the same satisfaction without the sacrifice!

Now I realize that this was theoretically understood (that is, the existence of “mirror neurons”) because we’ve long believed that you watch a teacher, you practice then you do. But we’ve taken so much away from children in ministry by our insistence on creating a stimulating environment that is so passive in practice and lacks interaction. By the way, the tragedy of these “mirror neurons” is their inactivity among autistic children.

So my question is, why do we persist in ministry to give VIRTUAL CHRISTIANITY power over our audience? In the minds of our people we’ve just let them off the hook!