Learning Styles follow-up

The U.S. educational system was designed with the assumption that all people learn auditorally. Not true, of course. A minority of us learn that way. If Zoe asks me to please do something for her while I'm out running errands, I often forget to do it. If she gives me the request written on a note I will do it almost every time. I'm part visual learner and part conceptual learner. If I see it, and especially if I grasp the concept behind it, I get it.

Several years ago, a married couple teamed up on a research project. They traveled around interviewing people in church parking lots after Sunday morning services. They asked questions like, "How was the service?" The answer was usually some form of "Great." They asked, "What did you learn?" The answer was usually silence or stammering and stumbling to come up with an intelligent answer. They later published a book, Why Nobody Learns Much of Anything at Church and What to Do About It. Great read. Preaching assumes that the audience is composed of auditory learners. Thankfully, things are changing: PowerPoint, skits, etc. are helping people actually learn something at church.