Teaching

I have starting reading "Seven Laws of the Learner" by Bruce Wilkinson with my pastor as we work on our teaching styles and skills together. In the opening chapter, Wilkinson explains how one of his favorite seminary professors viewed teaching: "He saw teaching not as what he did, but what his students did." Teaching, it seems, all depends on what the students learn. It is not about covering material... it is not about teaching a topic... it is about creating an environment where students actually learn.

So I thought about it. Is that what I do? Is it what I want to do? I have never considered myself a great teacher, but I do want to learn how to teach effectively.

But I do believe I'm on the right track.

I remembered an instance of teaching at my church, and it encouraged me. To explain, I need to provide a little background.

When I was in middle school, I read a story. Or heard it from a preacher. Or something. I don't really remember where I heard it, but I remember the lesson. It went something like this:

"A very poor woman had two sons, and every day she made them one meal of soup. Each of her sons had one bowl that they ate soup from every day. The woman worked hard to make this soup her very best. One day, one of her sons came up with a dirty bowl, still left uncleaned from the previous day's meal. The woman told her son 'I worked hard on this soup, it is my very best, and you have brought me a dirty bowl to put it in. I won't put my soup in a dirty bowl. Clean it out first and then you can eat.'"

The point of this story was that God won't put His Son into a dirty bowl... we need to clean out our lives so that our hearts are ready to receive Him.

It's a cute story, it illustrates a point, and it is completely and totally 100% wrong.

But in middle school, I ate that story up. I loved it... I thought about it for days. Because no one ever told me otherwise.

So I decided to try something. I started to tell that story to my youth group kids one night. And before I even finished, one of them said "Wait, I get the point of this story. Doesn't Jesus want to come into our lives just as we are and fix our dirty stuff?"

Someone had taught him something. Someone had taught that student to spot faulty theology and recognize the truth of God no matter what. Was that someone me? I don't know.

The point was that this student had learned something. Somewhere along the way, he learned something that really mattered.

I don't want any of the students under my care to ever go into the world and risk being led astray. I want them to know what salvation is, and mostly importantly, who Jesus truly is.

My mission is not to cover material, but to ensure that students are learning. This is the goal.