You who teach in Christ’s church serve a crucial task. Along with pastors and other gifted leaders, you equip God’s people for the ministry He’s called them to. It’s a task not to be taken lightly (James 3:1), but one often misunderstood, if not outright mispracticed, when teachers don’t grow as disciple makers.
Most Christians today draw their understanding of teaching from their experience with school. As students go to school, the teacher dispenses educational content, after which students depart for home. Whether or not students do anything with the content is up to them as, by now, the teacher is busy with the next crop of students.
Often this model influences the church, so that Bible teachers find themselves dispensing religious content as provided in a curriculum, hoping that something of the lesson will stick as students return to life outside church walls.
But teaching in the church is different. It’s different because the core curriculum is nothing less than the word of God itself. But also because, as Lifeway editors once said back in 2000, the leader is the lesson. Teachers in the church share not only their understanding of God’s word but their lives as examples. The most fruitful teaching occurs when relationships transcending the classroom exist as tracks for the train of spiritual truth to run on. In the church, teachers are disciple makers. At least, they should be.
So, how can you grow from a dispenser of spiritual content into a fruitful disciple maker? Consider these thoughts.
First, pray for yourself and those you teach. Ultimately you don’t teach content, you teach people. Stated differently, the object of your teaching time is not to complete a lesson as planned, but to influence the growth of disciples through scriptural truth. But, at a deeper level, your job is to be an instrument of the Lord in His shaping of disciples. This is such a serious assignment (remember James 3:1) that entering the classroom without deep prayer, for yourself and the souls you shepherd, should be unthinkable.
Second, don’t just study the curriculum or lesson plan (if you are using such), study the scriptures the curriculum is meant to cover. By study I mean that you read and meditate on the passages, allowing the Lord to shape your beliefs and life with the truth at hand. After all, how can you effectively teach something that is not present in your own life?
Third, use curriculum wisely. A noted above, teachers in the church teach Biblical truth, not curriculum. Curriculum, study guides, and books can be helpful tools as you, the teacher, dig into the Biblical text and communicate truth. But the Bible is inspired and inerrant, not any of these other tools; therefore, the Bible should be the subject of any lesson.
By the way, consider this. Do you and your students read more about the Bible than you do the Bible itself? If so, consider reversing the order. I often ask church leaders, “What would happen if you woke up on Sunday morning and all of your Sunday School resources were gone so, when you arrived at church, all you had to teach with was the scripture? How would that go?” One pastor told me, “If it’s an adult class, they’d have another donut.” That’s not the best answer.
Fourth, find opportunities to connect beyond group meetings. Obviously there are boundaries to respect, such men discipling men and women discipling women. But within the boundaries are multiple opportunities to invest in disciples so that the teacher’s commitment to Christ is caught as well as taught. One of the best examples I’ve seen, transferrable to almost any context, involves the lead teacher and spouse (for a mixed Sunday School group) investing in two other couples as apprentices, thereby multiplying the relational connections within the class.
Finally, teach for transformation. Jesus says in the Great Commission to “teach them to obey all that I have commanded them.” The goal of disciple making is not simply mastery of doctrine, but growth toward Christ-likeness. If, after many seasons of your teaching, students show no greater appetite for the Lord, no deeper love for people, no fruitful service for Him, then it’s worth considering what might be lacking in your stewardship of the souls entrusted to you as a teacher.
Don’t be satisfied as a mere dispenser of spiritual content. Make disciples, for His glory. If the Network can help you consider pathways toward more fruitful disciple making, give us a call.
Blessings,
Bro. Jim