Designing Communities of Belonging

Many church programs are designed around a teaching model that prioritizes content transmission over adult engagement—often unintentionally treating adult leaders and learners like passive students. This workshop offers a practical introduction to Andragogy, the art and science of teaching adults, focusing on the five core principles developed by Malcolm Knowles. We will explore how to design everything from Bible study to Vestry meetings using experiential learning cycles, transforming passive consumption into active, collaborative meaning-making. This workshop will be highly participatory, using small group discussions and a mini-design challenge to apply the principles directly to an innovative ministry project. Participants will leave equipped with actionable techniques to make teaching, committee work, and community formation efforts more dynamic, self-directed, and effective.  

Key Learning Outcomes:  

• Understand the five key differences between teaching adults and teaching children.  
• Apply the Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle to structure sermons, meetings, or educational programs. 
• Learn practical methods (e.g., case method teaching, structured reflection prompts) to leverage the experience of adult learners. 
• Design a rubric or checklist to evaluate and redesign an existing educational or leadership program using andragogical principles. 

Dr. Lindsay Andreolli-Comstock is the co-founder and managing director of Tumbuh Global, an educational design firm grounded in the principles of global citizenship education (GCED). She also serves as the president and principal consultant for The School of Global Citizenry, a CEU-certified, GCED online school of lifelong learning for adult professionals and a program of Tumbuh Global. Lindsay is a sought-after instructional designer, a seasoned e-learning developer, an experienced LXD consultant, an ordained clergyperson, an international immersion guide, a small business owner, and a published author with 23 years of nonprofit and B Corp-spirited for-profit experience.  

Lindsay is a former anti-human trafficking specialist to Southeast Asia whose work focused on developing culturally appropriate preventative education and awareness campaigns for vulnerable communities in Indonesia and Malaysia. She studied and implemented proven prevention tactics from anti-trafficking NGOs in Thailand and Cambodia to conduct her work. Lindsay is also a three-time American expatriate. She has lived in 5 countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Greece, and Albania), traveled to more than 43 countries, and speaks fluent Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu in addition to her mother tongue, English.  

Lindsay earned a Master of Divinity (M.Div) from the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, Virginia (2007), and a Doctor of the Advanced Practice of Ministry (D.Min) from the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (2015) in Kentucky, where she recently served for 3 years on the Alumni Board of Directors. Lindsay's doctoral thesis focused on adult curriculum design and development, which helped her design culturally and religiously appropriate human trafficking awareness materials during her time in Southeast Asia. In her free time, Lindsay serves on the Executive Leadership Team of the Association of Leaders in Lifelong Learning for Ministry (ALLLM) and as Vice President of the Kranky Thumb Collective, a non-profit dedicated to helping people redefine their relationship with screened devices and social media. For more information, please visit www.tumbuhglobal.org, www.sgcitizenry.com, www.lindsayandreollicomstock.com