'Best Practices' for Bible Teachers (Part VI)
By Buddy Hanson The Covenant News
Know How to Get Your Congregation (or small group) to Where You Want Them to Be.
We all know how to lose the culture war. We've got lots of practice at it. What we need to do is to begin conforming our worldview and lifestyle to God's Word[1] so it won't be necessary to "tell" someone that we are a Christian. They will "see" it in our lifestyle, because it will be 180-degrees different from the non-Christian lifestyle most of us are conforming to today! As a Bible teacher, it is your calling and accountability to awaken the 21st American church from its self-serving doldrums by instructing your learners in God's will for the earth, and then challenging them to apply the biblical truths they profess to believe into their everyday decision-making. This is the only way to begin winning the culture for Christ.
In stressing the critical importance of pastors addressing the issues of the day in their sermons, 17th century English Pastor William Jenkyn instructs: "If any sin in a minister be unpardonable, it is silence."[2]
Pray that God would send forth laborers into his harvest (Matt. 9.38). That utterance may be given to ministers, that they may speak boldly as they ought to speak (Ephesians 6.19). That God would open unto them a door of utterance (Col. 4.3). That the word of the Lord may run and be glorified (2 Thess. 3.1).[3]
"Ministers are not cooks," Jenkyn continues, "but physicians; and therefore should not study to delight the palate, but to recover the patient."[4] Without a doubt, today's church has plenty of "patients" who need "recovering!" Jenkyn concludes by giving this charge to pastors: "Let not sermons be as jewels only to land in your ears, but let them be locked up in the cabinets of your hearts."[5] Here, Rev. Jenkyn is no doubt referring to Jesus' statement that our behaviors proceed "out of the heart."[6] So, to begin fulfilling Jesus' command to help bring about His Father's will "on earth as it is in heaven,"[7] pastors need to impress upon their learners that the biblical truths in their sermons are not intended to go to our head, where they can be merely stored up, but to our heart where they will motivate us to live according to God's rules, instead of according to man's rules.
Results Depend Upon a Process,
Not a Silver Bullet
Everything in life is the product of a process. In God's orderly, cause-and-effect universe, nothing "happens," for no reason, or "appears" from nowhere. Even though all Christians agree with this rule of life, many of us attempt to live as though we can receive the results we want from an instantaneous Silver Bullet, instead of from carrying out a well-planned process of behavior.
For example, no sports fan would expect that his favorite team should be able to just "show up" for a game without having spent many hours in practicing the various fundamentals of the game. However, when we transfer our thoughts to equipping the saints for carrying out their service in Christ's Kingdom, we often fall back into the Silver Bullet mode of thinking by not emphasizing the importance to prepare ourselves for the typical objections we know we'll encounter from non-Christians. The following Equipping the Saints chart summarizes a suggested process of Christian living. It contrasts eight football fundamentals (which no coach would neglect in his teaching) with eight biblical fundamentals (which few Bible teachers connect in their teaching).
Equipping the Saints
Preparing your congregation (or small group) to effectively counter the ungodly ideas of non-Christians.*
Football Fundamentals
Biblical Fundamentals
-- physical conditioning
-- God's Word is True; Man's word is false
-- off-season strengthening
-- Who's in charge of creation: God or man?
-- blocking
-- Law & Grace: Compatible or conflicting?
-- tackling
-- God-appointed self-governing spheres: Individual, Family, Church, State
-- kicking game
-- Church Government & Leadership
-- offensive schemes
-- Church & State Relationship
-- defensive schemes
-- Apologetics as a Lifestyle
-- special teams
-- Christian counseling vs. psychiatrists
* In order to establish a "scheme" for your congregation (or small group) to follow in living a holier lifestyle, be sure to emphasize each of these biblical fundamentals each year in your messages. By having Team Leaders encourage individuals and families to study the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter catechisms, your learners will be building their spiritual foundation upon the solid rock of God's Word. As a consequence, they will be well-grounded in the basics of the faith and will be able to approach their vocations and cultural discussions with the positive expectations and realities that should come from being a member of God's family and Christ's Kingdom.
A couple of weeks ago we pointed out that unless and until you get a solid handle on each of the following elements, the vision you have, no matter how well-intended, will not be workable. We have now briefly addressed the elements of:
Knowing yourself
Knowing your congregation
Knowing where you want the congregation to be (in their collective worldview and lifestyle)
Knowing the process you are going to use to accomplish your plans
By filtering your thoughts about teaching through these four "knowings," you will find that the typical teaching recipe of concentrating your preparation exclusively upon accurately presenting the information in your message, needs a very important ingredient added to the full-course meal you are preparing for your learners. Obviously, that all-important ingredient is how to get the information across to your learners! For example, when was the last time you introduced a series of messages by relating them to the church's Mission Statement? Or, by telling how the content to be studied relates to the individual and family goals of your learners? (Of course, in order to do this you would have to view your learners as real people who have real cares and concerns, not as mere human receptacles to be filled with abstract information about God.) This is not to say that you intentionally look at your learners this way, but only that your approach to teaching reflects that you do.
Next week's topic is "Look Before You Leap!
Notes:
[1] Romans 12.1-2
[2] Jenkyn, William, An Exposition Upon The Epistle of Jude, (Solid Ground Christian Books [1653], 2006), p.ix
[3] Jenkyn, ibid., Jude, p.71
[4] Jenkyn, ibid., Jude, p.109
[5] Jenkyn, ibid., Jude, p. ix
[6] Matthew 15.17-19
[7] Matthew 6.10
Buddy Hanson is President of the Christian Policy Network and Director of the Christian Worldview Resources Center and has written several books on the necessity of applying one's faith to everyday situations, circumstances and decision-making.