By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.  So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.  Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Mark 6:35-44

Jesus used continual experiential learning with his disciples as he involved the disciples in the ministry. When they complained that the multitude was hungry he said, “You feed them”. He moved them from spectators to participants in the unfolding drama. They learned by imitating what they saw their teacher do. 
Disciple-makers involve the disciples in experiential learning. It is a ‘be with‘ lifestyle that cannot be massed produced. As disciples, we learn as we go. It is Just-in-time learning instead of Just-in-case learning. Be careful of the Just-in-case mode that says “You don’t know enough to start unless you know everything.” This can cause us to be permanently afraid to risk. It is fine to fail as long as we learn from it. In fact it may be the only way to learn certain things. By reflecting on these lessons, we continually compare the experience to what Jesus taught. The fourth learning verb is ‘to reflect’ on these experiences.

Thirsty for More?

• Read the four accounts of the feeding of the 5000:

​Matthew 14:13-21 Mark 6:31-44
Luke 9:12-17 John 6:1-14

Warmest greetings,