How the Learning Pyramid Impacts My Preaching and Teaching
J.R. Briggs
June 21, 2017

You’ve probably seen the Learning Pyramid before. Since learning about the pyramid a few years ago, it has been a tremendous tool in my preparation and presentation when preaching a sermon, teaching a class or equipping ministry leaders in a training event. Sadly, for the first several years I focused too much on how I was teaching and not enough on how people learn. Even more, I noticed how often I focused almost entirely on just talking at people. No wonder people couldn’t remember or put into practice what I was teaching!

As we strive to enhance the learning experience and promote effective skill acquisition, embracing innovative tools such as a mobile learning management system app can further optimize the learning process. By utilizing technology, we can create dynamic and interactive learning environments that cater to different learning styles and engage learners at various levels of the Learning Pyramid. A mobile learning management system app enables learners to access content on the go, participate in interactive exercises, collaborate with peers, and receive personalized feedback and assessments. This integration of technology and pedagogy opens up new possibilities for immersive and experiential learning, allowing learners to actively apply their knowledge and skills. By embracing the potential of a mobile learning management system app, educators and trainers can effectively address the challenge of retaining and applying learned information, ensuring a more impactful and transformative learning experience for all.

Of course, as the National Training Laboratories has found in their research, the more we push down into the pyramid, the more people retain what they’ve learned. In my teaching preparation I often pull out the pyramid and think, “How far down the pyramid can I push this teaching?” I don’t get down to the bottom every single time, but I absolutely make sure I don’t remain only in the 5%/Lecture category. (Sometimes, in my more courageous and creative moments, I’ve wondered if we turned the pyramid completely upside down how people’s learning process and retention would be impacted).

As you think about your preaching and teaching, consider the following questions in each level of the pyramid:

Lecture: what are one or two ways I could increase the effectiveness and engagement of what I am communicating to people?

Reading: how am I encouraging people to read in the midst of the teaching (the biblical text, a quote on the screen, a handout, etc)? What are ways I could include reading materials, either during my teaching or as a take home resource?

Audio Visual: are there natural and creative ways I can use videos or songs to illustrate this point?

Demonstration: instead of simply teaching on this abstract concept, can I demonstrate it right on the spot? Can I call a volunteer up and simulate a role-playing exercise? Or can I give a specific and concrete example of someone who has recently lived out this concept in our community?

Discussion group: rather than listening to me communicate, can we carve our time and space for people to interact with each other? If so, what will they discuss? What questions or texts can I give them as prompts to their discussion? And what will they do with that information?

Practice by doing: Are there ways in which people can live out and practice what they just learned from me in the next 5 minutes? In the next 30 minutes? By the end of the day? What challenge(s) can I give them to attempt this?

Teaching others: Is there opportunity for someone courageous enough to come up and teach (or summarize) what they’ve learned in the process? If they’ve not done it effectively, how can we celebrate their willingness, while also offering suggestion or correction? If people have done it effectively, how can we affirm and celebrate both their willingness and ability to do something difficult in the moment?

By Bob Hyatt September 15, 2025
A New Ecclesia Network Benefit! 
By By Jim Pace September 15, 2025
In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s shooting, social media has been filled with perspectives, as is typically the case. I am reluctant to add mine as there seems to be no lack one way or the other. To be clear, this is not just about Charlie Kirk, this is about violence across the board. I did not feel led to write this because it was Charlie Kirk specifically, but rather another in a long and winding line of acts of violence, that my ministering at Va. Tech gives me a bit of personal experience with. But as I have just finished teaching two classes on Christian Ethics, and as I was encountering again the spread of responses from my Christian sisters and brothers, I felt led to look at this event through that lens. Ethics, at its base, seeks to answer the question, “What is better or worse? Good or bad?” As a follower of Jesus, this is what seems right to me… 1. We never celebrate harm. Whatever our disagreements, rejoicing at a shooting violates the bedrock claim that every person bears the imago Dei (Gen 1:27). Scripture is explicit: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls” (Prov 24:17); “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44); “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). I don’t love blasting verses like this, but you cannot get away from them if you are reading the scriptures. 2. Moral responsibility sits with the shooter—full stop . Saying “his rhetoric got him shot” smuggles in a just-world logic that excuses violence. As a contextual theologian, I have an enormous amount of respect for the impact our various narratives have in shaping our understandings of the world around us. They are inescapable. But that is not what I am talking about here. Ideas can be wrong, harmful, or worth opposing vigorously, but vigilante ‘payback’ is never a Christian category. My primary gig is that of a consultant for churches and non-profits. Today, in my meetings and among friends, I have heard some variation of “He got what he deserved,” and “I vote for some very public justice for the shooter.” Both of these views speak of revenge; the follower of Jesus is called to lay these down as our Messiah did. Not asked to, told to. 3. Grief and outrage about gun violence are legitimate; schadenfreude is not . Channel the pain toward nonviolent, concrete action (policy advocacy, community intervention, survivor support), not dehumanization. Here are four thinkers who have had a profound impact on the Christian ethic I try to work out in this world. As I share them, three things are worthy of mention. One, I certainly do not claim to follow their guidance perfectly, and at times I do not even do it well, but they have all given me what seems like a Jesus-centered and faith-filled direction to move in. Second, I do not claim to speak for them in this particular matter; I am merely showing how my ethical lens has been formed. Third, clearly I am not dealing with all the components of our response to these types of violence, this is not a comprehensive treatment, merely the reflections in the moment. Stanley Hauerwas : “Christian nonviolence is not a strategy to rid the world of violence.” It’s part of following Jesus, not a tactic we drop when it’s inconvenient. Stanley Hauerwas, Walking with God in a Fragile World, by James Langford, editor, Leroy S. Rouner, editor N. T. Wright : “The call of the gospel is for the church to implement the victory of God in the world through suffering love.” Simply Good News: Why the Gospel Is News and What Makes It Good. In other words, we answer evil without mirroring it. David Fitch : Our culture runs on an “enemy-making” dynamic; even “the political rally… depends on the making of an enemy. Don’t let that train your soul.” The Church of Us vs. Them. Sarah Coakley : Contemplation forms resistance, not passivity. For Coakley, sustained prayer trains perception and courage so Christians can resist abuse and give voice against violence (it’s not quietism). “Contemplation, if it is working aright, is precisely that which gives courage to resist abuse, to give voice against violence.” Sarah Coakley, God, Sexuality, and the Self. Coakley would say that far too often we react before we reflect. This is the problem that Fitch is getting at in much of his writing, that our culture actually runs on antagonisms, the conflict between us. We need to find a better way.