Coup d'Etat in the Human Heart: The Galli Report

Why Willow Creek Is Huge | ‘Personal Learning’ Is Not Personal or Learning | [View online]( [Give Now]( Advertisement [The Galli Report]( [Home]( [Podcast]( [Subscribe]( Friday, August 10, 2018 Coup d'Etat in the Human Heart I don’t know if this was a blessed coincidence or a “God thing”: Last night as I walked, I listened to A. W. Tozer’s [The Pursuit of God](dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1) and had just finished the chapter on “The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing” when I arrived back home. I opened my laptop to get The Galli Report ready, and without searching for it, I immediately ran across [a digital version of that chapter.]( So I took it as a divine sign that GR readers need to think more prayerfully about their possessions! At any rate, I found it a compelling chapter and trust you will too. Besides, Tozer is a good writer: Within the human heart things have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne. This is not a mere metaphor, but an accurate analysis of our real spiritual trouble. Why Willow Creek Is Huge More sad news about Bill Hybels and Willow Creek, [as reported here in CT](. But for [the Quick to Listen podcast,]( we decided to look at the bigger picture. Many have wondered what the big deal is because lots of churches have experienced sexual indiscretion on staff. This podcast with Marshall Shelley, who has been a close observer of Willow for decades as editor of Leadership Journal, explores what has been so phenomenal about Hybels and Willow Creek. This is not to excuse Hybels but to suggest why the recent stories are noteworthy. ‘Personal Learning’ Is Not Personal—or Learning The latter point is the argument of Nicholas Tampio, associate professor of political science at Fordham University. As the subtitle puts it: [“Children learn best when their bodies are engaged in the living world. We must resist the ideology of screen-based learning.”]( And from the opening paragraphs: As a parent, it is obvious that children learn more when they engage their entire body in a meaningful experience than when they sit at a computer. If you doubt this, just observe children watching an activity on a screen and then doing the same activity for themselves. They are much more engaged riding a horse than watching a video about it, playing a sport with their whole bodies rather than a simulated version of it in an online game. Today, however, many powerful people are pushing for children to spend more time in front of computer screens, not less. Philanthropists such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have contributed millions of dollars to ‘personal learning’, a term that describes children working by themselves on computers, and Laurene Powell Jobs has bankrolled the XQ Super School project to use technology to ‘transcend the confines of traditional teaching methodologies’. Policymakers such as the US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos call personalised learning ‘one of the most promising developments in K-12 education’, and Rhode Island has announced a statewide personalised learning push for all public school students. Think tanks such as the Brookings Institution recommend that Latin-American countries build ‘massive e-learning hubs that reach millions’. School administrators tout the advantages of giving all students, including those at kindergarten, personal computers. There Are More Newsletters than The Galli Report If you’re looking for a way to make some sense of the clutter that is the internet, email newsletters may be the answer for you. I certainly use a few of them to give me leads on GR material but also to keep me alert to the offerings of publications I trust. Some people use Twitter and Facebook to find reliable journalism, but I find them increasingly useless. You already know this, because you subscribe to the best newsletter going! But [this piece]( might encourage you to find others that might be helpful for you. Grace and peace, [Mark Galli] [Mark Galli] [Mark Galli](mailto:GalliReport@christianitytoday.com) Editor-in-Chief, Christianity Today Advertisement More from Christianity Today [Willow Creek Elders and Pastor Heather Larson Resign over Bill Hybels]( [News]( [Willow Creek Elders and Pastor Heather Larson Resign over Bill Hybels]( Church leaders apologize to Nancy Ortberg, Nancy Beach, Vonda Dyer, and other women with accusations: “We have no reason not to believe you.” Bob Smietana [Read More]( [What We Lose When Hymnbooks Disappear]( [Book Review]( [What We Lose When Hymnbooks Disappear]( Tangible objects of faith play an essential role in binding a community of believers together. Ashley Hales [Read More]( [The Bill Hybels News Isn’t Just Another Pastor Sex Scandal]( [Quick to Listen]( [The Bill Hybels News Isn’t Just Another Pastor Sex Scandal]( Willow Creek changed how Americans do church. What happens now? CT Editors [Read More]( [View All of our Latest]( In the magazine [July/August]( [Cover Story]( [Cover Story: Out of the Flood]( Three teens survived a rising river at a Bible camp in Comfort, Texas. Would their faith? [Does Evangelism Jeopardize Authentic Artistic Expression?]( [Heard the One About the Jewish Man, the Roman Demon, and the Gentile Pigs?]( [View Full Issue]( [Subscribe Now]( Related Newsletters [CT Books]( Each issue contains up-to-date, insightful information about today’s culture, plus analysis of books important to the evangelical thinker. [Sign Up Now]( [Christianity Today Connection]( Get the inside story with this official newsletter of the global media ministry. [Sign Up Now]( Advertisement Follow Us: [Follow on Facebook]( [Follow on Twitter]( [RSS]( Want to stay informed but a little short on free time? Try The Galli Report, a weekly newsletter giving you 5 must-read articles for thought leaders handpicked by CT Editor Mark Galli. 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