Six Helps to Grow a Soul-Winning Church

 

Note: My life at the moment is in a bit of an uproar, which is not exactly conducive to good writing. I have decided to set my current book project aside for a bit. I have a number of questions that have worked their way into my mailbag and have been patiently waiting for some time. So for the next few weeks, I am going to try to answer some of those.

 

Today’s question comes from a young pastor. He has recently taken his first church. As with many such churches, it is struggling mightily. There are crises at every turn. But he does not simply want to respond to emergencies; he wants to build a healthy church for the long term. He knows, amongst other things, that this involves building a soul-winning church. I have had some success in that area, so he came to me for a few ideas, and it turned into a rather lengthy phone conversation. Here are the six suggestions I offered him in that discussion.

First, have a regularly scheduled soul-winning time.

I am aware of the argument that says Christians should always be soul-conscious, and that if we emphasize a regular soul-winning time, we risk developing Christians who witness only on Saturday mornings. I think it is a specious argument. For two reasons. In the first place, there are numerous things that a Christian is called to be and do constantly, and yet we embrace the wisdom of setting aside a specific time to do so. Prayer, for example. We are to pray without ceasing, but we still schedule prayer meetings. Such prayer meetings do not take away from praying without ceasing; indeed, I would argue they strengthen it. Which leads directly to my second reason I reject such counsel – I have never seen a Christian develop a soul-conscious heart without first disciplining themselves to attend a regularly scheduled soul-winning time. Perhaps you have, but I have not. I am convinced that regularly exercising the spiritual graces is the only way to develop them.

This regularly scheduled soul-winning time should be on the schedule weekly. Doing it monthly seems like an easier sell when it comes to participation, but such is fool’s gold. Nobody establishes commitment by choosing the easy route. In addition, this soul-winning time should be canceled only rarely, if at all. As a pastor, you must fight the urge to cancel important things. In fact, your refusal to cancel is a vital part of communicating to your people how important your soul-winning time is. For example, I do not cancel Operation Go (our name for it) due to the cold. If it gets down close to zero degrees, I either send people out on specific visits, have a prayer meeting, do a soul-winning training session, or take all my soul winners to breakfast. But what I do not do is cancel.

In addition, I think it is important that the pastor himself lead this soul-winning meeting. You cannot lead from behind. Be present. Be organized. Be brief. Be positive. Be consistent. Do not ask your people for a four hour commitment. Ask them to give you the equivalent of a regular church service – about an hour or so total, meeting included. Keep it on the schedule even if no one shows up. Announce it weekly. Be patient as the Lord convicts your people in this area. But by all means, provide them a regular opportunity to obey the Lord in this area.

Second, routinely preach about the necessity of Christians being a witness to the lost.

I track my preaching, every sermon, for a variety of reasons. This is one of them. I can tell you how often I have preached on soul winning in whichever service is in question, what the main idea of the sermon was, and what the text was. Every so often, I check. If it has been a few months since I last preached about witnessing, I put it on the docket.

Many years ago, I heard Clarence Sexton say, “We reap a harvest where we place an emphasis.” This is a key principle in the evolution of a soul-winning church. I am constantly looking for additional ways to emphasize personal evangelism. A standalone sermon is one way to do it, but a better approach is a sermon series. You could preach an entire series on the soul-winning conversations in the Bible, another on great soul-winning passages, another on the philosophy of personal evangelism, another on how the devil attacks soul-winning in a church, etc. A sermon series increases the impact of an idea. Instead of one tap with a hammer, a series of blows is landed until the point is driven well home. I long ago lost count of how many times a church member approached me privately and told me they had been under conviction for quite some time about becoming a witness. Preaching on it gives the Spirit ammunition for such quiet, deep work.

Third, personally train your soul winners.

While I am not opposed to bringing in a special speaker for a soul-winning training seminar, I think the best soul-winning trainer in your church should be the pastor. Many years ago, I wrote a soul-winning training manual and recruited a young man as my first victim. He had dyslexia and was painfully shy, which made the process both difficult and rewarding. I will never forget sitting alongside him on a living room couch in someone’s home as he walked them through the Gospel and they trusted Christ. I made a big deal about it at church, naturally. A few months later, someone approached me and murmured something about wanting to be trained to witness. I did, and upon completion, awarded them a personally engraved soul winner’s New Testament in the Sunday morning service. Now then, I suppose my wife and I have trained between 75 and 100 soul winners over these years.

Our process involves our own curriculum, eight one-on-one sessions about an hour long, some memorization, a lot of home practice, and a lot of role play. The majority of our trainees have gone on to become consistent soul winners. You may choose a different approach, but by all means, do something. Equipping them well removes their fear and builds their confidence in sharing the gospel. And it increases the number of soul winners in your church.

Fourth, require your staff and your deacons to be soul winners. This is not optional with me; it is too important. If you want to be in a position of leadership in our church, you must regularly be after people with the gospel.

Fifth, place the emphasis not on the number of people you see making professions, but on consistent effort. Our part in the Great Commission is obedience; the Lord’s part is the conviction that brings results. Let us major on our part.

For example, some years ago, I had a very nice church jacket designed. It had an engraved logo on an expensive Land’s End coat. I did not make them available for purchase, nor did I give them away. The only way you could get one was to attend Operation Go for eight consecutive weeks. I ended up purchasing dozens of those jackets, and it cost me thousands of dollars. It was money absolutely well spent. Our attendance at Operation Go not only increased, but it also increased permanently.

Sixth, pray for laborers.

Jesus spoke often of prayer and modeled it as much as He preached about it. But He only gave one prayer request. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. (Matthew 9.38) We ought to take this seriously. Go to the Lord and teach your people to go to the Lord in prayer about your church’s need for workers. Be specific. If you need an instrumentalist, pray that way. If you lack youth workers, take it to Him. But always be asking Him to send you people that you can develop into soul winners. This is the Lord’s will, and He will answer prayer given according to His will. (I John 5.14-15) The Lord sent us so many precious people over the years, men and women who developed into true co-laborers as we went after souls together.

If you will do these six things, prayerfully, consistently, patiently, for a few years, something magical will happen. You will look up one day and realize the Lord has given you the priceless gift of being part of a soul-winning church. Missions giving will increase. New ministries will be launched. Bus routes will be strengthened. The poor and the addicted and the imprisoned will have the gospel preached unto them. Your church will develop a culture, a spirit, of being after people with the gospel. It will be happier. It will be easier to pastor. And new people getting plugged in will catch the vision almost immediately.

It can be done, beloved. Your church can become a soul-winning church. I know it currently seems impossible. Ignore that. Put your head down and go to work. Pray. Lead. Motivate. Preach. Encourage. Commend.

It can be done. It needs to be done. And you can do it.

 

The Christ Conference 2026

     Last year, our church held The Christ Conference for the first time. Ten men. Twelve sermons. Every message about Jesus. The Lord blessed signally as pastors and people from about 25 churches gathered to sing and hear and proclaim Christ. This year, we are pleased to present The Christ Conference again the same time as last year, the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of Memorial Day week. The dates are May 26-28, 2026. 

    There is no charge for the conference. Lunch will be provided each of those days. Due to the cost, motel rooms will not be provided this year to visiting pastors. We would kindly ask your church to bear that expense. We will be happy to bear all the other costs associated with the conference. We do ask that you register if you are coming from out of town so we know how to prepare. You will find a QR code for the registration page at the bottom of this post. 

    We will run two preachers each morning and two more each evening, twelve sermons in total. The only instruction each preacher has been given is to bring us a message about Jesus.  Ten men will be delivering the messages this year: Jim Appel, Chris Birkholz, Matt Boyd, Tom Brennan, Jon Brown, Steve Damron, Donald Link, Cole Mahle, Mark Rogers, and John Uit de Flesch.   

    I've been attending conferences all my life, and holding them as a pastor for three decades. While I cannot promise what this year's Christ Conference will be like, I can honestly tell you last year's conference was the best conference I've ever held as a pastor. The special music touched our hearts. The congregational singing was breathtaking. The spirit was sweet. The fellowship was encouraging. The messages were varied, interesting, and convicting. 

    If you have any questions, let me know, and I'll do my best to answer them. Otherwise, I hope I get to spend some time with you that week as together we look squarely at Jesus. 

The Christ Conference. Ten men. Twelve sermons. Every message about Jesus.

They ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Acts 5:42

Online Course Offered: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

           As we have done in the past, Brennan’s Pen will be offering an online Zoom class early in 2026. Several years ago, I taught a 34 week series in my church on various cults and false religions. I have turned this into a 14 hour course complete with a 147 page syllabus. For seven weeks, a two hour class will be offered on the following Monday nights: January 26, February 2, February 16, February 23, March 9, March 16, and March 23.

         If you are interested in taking this class, or having your church take this class, please reply to this email. I will compile a specific email list for the class over the next few weeks, and send you the syllabus before class begins. Each Monday of class you will receive a private Zoom link to use to log in that evening at 7 PM Central.

         I have included the Table of Contents of the syllabus below so you have an idea of what the class covers. If this is not clear, or you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I will do my best to answer them.

There is no charge for the class. The cost is underwritten by my Patreon subscribers.

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Introduction – 3

 

I A Doctrinal Overview – 7

         How to Recognize False Religions

         Characteristics of False Teachers

         The Bible Alone

 

II Cults – 22

Latter Days Saints: The Life of Joseph Smith

         Latter Day Saints: False Doctrine

         Jehovah’s Witnesses: History and Structure

         Jehovah’s Witnesses: False Doctrine

         British Israelism

Christian Science

The Unification Church

Seventh Day Adventism

 

III Non-Christian Religions – 65

         Islam: History and Structure

         Islam: False Doctrine and Biblical Response

The Nation of Islam

Scientology: the Life of L. Ron Hubbard

Scientology: False Doctrine

Buddha vs. Jesus

Buddhism: False Doctrine

Hinduism

 

IV Christian Religions – 100

         Protestant Mainline Denominations

Roman Catholicism: Formation and Structure

Roman Catholic Doctrine: the Church

Roman Catholic Doctrine: the Priesthood

Roman Catholic Doctrine: Tradition

Roman Catholic Doctrine: Peter

Roman Catholic Doctrine: the Pope

Roman Catholic Doctrine: Mary

Roman Catholic Doctrine: the Sacraments

Roman Catholic Doctrine: Purgatory

 

Bibliography – 147

 

 

 

The Law of Review

 The Sunday School Teacher 16

We turn now to the seventh law or principle of good teaching, namely, this: you must periodically remind them of what they have already learned.

Repetition is not review, though review often includes repetition. Repetition is a helpful tool in teaching as it places an emphasis in a similar manner to bold or underlined print. But repetition alone risks becoming a mindless, almost rhythmic recitation of rote facts. There are too many Rs in that sentence, but you get my point. A student does not have to think to repeat something. A review, on the other hand, should prompt not just recall, but thought.

We can see an example of the difference in how Jesus handled Peter between the Resurrection and the Ascension. In English, the King James Version shows us Jesus asking Peter the same question three times in succession: Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? …Feed my lambs. …Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? …Feed my sheep. …Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? …Feed my sheep. (John 21.15-17) Yet the fact that he used questions, and in the original language worded them differently, reveals a master teacher at work. Christ was not just drilling Peter via repetition, rather He was provoking Peter to intense inward examination. He forced Peter to think, and at the same time deepened His emphasis on Peter’s responsibility to love Him and feed the sheep of His pasture.

A good review both widens and deepens our perspective on knowledge. In the process of being reminded of other related aspects of truth, we gain insight. To see the connecting threads again reveals both the importance and standing of the truth most immediately in view. It can also allow us a more informed glimpse of where we are going. A map that says, “You are here,” is better than nothing, but a trail showing how you got to where you are allows you to hypothesize where you are going.

One way a review does this is by bringing former truth back to mind, but in a different setting than we encountered it last time. I have, on rare occasions, read the same book decades apart. What my eyes encountered was information I had already seen and assimilated, but this time I looked at it differently. My life experience shone new light on the old information.

Think, for example, of how God has structured our religion. We are given a Book that is divinely inspired, and thus inerrant and infallible. We are told to read and study it often, indeed, daily, if I understand the Word aright. As of this writing, I have been reading the Bible intentionally for thirty-eight years. Literally, every day I read something I have already read before. But that review gives me a deeper and wider grasp of God’s truth, deeper for its depth is infinite, wider due to the fact that my own perspective has been broadened by decades of service and study.  

I recognize, of course, that a Sunday School class that teaches the Bible is not the same as reading the Bible. Nor does any mere human teacher’s instruction carry the same weight. But if review is a necessary part of all teaching, and it is, such is even more true about biblical teaching. Philosophically, practically, and spiritually, review is a vital component of teaching the Word of God.

Now then, let me offer you four brief practical thoughts on applying this in a Sunday School context.

First, you should review any relevant material at the beginning of a new lesson. It does not need to be in depth, but it does need to be sufficient to connect the new material to the material they have already learned. Of course, many Sunday School lessons, even in a series, are not directly connected to previous ones. But some are. If they are, taking time at the beginning of the class period to review the truths that led to this one is time well spent.

Second, it is wise to briefly review the main thoughts of your lesson at the close of each class period. This can be done in a written fashion via a fill-in-the-blank sheet. It can be as simple as including a skeleton of the entire outline in your summary as you draw to a close. However you do it, know that a review at that point will help the information you have labored to give them have a better chance of sticking.

Third, review anytime a new lesson touches on an old one. I do this often in teaching. For example, if I am going to mention the Day of Atonement I will say something like, “Now you will remember, we spent quite some time looking at the Day of Atonement in our series, Christ In Shadow. There, we saw that…” followed by the mention of some pertinent point I have already taught them that will help them here. Sometimes, I will even briefly recap the entire outline in just a couple of sentences if I think it will help. In addition to connecting new information to old information, you are also reminding the student again that passages in the Word of God are not isolated; they are joined together, bound by an uncountable number of integrated circuits.

Fourth, vary your reviewing style. If you routinely use handout sheets, change it up by asking questions directly and giving a piece of candy away for the right answer. Launch a group discussion, perhaps. If your review is generally jammed in as the bell is ringing at the end of class, instead begin the review ten minutes early. Do not always use the same method. Do not always call on the same people. Different subjects need to be reviewed differently. In addition, people are unique. What works for your class one year may not work the same way the next year, when you have a new crop of students. The old saying, “Variety is the spice of life,” is applicable here.

Reviewing is not idiot proof. It generally fails to implant a concept that has already bounced off the student previously. Further, time is a thief that steals knowledge from all of us. You are not a failure if your students do not remember some key point or other. What you are is a wise teacher, first for showing them the shallowness of their learning, and second, for endeavoring to help them fix it.

Reviews do not change a life. That takes the student's application of truth in the power of the Holy Spirit. But application cannot happen in any meaningful way via forgotten truth. Study the truth. Tell them the truth. Remind them of the truth. And ask the Lord to enable them to live the truth.

Reviewing is a necessary step on the path that leads to a changed life.  

The Law of the Learning Process

 The Sunday School Teacher 15

We turn now to the sixth law or principle of good teaching, namely, this: the student must reproduce in her own mind the knowledge she needs to learn.

In other places, I have seen this referred to as the deep learning process. I like that. Each of us knows what it is like to learn something superficially. A name. A number. A fact. Young people often do it to pass an exam. The old do it often to function in the immediate. But neither of these is an example of what we are trying to accomplish when we teach Sunday School. We want the truths we explain, illustrate, and emphasize to work their way deep into the inner man, as Paul would say. We want that knowledge to become part of their DNA, to borrow another illustration.

What does that look like, or perhaps I could ask, how does that happen?

At the most basic level, the student must be able to repeat the main statements in the lesson word for word. As a pastor now for nearly thirty years, I have often used fill-in-the-blank outline sheets in teaching formats. At the conclusion of the lesson, I will work my way through that sheet and wait for verbal confirmation that they listened. It is at once both a review and the first step in the process of seating that information more firmly in their mind.

Second, a student must be able to articulate the thought process behind the main statements or truths of the lesson. This is obviously an expansion of the former one. No longer is regurgitating the words enough; there must be some explanation of what those words mean, and of how the main points of the outline flow from one to the next.

Third, the student needs to be able to express the larger thought that forms the foundation of the outline, and to do so without losing any of the teacher's original intent or meaning. In other words, she needs to demonstrate her understanding of the importance of both specific words and thoughts, and can explain that she does without leaving out anything important.

All on its own, this is an enormous accomplishment. It is at this point that the student can become a teacher herself. Taking the truths she learned in your Sunday School class, your student can now help her classmate at school who is struggling with the very issue you taught about in Sunday School. This is exponentially leveraging your time and work as a teacher. It is your influence expanding outward in ripples. It is not directly due to you, but it is absolutely indirectly tied to your success as a teacher.

It may seem that you have accomplished your goal as a teacher at this point. After all, your student has internalized not just your words but your thoughts, and done so clearly enough that they can convey those thoughts to others in their orbit. What else could you hope for in a student?

Fourth, the student who continues to deepen her ownership of truth will begin to seek out proof or evidence of the knowledge you are teaching her.

As a young man recently surrendered to ministry, I began reading the Bible and listening to preaching with an entirely new interest. No longer was I listening for myself alone, but I grasped I was listening also for those who would, in turn, listen to me in years to come. And if I was going to help them, I needed to establish on my own, or at least for my own satisfaction, the veracity of the knowledge I was being handed in school, Sunday School, and church. So I began.

For example, I remember at fifteen coming across Mark 16.16 in my daily Bible reading. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. I had been taught all my life that salvation was by grace through faith alone, that it did not require baptism. I believed that. I understood it. I was already at that age witnessing to others and telling them the same thing. But here was a verse that seemed to say differently. I walked to the school library, found a concordance, and over the next few weeks looked up every use of any form of the English word baptize in the Bible. I came away convinced that what I had been taught, what I understood, and what I had been telling others was entirely true – salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone.

One could argue that my entire life since has been that process repeating itself without end. I have been taught thus and so. I understand it. I must teach it to others. I dare not simply repeat what I have been told. I must research and study it for myself. I do so. Then, once I have internalized it to my satisfaction, I turn around and hand it on to others. The thousands of books that fill the shelves of my library prove this. It is why those books are there.

I realize there is some level of risk here, a risk that a fair number of teachers and mentors do not want to run. The risk is that the student will find something that disagrees with what you have taught her, that gives her an entirely different viewpoint, and one she finds compelling. I believe this is a risk that must be run in order to soundly establish the faith in the hearts and minds of our young people. In the long term, people love liberty. They resist being fenced in. Gradually and carefully, perhaps, but just as certainly, we must allow and even encourage our students to investigate the truths we teach them, no matter where that investigation leads them.

There yet remains one more step in this deep learning process, one more necessary accomplishment. Fifth, the student must practice the truths you are teaching them, applying them to her own life, changing from image to image as by the Spirit until Jesus Christ is formed in her. Of course, this is an ongoing process, one that begins when she is just a student and will continue her whole life as she, in turn, teaches others. Like all ongoing processes, it is never quite finished this side of eternity. But if you are like me, you want to see it begin when she is still sitting in your classroom. You want to see her life begin to change while she is still under your immediate influence.

In a sense, this is the test of your teaching, is it not? It is not her head you want to reach as much as her heart, her life. You want to edify her, to see her built up in Christ, not at some future date, but beginning now and continuing into the indefinite future. This is your paycheck. This is your reward. Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. (II Corinthians 3.2) Your student's changed life is all the thanks and response you desire.

It is for this reason that you, as the teacher, dare not think your job is done when the bell rings for the end of class. Nor do you have the luxury of forgetting your students at the end of the enrollment period. Your heart and your hand and your time must be continually open and available to them. While their learning process may no longer be under your direct supervision, it should still be under your influence. You should welcome that, indeed, seek to continue it as long as possible. Long-term influence is deep influence.

There is risk in this, too. You risk the heart and mind you have offered them being rejected. You risk seeing a student who has made a great start run right off the rails and crash. You risk becoming discouraged when they grow at a different rate than you did, or when you think best. You risk them becoming something you did not intend and would not wish.

Risk it anyway. Risk the love and the tears and the prayer and the emotional investment. Risk the rejection. Risk the sorrow. If they are going to buy the truth in sufficient quantity as to change their life and others, you are going to have to continue to pay.

Learning is not an event. It is not a class period. It is a process. Lead them, support them, and encourage them through the entire process. When it works as intended, there is no greater joy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Law of the Teaching Process

 The Sunday School Teacher 14

We turn now to the fifth law or principle of good teaching, namely, this: tell him nothing he can learn himself.

In a quotation variously attributed to Maimonides, Lao-Tzu, Anne Ritchie, and the Navajo, "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." As a teacher, you can metaphorically hand him the truth, and he will be helped. If, however, you get him excited about acquiring truth, you can lead him to discover truth on his own, to find the riches of God's grace for himself.

I do not mean here that you never teach him anything, nor do I mean that all you do is direct his self-study. Rather, I am expanding on something I referenced earlier. For truth to actually change his life, he must take mental ownership of it by rethinking that truth, compiling and arranging it in a way that makes sense to him on the bookshelf of his mind. It is just this very process that a good teacher instills in the mind of his student. Tell him some aspect of truth, or point out the way to truth. Develop his capacity to ask questions, but don't answer them directly. Instead, give him enough information to keep him heading in the correct direction.

John Gregory said it this way: "True teaching, then, is not that which gives knowledge, but that which stimulates pupils to gain it. One might say that he teaches best who teaches least; or that he teaches best whose pupils learn most without being taught directly." You want them to explore, to question, to discover, to range ahead of themselves, to feel for the next step on this stair of knowledge for themselves.

As we consider the practical implications of this, let us turn first to the types of things we ought to do along this line, then I will try to balance that with things we should avoid.

First, try to build the student's interest in the subject at hand as much as possible. You want them to look forward, to peer down the road and try to see what is coming. Although homework is not simple in a Sunday School setting, if you can grow them to the place where they will do it, assign some work that provokes them to search for something, to gain a better grasp on something you have only thus far hinted at.

Second, ask your students numerous questions. Lectures inform, at least where they do not bore, but questions make people think. Gregory said, "The object or the event that excites no question will provoke no thought. Questioning is not, therefore, merely one of the devices of teaching; it is really the whole of teaching. It is the excitation of the self-activities to their work of discovering truth."

I generally teach from laboriously prepared notes, but in those notes, I prepare questions, opportunities to pause, to launch an inquiry into something that I taught. "Why do I say that?" is a fairly frequent one. "If we take this course of action, what happens next?" is another. It helps to hold attention, but it accomplishes much more than that; it makes the student think.

Third, control your impatience with their answers. Of course, you know the answer! Of course, you could word it better! But that is not the point, is it? The point is rather that she is thinking her way to a clearer apprehension of truth. Johann Comenius, a 17th-century Czech educator, said, "Most teachers sow plants instead of seeds." Resist the urge to tell them everything you know, even when it would get them where you want them to be faster.

Fourth, cultivate a classroom that, in turn, asks questions of you. The important thing is not necessarily the individual question. The important thing is the ask, the thought process that stretched itself forward and then paused for a moment, asking for a little outside light. Indeed, so critical is this that I would posit the more questions per hour flying around in your classroom, the more actual teaching and learning is being done.

Fifth, help your students understand that your explanations and answers in response to their questions will only ever contain some of the truth. Theologically, this is true because you are human and thus finite. Philosophically speaking, this is the case because there is always something more that can be learned about any subject. Do not leave the impression you have the answers; leave the impression that you have some of the answers, but that there are more out there waiting to be discovered.

Lastly, sometimes, in answer to these questions from your students, restate the question and open it up to the entire class. Alternatively, but almost as good, respond to their question with a question of your own. This has nothing to do with your inability to answer or your desire to dodge the question. It has everything to do with developing their thought process, their ability to handle intellectual inquiry, and wanting to do so.

In my opinion, the typical teacher talks too much. The pregnant pause is useful in more than theatre. Allowing the silence to stretch also broadens the student's mind. If you are the only one who ever talks in your class, then how do you know if any thinking is happening on their part? Even their ignorant questions or replies are helpful in this context. To reference Gregory again: "It is only the unskilled teacher who prefers to hear his own voice in endless talk rather than to watch and direct the course of the thoughts of his pupils."

One of the reasons a lecture can develop into a monologue is the pressure teachers often feel to cover their prepared material. I have taught and/or preached thousands of times. I feel this most keenly. I have good stuff and I want to get it into them. If they would just hush, I could do so. But if I have somehow managed to get them onto thinking ground – a rare thing indeed in this screen-addicted, book-avoiding age – then there is wisdom in camping on that ground. Another lesson opportunity will present itself eventually. Do not speed by in haste when good things are happening where you are.

I am conscious as I pen this that I may be coming on too strong. Let me add a bit of water to the wine with two thoughts.

First, there will be a temptation to go overboard with this, to throw lesson plans to the wind, to sit on the edge of your desk and see what conversation you can develop. Some teachers imbibe too deeply here and think a syllabus or a set of lecture notes holds students back from becoming their best selves. I am not saying the teacher does not need to prepare a lesson. I am not saying the lecture method is wrong. I am not saying your classroom should be chaos. To the contrary, usually the teacher will be the only one communicating for entire stretches of a class period. But often our best teaching is done in the future, as a student we developed to think for herself proceeds to do so in years to come.

Second, as with many aspects of teaching Sunday School, do not get discouraged here. If your class is composed primarily of younger children, or what we gently term today, the under-privileged, their intellectual immaturity might prevent you from putting most of this into action. If your students attend once every four weeks, you are unlikely to ever get them to develop enough spiritual or intellectual momentum to move forward as I have described here. Accept these things, and find encouragement with most in any forward progress, and with the few as they bound ahead of the rest.

You will know when you have accomplished or are accomplishing what you aim at here. Your student will be self-motivated and excited about what is coming next. In time, the knowledge you impart and the process you develop will deepen the informational life. They will retain much more of what you impart than many of their peers. They will often become teachers in turn, in an informal sense, talking to others around them about all that they are learning. Eventually, if you start young enough, go deep enough, and live long enough, you will see a generational expansion of your influence as what you taught that student overflows from their lives into the lives of their children and students in turn.

True education only comes by thinking, not by being told. Cultivate, at all hazards, that thinking process.

 

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Law of the Lesson

 The Sunday School Teacher 13

We turn now to the fourth law or principle of good teaching, namely, this: that the truth to be taught must be learned through truth already known.

Did you ever hear someone say, "I have no idea what that teacher was talking about"? This is because they had no handle on the truth presented, no way for them to grasp the new information with a handle made of information they already possessed. Anything new to you must have a reference point to something already familiar. Failure here means the entire class period will be wasted.

I said earlier, when we were discussing attention, to give the student problems that will stretch him but not discourage him. This implies a careful stair-stepping of information, building on new knowledge with related knowledge. But this new knowledge must first be paired with old knowledge, else the student will be left standing on the top stair of yesterday, wondering in vain how to reach the new set of stairs. In other words, you have to connect where you want his mind to go to somewhere it has already been.

This is illustrated in physical space all the time. When you want to go from one floor to the next, you do not leap the intervening dozen feet at a single bound. Humans cannot do that. But they can go up or down those same dozen feet by using one eight-inch stair step at a time – providing, of course, the stair steps are connected to the ones above and below.

Practically every bit of mathematics you ever learned illustrates this as well. Here is what a number is. This is one apple. These are two apples. Now let's count up to ten. Now to one hundred. Now, let's take away five apples. How many do we have left? Now, let's add some apples, multiply some apples, divide some apples, and section off some pieces of apple. These are fractions. And you can add, subtract, divide, and multiply pieces of an apple, too. On and on it goes.

God does this in the Bible as well. What is the Bible? It is the revelation of God, the unveiling of Who He is. Does He begin with Revelation? No. He does not start with the justice and finality of the Second Coming. He begins literally at the beginning, with Genesis, a word that means beginnings. First, we see Him. Then we see His power. Then we see sin arrive, followed immediately by provision for sin. God reveals Jesus throughout the Old Testament, particularly in the Tabernacle furniture and rites, always connecting something about their coming Saviour to something they already understood. When Jesus arrives in the New Testament, He points backward to connect Himself in the minds of His followers with all of those things they already knew. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24.27) In light of all this, the cross makes perfect sense. Next comes the history of the church's expansion in that first century, along with the instructions given by the apostles to that expanding church. Then, and only then, does God reveal to us the end, an end by now eagerly anticipated and absolutely appreciated.

Put another way round, without context, little information makes sense. With context, however, it makes perfect sense. The desired response in teaching is some form of the lightbulb moment: "Oh, I see." That lightbulb moment only comes when the student has apprehended and assimilated the information, and he cannot do that without a handle. Attaching something he already understands to something he does not understand allows him to pick it up, examine it, think through it, and take ownership of it. "Oh, yeah, that makes perfect sense now that I understand it."

Having explained my point, let me furnish you with an idea or two to help you accomplish this.

First, before you launch into a subject, try to determine how much your students already know about it. If you have taught them for a while, you will already have much of this knowledge to hand. If you do not, ask them. Better yet, ask them to write down what they know about it. Or bring it up for discussion and listen as they talk to each other. Their ignorance will help you tailor your lesson plans, but their limited grasp will show you how and where to attach your teaching to what they already know, however limited it might be.

Second, as you prepare your lesson, intentionally try to connect the information to something they already understand. If you are teaching about Jesus' growing-up years, explain it in terms of their own age and life experience. School. Siblings. Play. Church. Food. Prayer. Etc.

Third, endeavor to ensure your lesson's learning steps are in the correct order and big enough to be challenging without being intimidating. In math, the order of operations is simpler to more complex. In grammar, we do not go from explaining nouns directly to discussing split infinitives. In discipling new Christians, I do not start with systematic theology or hermeneutics; I begin with church attendance and Scripture reading. Make them think, but do not make them despair.

Fourth, it is wise to use everyday, familiar objects as illustrations. Colors. Shapes. Animals. Things in nature. Items found around the house.

One summer a few years ago, I realized our Wednesday night children's program had grown. It ran concurrent with the school year. Each May, I reminded the parents that if they continued to attend the Wednesday night service over the summer, it would be a great life lesson to their children about the importance of church. Privately, I had to reckon with more children in the main adult Bible study for the summer than we ever had before. I did not want to turn it into a children's service, but I did want to include them and to stretch myself. So every Wednesday night sermon that summer was built around a visual illustration. I used candles and mirrors and popcorn and biscuits and helmets and smoke. Not only did they help capture and maintain attention, but they also helped the children grasp the adult-sized truths being presented.

Fifth, lead them to find illustrations that fit the truth from their own experience. Encourage their thought process as you see them feeling their way through. Ask them to think of their own illustration and give them hints toward one you think they will understand. "What negative force affects every human being?" Their response might sound something like this: "So you mean the old nature is like gravity, in the sense that it is constantly pulling us down, all of us?"

By asking them to think of an illustration already well within their comprehension, you are practically handing them the secret to understanding the new information. Put another way round, you are showing them a door and asking them to make their own key from whatever already fits. This helps you confirm they get it, benefits everyone around them who is listening to the exchange between you both, and, most of all, helps the individual student crystalize their own grasp of the truth.

Sixth, do not rush up the steps. I understand what it is like, as a teacher, to peer from the landing above, eager to bring the students up to where I am. But understanding is like fruit; often, it must ripen. The larger your class is or the more distant your personal relationship with the students, the more this is true. Good teaching, like good barbecue, requires elements of time and patience.

Along the way, I would also like to share a couple of things to avoid.

First, do not assume that another teacher or class has already furnished them with the starting point where you intend to begin. It is at once both reasonable and intellectually lazy of you to do so. Now it may well be that they should have, but master teachers do not deal in should-haves. They take accurate stock of where they actually are and proceed from there. Yes, the students in the teen Sunday School class should already know where Isaiah is in their Bibles. But do not assume they will. If you do, you will leave some of them floating around, lost in space, while the rest of you are climbing the stairs.

Second, do not treat each lesson as an independent collection of information. That biblical information has context. Those students have context. Truth doesn't stand in isolation; it stands in blocks, building a complete revelation of God. Your lesson may be conveying to them one block from that wall, but you and they both need to remember where it goes in that wall.

Third, do not tell them what you want them to know; lead them to discover as much of it as possible for themselves. If I read three books in preparation to teach a series of lessons, I cannot just teach them what I learned; I have to teach it to them as I learned it – one connected intellectual discovery at a time. But the best way to do that is not to usher them around like a tour guide, but rather to send them on an intellectual exploration with a map and a compass. Or perhaps some balanced expression between those two extremes. When I ask my students what they have learned, I do not want them merely to recite facts to me; I want them to re-think thoughts with me, haltingly expressed through processes yet still being formed. Put another way round, do not assume because they can regurgitate the material they have adequately digested and assimilated it. Insist they explain not just the steps but the thought that connects the steps.

When you teach this way, you will be well rewarded for your pains. Your class will pay much closer attention. The atmosphere will be fun. The students will not just be engaged but also excited. You will feel the thrill of the truth all over again when they stand beside you on the new landing and exclaim with delight about what they see.

There may be no greater reward for the teacher than the lightbulb moment, the "Aha!" that we all treasure. Poor Sunday School teachers are content with a class that does not act up. Average Sunday School teachers are content if they can get through a lesson. Good Sunday School teachers are content when they see the light come on in their students' eyes as the truth is apprehended and owned. Great Sunday School teachers watch their students' lives change as Christ is formed in them as a direct result of their ministry in that student's life. But great Sunday School teachers cannot be great without being good. Aim for the lightbulb moment, and patiently prepare its arrival. Lead on softly, but lead. Help them up the stairs you so painstakingly built. Then enjoy the view with them from the top.

 

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.