The Learning Curve

There is one thing that every single person on earth cannot get past when it comes to new experiences. This one thing can be time consuming and even at times cause us to throw our hands up and quit. What is that one thing? It is called The Learning Curve. The Learning Curve is "the rate of a person's progress in gaining experience or new skills." Simply put, it is how quickly you pick something up. This morning I was reminded of the dreaded learning curve as I worked to get our church's sermons on to YouTube. We've been asked regularly about our messages being online. I finally bit the bullet and was able to record Sunday's services via my iPad and have now put them on YouTube (you can check them out here). The aggravating thing for me was it seemed to take longer than I expected to get everything finalized and in to a presentable format on YouTube. I had to set up an account, find usable images for the channel art, and then take audio files recorded on an iPad and get them into a format to be presented on YouTube. It was definitely time consuming, but if the end result challenges and changes lives for God's Kingdom then it is all worth it. The next time I go to upload messages to YouTube, it shouldn't be as time consuming because the learning curve will be less this time and I will have picked up on how to move through it faster.

When it comes to the church, we often times assume that new Christians can bypass the learning curve. We hear of someone's conversion, we baptize them, and then expect them to know everything we know about matters of faith. Unfortunately, conversion to Christianity doesn't automatically mean you know everything about faith, why the church does certain things, or even what God expects of you. Christians in the church need to be patient and understanding about new believers and their learning curve when it comes to the faith. It takes time for new believers to settle in to this new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) they have become and really start to mature in their faith. Also remember that none of us quit maturing in our faith in this life. We never reach a place where we know it all and live it out perfectly. So technically, we all deal with the learning curve from the moment of conversion to glorification (when we die).

Look for ways to help mentor and mature new believers. If you are further down the path of faith than they are, then come alongside a new believer and help them grow in their faith. It will not only help them but it will also help you grow in your faith as well. Then the both of you are able to get a little bit further over the learning curve of faith.


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