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Teaching Workshop: Teaching When the Church Gathers

Posted by on Jan 25, 2012 in discipleship | 1 comment

A few weeks ago, I started a “Teaching Workshop” for the church on Sunday mornings. We worked through a few passages of Scripture and discussed together what those passages say about teaching and teachers.

This is not a workshop about how to put together a teaching outline or how to study commentaries or other reference materials. Instead, we will discuss a broad and general view of teaching through Scripture. I hope that this workshop will be helpful for people teaching in any context.

This is the general outline that I used for this workshop:

Part 1: Who Teaches?
Part 2: The Motivations for Teaching
Part 3: The Essence of Teaching
Part 4: Teaching When the Church Gathers

For each week’s workshop, I put together a short worksheet to guide our discussion. This is the worksheet for the last week’s session. This lesson will be called “Part 4: Teaching When the Church Gathers.” What does Scripture say specifically about teaching when we gather together with other believers?

Feel free to discuss or ask questions in the comments.

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Teaching Workshop

Part 4: Teaching When the Church Gathers

For this session of the workshop on teaching in Scripture, we’ll consider the following question: What does Scripture say about teaching when the church gathers? Believe it or not, despite the fact that so much emphasis is placed on church gatherings or worship services today, the authors of Scripture said very little about them.

I recommend reading the following passages so that you will know the context and background of the specific parts that we will discuss together. As you read, pay attention to the context as well as what the author says teaching: Acts 15:30-35; Acts 19:8-10; Acts 20:7-12; 1 Corinthians 14; Philippians 2:1-4; Colossians 3:12-17; 1 Thessalonians 5:11-14; 1 Timothy 5:17; Hebrews 10:19-25

I. The Passage that Focuses Most on Church Gatherings

At the end of Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts in his letter to the Corinthians, he focuses specifically on times when the church gathers. He mentions teaching a couple of times in that chapter. (1 Corinthians 14)

II. A Passage that is often Used to Exhort Attendance at Church Meetings

The author of the Book of Hebrews included exhortations concerning gathering together. While teaching is not mentioned specifically, we can learn about teaching from this passage. (Hebrews 10:19-25)

III. Some of the Examples of Teaching and Speaking with the Church

There are a few examples of people speaking with or teaching the church. These are found in the Book of Acts. They do not all mention teaching, but again we can learn many things about teaching from these passages. (Acts 15:30-35; Acts 19:8-10; Acts 20:7-12)

IV. How Do General “One Another” Principles Relate to Teaching

There are many exhortations in Scripture about how we relate to “one another.” How do these affect teaching when we gather with other believers? (Philippians 2:1-4; Colossians 3:12-17)

V. What About Leaders and Teaching?

Often, among the church today, teaching is associated with lecturing (sermons), providing information about Scripture, and especially with leaders (pastors, preachers, elders). (1 Thessalonians 5:11-14; 1 Timothy 5:17)

One Comment

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  1. 2-3-2012

    This “teaching” theme you got going is awesome. In fact it’s been a theme on my heart & as usual – great timing for me/us. I just wish I could see it lived out….. I don’t see it anywhere in real life. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough, I don’t know…