'Best Practices' for Bible Teachers (Part XV)
By Buddy Hanson The Covenant News
Biblically-based Self-governing Strategies for Learners
Scripture is all about self-governing ourselves according to biblical ethics. We are all very aware of what happened to Adam and Eve, and the rest of humanity when they decided to live according to their wisdom, instead of according to God's wisdom. This is why our triune God has appointed four self-governing spheres of the individual, family, church and state (or civil government) to smoothly carry-out the various functions of His creation. So, when you instruct your learners to be self-guided and self-directed by conforming their daily decisions to biblical ethics, you are assisting them in becoming a much more consistent servant in Christ's Kingdom, than if you merely told them the correct answers to cultural issues. Instead of positioning yourself as the "answer person," you should position yourself as a "facilitator" who prepares learners to identify and apply biblical solutions to the various issues they face each day.
The process for teaching your learners to apply biblical ethics to cultural issues includes:
Identifying God's Big Picture goals for His creation, so they can then establish their own Little Picture goals which will conform their lifestyle to God's will.
Explaining that each cultural issue relates to one or more of the Ten Commandments, assisting them to identify which ethics are included in each commandment, and helping them to see which of God's ethics should be applied to various cultural issues.
Brainstorming and writing-out ideas for how to deal with the issue by connecting biblical ethics they know to any new biblical ethics they learn from your messages.
Explaining how to use commentaries and related books on specific topics to research the issues.
Showing them how to organize their plans, so they deal with the core issue, and not merely peripheral concerns.
Stimulating their thought processes by presenting successful strategies that are being used by various Christian organizations.
Urging them to move from thinking about particular issues to making specific plans to deal with them and then carrying out those plans.
Having them prepare their first draft of their prescription (Rx) for an issue in the news, and presenting it to the class for constructive criticism, so they can sharpen and clarify their thoughts by adding ideas and editing their draft.
Peer Conference for Teens Have them meet to work out their Rxs (with the teacher helping them in setting goals and clarifying the issues).
The following SCROLL acronym may be helpful in keeping your learners on track in developing their particular Rxs:
S Survey the proposed Rx to determine whether it is biblical.
C Connect the biblical ethics you know to the new ethics you learn in this study.
R Research lessons of history, as well as biblical commentaries, and/or other related books.
O Outline your first draft of an Rx.
L Listen to the feedback and constructive criticism of your classmates and teacher.
L Learn from the responses of your classmates and teacher and make additions, and/or deletions to your rough draft in writing your final Rx draft.
Next week's topic is "Making the Invisible Visible."
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.