Flipped Church

By Rod Mitchell in All Sorts

how might 'flip education' be applied to church

I wonder how many people have heard the term 'Flip Education'. I only recently came across the term when attending a conference in Canberra.
"Flip teaching (or flipped classroom) is a form of blended learning in
which students learn new content online by watching video lectures,
usually at home, and what used to be homework (assigned problems) is now done in class with teacher offering more personalized guidance and interaction with students, instead of lecturing."
I would guess many people who are in education will have heard the term or will be following the concept without necessarily using the terminology. In case like me you have only recently heard the term or maybe you are coming to it new, let me give you a brief description. The word 'flip' in itself may give a clue to what is happening. My understanding is that this is a rather radical and major reversal of teacher-student activities.
In the traditional educational model you had the teacher being the expert of accumulated knowledge and students being the so-called empty recipient of such teacher-accumulated and imparted knowledge. So the expert knowledge teacher would be up front in the class with the blackboard ready to be utilised as the imparting of knowledge vehicle. Students will have their exercise books filled with this blackboard imparted knowledge and would be sent home to do 'homework' as a way of digesting the school time acquired knowledge. This has been a very successful model for a number of centuries. But its days may be numbered.
With technology advancing at an ever-increasing rate the old teacher-student educational model is being seriously tested. In flip education students are now being sent home to do the knowledge accumulation via the world classroom known as the World Wide Web. Student + computer become the knowledge information bearer; while teacher's role becomes the facilitator of how students utilise, appreciate and collectively input knowledge into solving problems. When I first heard about this model of education, I could see how it might be both exciting and radical and also a very challenging practice.
Then I got to thinking, could it be possible to have 'Flip Church'? The Old Catholic and Protestant models of an expert Priest or Minister being the dispenser of spiritual knowledge or providing the doorway for a relationship to God might be flipped on its head. This would truly give substance to the catchphrase that worship is the activity of the people. What would it mean for Minister and people if it was assumed that 80% of all spiritual knowledge was carried in by the people who were present at any particular worship event? How would this shift the particular roles of Minister and people so that worship was truly exciting without flipping into being chaotic?
Here is a web response to 'Flip Church' by Phil Schneider:
"I love Chris Wilson's post on "Flipping Churches" and I'm mad that he
beat me to it! (Not really.) Currently, I teach in a middle school, and I'm
actively working to flip my class. I haven't quite achieved a full flip, but I'm getting there.
At the same time, over the past few months, I've been in talks with the
full-time pastors at my church, and I think we're all on-board with the idea that our church should be flipped. The perennial question, though, is daunting: how?
What does a "flipped church" look like?
Of course, there are dozens of flipped classroom/school examples: Khan Academy, Teacher Tube, etc. What do we have in the way of churches?
(Not to draw too hard of a line, but there's a difference here between a
"flipped" church and an Internet church. A flipped church places content online to enhance/deepen the teaching that goes on at the church. An Internet church is an actual attempt at creating a place of worship in cyberspace.)
I'm really eager to begin flipping our church soon. Currently, the plan is to create detailed e-books (more like "e-pamphlets") and offer them as free downloads alongside short video segments that distil the e-book content in easy to digest chunks. I'm hoping to have something really cool to share in a few weeks, but what about you? Would this help your church,or would your time be better spent in other ways? If you have flipped or would considering flipping your church, how would/did you do it?"
Well Phil Schneider has given one possible response to what a 'flipped
Church' might look like, but I am guessing if we all put our best creative
thinking caps on, there could be many more exciting possibilities generated. I wonder how 'Flip Church' thinking might help in advancing creative solutions to our worship together - and even, perhaps to insurance and building dilemmas..