In episode ten of “the mini-series From the Earth to the Moon. It traces the learning journey Air Force and Navy fighter pilots went through to become competent lunar geologists.” Demonstrating to the whole of humanity that “it can be done.” This competent team of pilots defied the odds of their profession, political and boardroom squabbles, the earths gravitational pull to prove that the scientist “Galileo was right” and that knowledge well packaged and delivered can be transferred and effected. Eager learners, appropriate content, and relevant context create a conducive environment. The fact that the pilots were seasoned never meant that they could not be trained as “Geologists,” they just needed the correct motivation.
The episode opens with the journalists being taught in a highly sophisticated geology class with a professor using formulas and scientific terminologies, probably keen to convert the “Pilots” into Geologists. The critique made on this “pilot” learners was that they were deficient of scientific minds and that is why they were not getting the concepts taught, within the shortest time that had been stipulated. The team leader confronts the transmitters of knowledge instead to identify a teacher with the capacity to “bring up the scientific in all of the pilots.” The learners’ source for a professor who had the capacity to transmit such knowledge but who is hesitant to become part of the program. Again, the team leader is persistent to inquire that if the transmitter was preoccupied why not teach the Astronauts to know how to identify the resources they need. The focus shifts from “converting them to become “miniature geologists” to equipping them with the knowledge to identify the required “resources” from the Moon.
Besides, the Class is shifted from the “standard” classroom, learning concepts to the field, to interact with rocks and landscapes. Another transformation happens in the boardroom when the “professionals” cannot agree on where the landing on the Moon should be done. The learners are engaged to give their opinion amidst diverse differences from the conflicted “professionals.” The learners take the challenge to attempt the most difficult landing to get the best results, because all along they were part of the process and were ready to get it right from the start. From the experience and exposure of the Pilots, we see them becoming not just “lunar geologists, but competent and passionate renaissance men” ready to put their lives at stake to attempt the “greatest lip for mankind” on the Moon. Men who could observe and translate the big picture to minute details, that the rest of humanity could now learn from them way out in space.
Similarly, speaking to my thousands of pastoral colleagues who have the rear privilege to declare the oracles of God from every pulpit around the world, we need an “upgrade.” Every pastor on the pulpit must shift from seeing the soul of its members as “a vessel to be filled but a fire to be lit.[1]” Our aim as mandated by Christ is to stir the souls with a passion to seek the truth for themselves by the urging of the Holy Spirit who is at work in every heart. What relevance then, does the astronauts preparation for their lunar mission have for the contemporary leaders, inspiring communal or even congregational spiritual formation?
- Redeeming time: “Time is everything and preparation is critical” says the professor in the mini-series From the Earth to the Moon. Similarly, Paul reminds the Ephesian believers the essence of Redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16). Every opportunity to stir the souls on our pulpits must be used skillfully and urgently for the most impact when it is still “day”!
- Relevant Content and Context: Just like the professor attempting to convert the astronauts into “mini geologists”, the pulpit teachers thrive to raise “mini theologians” with concepts we can barely pronounce and miss to equip the Christians in their arears of passion, our pulpit curriculum must transmit knowledge but answer needs.
- Reduction from broad to Specific: Just like a skilled painter or artist who begins his work with broad strokes to minute details, the pulpit teacher must help the hearers see the “big picture” to “specific details” of God’s plan for their lives.
The pulpit ministers are daily aware that the Christians’ warfare “gravitational pulls” are not human created, rather they wrestle “principalities, forces of darkness,” sometimes not visible with the human eye. Yet by the power of the risen Christ, such forces are brought submissive to the authority of Christ, with divine powers to destroy strongholds, defy every “gravitational pull” that stops the believers from achieving their utmost potential. The Sunday pulpit curricula must thrive to achieve this goal just like Geologist Lee Silver assists Dave Scott and his Apollo 15 crew in becoming field observers on the moon.
[1]primevideo://detail?asin=B07TV8G7KS&action=download&territory=US&ref_=atv_dp_btf_el_est_sd_tv_dwld_t1BLAAAAAA0wr0_atv_dwld_web_unknown_dp