Transcript
Hello, this is the time of the week where I share an idea that you can share with others. My name is Shaun McMillan, and this is Best Class Ever.
[intro music]
Make it Beautiful, Majestic, & Mysterious
Now my teacher, the founder of the religious organization I volunteer at, once said that God made the world beautiful, majestic, and mysterious. And we too, if we want to do great works, should make them beautiful, majestic, and mysterious. Today I would like to share about how to make things mysterious.
Two years ago I read several books on scriptwriting and storytelling. I even read one book about how to write mystery fiction. Mystery fiction is the genre in which a detective investigates a crime, usually a murder that takes place at the beginning of a story, and spends the rest of the plot trying to figure out who done it. That’s why stories like these are also referred to as a who-done-it.
Every Harry Potter Plot Ever
Now I understand that most of my audience has probably never read or seen more than one or two of these stories. But a lot of the people who like the kind of stories that I like are big fans of Harry Potter. Harry Potter with all of its magic most certainly falls into the genre fantasy. But the plot of every Harry Potter novel is structured like a murder mystery. In the beginning there is a crime committed by an evil mastermind, but it’s not clear who exactly was involved and how the criminals got such deep access behind the safe walls of the good wizarding world. And now it’s up to our young protagonists to go behind the secured walls of safety, and sneak around in the darker corners of the wizarding world. They often have to break some rules in order to restore them. Eventually it all comes down to which teacher can they trust? If that doesn’t sound like every Harry Potter story then you are obviously not as nerdy as the rest of us.
I have been teaching my church’s infamous Bible Study lecture series for fourteen years now. And I have also been a classroom teacher for seven years. I have taken classes on scriptwriting, read books on scriptwriting, and I spent a lot of time studying storytelling when I got my four-year degree in Animation & Media Arts. And what I learned is that a great lesson should have the same shape and structure as a mysterious story.
Confirmation Bias
Now of course I’m sure you are beginning to agree with me even if you don’t know exactly what I mean yet. Not all of us are confident enough to say we know how to give a great lecture. But I will bet there a lot of us who have taken what we know to be a great lesson, and then failed to teach it well. Just take any Bible story and try to tell it to someone. The Bible is the number one top selling book and has held that position for the longest time. We know that these are great stories. But it’s still possible to bore someone to tears while telling a great story. The story is not the problem. It’s how you tell it.
The Biggest Mistake to Avoid When Teaching
The biggest mistake I see new teachers make, is they just give away the answer. These teachers might be very passionate about their subject, they find the material fascinating. After years of searching they have found this great solution and they are bursting at the seams to share their newfound knowledge with the world. So then, they present this amazing answer to the student and the student just responds, “so what?”
“So what? So WHAT?!? Don’t you get it? This is amazing. How are you not mind blown?”
Make it Majestic
You absolutely must not give away the answer at the very beginning. First you have to build up the mystery. You have to introduce a really fascinating question. In the education world we call this the leading question. Then you have to explain just how critical it is that we find the answer. You have to raise the stakes. Make it of life and death importance. If only we could find the answer we could save the world. You have to make it majestic.
Why do we love becoming the protagonist of a story or a role playing game? What is it that makes a hero story feel so epic? Because even though you are so small and powerless, you are the chosen one and you and only you can save the world. And if you cannot solve this mystery then your world will come crashing down around you.
Once your listener is intrigued and realizes how critical this lesson will be for their life, then and only then can you begin down this path together.
Present the Problem
The next step is to confuse the hell out of them. Present them with a contradiction, a paradox, or a truth that cannot possibly be true. Show them how truly broken their assumptions are. Why? Because everyone you meet already thinks they know what you have to say. So much so, that they aren’t even really listening to you. We all have confirmation bias, meaning we don’t really listen to what people say unless it confirms what we think we already know. Even when someone explains to you why you are wrong, you could actually walk away thinking what they said actually confirms that you were right.
So you cannot teach anyone anything until you completely and profoundly confuse them. Show them that what they know cannot possibly be right. But don’t fight them on it. Instead invite them in to see if they can solve the riddle. Everyone likes a good puzzle. Show them a game that maybe they can win.
In the Bible Study Lecture series we often teach weird miracle stories in which the miracle is so weird, that it contradicts not only the laws of nature, but also so many other laws of the Bible that it simply cannot be the proper way to interpret the Bible. But inherent in every great question is the seed of the answer. Why would you be asking this question if you didn’t believe there was an answer.
This is what we call the hook.
Explore the Shadowy Worlds of Wizardry
Once you have piqued their curiosity now you must do the hard work of feeding them clues. Lead them down some wrong paths and then lead them down some correct paths by leaving little bread crumbs. Show them step by step how the founder of this principle was able to uncover this truth little by little. Cross reference the scriptures, show them parallels between different examples, just as a detective would cross-reference the details of the case to build new theories. If they aren’t getting it then highlight the parts that add up to a greater whole. Give them two and two, but you must let them add it up to four.
Let the listener connect the dots. Don’t fight against their ideas, but fight on their side against the real enemy–ignorance. And the way you do this is not by giving them the right answers. Never give them the answer. Ask them the right questions. Clues should come in the form of questions so they never feel they have to accept your answer. Even if you have to endure uncomfortably painfully awkward pauses watching as they beg you for the answer with tears in their eyes, YOU MUST NEVER GIVE THEM YOUR ANSWER. Simply nudge them with more questions so that they can form their own conclusion.
The Climax
Once you have laid all the groundwork let them take it all in. Pay attention to their eyes so you can capture that moment when they finally find the missing connection and overturn that one wrong false assumption. Then as their mind explodes into an epiphany, then and only then can you confirm or deny their newfound solution.
And that my friends is how you make it mysterious.
So I leave you with a mystery. A question that you yourself can investigate. And together we can explore this question when I return next week.
This is a question about Samson’s Riddle.
Q: If the event in Judges 14:5-9 is a parable or what some of us call a revelation of nature, then what tragedy was it foreshadowing in Samson’s life?
Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.
Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.
Judges 14:5-9
Q: How is this a revelation of nature? Or more specifically, what is symbolized by the dead lion and the honey he ate taken from its corpse?
If you would like notes from this week’s episode, or if you would like to see the Bible Study video lecture series, feel free to visit www.BestClassEver.org.
