Do We Receive or Reproduce?

In his book Radical, David Platt includes a story about when he was in Sudan. He wrote:

 

"Imagine being in Sudan. You walk into a thatched hut with a small group of Sudanese church leaders, and you sit down to teach them God's Word. As soon as you start, you lose eye contact with all of them. No one is looking at you, and you hardly see their eyes the rest of the time. The reason is they're writing down every word they hear. They come up to you afterward and say, 'Teacher we are going to take everything we have learned from God's Word, translate it into our languages, and teach it in our tribes.' They were not listening to receive but to reproduce.

 

On a typical Sunday in the assembly of the church some people have their Bibles open, while others don't have a Bible with them. A few people are taking notes but for the most part they are passively sitting in the audience.  While some are probably disengaged, others are intently focused on what the preacher is saying, listening to God's Word to hear how it applies to their lives. Few are listening to reproduce."

 

What if instead of asking "What can I get out of this?" the church asked "How can I listen to his Word so that I am equipped to teach others?"