The Law of Language

 The Sunday School Teacher 12

 

We turn now to the third law or principle of good teaching, namely, this: that the language used in teaching must be common to both teacher and student.

On the surface, this seems a simplistically obvious point. Of course, you say. If I am speaking in English and the child does not understand English, I will not be able to teach her anything. While that is true, it is not what I am talking about. The truth is, both of you may be speaking the same language, but if what you intend to convey with your choice of words is not what she understands, you will still have failed. The student and the teacher must have a common understanding of the term or concept under discussion in order to handle and discuss it effectively.

This is true for linguistic reasons. There are a variety of words in English that sound the same but have entirely different definitions. See "flea" and "flee," for example. But it is also true because experience and perspective levels can confuse people in relation to a common language. To a Star Wars fan, a laser carries a different connotation than it does to a research physicist. And while I doubt you will teach any children who are research physicists, the point stands. How you understand something and what you intend to convey with what you say may not be at all how it is received or understood. Nor is this concern limited to what the teacher says to the student. In a good classroom, thought expressed in words flows in both directions. If you, as a teacher, misunderstand a term or concept your student references, the resulting confusion will be due to a violation of the law of language.

Understanding the importance of this, then, how can we ensure this law is not violated? Allow me to offer you a few practical suggestions.

First, as you teach, emphasize your willingness to be interrupted with questions. The student should always feel free to stop you and ask for an explanation of a term or concept you are discussing.

Second, every teacher should become a student of body language. I realize this, too, can be misunderstood, but ignoring it is worse than misunderstanding it. If a child looks puzzled or confused, stop and try to ascertain why. It may be they are struggling to make the intellectual connection you want them to make, but it may also be that they do not know what you are talking about, period. Learn to read that where possible so that you may make adjustments.

Third, I suggest keeping an old-fashioned dictionary in your classroom and using it from time to time. Have the students look up key terms related to your discussion. It will likely make them more comfortable with the overall learning process, but at the very least, it will help them with the specific lesson in question.

Fourth, as a general rule, the fewer the years, the fewer the syllables, and the shorter the person, the shorter the sentences. As I pen this, I am reading through an apologetics book with my sixteen-year-old son. The author, a brilliant philosopher, wrote like one would expect a brilliant philosopher to write. Unfortunately, it takes a brilliant philosopher to understand it. If your Sunday School class is composed of children, the teaching needs to be on their level rather than yours. You may feel throttled, but if you do not, those children will miss most of what you are trying to convey, and you will be wasting your time. As you read their body language and comments, keep rephrasing things until you are satisfied they understand.

Fifth, and this may be the most critical point along this line, if a word is central to your lesson, carefully define it at the beginning. This is true for all teaching, but especially true for theological education.

Words mean things. They are the building blocks of our understanding and application of God's will. God chose His Words precisely and placed them exactly where He wanted them. Their meaning will vary depending on context, original language, repetition, etc. This is not a book on hermeneutics, but as a Sunday School teacher, you should have a decent grasp on working out the proper meaning of God's words you will be talking about. And you need to convey that understanding in a compressed or capsulized way to your students. That theological understanding is the bedrock on which you construct everything else you have to say.

Put another way round, if you are teaching about faith, define it as you mean them to understand it - the same for grace or peace or Heaven or wisdom or obedience or anger or envy or bitterness. From the very beginning, help them to see what you mean when you use the word.

Sixth, keep abreast of slang and generally avoid it. Some teachers attempt to take a shortcut to relationship building by speaking like their students speak. The result is cringeworthy. Be your age and let the students be their age. By and large, avoid the temptation to chase coolness, to chase relevance. Doing so is like chasing your tail – entertaining to watch but always fruitless.

Seventh, after applying all of this, as you teach, occasionally stop and ask them to define the term you are using. This serves both as a review and a waypoint. It reminds the entire class of what you mean when you use the word, and it helps you understand just where they are in their grasp of that. Not to mention, almost any question and answer type of interaction between a teacher and a class is a good interaction, even if it is as simple as a definition for a word.

If you have read some of my other books, you will notice how important I consider this law to be. In most of them, I dedicate entire chapters to defining key terms. If you have heard me preach much, you will undoubtedly hear me doing the same thing. I will often spend an entire sermon on one word, especially if that word is a key element of a longer preaching series. I have no desire to bore people to tears, but I also have no desire to think I am communicating one thing when what people understand me to mean is something else entirely.

As the old saying goes, the important thing here is that we communicate. But communication is downstream from applying the law of language. Additionally, if we are careful to ensure a good understanding of a particular biblical term, we will help that student for the rest of their spiritual life. If we do a good job, from then on, as they encounter that term or concept in reading the Bible or hearing a message, they will derive more from it than they would have otherwise. Essentially, then, though following this law can seem frustrating at times, the benefits that flow from it are practically endless.

If your students do not understand you, stop. Reword something. Ask something. Illustrate with something. At all costs, ensure they grasp what you are trying to convey with that key term. Then, and only then, proceed.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Law of the Student

 The Sunday School Teacher 11

 

We turn now to the second law or principle of good teaching, namely, this: the student must pay attention with interest to the material being taught.

What is attention? It is the focused direction of the mind upon something. That something can be external, in other words, outside of my mind, or internal. Walk into a Krispy Kreme with a child and watch them stare in fascination at the donut-making process. They are paying attention to something outside of themselves. Alternatively, ask that same child to explain what a color is and watch their face screw up in the same sort of concentration. This time, they are focusing on an idea or concept, something internal. Really, the keyword in all of this is the word focus. To pay attention is to focus on something either inside or outside oneself.

Even a rookie teacher grasps the importance of this almost immediately. Without attention, the teacher cannot transfer anything at all to the student. It does not matter how well the teacher knows her material, or how good her material is, if the student is not paying attention, the teacher is wasting her breath.

This is because knowledge has to be thoughtfully received in order to be owned, to be properly internalized by the student. Knowledge is not a wrench handed from the mechanic to the apprentice. You can do that mindlessly on either side of the exchange. Knowledge is many things, but mindless is not one of them. Knowledge is not just facts; it is facts understood in context.

Gregory said it this way: "Knowledge cannot be passed like a material substance from one mind to another, for thoughts are not objects which may be held and handled. Ideas can be communicated only by inducing in the receiving mind processes corresponding to those by which these ideas were first conceived. Ideas must be rethought, experience must be re-experienced. It is obvious, therefore, that something more is required than a mere presentation; the pupil must think."

It helps me to think of my students' minds as a bookshelf for storing ideas. I cannot simply place a book on that shelf. I have to open up the book, explain the contents, watch and/or help the student rethink those concepts, and then wait while the student rewrites the book in his own words. Then, and only then, once the student has placed the book himself on his own mind's shelf, can I consider my work as a teacher accomplished.

All of this requires the direct focus of the student's mind. You cannot take ownership of knowledge without thinking, and you cannot think without paying attention. So if I, as a teacher, do not have my students' attention, I do not have anything.

At this point, I can hear veteran teachers groaning. Getting and keeping children's attention is arguably more difficult now than at any other time in human history. In addition to the built-in apathy that many children have toward subjects that do not interest them, and in addition to the ordinary distractions that plague every Sunday School class, there is the massive black hole of screens hoovering up all and sundry who come within their embrace. Children, pacified with screens via bad parents, become incapable of paying attention to anything that is not on a screen, and much that is on a screen, unless the display is constantly changing. The resulting ADD/ADHD is treated just as badly via a medication that dulls the student out of the fidgets and right into an intellectual coma.

As I pen this in 2025, there is a growing consensus amongst American educators that phones have no place in a school classroom. That is well and good, though, for this generation, a bit like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. Nor is keeping phones out of the classroom the sole solution to the problem; 'tis more like kicking the can down the road. But the solution to the issues of screen addiction in modern culture is beyond the scope of this book, though we do need to note for the record that these problems make this part of the teacher's job harder than ever. I still teach quite often, and I feel that too.

Having noted the problem in its currently aggravated dimensions, what can the good teacher do about it? Allow me to offer a handful of brief but hopefully helpful suggestions here.

First, give the student an intellectual task that will stretch him but not discourage him. Of course, this can be in the form of homework, but I mean it more in this context in relation to the thoughts you are asking him to think while he is sitting in your classroom. Do not spoon-feed him everything you want him to know and think. Beginning with what he already knows, hint at what he needs to learn or think about next, and encourage him to feel after these things with his intellectual fingers. To borrow another illustration, do not ask him to bite off more than he can chew, but encourage him to take a bite. Make his mind do some work.

For example, let's say you are teaching a lesson about Mary's journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem while she was pregnant with Jesus. You can tell them how difficult the journey must have been, or you can break them into teams and assign them to research what travel was like in that day for poor people, what the weather is like in that climate that time of year, how hotels did (or did not) work back then, etc.

Second, try to illustrate your lessons with things that naturally interest the age range you are teaching. I had a teacher once who was sick for most of his third-grade year. His mother took upon herself the responsibility of seeing that he got his work done at home. Seeing how he was struggling to maintain interest, and knowing how much he liked baseball, she began to work baseball into as many subjects as she could. How do you teach math? You use baseball statistics. How do you teach geography? You focus the child on the cities that have major league teams, etc.

Granted, the illustration here is limited, but the point is not. Interest catches attention, holding it with tenuous cobwebs of focus. Those cobwebs can be sewn into ropes that will tie the student to the subject at hand with bonds of affection. Find what your students care about, and tie the knowledge you intend to transmit to that. Their attention will follow you to the ends of the Earth, metaphorically speaking.

Third, never be too proud to use the simple tools of the teacher. Raise your voice. Use their name. Walk around the classroom. Evoke the pregnant pause. Ask them for the next word. Break into a snatch of song. Tell a story. Use them to hold something. Hold a competition. Each of these breaks up the monotone recitation of facts, inserting a brief flicker of life into the lesson, and potentially draws back a wandering attention span.

Fourth, be an interesting person. Without being an arrogant know-it-all, bring your variety of life experiences into the lesson. Widen. Know at least a little about a lot of things. My Junior Boy's Sunday School teacher taught a boring lesson, but he was a fascinating man to the junior boy version of me. So I listened to his boring lessons with interest.

Fifth, be interested in your students. By and large, they will return to you the same attitudes you give to them. If you care about them, they will, over time, care about you. If what matters to them matters to you, eventually what matters to you will matter to them. Ask them about their hobbies, their sports, and their school. If they like clothes or food or video games, notice. Ask them often, "What was the best thing to happen to you this week?" And then follow up on it in conversation at some point in the future.

Sixth, stop teaching when they stop paying attention. You do not have to be as rude about it as they are, but you do need to be intentional here. If the majority of your class is not paying attention, it is pointless for you to continue to teach. If you cannot beat them, join them. March off on some brief intellectual or physical interlude, and then resume teaching when you have them back. I do not mean you have to cater to the lowest common denominator; I mean you should seek to avoid the resentment that grows in children who are being forced to sit still. We will talk more about creativity in lesson plans later in this book, but that is precisely what is needed in this context.

Seventh, keep your own attention. If you decide to teach 37 weeks in a row on the kings of Judah, and you find yourself bored with it in week 12, give it up. Move on. It is hard enough to get the subject to matter to the students when it does matter to you; if it does not matter to you, find something that does, and teach that.

Eighth, deal appropriately with sudden interruptions. The church auditorium in my Chicago pastorate lay right along an alley between two streets. Often, as cars exited the alley, they would sound the horn as a warning to pedestrians who would not otherwise be aware. Consequently, on a fairly frequent basis, my sermons were interrupted by car horns sounding on the other side of the wall. I learned to pause, throw in a brief sarcastic, "thank you," and go right back to the interrupted thought. Sometimes, calling attention to the interruption can permit everyone to notice it quickly, and just as quickly return their focus to you.

Ninth, as much as you can, vary the physical space in which you teach. I do not mean move to another classroom. I mean, change the decorations seasonally, for example. Mix up the seating arrangement once a month. Sometimes, teach from the middle of a circle and other times from the end of a triangle. Renew the posters or the bulletin boards on a regular basis. Teach by candlelight some random Sunday morning. Adults like the predictable routine; children adore the opposite.

Tenth, prepare some thought-provoking questions from your material in advance. Occasionally, when appropriate, ask one, pause, and wait for an answer. We will discuss this further later, but much of good teaching is wrapped up in the question. Amongst other attributes, it helps to hold the student's attention.

Focused attention is necessary, but just as often problematic. Having looked at some ideas to strengthen it, let us turn now to the other side. If we want to keep our students' attention, what are some things we should avoid?

First, never begin teaching without getting everyone's attention. This can be as simple as hollering, "Hey, everybody, look up here!" or as detailed as a roving set of sarcastic insults while everyone is getting settled. I have even known some teachers who spent the first ten minutes of class time interacting with the students about everything other than the subject at hand, only to proceed with the lesson once the entire group was firmly in the palm of their hand. However you do it, do it. Do not start without gathering the strands of attention in the room.

Second, do not rely on the fear of punishment to hold that attention. Weak teachers threaten their students, browbeating or intimidating them into pretended heed. Not only does this not build the natural affection that forms between good teachers and their class, but it also practically vaporizes any hope of it in the future. It is not as crucial for the chemistry teacher to be liked by his students as it is for the Sunday School teacher. For the former, he is going to get paid one way or the other. For the latter, money does not even factor into it; life change is on the radar. To change a student's life generally requires a genuine, affectionate relationship between the teacher and the student. Angry threats do not produce affectionate relationships.

There are, of course, exceptions to this. If a student is being so disruptive that no one else in class can pay attention, something must be done, and the teacher is the one tasked with doing it. But setting that to the side, anger and discipline are not to be found in the Sunday School teacher's toolbox. They will only tear down the very thing you are seeking to construct.

Third, do not assume a disinterested student is being rebellious or lazy. In other words, be gracious in your mind as much as you possibly can as you think about that student. We have bus kids with horror stories of a home life that would curl your hair. Violence. Sexual abuse. Neglect. Physical abuse. Hunger. Criminal activities. The dysfunction some of them live in is enormous, and the resulting trauma and how it works itself out is entirely understandable. They do not need another adult to yell at them. They need one to love them, to draw them in rather than throw them out.

Setting that to the side, there is the simple fact that a child's attention span in minutes is generally equivalent to their age in years. If you expect a seven-year-old to gaze at you with rapt attention for a twenty-minute lesson, you have no one to blame but yourself when things begin to go haywire. Put another way round, there is often context to what appears to you to be a lack of attention. Do not forget that.

Fourth, do not assume that character will keep children interested in your Sunday School lesson. "Well, Pastor Brennan, these children are not bus kids. They come from good homes where they have been taken care of and taught well. They should know better." Perhaps they should. On the other hand, maybe you should stop being a lazy teacher. If you are not naturally interesting, be work-at-it interesting. Place the responsibility on yourself first. That is what good leadership does in every arena.

I realize I have been a bit blunt in this chapter. That was intentional. You need to be able to process not just deeper information, but a call to improve performance. Years ago, a young preacher asked an old preacher how to keep people from sleeping during the preaching. The old man said, "Wake the preacher up." Most of the time, a disinterested class is the result of a low level of teaching.

On the other hand, if you put the necessary time and work into getting and holding your students' attention, you will be amply repaid. You will be happier, since the children will actually be listening to you. The children will be happier because obedient children are always happier. You will discover that your attendance will gradually increase, driven by the simple fact that your students want to be in the room. Most of all, you will gain entrance into their heart. They will grant you the increased influence necessary for life change to begin to happen.

Attention is a must, but do not make them pay attention. Make it impossible for them not to pay attention.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Law of the Teacher

 The Sunday School Teacher 10

          We begin with the first law or principle of good teaching, namely, this: the teacher must know what he would teach.

Why is this the case? Allow me to give you four brief reasons.

First, as a teacher, knowledge is the substance with which you work. I know what it is like to be asked, "What do you teach?" In one sense, the correct response is, "Students." But in another sense, the correct response is the actual subject you are tasked to communicate. A mechanic who does not understand what makes cars tick cannot possibly teach someone else how to repair them. What is he going to teach? He has nothing of substance to say. Without knowledge, as a teacher, all you have is smoke and mirrors. And the students will eventually notice that and tune you out.

Second, as a teacher, you cannot convince others that a subject is worth learning if you have not convinced yourself it is worth knowing. A good teacher has a genuine and visible enthusiasm for his subject, but his enthusiasm has to spring from an internalized estimation of the high value of this knowledge. Such an enthusiasm cannot be faked over the long term, nor can a teacher rightly expect to guide a student over ground he has not first covered. If the teacher himself cannot be bothered to learn the information, he cannot have any genuine passion for someone else to learn it. To lead, you must be out front.

Third, it is only when a teacher thoroughly knows his material that he can focus on the student's reception of that material. I had a professor in college who called his lecturn the death zone. He loved to walk away from it and get down amongst us. This helped him connect with us, but it also allowed him to determine if we understood what he was saying. If you must have your nose buried in your notes in order to teach, you cannot read the reactions of your students, let alone adjust your teaching as a result.

A perfect example of this is soul-winning. A soul winner who has not practiced his ministry, who is still insecure in his knowledge base, is forced to spend his time in conversation figuring out what to say next. It is impossible to do this and focus on the prospect at the same time. But if an experienced soul winner leads the same conversation, he can afford to focus on the prospect because he does not need to focus on himself. This allows him to tailor his soul-winning presentation individually and precisely.

Just so, a Sunday School teacher who has not adequately prepared himself with a solid knowledge of his text cannot forget himself and focus on his students. He must pay attention to himself in order to make sure he says the correct thing. In the course of this, he will surely miss some critical visual or verbal clues as to the reception of his lesson on the part of his students, and fail in his responsibility to attach new knowledge to current knowledge.

Fourth, a teacher must prioritize his own knowledge because an ignorant teacher cannot breed confidence in himself as a teacher nor instill in his students a love for the subject. And a student without confidence in a teacher is a passive student at best, a hostile student at worst. Usually, if students tune you out for this reason, they will never tune you back in. They will write you off permanently.

In my small Christian high school, I was required to take two years of Algebra and one year of Geometry. The two years of Algebra were taught by a graduate of General Motors Institute, an engineer who understood both math and teaching. Studying under him was a delight. But it all fell apart when I took Geometry. He was no longer available to teach, and a sudden demand was placed upon the church secretary to fill his place. In her defense, she was a secretary, not a teacher. Nor had she had more than a couple of weeks to prepare for the beginning of class. To add injury to insult, she had a cleft palate, and it was difficult to understand her clearly. I have no idea if she was any good at Geometry in her own high school days, but I do know she didn't know much at all about it when she stood before us as our teacher. The result was the disaster you imagined it to be. I received an A in the class only because I ignored her entirely and used the textbook alone to teach myself. I suppose she got better as the year advanced, but I tuned her out early, permanently, and justifiably.

Gregory said it this way: "We follow with expectation and delight the guide who has a thorough knowledge of the field we wish to explore, but we follow reluctantly and without interest the ignorant and incompetent leader." Indeed.

Having established the necessity of the law of the teacher, what then are we supposed to do? What flows from this necessity? Again, I offer you four thoughts.

First, as the teacher, you need to write down your knowledge of the subject in clear terms. Writing is beneficial not just because it is a means of transferring truth to people beyond our immediate vicinity, but also because the process of writing disciplines our thinking. To put thoughts into words on a page clarifies and orders those thoughts. Writing forms thought precisely and efficiently.

This alone is enough of a reason to compel me to write all of my own sermons and lessons. I use a wide variety of resources in my preparation, but I never borrow another man's outline, thoughts, or words whole cloth. I rework and reword them until that information is imprinted deeply and clearly in my own mind. Then I give it out.

In plain language, take the knowledge you have gained and put it into outline form. (We will talk later in this book about how to do this more specifically.) You will then use that outline to guide you as you teach the students.

Second, in preparing this outline, go from the simplest thought to the most complex. In other words, it should build on itself. Point four should follow from point three, which should follow from point two, etc. To reference math again, we do not start first graders with Calculus; we begin with addition and subtraction.

Third, along the way, constantly ask yourself what the practical implications of this knowledge are. How does this information apply to the students who will be sitting in front of you on Sunday morning? If you teach facts merely to soothe your conscience for having taught them, you will likely be ineffective. If you teach those facts just so students can recite them back, you may feel like a good teacher, but you will not be. As Andrew Murray well said, biblical information is not given to increase our knowledge base but to change our conduct. Why are you teaching the students this? What are you hoping to accomplish? How are you trying to help them? How will they be better off having gotten this biblical knowledge from you? Always teach with a why in mind, with a purpose underneath passing along that information.

Fourth, develop a personal plan of study. Put another way round, develop a system of learning scriptural truth that works for you, that drives the information deep into your mind and heart.

At this point in my life, I know myself relatively well. I learn well by reading. If I want to learn a subject, I begin by gathering several books on the topic. Then I read those books, slowly, making notation marks in the margins along the way. I combine that with reading and re-reading everything I can find in the Bible on the same topic. This process may take many months. Finally, I gather the books into a stack, sit down at a computer, open up a Word document, and begin to input the information collated from all that material. After entering all the information, I organize it into categories. The categories and the information in them become the basis for the sermons and lessons that I teach.

In point of fact, this is precisely how this book came to be. I wanted to teach my Sunday School staff how to be better teachers, so I gathered every good book I could find on the subject. I then read them while also reading all I could find in the Bible about it. Following this, I organized the knowledge I had gleaned into categories, wrote an outline, and taught a semester-long class to my Sunday School staff. Now I am writing it again, and, not coincidentally, deepening even more my own understanding of what it takes to be a good teacher.

Thus far, we have discussed the importance of a teacher knowing their subject and examined the implications of this understanding. Let us turn now for just a moment to three things he should avoid in this process.

First, he should avoid being careless in his lesson preparation because he thinks he already knows so much more than the students do. Now, it may well be true that you are far in advance of your students in your biblical knowledge base. It does not then follow that you can simply wear long sleeves and teach off the cuff. I have noticed something curious as I age: the more I know, the more I forget. My memory used to be fantastic. Now it is merely adequate. If I do not discipline myself to refresh my knowledge of a particular aspect of biblical truth before I teach it, I am sure of one thing – I will leave something out I will later wish I had said. Good teachers do not assume; they prepare.

Second, avoid constantly having fill-in time at the end of your lesson. If you find yourself occasionally coming to the end of your material with time left on the clock, that is fine. If it happens often, though, there is a problem. It is an indication that your study routine is insufficient and your preparation is shallow.

Third, good teachers, while filled to bursting with knowledge, avoid intellectually condescending to the mere mortals who gaze up at them worshipfully. If you do not know what condescension is, I will deign to equip your puny mind with the barest understanding, something simple that you may perhaps be able to comprehend… See? That does not send you away marveling over what you have learned and eager to apply it. Rather, it leaves you feeling resentful, having been made to feel inferior by the academic brilliance of another. Condescension puts barriers between the teacher and student that will help to prevent the very positive life change you are seeking to produce in your Sunday School class.

Assuming you are with me and agree with the content of this chapter, what benefits come when you follow the law of the teacher? I offer you two.

First, you will personally gain from an increased knowledge base.

This bodes well for sanctification. The more of the Bible you know, the

more ammunition the Holy Spirit has within you as He forms you into the image of Jesus Christ.

This also matters for your future aptitude as a teacher. The greater your own knowledge base, the better and faster you will be at connecting various biblical thoughts and concepts. Depth is not the aim; edification is, but in the process, the depth you acquire over time will make you an exponentially better teacher. Which only serves to help more students more better. Bad grammar that, but good truth.

Second, a solid knowledge base in the teacher helps enable good attitudes all around.

In the teacher, it produces confidence, passion, and clarity.

On the classroom side, the students will have more confidence in you, more enthusiasm for the subject you are teaching, and more respect for you. Your obvious apprehension of the subject and passion as you communicate it will, in turn, stimulate them with an increased appetite for learning. After all, it is not just what they now know they did not know before that matters. It is what they now do that matters. Put another way round, it is what they now become as a result of your teaching that is the point.

Teachers are life-changers. Well, potentially, teachers are life-changers. But they cannot be if they do not learn and apply the law of the teacher.

Know your stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teaching As Craft

 The Sunday School Teacher 9

          When I was a child, a craft was something I did badly and only under protest. The popsicle sticks and the Elmer's Glue and the tiny house model set before me turned in my hand into an unholy mess. Many of those around me, however, produced veritable works of art. Their parents crowed in delight. Mine turned away in horror.

All right, I admit I oversold that a little, but you get my drift. As a term, craft can be both a noun and a verb, but the condition of the craft as a noun is dependent on the application of craft as a verb. When you study and practice your craft with diligent care, the result is a work of art, regardless of the field of your endeavor. A carpenter and a craftsman are two different things. The latter was first the former, but by dint of diligent care, he flourished into the latter.

It is my opinion that too many Sunday School teachers are carpenters when what they ought to be are craftsmen. I realize it is not fair to expect the volunteer teacher to have the same level of expertise as one finds in a professional, but all too often that becomes an excuse. The result is a Sunday School class that resembles a homeowner's attempt at fine furniture. The wood is chosen ad hoc, the angles do not meet, let alone the rounds, and it is not fit for anything but an obscure patio somewhere.

It does not have to be that way. Teaching is both an art and a science. As an art, there are aspects that produce good teaching that perhaps cannot be defined, only recognized or felt. But as a science, these things that create good teaching, or make good teachers, can be identified. Once identified, they can be incorporated into your teaching, transforming you from someone who merely holds the position of teacher to one who effectively transmits truth, which produces change in the life of the student.

Another way of saying this is that there are laws that relate to teaching, as Clarence Benson suggests in his work, The Christian Teacher. "Is not the Holy Spirit dishonored by the teacher who seeks to be guided by the laws of pedagogy? Not at all. One does not dishonor the Holy Spirit in complying with the laws of gravitation. One does not dishonor the Holy Spirit in becoming acquainted with the laws which govern the working of the human mind. No one was more fully led by the Holy Spirit than our Lord Jesus Christ and yet no one more consistently followed the laws of pedagogy."

Laws of pedagogy is not a phrase that rolls off the tongue, true. But they exist nevertheless. If you violate those laws, negative consequences ensue. Alternatively, if you follow them, good things happen. To reach for yet another example, perhaps we could liken an effective teacher to an excellent chef. Certainly, there is some art involved in turning out high-quality cuisine, but there is much more science than art. Christopher Kimball, a fixture on the New England cooking scene, has built an entire career around this, and my wife has a hefty America's Test Kitchen cookbook that proves it. Each recipe is not just made, but made repeatedly while adjusting various ingredients, implements, heat sources, and cooking times. The result is a recipe that almost always turns out well, even in the hands of a home cook.

In the same manner, highly effective teachers study the laws of teaching and learn them well. They strive to incorporate these laws and to do so with consistency. This consistent application of the laws of teaching on the part of the teacher produces in that teacher, over time, a habit of truly excellent teaching.

          About twenty years ago, I picked up a small volume by John Milton Gregory entitled The Seven Laws of Teaching. And it changed my life. Gregory was a 19th-century American educator, known primarily for founding the University of Illinois and publishing that little book. As an author, I appreciate how rare it is to find a work nigh on two centuries old that is still published and read. But to find one that is so powerfully clear and helpful is to find a gem indeed. Many of my readers are familiar with Gregory's work, but most are not.

In the section of this book that follows, I am going to take mental ownership of Gregory's work and do my best to transfer it to you. To the extent that you, in turn, take ownership of these laws and apply them, you will excel even in a venue as humble as the Sunday School class. You will also find that habitually applying these laws transfers into other areas of life, improving your results in those as well.

Teaching is a craft. Both our subject – God's Word – and our students call for us to be not mere carpenters, but craftsmen. They are together worthy of so much more than the hurried and harried thirty-minute babysitting session we often find in Sunday School. Together, let us turn the page and find out how to grow, how to excel even, how to become all that God wants you to become as you teach His children.

The Teacher's Power

 The Sunday School Teacher 8

          In a secular context, the teacher's power is a combination of knowledge, experience, and talent. Sunday School is not a secular context. It is not that knowledge, experience, and talent do not matter; it is rather that you cannot make a spiritual impact without spiritual power back of it. We will spend a considerable amount of time in the upcoming chapters examining the philosophical and practical aspects of being a good teacher, but there must be a spiritual foundation underlying all of this if any of it is to matter.

Paul voices this clearly when he tells the Corinthian church, And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. (I Corinthians 2.4-5) He had not built that church on his own intellectual brilliance or native force of personality. It was no petty personality cult. He had instead constructed it with spiritual power for spiritual purposes. As a Sunday School teacher, you can work, incentivize, study, illustrate, review, strategize, and fight to make progress, but that will not make it happen. You must have the Lord behind you in all that you say and do.

We see here an intrinsic connection with the previous chapter. What did Christ build His authority on? The Word of God, an eminently spiritual book. Not only is the Bible authoritative, but it is also life-giving. As the word of life (Philippians 2.16), the Scripture, as with Adam, breathes life into us. All that is good and right about a life well-lived comes from building that life on a biblical foundation. It brings life with it.

A few weeks ago, a liberal Baptist church here in town called our church. Their baptistry had been broken for years, but they had someone who wanted to be baptized. Could they use ours? I did not give an immediate answer, but I did request a meeting with someone from the church. The lady who showed up a few hours later was sincere, albeit misguided. She marveled over the fact that our church was healthy and growing. She saw our expanded parking lot, our newly renovated auditorium, and the dozens of missionary plaques on the walls and goggled.

Standing in front of our working and frequently used baptistry, she gave voice to some bad philosophy their church had embraced. She referenced how they had tried to change the music to attract young people. She spoke sadly of how large the crowds were for the dramas celebrating Black History Month, but how small they were for the worship services. After letting her roll along that track for a while, I gently interrupted her. I told her that the reason our church was so vigorously alive was simple, and it had nothing to do with changing the music because we still embraced the old hymns. Instead, I pointed her to Christ and the Word of God as the reason our church had life. We prioritized lifting up Christ, pointing men and women and boys and girls to Him. Our classes and services were filled with explanation of and application from the Bible. Yes, we were a Baptist church located on a dead-end street in a town filled with Catholics, but there was much life in us, not because of us but because of the Saviour and the Word of Life.

Roy Irving said it this way: "If Christian experience or knowledge of God is sought from sources other than this revelation, then Christian education is decimated to a humanistic, anthropocentric religious education. In true Christian education, the Bible is the objective body of truth to which the experiences of pupils are to be related and by which the pupils' experiences are to be affected."

In the 19th century, a young street preacher named Dwight Moody used to gather a crowd on Chicago street corners by placing his hat on the ground and racing around it, shouting at the top of his voice, "It's alive! It's alive!" When a sufficient number of people had noticed, he would lift the hat from the ground and reveal the Bible underneath. Taking up the old black Book, he would preach Christ. And people would come to life, would be born again.

The Word of God, as powerfully effective as it is, must be paired with the personal ministration of the Spirit of God, or little gets done. How does a humble Junior Boys Sunday School teacher access the power of the Spirit of God? On his knees. 'Tis ever the way and the only way. Christ Himself pleaded for the Spirit to empower Him and urged us to do the same. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. (Luke 24.49) If even Jesus needed the Holy Spirit (Luke 4.14) to make an impact, what makes you think we can get along on something less?

I do not mean to imply that a teacher's entire prayer life should consist of asking the Holy Spirit to empower her teaching. She should do that, yes, but it is only natural and right for much of that prayer life to revolve around the students under her care. And as you build a relationship with each student, the cares of their life will naturally come through your heart to your lips as you talk to your Father for them. Their struggles at school. Their catastrophically dysfunctional home life. The spiritually poisonous atmosphere in which they are being reared. Their hopes, fears, dreams, and tears. Their spiritual walk. Their future. Their safety. Their heart to be open to hear what the Lord would speak to them.

The spiritually powerful teacher will pray for each student in his class at least every week. He will not just call their name. He will lift their soul, their life, to the Throne and seek God's grace for them. However, to pray effectively and teach powerfully, that same teacher must live an outwardly separated, inwardly holy life.

There is a direct biblical link between how we live out our lives and the level of the Spirit's power flowing through us. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. (I Thessalonians 1.5) You cannot live like the devil and expect to enjoy the ministration of God's power changing lives in your class. Indeed, I would argue you cannot even flirt with living like the devil and expect to do so. Thus, one who would teach spiritual things in the Spirit's power must live a life both outwardly and inwardly above reproach.

It is from this construct that we derive what is commonly referred to as a set of requirements for being a Sunday School teacher. The entire concept is controversial, especially among the evangelical crowd and those influenced by them. To them, the idea that a pastor can set requirements for who can and cannot teach in God's church is legalistic and controlling. To me, though, it is just the logical outcome of the necessity for spiritual power in a spiritual task.

I will not dwell here at length on either holiness or standards. I have written an entire book about each of those subjects, the former lengthy and the latter brief. But I will here summarize those two books with this thought: holiness is an inward grace that works its way outward. Thus, while we cannot establish rules or requirements for the inner man, we can and should for the outer man.

In the early days of the Sunday School movement, this was better understood. In my reading, I came across the following rather astounding list of requirements for Sunday School teachers of the First Presbyterian Church in Seattle, Washington, in 1932:

 

Rules for Teachers

1. All teachers admitted into the school must enter as substitute teachers, unless specially recommended by the pastor or general superintendent of the school; said recommendation shall be based on the applicant's Bible knowledge and his or her ability to impart that knowledge.

2. Each teacher must be willing to surrender his or her class at any time at the request of the superintendent.

3. If at any time teachers find they cannot properly prepare the message for the class and attend to the follow-up work, it is their duty to report this fact to the superintendent.

4. It is expected that all teachers will be interested in the business and social affairs of their classes.

5. All offerings from the Sunday School must be sent through the Sunday School office. they must be given to the general secretary or sent to the church office.

6. All teachers must sign the class report cards each Sunday.

7. All records must be accurately kept and sent to the general secretary's office on time.

8. The first of each month all teachers shall send a written report of the work done in her or her class to the superintendent of the division.

9. As our school is based on prayer, all teachers are expected to attend the 9:25 prayer service each Sunday morning, unless providentially hindered.

To the Applicant:

1. Are you conscious of a call from God to this work?

2. Have you practical knowledge of the Word of God?

3. What age do you seem best adapted to teach?

4. What experience have you had?

5. Have you a burning love in your heart to give out His Word to others?

6. Are you willing to be obedient and submissive to those in authority over you?

7. Do you use tobacco in any form?

8. Do you approve of worldly amusements, theaters, movies, cards, dancing, etc.? Please state fully.

After taking the class, if the members who have accepted the Lord Jesus are not built up in the faith, or the others are not brought to the Lord, if the class decreases in size instead of increases, and if you are not in sympathy with the administration of the school, this should be a clear message to you that you are out of touch with Him and that you are in the wrong place.

Agreement to be Signed by All Teachers

I cheerfully accept the statement of doctrine of this school as recorded within, and subscribe to the rules.

In assuming this office I agree to be loyal to the interests of the school, to seek its purity and prosperity, and to be subject to the discipline of the school.

(signed)

 

That list makes my own church's teacher requirements seem relatively paltry, by comparison. For what it is worth, here they are:

 

1) You must attend every public church service unless you are sick or working.

2) You need to attend the weekly Leaders' Meeting.

3) You are required to follow our church's platform dress code while teaching.

4) You will need to keep accurate records.

5) You should write, call, or visit your absentees regularly.

6) Since your example and personal spirituality are so important in teaching, you are expected to refrain from ungodly activities and amusements and cultivate a close, vibrant walk with the Lord.

 

You may think our church's teaching requirements are too little or too much, and you may very well be correct. But I fully reject the modern idea that the teaching of God's Word in an official church capacity should have no spiritual requirements at all. Of course, bear in mind, being separated from the world does not make you holy or spiritual. It does, however, prepare you to be holy and spiritual and protect you where you are. Put another way round, without such external separation from the world and active loyalty to the work of God, the Holy Spirit cannot get you far enough into holiness to trust you with His power. And without that power, you will not make much progress with the students you love so much.

Live clean and pure. Live separately from the world. Cleave to the Lord much in private duties of the Word and prayer. Be actively loyal to the program of your church. Yield to the Spirit's influence in your heart. And then watch as He does spectacular things in the lives of your students.

The Word of God and the Holy Spirit are the power of your teaching ministry. Above all, you must use these, or everything that follows in this book will fall to the ground.

The Teacher's Pattern

The Sunday School Teacher 7

If this next sentence comes as a shock, you should not be teaching Sunday School. The teacher's pattern is Jesus Christ. Of course, in all things, Christ is our pattern. In sewing terms, He is the one we copy, seeking to replicate exactly in our own lives that which we see in Him. But this is true not just in the generic sense for the Sunday School teacher but in the specific sense. Jesus was a teacher.

Matthew 7:29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Matthew 13:54 And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?

Mark 1:22 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.

Mark 2:13 And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them.

Mark 4:2 And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,

Mark 9:31 For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.

Mark 10:1 And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea by the farther side of Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again.

Mark 11:17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Mark 12:35 And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David?

Luke 4:15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.

Luke 19:47 And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him,

Luke 20:1 And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders,

John 6:59 These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.

John 7:28 Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.

John 8:20 These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come.

Parse that however you like, it is a staggering point of emphasis in His life. The constant repetition of the phrase, "he taught", is not merely for rhetorical flourish. Every word in the Bible is there on purpose. Jesus both excelled at and drew attention to the necessity for teaching.

Having established He is our pattern in this area, how is He our pattern? In other words, besides being a teacher, what did Jesus do as a teacher that is copyable by us, for lack of a better term? I see five answers to that question in the passages above.

First, Christ taught with authority.

When I say authority here, I do not mean that Christ dogmatically asserted truth rather than offered up gentle suggestions. At the risk of quoting myself, let me give you a brief selection from my book, "The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached":

The prevailing rabbinic system of His day reveled in tying itself tightly to previous rabbinic interpretations and authorities. Edersheim, the nineteenth-century converted Jew who became an Anglican preacher, in his fabulous book on the life of Christ, tells of a rabbi in Jesus' day who was proud of the fact that he had nothing original to say. Instead, he only passed along to the people the traditional interpretations that he had been handed from previous centuries of rabbinic scholarship. Jesus turned that system on its head, and, rejecting the supposed earthly authorities, fearlessly asserted His own interpretation. For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. (Matthew 7.29)

The point for us here is that Jesus' teaching was authoritative because it rested on the Word of God. He did not have to quote a guy who quoted a guy who quoted a guy who quoted from the Oral Torah handed down by Moses alongside the actual Torah. He just quoted Scripture. He strenuously insisted that people turn their gaze to the Scriptures themselves. Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures. (Matthew 22.29) The rabbinic system had mangled the pure intent of the Word of God with a massive system of pseudo-hermeneutically derived principles of application. In the process, they had obscured the Word of God and made themselves and their interpretations the authority.

When you stand (or sit) to teach in front of a group of God's children, always do so from an open Bible. Refer to it often. Turn to passages in it. Read from them. Ask them to read them. Craft your points around the Word of God. Illustrate your applications with biblical people. It is not wrong to use additional resources or even to refer to them, but the bulk of your teaching ought to come from the Bible itself. In you and me, there is no inherent authority. In the Word of God, there is all the authority of an omniscient, infallible, inerrant God.

Second, Christ knew human nature and used it to His advantage.

I do not mean He manipulated people. I mean, He related to them, identified with them, connected with them very well. Put another way round, He knew what to say to whom to engage them.

With some people, like the woman at the well, He played on her curiosity. With others, like the Pharisees, He built such a tight box of legal reasoning that they were compelled to admit He was correct. Christ was a great emoter, so to speak. It is all over His life and ministry. As such, He was able to instinctively feel what His target audience was feeling and convey to them that He was feeling it. I do not mean to imply that Jesus was a comelian. But at weddings, He was happy with people, and at funerals, He was sad with them. In another context, Ezekiel put it this way, Then I came to them of the captivity of Tel-abib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days. (Ezekiel 3.15)

Whatever age or stage your Sunday School students are in, you need to connect with them, and do it so well that it is almost instinctive. You must care about what they care about, even if you would otherwise not care about it at all. With the mechanic, you talk about race cars. With the farmer, you talk about rain. With the senior, you ask to see pictures of their grandchildren. I have broken through many a crusty teenager's aloof distance with the simple question, "Tell me, what is the best thing that happened to you this week?" Ask them that question four weeks in a row, and watch their face brighten when they see you coming to ask it the fifth week. Now then, you are getting somewhere. And you will see it on their countenance when you stand before them to teach.

Third, Jesus used a variety of teaching methods.

I have previously asserted the superiority of the traditional Sunday School class approach. I am not here retracting it. But within that construct, you can and should still use some variety in your teaching. Speaking broadly, the younger your class is, the more variety you should employ.

Christ did. Sometimes, He lectured. Much of the time, He engaged in vigorous verbal discussions that revolved around an exchange of difficult questions. He was a master illustrator, getting His point across by likening it to something with which they were already familiar. He even used object lessons. So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? (John 13.12)

Fourth, our Lord knew His material.

We see this in Him first at the rather young age of twelve. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. (Luke 2.46-47) Of course, growing up in the home of conscientious observing Jews like Joseph and Mary, the Torah would have been His first textbook and His primary textbook. It is apparent from how easily its quotations flowed from His lips that He internalized it. As He Himself said, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. (Luke 6.45) He packed Himself full of the Scripture, of both a head and a heart knowledge of God, and it flowed out of Him at every turn.

"Ok, Bro. Brennan, but you can't seriously expect me to know the Bible as well as Jesus did."

No. But I can expect you to aim for that. Christ is the goal, is He not? For each of us. In every area of the Christian life. That is the whole point of this chapter, after all.

Beyond that, however, is a more simplistic yet still accurate application. Jack Hyles used to say, "Don't tell 'em everything you know. Somebody might ask you a question when you get through." There is nothing more off-putting than raising your hand, vocalizing a question that has formed in your mind, and watching the teacher stare at you blankly with zero idea of how to respond. Your mind screams, "Why are they teaching me? They don't know any more than I do!"

Leadership is confidence. Put another way round, no one wants to follow someone who does not seem to know where you both should be going, let alone how to get there. Your class's confidence in you will wither if you are tried and found wanting in the knowledge department. I realize we cannot be as deep as Jesus was because He is God and we are not, but we can know our stuff. That we certainly can do.

Fifth, Jesus' life exemplified what He taught.

Before you start, no, I do not think it is reasonable to expect moral perfection from my Sunday School teaching staff. Nor should the students. But if our life does not in a significant way match the words coming out of our mouth, what is the point of us saying them?

Jesus Christ lived perfectly everything He taught. He did not flaunt that. As D. L. Moody said, "Lighthouses blow no horns; they just shine." But when He opened His mouth and taught of love, it found a ready audience in the hearts of the people He loved. If He called for mercy, it was from a platform of mercy extended. If He urged unconditional obedience to the Lord, there was nothing in His life that argued the contrary.

In a sense, this is not a fair expectation. I have spent my entire life preaching a perfect Book. I am certainly not a perfect man, nor will I be this side of Glory. Which means at some point, my preaching, teaching, writing, parenting, witnessing, leading, praying, mentoring, and counseling will all fall short. My life cannot possibly line up precisely with the perfect Word of God. But our people understand that, in my experience. Yes, there are the occasional unreasonable, intractable, obstinate individual who sees us doing 30 MPH in a 25 MPH school zone and thinks they can throw out every lesson we have ever taught. But they are the exception, not the rule. By and large, if you genuinely seek to live what you teach, your students can tell. And they care. Deeply. If it does not impact your heart, you cannot reasonably expect it to influence theirs.

I have had many good teachers and some downright excellent ones. Teachers who inspired me, who pushed me, who brought more out of me than I thought I had in me, who changed my life. Without exception, those latter teachers showed me Jesus. In their life and on their lips.

Be someone's excellent teacher. Do not just tell them of Christ. Show them Christ.