Cynthia Ware is the executive director of the Center For Church Communication, the parent organization behind the blog churchmarketingsucks.com, and a 2008 IMC Speaker. She was recently interviewed by m2live.org and they just posted the webinar online.

In this interview, Cynthia explores some of these questions:

1. How does your church leadership view the web?
2. Is your church website a communication afterthought or is it treated as the first stop for any visitor who wants to attend your services?
3. Does your church have a social media champion, a web-based ministry philosophy, a new media battle plan?
4. Is social media over-rated or should your church be paying attention?
5. If your church leadership needs some education, check out the archived webinar with Cynthia.

I encourage you to check it out. Then come back here and let us know what you thought of it!

Kent Shaffer

Session: How to create a tailored Web strategy

Kent Shaffer got an early start in ministry as a missionary’s kid in Peru. Although he has experienced a broad scope of ministry roles, his passions have been children’s and youth ministry (10+ years) and communications (6+ years). Currently, Kent makes a living via Web and real estate startups so that he can volunteer full-time with the Digital Missions team at LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK).

Kent’s design, marketing, and ministry experience gives a fresh and practical perspective on ministry, which he shares with churches and ministries on his blog Church Relevance each month.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/KentShaffer

Saving the Spark: Developing Creative Ideas

Ideas. They’re at the heart of every creative process.
However, almost no really good ideas are flashes of inspiration. They
may start that way—a single glimmer of something special—but in order
to work, they need to be honed. Like a really good cheese, they need to
mature. Indeed, the “flash of inspiration” idea—the Eureka moment—is
only part of a longer process that, if ignored, will see most ideas
simply fizzle out.

So, how do you “have” ideas? Sit about and
wait for them to pop into your head? If only most of us had the luxury
to do so. No, for most of us, ideas have to be squeezed out of us every
day. To stand up to this challenge, you need to arm yourself with some
good tools.

As if by magic

There is great
prestige attached to the word “creative.” Creative people apparently
magic up ideas—wonderful solutions to the most complex problems—with
the ease of a skilled magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The
gathered crowd goes wild. What skill. How do they do it?

Well,
I’m afraid I’m here to shatter that illusion. It’s not magic. These
people are no different from you and I. They just have a different way
of looking at problems and solving them. The good news is, they use
tools that anyone can use.

A brief brief

At the
beginning of most web development projects, there is a brief. In
general, it’s not the best starting point for any project. Most briefs
are not brief—they tend to run into several pages and are more akin to
functional specifications or requirements documents. They are not the
stuff of inspiration.

When I receive a brief, I try to get to the very heart of the problem, and rewrite it as an idea brief.

An
idea brief is a sentence, or two, that sums up the project and frames
it as a problem statement. A question that needs an answer. Something
like:

We need to redesign our news service to appeal to a more global audience.

or

How do we engage an older audience for our social networking product?

This
simple sentence is the question you are trying to answer and should be
used as a springboard throughout idea generation. Once you’ve got one,
and are happy with it, print it out and stick it on the wall.
Constantly refer to it throughout the development of the idea or
product. Does your solution answer that question? It’s so easy to get
bogged down in the mire of documentation—it’s your job to pull yourself
out of that, and the idea brief is the perfect tool to do it.

Structured ideas

So now you have your idea brief, where do you go from here?

We
can’t rely on sparks of inspiration for ideas. How many times have you
sat down in front of a blank piece of paper, or a blank computer screen
and thought “I can’t do it today—nothing is happening. Right, I’ll play
on the Wii instead.”

Most of the time, ideas need to be
worked at. They need to be crafted: cajoled into shape by a dedicated,
passionate team. We have one good tool to help us with that: ideas
sessions.

Ideas sessions

We’ve probably all done these. They were called brainstorms until recently.

I
used to loathe the idea of ideas sessions. Surely it’s a recipe for
disaster? Get a bunch of people in a room to solve a problem. Everyone
will have a difference of opinion, but you need to come to a common
solution at the end of it that everyone agrees to. It hardly ever
worked.

There are several things that need to be in place for a successful, productive ideas session.

The project team

Ideas
sessions are a group activity that takes place with key members of the
project team. This is important. In order for the ideas to be taken
seriously, they need buy-in from the people who matter: the CEO or marketing director. Without that internal buy-in on the client side, an idea, no-matter how great, will almost always fail.

A good facilitator

Another
important member of an ideas session is the facilitator. They should be
trained in creative facilitation and are there to coax and squeeze the
best ideas the team has to offer. They should remain impartial
though—they’re not there to judge the ideas, but to apply the grease to
the creative cogs.

Running order

I know it can be
restrictive, but these sessions need a running order. People like
structure—even “creative” people—no matter what they tell you! A
typical running order for an ideas session might be:

1. Attendees introductions / ice-breaker
2. Reveal the brief—the aim of the day (the idea brief)
3. The rules of brainstorming
4. First burst
5. Stimulus—the Four Rs
6. Passionometer

Rules.

Following
attendee introductions and revealing the idea brief, the facilitator
lays down the law. The rules of brainstorming are important for keeping
everything running smoothly during the session. They are:

1. All ideas are equal
2. We’re here to have lots of ideas
3. No judging
4. Analyze the ideas later
5. Everyone’s equal (no pulling rank)
6. Have fun
7. Keep to time
8. One idea at a time

First burst

Next
up is the first burst. A first burst aims to get those really obvious,
preconceived ideas out and on paper before moving on. Everyone will
come to an ideas session with some preconceived ideas of how the
project should look. Generally, they are the most obvious ideas and
they will have been worked out to some detail. More often than not,
they are the safest, least risky ideas.

The facilitator
should record ideas and encourage attendees to speak up, but the
important thing is to not get hung up on one direction or another. The
aim is to have a lot of ideas. It really is about quantity, and not
quality. At least, not yet.

Stimulus

Once the
first burst out of the way, and all the preconceived and obvious ideas
have been recorded, it’s the facilitator’s job to begin coaxing the
ideas out of the attendees by using stimulus. The Four Rs are very
useful tools for steering idea generation without a session becoming
stuck down a certain line of thinking.

The Four Rs

I
mentioned the Four Rs as tools for generating ideas. They are used by a
facilitator in an ideas session to move the attendees from one idea to
the next so they don’t begin to analyze or judge previous ideas, or
become stale. The Four Rs are:

Revolution

Revolution
is turning an idea on its head. Taking assumptions and reversing or
removing them. E.g., a pub has four walls and a roof. What if it didn’t
have walls, but still had a roof? Or to frame it in web development—and
this is a great example of what 37signals did with Basecamp—what if our desktop software could live on the web?

Re-expression

Re-express
the idea in a different way or from a different point of view. This is
a fantastic vehicle for putting yourself in your user’s shoes. E.g.,
what if you were six years old and your parents were buying a booster
seat for the car for you. What makes a cool booster seat in your eyes?

Related worlds

Think
of a related world and use ideas from that world. E.g., cooking and
gardening. What elements of gardening could be used to sell more recipe
books?

Random links

Forcing a connection with a
random object. This can lead to some of the greatest ideas. Random
links often generate ideas which are off-brief, but that doesn’t
matter. Sometimes, the most truly innovative ideas can come with random
links. I’m sure Citroën designers were using random links when they
decided to make the 2CV car look like a snail.

Loads of great ideas, what now?

The
facilitator will record all the ideas on a single sheet of paper. After
the session is finished, the facilitator will go through all of the
ideas one by one and the group will rate them by the Passionometer (a
fancy name for some stickers). One sticker for “not feeling it,” and
three for “wow, this is great.”

The most highly rated ideas
are shortlisted and then enter the next phase of development. That next
stage could involve other ideas sessions, but more focused around one
idea. The aim is to focus the idea down to specific, actionable
problems or statements that allow a development team to take that idea
and follow it through.

A flash of inspiration

Billy Connelly once said, of the House of Lords in the UK, “It’s a place where good ideas go to die.”

I
think he was referring to the notion that ideas (in his example,
legislation) can be watered down far too much in a forum of debate. To
discuss, or hone, an idea at length is to destroy it. True, this can,
and does, happen all too regularly. But, armed with the right tools,
and developed in a structured environment, ideas can be realized to
their full potential.

The flash of inspiration is important, and so is the final product, but pay attention to the bit in between.

Five questions that change the web – 5Q Communications

Creating an effective web site starts with asking the right questions. Before launching into any work for a client, we start with analysis that will help them and us discover the keys to developing a site that communicates effectively and produces the results that are needed. In summary, these important questions are:

Who is your audience?

What primary action do you want visitors to take?

Does your design and text communicate effectively?

Are your systems integrated and compliant?

How do you measure success?

What are you going to do? How are you going to do it? If you don’t have a plan, you can’t be effective.

21 Factors To Consider Before A Redesign

Redesigning a website can be a very involved process, and it is important to properly plan and consider the necessary factors that will make or break the redesign. Here is a quick look at 21 factors that you should be contemplated.

1. What is the goal of the redesign?

What do you hope to accomplish? It’s always important to have a clear understanding of your reasons and motivations as they should impact the decisions that you make along the way. Without knowing these goals the project will lack direction and you will likely wind up with a website that still doesn’t meet your needs.

2. Is this going to be just a minor upgrade or a complete overhaul?

A redesign could be anything from a minor facelift to an entirely new site. Obviously the time, effort, and cost involved will vary, but first you should determine what types of changes are required for you to meet your goals with the design. If a complete redesign is done you will also want to consider to what extent the new design should resemble the old design. If visitors are coming back to the site, chances are you will want them to notice the new design without feeling like they’ve never been to your site before.

3. What aspects of the current design are most effective?

Most likely there are some things about the current design that work very well, and these may be aspects that you would like to keep or incorporate into the new design. It’s a good idea to make a simple list of your likes and dislikes to help with decisions on the new design.

4. What aspects of the current design are not effective?

Building on point #3, if you are redesigning the site you are bound to want to get rid of some specific aspects of the website or the design. Are there some characteristics of the design that do not accurately portray your business to new visitors?

5. Who are your target users?

During any design process you never want to lose focus on the visitors. By knowing who you are targeting and how you can meet their needs, you will be on your way to building an effective website. What style of design are your users going to like?

6. How can the website be more user-friendly?

Improving the functionality and usability of a website is always a good thing. It’s pointless to spend time and money on a redesign that looks great but simply isn’t user-friendly.

7. Does the logo/branding need to be changed or updated?

Most likely the website will include some form of a logo or branding. Are these items still up-to-date and will they function effectively with a new design? If your logo is out-of-date and not attractive, a new design may not do much good if it is still using the same old logo.

8. Should the color scheme change or remain the same?

In point #2 I mentioned that most of the time you will want to keep the website at least looking familiar to repeat visitors. Using a similar color scheme is one of the best ways to accomplish this. A lot of times it can be a good idea to make some minor changes to the color scheme, such as changing shades of colors or adding a few new colors, just to give the site a fresh look.

9. What screen resolutions are visitors using?

It’s important to know how your visitors are going to be viewing the site. A program such as Google Analytics can easily give you this information. Obviously, a fixed-width design should take into consideration the typical screen resolutions of visitors.

10. What connection speed are visitors using?

Knowing the connection speed will help you to know what types of elements you can include in the design without causing hardships for the average visitor.

11. What should be the focal points of the design?

Every design is going to draw attention to certain parts of the page in one way or another. By knowing what you want to emphasize you will have more control over what gets attention from visitors. In a comment on a recent article, Caroline Middlebrook mentioned that in her redesign she used the area above blog posts to feature some select content, such as a free e-book that she has written. Obviously, in her case this is a focal point that she wants visitors to notice.

12. How can the navigation be made more effective?

Navigation is one of the most critical elements of a site’s usability. If a significant amount of content and/or pages have been added to the site since the last design, it is possible that navigation is no longer optimal. Before designing think about how visitors will want to move through the site, and make it as easy as possible for them.

13. What will visitors want from the website?

Meeting the needs of visitors is important to the success of any website. Will visitors be coming to the site looking for information? If so, make it easy to find the information and make it a prominent part of the design. Will they be coming to the site to find products? Will they be coming for some other reason? Anticipate what your visitors will want and do your best to give it to them.

14. How can increased user interaction be incorporated?

The most successful websites are able to get visitors involved in one way or another. Blogs are great for this purpose because they allow for comments and discussion. Other possibilities are forums, games, user-generated content, polls, quizzes, etc. By making the website more engaging to visitors you are more likely to get a high number of repeat visitors.

15. Who will be doing the maintenance/updates?

Will you be the one doing routine maintenance and updates? Will someone else be doing them? If multiple people will be using the website commenting the code becomes even more important. Code should always be kept as clean as possible, but when others will be doing work on the site has a bigger impact.

16. Is a content management system (CMS) needed?

Many website owners now prefer to use a CMS, such as WordPress, so that the site can easily be updated without requiring a designer. Depending on the amount and type of updates that are anticipated, a CMS may be a good, time-saving decision.

17. How can SEO be improved?

Any time a website is being designed, search engines should be considered. The current design may or may not be search engine-friendly, but the new one certainly should be. Should the current page titles be kept, or could they be done more effectively? How can internal linking be improved? Where can headers be used? This list could obviously go on for a while.

18. What keywords and phrases are being targeted?

Of course, keywords should be used in titles, headers, anchor text, alt tags, etc. Designing a website without knowing what words and phrases you are targeting means that you are most likely targeting none, at least not effectively. Don’t simply consider the search terms that are being targeted with the current site, make sure that these are the most effective terms to go after.

19. What pages and search terms are currently drawing traffic?

If there are pages on the site that are currently doing very well with search engines, you’ll probably not want to make major changes to the content of those pages. This can easily be overlooked during a redesign, but making excessive changes to pages that are ranking well can kill the rankings. Likewise, what search terms are currently producing traffic? Be sure that they are used in the new design.

20. What pages currently have inbound links?

Whatever pages on the site have a significant number of inbound links or are drawing traffic through those links, you’ll want to make sure that any changes do not negatively affect these links. If possible, use the same URL structure. If not, be sure to re-direct visitors to the appropriate page.

21. What will make visitors want to come back?

Most likely you’ve considered how the new design can make a solid first impression, but what is it about the website that will keep visitors coming back for more?
Many website owners now prefer to use a CMS, such as WordPress, so that the site can easily be updated without requiring a designer. Depending on the amount and type of updates that are anticipated, a CMS may be a good, time-saving decision.

17. How can SEO be improved?

Any time a website is being designed, search engines should be considered. The current design may or may not be search engine-friendly, but the new one certainly should be. Should the current page titles be kept, or could they be done more effectively? How can internal linking be improved? Where can headers be used? This list could obviously go on for a while.

18. What keywords and phrases are being targeted?

Of course, keywords should be used in titles, headers, anchor text, alt tags, etc. Designing a website without knowing what words and phrases you are targeting means that you are most likely targeting none, at least not effectively. Don’t simply consider the search terms that are being targeted with the current site, make sure that these are the most effective terms to go after.

19. What pages and search terms are currently drawing traffic?

If there are pages on the site that are currently doing very well with search engines, you’ll probably not want to make major changes to the content of those pages. This can easily be overlooked during a redesign, but making excessive changes to pages that are ranking well can kill the rankings. Likewise, what search terms are currently producing traffic? Be sure that they are used in the new design.

20. What pages currently have inbound links?

Whatever pages on the site have a significant number of inbound links or are drawing traffic through those links, you’ll want to make sure that any changes do not negatively affect these links. If possible, use the same URL structure. If not, be sure to re-direct visitors to the appropriate page.

21. What will make visitors want to come back?

Most likely you’ve considered how the new design can make a solid first impression, but what is it about the website that will keep visitors coming back for more?

How do we engage our culture with the Gospel? – Gospel.com Blog

We’re talking about culture this week, and thinking about
one of the most basic and important questions that Christians ask
today: how do we engage and challenge our culture with the Gospel of
Christ? Society around us is saturated with false and destructive
ideas, memes, and values; how do Christians bring the Gospel message to
bear in such an environment?

One way to think of the question is to back up and ask it slightly
differently. Who do you think of when you think of an outsider bringing
the Gospel to an unfamiliar, even alien, culture? Missionaries! That’s
right—everyday Christians can learn a lot about proclaiming the Gospel
to their culture by looking at the evangelistic example set by
missionaries. With that in mind, I’ve tracked down a few articles about
missional engagement of culture. What can Joe Average Christian learn from the way that missionaries approach their mission fields?

• People of the Book is an evangelistic ministry to Muslims culture. Here’s how they describe the way they approach Gospel-hostile cultures; think about how this might apply to the way we witness to our neighbors and coworkers:
  

  The People of the Book is taking an “insider
  approach” to working with Muslims. This means that we do not want to
  harshly extract them from their family and culture. We want them to
  come to saving faith in Christ, but stay inside their culture to be
  able to share Christ with family, friends and the rest of the Muslim
  world.

  If we desire to have an effective ministry to Muslims, we must, in a
  sense, become as a Muslim to the Muslim world. The goal is to share the
  Gospel in a way that it can be understood and embraced by them with all
  their heart and mind. If we do not spend time with them, living among
  them, how will they ever see the Gospel being lived out in real life?

• A second item worth reading is a report from Lausanne World Pulse about evangelistic efforts that have—and haven’t—had good results in the culture of Sri Lanka:
  

  When the missionaries, who were raised in the
  Western cultures, encountered the Sri Lankan culture, they concluded
  that it was evil and to be avoided. They not only avoided it, they
  condemned it, and in AD 1711 passed a law that stated, “Christians
  participating in the ceremonies of heathenism would be liable to a
  public whipping and imprisonment in irons for one year.”

  This brought about a deep alienation of all new Christian converts
  from their culture and families. The converts, desiring modernization
  and identification with the colonial rulers, assimilated to the new
  culture.

  This aggressive approach to witnessing to a culture resulted not in
  spiritual transformation, but in two dead-end behaviors: high-handed
  condemnation of non-Christian culture by some Christians, and
  compromise and assimilation by others. Neither action attracted
  converts to Christianity, let alone had a lasting impact on the culture.

• Lastly, take a look at this essay by Dave Livermore at Legacy Youth Ministry Resources talking about cross-cultural ministry both home and abroad—note
  particularly his emphasis on the idea of a “building phase” during
  which we establish sincere connections to the culture we want to reach,
  gaining trust and building meaningful relationships rather than diving
  into an evangelistic pitch right off the bat.

There are obvious differences in the way that a missionary
approaches a foreign culture and the way that we, living in our own
cultures, interact with our neighbors and friends. But in a sense, Christians are foreign to even the cultures they live in—you’ve
probably heard the famous saying that Christians are called to be “in
this world, but not of it.” Read through the above missions reports and
give some thought to the ways their approach might (or might not) work
in your everyday interaction with the culture around you.

Understanding Your User’s Mindset – Blog Article from Vandelay Website Design

Understanding the mentality of your visitors is critical. Their opinion of your website is more important than having a pretty design . Why do they arrive at your website? How do they arrive? What are they looking for? What will make-or-break their visit? What will make them come back?

If you understand why someone is visiting, then you can do a better job of giving them what they are looking for and you can make their visit more fulfilling. To really understand why someone is visiting, you really need to have an idea of who they are and what situations surround them. Knowing your target audience is crucial and it should impact just about everything that you do.

The more you know about your target audience, the more you will know about why they are on your website and what they are doing there. If you have an existing site, how often do you analyze your target audience and why/how they arrive at your site? This is especially important for bloggers. As more content is continually being added, is it focused on the right people? Is it meeting their needs? How is it being presented to them? Can they find your best work?

Let’s take a look at a real-world example of the importance of knowing why your visitors are coming to your site. Imagine you run a website for a church . Almost every church now has a website, and most of them contain fairly similar information about the church, such as days and times of services, different groups that are in the church, directions, statement of beliefs, etc. But who are your visitors? Who does the site target? It could be targeting those who currently do not attend the church, in hopes of finding new members, or it could target its current members who come to the site for news, events, information, etc. In this case, these are two very different audiences that would have different needs from the website.

Another similar example is the website of a university. Is the target audience current students or prospective students? Most likely both will be targeted, but it’s critical to the usability of the site to recognize the different needs of these different audiences so that you can structure the site accordingly and provide the appropriate content.

How it Affects the Site:

Navigation

In the example of the university, if your two primary audiences are prospective students and current students, the navigation of the site should make it easy for each of these audiences to move through the site. Information for perspective students, such as financial aid, online applications, admissions requirements, etc. should all be linked together and easy to find. On the other hand, current students should be able to easily maneuver through sections of the site that they use frequently, such as webmail, class information, etc.

Message

Obviously, the message of your website will need to be specifically presented to your target audience. What do you want them to know about your website or your business? If you know why they are visiting your site and what they are looking for, you can craft your message accordingly to meet their needs.

Your Hook

The best websites will have a hook, something unique that draws visitors in and makes them connect to the site and want to come back. In order to develop an effective hook, you’ll have to understand you visitors, why they are there, and what draws a response from them.

Content

The content of the site if of course greatly impacted by your audience. If you know what your visitors are looking for you will know what needs to be provided to them. Going back to the example of a university website, if you are targeting prospective students, you know that you’ll need to clearly present information about the majors/degrees that you offer, the location and surrounding area of the school, the prices, scholarship information (because who can afford those prices?), an opportunity to request more information or a call from the admissions department, and anything else that you think will help you to “sell” the school to prospective students.

Delivery

The audience and their level of knowledge should affect the wording and the delivery of the content. Unfortunately, many times this is not considered. If you are targeting visitors with a lower level of knowledge of a subject, be sure that you avoid jargon and that you explain things in a way that will be understood. On the other hand, if you’re targeting a very specific technical audience, don’t word things too simply or they will feel out of place and they’ll get bored with your delivery.

What is Featured?

Every design has some element or some piece of content that is featured over others. Think about your visitors, why they are arriving at your site and what they want to find. Make sure that the most important things are being featured in your design. If people come to your site with something specific in mind, put it right in front of them when they arrive.

What is an Online Community? – Mzinga.com

An online or “virtual” community is a group of people that interacts through media rather than face to face. Put quite simply, if the group uses the Internet to facilitate their communication, the group is referred to as an online community – although online communities have also become used as a secondary form of communication between people who know each other in real life.

The methods the community uses to interact can vary, since there are many different means of communication used in social software, either separately or in combination, including text-based chat rooms, blogs, wikis, podcasts, and discussion forums that use voice, video text or avatars.

The use of the term “community” to describe such groups has been debated, since the traditional definition of a community focuses on geographic proximity (i.e., neighborhoods). Proponents of online communities typically dismiss such criticism, noting that the emphasis should be placed on the word “community” rather than its modifier, and that communities exist by virtue of a common interest shared by a group of people.

Using this logic, then, an online community can be defined as a group of people sharing a common interest, idea, or goal that interacts via the Internet (regardless of geographical and organizational boundaries) and is able to forge relationships.

Different virtual communities have different levels of interaction and participation among their members, ranging from commenting on blogs or message boards to competing against other people in online video games. In essence, online communities require social interaction and communication between users in order to sustain themselves.

In 2000, author and community architecture expert Amy Jo Kim proposed the idea of a membership life cycle for online communities. Kim posited that members of virtual communities begin their lives in a community as visitors, or “lurkers.” People then typically break through some sort of barrier before becoming novices and participating in the community. Their prolonged activity and interaction with other members leads to the next phase, where they become regulars. If they break through yet another barrier, those members become leaders, and then finally (after a period of time), they become elders. This life cycle can be applied to many virtual communities, including blogs and wiki-based communities such as Wikipedia.

Article by Mzinga.com

Looking At How Jesus Ministered – Article From That The World May Know

The people of Galilee were the most religious Jews in the world in the time of
Jesus. This is quite contrary to the common view that the Galileans were simple,
uneducated peasants from an isolated area. This perspective is probably due to
the comments made in the Bible, which appear to belittle people from this area.
At the Shavuoth feast in the book of Acts for example, the people seem amazed
that the Galileans were capable of speaking in other languages. But this is certainly a bias against Galileans by the people of Judea and other countries due to the very strong and passionate religious commitments of the people of Galilee. Besides, the Galileans had more interaction with the world living on the “way of the sea” (the trade route, see Matt. 4:15) than the Jews of Jerusalem who were more isolated in the mountains.

The Galilean people were actually more educated in the Bible and its application than most Jews. More famous Jewish teachers come from Galilee than anywhere else in the world. They were known for their great reverence for Scripture and the passionate desire to be faithful to it. This translated into vibrant religious communities, devoted to strong families, their country, whose synagogues echoed the debate and discussions about keeping the Torah. They resisted the pagan influences of Hellenism far more than did their Judean counterparts. When the great revolt against the pagan Romans and their collaborators (66-74 AD) finally occurred, it began among the Galileans.

Jesus was born, grew up, and spent his ministry among people who knew Scripture by memory, who debated its application with enthusiasm, and who loved God with all their hearts, all their souls and all their might (Deut.
6:5). God prepared this environment carefully so that Jesus would have exactly the context he needed to present his message of Malchut Shemayim “the kingdom of heaven” and his followers would understand and join
his new movement. He fit his world perfectly. Understanding this helps to understand the great faith and courage of his followers who left Galilee and went to the whole world to bring the good news. Their courage, their message, the methods they used, and their complete devotion to God and his Word were born
in the religious communities in the Galilee.

Education in Galilee

The Mishnah(1) describes the educational process for a young Jewish boy in
Jesus’ time.

At five years old [one is fit] for the Scripture, at ten years
the Mishnah (oral Torah, interpretations) at thirteen for the fulfilling of the
commandments, at fifteen the Talmud (making Rabbinic interpretations), at
eighteen the bride-chamber, at twenty pursuing a vocation, at thirty for
authority (able to teach others)

This clearly describes the exceptional student, for very few would become teachers but indicates the centrality of Scripture in the education in Galilee. It is interesting to compare Jesus’ life to this description. Though little is
stated about his childhood we know that he ‘grew in wisdom’ as a boy (Luke 2:52) and that he reached the ‘fulfilling of the commandments’ indicated by ones first Passover at age twelve (Luke
2:41). He then learned a trade (Matt. 13:55, Mark 6:3) and spent time with John the Baptist (Luke
3:21; John 3:22’26) and began his ministry at ‘about thirty’ (Luke 3:23). This parallels the Mishnah description quite closely. It certainly demands a closer look at the education process in Galilee.

Schools were associated with the local synagogue in first century Galilee. Apparently each community would hire a teacher (respectfully called ‘rabbi’) for the school. While this teacher was responsible for the education of the village he had no special authority in the synagogue itself. Children began their study at age 4-5 in Beth Sefer (elementary school). Most scholars believe both boys and girls attended the class in the synagogue. The teaching focused primarily on the Torah, emphasizing both reading and writing Scripture. Large portions were memorized and it is likely that many students knew the entire Torah by memory by the time this level of education was finished. At this point most students (and certainly the girls) stayed at home to help with the family and in the case of boys to learn the family trade. It is at this point that a boy would participate in his first Passover in Jerusalem (a ceremony that probably forms the background of today’s bar mitzvah in orthodox Jewish families today.) Jesus’ excellent questions for the teachers in the temple at his first Passover indicate the study he had done.

The best students continued their study (while learning a trade) in Beth Midrash (secondary school) also taught by a rabbi of the community. Here they (along with the adults in the town) studied the prophets and the writings (3) in addition to Torah and began to learn the interpretations of the Oral Torah (4) to learn how to make their own applications and interpretations much like a catechism class might in some Churches today. Memorization continued to be important because most people did not have their own copy of the Scripture so
they either had to know it by heart or go to the synagogue to consult the village scroll. Memory was enhanced by reciting aloud, a practice still widely used in Middle Eastern education both Jewish and Muslim. Constant repetition was considered to be an essential element of learning (5).

A few (very few) of the most outstanding Beth Midrash students sought permission to study with a famous rabbi often leaving home to travel with him for a lengthy period of time. These students were called talmidim (talmid, s.) in Hebrew, which is translated disciple. There is much more to a talmid than what we call student. A student wants to know what the teacher knows for the grade, to complete the class or the degree or even out of respect for the teacher. A talmid wants to like the teacher, that is to become what the teacher is. That meant that students were passionately devoted to their rabbi and noted everything he did or said. This meant the rabbi’talmid relationship was a very intense and personal system of education. As the rabbi lived and taught his understanding of the Scripture his students (talmidim) listened and watched and imitated so as to become like him. Eventually they would become teachers passing on a lifestyle to their talmidim.

As a result, Galilee was a place of intense study of Scripture. People were knowledgeable about its content and the various applications made by their tradition. They were determined to live by it and to pass their faith and knowledge and lifestyle on to their children. It was into this world that Jesus came as a child and eventually a rabbi.

Jesus the Rabbi

The term rabbi in the time of Jesus did not necessarily refer to a specific office or occupation. That would be true only after the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed (70 AD). Rather, it was a word meaning ‘great one’ or ‘my master’ which was applied to many kinds of people in everyday speech. It clearly was used as a term of respect for one’s teacher as well even though the formal position of rabbi would come later. In one sense then, calling Jesus ‘Rabbi’ is an anachronism. In another sense the use of this term for him by the people his day is a measure of their great respect for him as a person and as a teacher and not just a reference to the activity of teaching he was engaged in.

Many people referred to Jesus as Rabbi. His disciples (Luke 7:40), lawyers (Matt. 22:35’36), ordinary people (Luke 12:13), the rich (Matt. 19:16), Pharisees (Luke 19:39), and Sadducees (Luke 20:27’28). Jesus fit the description of a first century rabbi especially one at the most advanced level’the one sought by talmidim.

He traveled from place to place with his disciples depending on the
hospitality of others (Luke
8:1’3) and often meeting in private homes (Luke
10:38’42)

In travel, rabbis would visit local synagogues because of the discussion of
Scripture that occurred regularly in these community centers (Matt.
4:23)

Rabbis used similar methods of interpreting Scripture. For example the great
teachers used a technique today called remez or hint, in which they used
part of a Scripture passage in discussion assuming their audience’s knowledge of
the Bible would allow them to deduce for themselves fuller meaning. Apparently
Jesus used this method often. When the children sang Hosanna to him in the
Temple and the Sadducees demanded Jesus quiet them he responded with a quote
from Psalm
8:2 ‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.’ Their
anger at Jesus is better understood when you realize that the next phrase in the
Psalm adds the reason why children and infants would praise’because of the
enemies of God who would be silenced (Ps.
8:2). In other words the chief priests realized Jesus was implying they were
God’s enemies.

Another example is Jesus’ comments to Zacchaeus (Luke
19:1’10). Jesus said ‘For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was
lost.’ (Luke
19:10) The background to this statement is probably Ezekiel 34. God, angry
with the leaders of Israel for scattering and harming his flock (the people of
Israel) states the he himself will become the shepherd and will seek the lost
ones and deliver (save) them. Based on this the people of Jesus’ day understood
that the Messiah to come would ‘seek and save’ the lost. By using this phrase,
knowing the people knew the Scripture, Jesus said several things. To the people
he said ‘I am the Messiah and God no less.’ To the leaders (whose influence kept
Zacchaeus out of the crowd) he said ‘you have scattered and harmed God’s flock.’
To Zacchaeus he said ‘you are one of God’s lost sheep’he still loves
you.’

This technique indicated a brilliant understanding of Scripture and
incredible teaching skills on Jesus part. It also demonstrates the background
knowledge of Scripture the common people had.

Rabbis used similar teaching techniques like the use of parables. More than
3,500 parables from first century rabbis still exist and Jesus’ are among the
very best. He uses similar themes (landowner, king, and farmer) as well. (Matt.
13:3,34)

Jesus seems to be a type of rabbi believed to have s’mikhah or
authority to make new interpretations. Most of the teachers were Torah teachers
(teachers of the law) who could only teach accepted interpretations. Those with
authority (today ‘ordination’) could make new interpretations and pass legal
judgments. Crowds were amazed because Jesus taught with authority (Hebrew
s’mikhah, Greek exousia) not as their Torah teachers (Matt.
7:28’29). Jesus was questioned about his authority (Matt.
21:23’27). While this makes Jesus one of a small group of teachers he was
not the only one with authority.

Rabbis invited people to learn to keep the Torah. This was called taking ‘the
yoke of Torah’ or ‘the yoke of the kingdom of heaven’. Rabbi’s with
s’mikhah would have a new interpretation or yoke. Torah teachers would
teach the accepted interpretations or yoke of their community. Jesus invitation
to those who listened to many teachers and interpretations helps establish him
as a Rabbi would present an interpretation that was easy and light (to
understand not necessarily to do) (Matt.
13:11’30). As such, he was probably not speaking to unsaved people burdened
with sin but people unsure of the many interpretations they heard in the dynamic
religious debate in Galilee.

Fulfilling the Torah was the task of a first century rabbi. The technical
term for interpreting the Scripture so it would be obeyed correctly was
‘fulfill.’ To interpret Scripture incorrectly so it would not be obeyed
as God intended was to ‘destroy’ the Torah. Jesus uses these terms to describe
his task as well (Matt.
5:17’19). Contrary to what some think Jesus did not come to do away with
God’s Torah or Old Testament. He came to complete it and to show how to
correctly keep it. One of the ways Jesus interpreted the Torah was to stress
the importance of the right attitude of heart as well as the right action (Matt.
5:27’28).

“Rabbi and Talmidim” Read the full article by visiting That The World May Know web site

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