Orchestrating conflict: Teaching For Discipleship includes deliberately turning things upside down to get a better look. T4D occasionally, and carefully, creates moments of what we used to call “cognitive dissonance,” which is simply a fancy term for “messing with our heads.”

In Teaching For Discipleship, Jesus orchestrated conflict, deliberately describing happiness in ways that caused people to revisit their assumptions. By describing the Beatitudes in paradoxical terms, for example, he creates some cognitive dissonance. He told everyone to turn the other cheek, and give someone twice what is asked for. He said that we have to be born again and that the greatest were the least—his parables were deliberate vehicles for cognitive dissonance.

In your own efforts at Teaching For Discipleship, think about this: We often refer to good catechesis as a multidimensional process that is formative , informative , and often even transformative.

But what would catechesis look like if we believed that it could also be re-formative?

How might that be slightly different than the other three dynamics? What would it add or explain?

And what is Jesus the Teacher aiming at? Is he primarily seeking to be formative, informative, transformative, or re-formative?

How and when do you orchestrate conflict or create “cognitive dissonance” with your students?

Do you primarily intend it to be formative, informative, transformative, or re-formative?

Ask your students what they take away from Matthew 6:19-21:  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth….rather store up for yourself treasures in heaven…for where your treasures are, there your heart is also.”

Their answers could be multidimensional: formative, informative, transformative, or re-formative. How will you make that a part of your ongoing catechesis?