The Disciplemaking Genius of Jesus—Part 3
By Bill Allison and Dave Garda When I went back to college later in life, I was told that I had a “math deficiency.” I ended up having to buy an elementary mathematics book and re-teaching myself some basics. Everyday I worked through a portion of that pitifully boring math book—alone. However, once a week I met with a tutor who monitored my progress (or lack thereof) and tried to answer my many questions. (“Why would anyone plant a garden in the form of a triangle and then use the Pythagorean Theorem to measure the hypotenuse?”) One day I asked my tutor, “Help me understand integers”—and I pronounced it exactly like it’s spelled: “in-TE-gers.” My tutor smiled and said, “You mean, integers”—and she pronounced it “IN-ti-jers.” Sensing my embarrassment, she said, “It’s okay. You couldn’t have known this simply by working through the book by yourself.” Right then and there I realized this: solo book learning is a good start, but a fuller, deeper learning happens in community .