What is teaching from the perspective of Scripture
If you’ve been following my blog over the last several weeks, then you know that we went through a “teaching workshop” as a church. It took us four weeks to discuss various topics related to teaching (as found in Scripture) such as “Who Teaches?”, “The Motivations for Teaching,” “The Essence of Teaching,” and “Teaching When the Church Gathers.”
Even though I led the workshop, I learned alot from my brothers and sisters while we went through the workshop.
If you are like me, when you first hear the terms “teaching” or “teacher” you think about someone who stands in front of a class or group and shares information with others or helps them understand a complex or new concept. Of course, today, many teachers and classroom settings have turned to different methods of communicating information, moving away from lecture and toward dialog, discussion, case studies, etc.
However, in all of these methods, the point is the same: Teaching is the transmission of information, ideas, or principles from one person to another or to a group.
But, when we study the idea of teaching in Scripture, we get a completely different picture. Yes, teaching in Scripture may begin with or include the transmission of some kind of information or concept, but that alone is not considered teaching.
In Scripture, the information that we share with one another – even important information about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, mankind, Scripture, salvation, etc. – are just the beginning steps of teaching. And, the sharing of information in Scripture is never separated from the further aspects of teaching.
What are those “further aspects” of teaching? Well, in Scripture, teaching is for life change, for conduct, for way of life. While teaching may begin with information, it continues with a purpose of seeing someone live according to that information. Teaching is not just telling someone about God, but showing them how to live and helping them to live in respond to who God is.
And, again, “information” part is never separated from the “how to live” part in Scripture. One flows into the other seamlessly. The teacher is the one who both shares the new information (or reminds of old, known information) and the one who demonstrates how to live according to that information and the one who walks beside the other person who is learning to live according to that information.
I hope you get the picture from that last paragraph that teaching in Scripture is part of sharing life together and cannot be separated. In reality, speaking to a group of strangers is not teaching according to the examples that we find in Scripture. In fact, speaking with a group of people – even giving right, correct, true information – is not teaching unless it is accompanied by walking together, side-by-side, good-times-and-bad, life.
By the way, I’m not talking about “application.” You see, in any teaching or sermon prep class that I’ve ever taken, I’ve been taught to include explanation, illustration, and application in my lessons. Everyone knows that we need “application” so that people will know what to do with the information that is presented. But “application” is simply another form of illustration and explanation unless it is demonstrated – lived out – by the one(s) teaching. Unfortunately, very little can be demonstrated in most teaching environments. Demonstration happens while we share our lives with one another.
Think for a moment about the epistles that Paul sent to various churches. From first glance, it seems that those epistles were examples of teaching through sharing information without sharing life. Sure, Paul had spent time with many of the churches (not the Colossians, and not the Romans – yet). But, in fact, Paul DID provide a living example and demonstration to go along with the information that he shared in his letters. Those living examples and demonstrations had names like Timothy, Titus, Tychicus, Phoebe, Onesimus, and Epaphroditus.
These people not only hand delivered Paul’s letters, they provided living examples of what it meant to living according to what Paul was proclaiming and writing. They were – in reality – the continued instructions (teachings) to the churches.
In tomorrow’s post, I will examine some of the implications for sermons, lectures, discussions, dialogs, Q&A’s, and other methods of teaching.
When leaders guide you off the path
My son, his girlfriend, and I were running on the roads in our neighborhood. There is one point where a new cul-de-sac comes very close to a middle school near our home. We stepped off the road and ran down a path through the woods to the parking lot of the school. We ran around the parking lot, then headed back to the path to our neighborhood.
But, it had gotten darker, and I missed the path. We ended up running through the woods for a few feet.
Last weekend, I went on a trail run with a few friends. Three of us (the old three) stayed together while some of the younger guys ran ahead. We were taking turns leading on the trails.
Suddenly, we found ourselves off the trail and running down a hill into the woods. We turned around and made our way back onto the trail and continued our run.
I offer these two examples to make this point: Occasionally, even when leaders have the best of intentions and even when they are doing the best they can, they will lead us off the path. We end up in a place where we are not supposed to be.
The problem is not in having leaders. Scripture speaks of leaders (some prefer the term guides, which is fine). We will have leaders, whether they are recognized as more permanent leaders or they are temporary leaders for a specific time or project. Whether a group is more or less organized, there will be leaders.
And, guess what? Those leaders will make mistakes. No one is perfect. Even when someone is attempting to follow God and helping others follow God, that person will make mistakes.
This leads me to a very important question: What do we do when we realize that a leader (or a group of leaders) has guided us off the path?
Obviously, there are several ways to answer this question, and I think the way that we approach the answer tells us alot about what we think about leaders among the church, the work and responsibility of the church as a whole, and the presence of God with his children.
So, what would you do if you realized that someone has led you off the path? What if this mistake did not affect only you, but others as well?
How would this mistake affect your attitude toward the person(s) leading you?
How would you expect the leader(s) to respond when others realize that they have led them off the path? How should they respond if they do not believe they have misled people?
Again, I think these are very important questions that are rarely considered among the church. However, I think the mistakes in leadership happen often, even among those who are godly and who are genuinely seeking to help others.
Replay: Teaching in the context of living
Three years ago, I wrote a post called “Teaching in the context of living.” The post was inspired by a conversation that I had with a young man who I had recently met. The young man loved to listen to his pastor teach/preach, but also recognized that something very important was missing. Since he did not actually know his pastor, he had no context for what was being said. The “teaching” was in word only.
I thought this post would also go along well with the “teaching workshop” that we’re currently going through on Sunday mornings.
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Teaching in the context of living
Several days ago, I had the opportunity to have lunch with a young, single guy who has been meeting with us on Sundays for a few weeks. In the course of the conversation, he said that he wanted to talk about ecclesiology. Even though I’m not really interested in that subject (ahem), I was cordial to his request.
He began to talk about the church that he had been part of. He was not talking negatively about the church – in fact, he praised the church for what it was trying to do, and he praised the pastors and leadership. He said that he really appreciated the main pastor’s preaching, and he usually agreed with him.
Then he said something that I’ve been thinking and writing about for some time, but it was encouraging hearing it from someone else. This young man said that while he enjoyed the pastor’s sermon, he did not have a context in which to understand what the man was trying to teach.
I asked my new friend what he meant. He said, “My only relationship with this pastor is through a 30 minute sermon on Sunday morning. I don’t know anything about his life, or his family, or the way he treats his neighbors, or anything else. I only know what he tells me during his sermons. There is no relational context for learning what he is trying to teach.”
As I continued to talk to this young man, and to hear his heart for learning through relationships as well as through the spoken message, I couldn’t help but think of the examples that we have in Scripture.
Notice, for example, what Paul tells the elders from Ephesus:
And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia…” (Acts 20:18 ESV)
Also, this is what Paul reminds the believers in Thessalonika:
For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:9-10 ESV)
He tells the Philippians:
What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:9 ESV)
The obvious exception to this pattern seems to be that when Paul wrote to the church in Rome, he had not been to Rome, although he seemed to know many of the believers there. However, even in this case, Paul later lived among the Roman believers for at least two years (Acts 28:30).
In other words, Paul did not intend for his words alone (neither his spoken words nor his written words) to make up the extent of his service to the people of God. He recognized the importance of living with the people as part of his work. He shared his life with them, and they shared their lives with him. Paul had much, much more than a “speaking ministry” among the people.
His words then often pointed back to his example of living and working among the people.
Today, too often, teachers spend very little time with the people they are attempting to teach. As my young friend said, there is no context for their teaching. This is not discipleship or teaching in the biblical sense, or in the sense that either Jesus or Paul modeled for us.
Instead, we need to live with the people that we hope to teach. Our teaching must be in the context of our living if we hope to see transformation – both our own transformation and transformation in the lives of others.
Whether we want to admit it or not, people are hearing what we are REALLY proclaiming
Earlier, Gibby – a Facebook friend – posted a quote by George Carlin. Now, if you’re not familiar with George Carlin, he was a stand-up comedian who was famous for his criticism of American society and culture.
(No, he’s not the sledgehammer guy… that’s Gallagher.)
Anyway, one of the cultural icons that Carlin often lampooned was American religion and American Christianity in particular.
For example, consider this quote (the quote that prompted this post):
Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man…living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer and burn and scream until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you and he needs money.
Now, granted, as a comedian Carlin is taking “religion” to the extreme to be funny. And, granted, no one thinks they are proclaiming this message.
But, apparently this is the message that Carlin – and probably many other people – are receiving. If this is the message that people are receiving, then perhaps it is the message that many are actually proclaiming – whether they intend to proclaim this message or not.
Why do you think so many think this (or something similar) about Christianity? How can we make sure that this is not the “gospel” that we are proclaiming?
Teaching Workshop: Teaching When the Church Gathers
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)
When I don’t deal with stress well…
I’m usually a pretty mellow person. While it might not come through the net of ether – especially during online discussions or disagreement – I’m almost always light and carefree. Very few things stress me out…
But, the last two weeks or so has been different. I’ve been stressed out, and I don’t like it.
Now, I know what’s stressing me out… Or, I should say, I know all of the things that taken together are stressing me out. At this point, I can’t go into the details about everything that’s going on, because many of them are ongoing. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share more in the next month or so.
But, really, the causes are not that important. None of them are life threatening or relationship threatening or anything like that. However, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m still stressed.
A few times, I’ve had trouble going to sleep. Sometimes, I’m quiet or just want to spend time by myself. I’ve vegged out on video games. I’ve been discouraged. I’ve dealt with the stress in many different ways – but I’m still stressed.
Of course, I’ve prayed… often… regularly… now. I’ve read Scripture. I’ve talked with my family and some friends.
I know that I’m stressed, and I don’t like it.
Times like this are difficult… but often very important. Whether it’s stress or anxiety or depression or pain or illness or something else, it reminds us how desperately we depend on God.
What’s interesting is that in spite of the stress, my faith is strong, and I’ve never doubted God. I know and trust that he is in control. (Yes, I know this may sound contradictory… but, oh well.)
So, why am I sharing this with you? Do I want you to fix my stress problems? No. Do I want your pity or mercy? No, not really. Do I want you to pray for me. Sure, but, I always want you to pray for me. But, I didn’t write this so that you would pray for me.
Instead, I’m just trying to share more of myself with you. You may not care, and you may not want to read this kind of post, and that’s fine. But, to me, sharing all of life is important – even the parts that aren’t necessarily pretty. Right now, this is me.
I’m also hoping that this post will be encouraging to someone. Yep, encouraging. You see, too often Christians (especially those in the public eye) are all smiles and roses. But, life isn’t all smiles and roses. It doesn’t help others to pretend that everything is great when it’s not.
So, if you’re having a rough time too, just know that I’m right there with you.
So, right now, everything is not great in my life. Like I said, there are no big issues, but I’m not dealing with this stress well. (Thank God that my family has been extremely patient and caring.)
Teaching Workshop: The Essence of Teaching
Over the next few weeks, I’m planning to lead a “Teaching Workshop” for the church on Sunday mornings. We’ll work through a few passages of Scripture and discuss 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 plan to use 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 plan to put together a short worksheet to guide our discussion. This is the worksheet for the first week’s session. This lesson will be called “Part 3: The Essence Teaching.” From the perspective of Scripture, what does it mean to teach?
Feel free to discuss or ask questions in the comments.
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Teaching Workshop
Part 3: The Essence of Teaching
For this session of the workshop on teaching in Scripture, we’ll consider the following question: What does it mean to teach from the perspective of Scripture? The authors of Scripture say very little about how to teach. However, there are many passage that help us understand WHAT to teach.
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: Matthew 23:1-36; Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 10:25-37; Philippians 4:8-9; Colossians 1:15-23, 3:1-25; Thessalonians 2:1-12; 2 Timothy 3:1-17; Titus 2:1-10; 1 Peter 1:3-12, 13-21; 3 John 9-12; Jude 10-13
I. The Negative Example of the Jewish Religious Leaders
From Jesus reaction to the Jewish religious leaders, we can learn what teaching is NOT. Many of Jesus’ words against them relates directly to their teaching. (Matthew 23:1-36; See also 3 John 9-12 and Jude 10-13)
II. The Great Commission
Just before Jesus ascended to the right-hand of the Father, the told his followers to disciple others. This includes teaching… but teaching what? (Matthew 28:18-20)
III. How do we Teach Obedience?
In Scripture, the primary way of teaching obedience is by modeling obedience, that is, by sharing your life with others so you can learn from each other’s example. (Philippians 4:8-9; 2 Timothy 3:1-17; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12)
IV. Teaching may include Sharing Information
We often begin teaching with information about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, mankind, etc. (Colossians 1:15-12; 1 Peter 1:3-12)
V. But Teaching Cannot Stop with Sharing Information
But, we should understand that our teaching cannot stop there. (Colossians 3:1-25; 1 Peter 1:13-21)
VI. Teaching Includes Very Practical Information About Our Way of Life
Doctrine (teaching, instruction) includes practical aspects about our way of life in Christ as much as it includes facts about God. (1 Timothy 6:2b-10; Titus 2:1-10)
Just sign on the line, and you too can be a Christian
Miguel at “God-Directed Deviations” has started a very interesting series that he calls “Why I’m No Longer the Sort that ‘Closes the Deal,’ in Evangelism.” (You can read “Part I” and “Part II” of his series now.)
He is stepping through how his thinking about evangelism and, especially, “closing the deal” has changed. In the first post, Miguel explains, “I used to be the sort that asked others to raise their hands in the pews (with all heads bowed and all eyes closed of course) after a sermon to ‘accept Christ.'”
In the second post, he writes:
I can recall, during a major evangelistic campaign when 1000′s came forward to “Accept Christ,” how I felt. Having witnessed these miraculous events before, and having wept and worshiped God for doing such a wondrous things in the lives of others, I couldn’t help but think how grateful I was to be a part of it. But, on this particular occasion I asked one of the ministry leaders, “How many of these that came forward do you think have truly received Christ?” Without hesitation, and matter-of-factly, he said, “about 3%.” When I asked, “What about the other 97%?” He replied with a certain incredulity, “Look, we can only get them to a point of decision, the rest is up to God.” Sadly, at the time, and because I didn’t know any better, I accepted it a a reasonable response. It did, however, and for the years to follow, remain like a splinter in my soul irritating but still ignored. I learned many more methods, manners, and modes of “evangelism,” in the years that followed, and felt pretty good that I could make them better. I could take what I saw missing in these techniques and improve on them, and make them more “biblical.”
Now, please do not misunderstand the reason for this post. I am not condemning people who follow the types of evangelistic methods that Miguel talks about in these posts. (And, from Miguel’s comment to me, it is clear that he is not condemning the people or the methods either.)
Instead, I have a much different purpose in pointing you to Miguel’s posts. Looking back over the years that I attended evangelism training sessions, led evangelism groups, taught evangelism methodologies, and made evangelistic visits to people, I recognize that all of this effort and all of those resources resulted in very, very few new followers of Jesus Christ. Oh, there were many, many decisions, and, yes, there was “follow-up.” But, like in Miguel’s story, the decisions rarely resulted in the people actually beginning to be a disciple of Jesus (as far as anyone could tell).
So, I want to ask you 2 things: 1) Do your experiences match mine and Miguel’s, or have you seen better “results”? 2) Have you found a different way to help people begin to follow Jesus Christ that seems to be more “effective”?
(I put “results” and “effective” in quotes because I realize that the results and effects are truly up to God. That said, I’m not sure God is interested in us spinning our wheels doing things that are not actually helping people follow Jesus.)
Reflections on Teaching Workshop Part 2: The Motivations for Teaching
Last week, in my post “Teaching Workshop: The Motivations for Teaching,” I explained that last Sunday I continued leading the church through a discussion of the concept of teaching in Scripture. The “workshop” will continue over the next few weeks, but that second week’s topic was “The Motivations for Teaching.”
In this post, I’m going to offer a few reflections from our time discussing that topic. I was not trying to stuff information into people’s heads. Instead, I was simply leading people through passages of Scripture and asking questions. So, these reflections are not based on things that I taught. Instead, what I’m sharing here came from other people. (In most cases, I’m summarizing and paraphrasing, since I did not record our discussion.)
I’ll share these reflections within the outline (in a summarized form) that I used to guide our workshop:
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(From the beginning, we talked about how these motivations are not specifically related to teaching, but are also related to any response that we should have toward God and others.)
I. Love for God
Scripture: Matthew 22:37 – and parallel passages; John 21:15-17
II. Submission/Obedience to God
Scripture: John 14:15; Acts 5:29-32; 1 John 5:2
III. Honor/Glorify/Worship God
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:16-17; 1 Peter 4:10-11
While it can be beneficial to think about the different aspects of our motivations related to God, in reality, loving God, submitting to God, and honoring/glorifying/worshiping God are all interrelated.
These are all heart responses to God. Our actions should always follow our heart. If our heart is not right, then our actions will not be carried out from the proper motives. However, it is possible for God to change our heart as we are submitting to him through our actions. Still, our goal should be heart change (for ourselves as well as for others), which means we always have to rely on God to do the work (again, in ourselves as well as in others).
IV. Love for Others
Scripture: Galatians 5:13-14; 1 John 4:20-21
V. Desire to Benefit Others
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:4-7; Acts 20:20
VI. Desire to Disciple Others
Scripture: Matthew 28:19-20; Ephesians 4:11-13, 16)
VII. Desire to Build Up Others
Scripture: Romans 1:11-12; 1 Corinthians 14:26; Hebrews 10:24-25
Again, all of these motivations are interrelated, and they are even related to the previous motivations (loving/obeying/honoring God). As we know, we cannot love others if we don’t love God, and if we’re not loving others then we are not loving God (even if we think we are).
If we are not teaching, serving, whatever others, then we are harming the entire church, not just ourselves.
There are “false” motivations – “false” in the sense that they are not motivations from a heart that is right with God. These “false” motivations tend to cause us to do certain things in order to earn God’s favor or people’s favor.
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To me, the best part of our discussion came after we talked about these different motivations for teaching (or others responses to God). We discussed the following question: if we find that we are not motivated to teach others, then what should we do? This was the most beneficial and challenging part of our discussion.
How would you answer that question?
Longing for change while others are fine with the way things are
Over the weekend, after I wrote my previous post linking to a great comment by Arlan, Bettie left another comment that I would like to highlight so that more people read it and think about it.
As with the previous post, Bettie is actually introducing himself to me and my readers. However, her comment touches on an issue that I often struggle with as well. What do you do when you have a longing to change the way you live among the church (in whatever aspect), but others around you are “fine with the way things are”?
Here is Bettie’s comment:
I’ve been enjoying your posts for a while now, and sharing them from time to time. I guess when you say something that I’ve been thinking the same way about, it feels safer to let you say it than for it to be just my opinion… You have a nice way of challenging our thinking from a perspective of humility.
I have been a missionary in Guatemala for 14 years now, involved in different forms of ministry, and attending a megachurch. For the last three years or so I have been feeling more and more restless with that situation, studying both on my own and with the help of others like you, and coming to some disturbing conclusions about the current state of church in general.
My challenge here is that Guatemala is highly evangelized. Sometimes I wonder why I stay here when the Gospel has been so widely preached, but in reality Christ-followers are difficult to find. There is a church on almost every block but mostly full of religion, legalism and man’s traditions. I feel that with the religious freedom here we have a wonderful opportunity to be a greenhouse, so to speak, to raise up missionaries to go to places where the need is greater but North Americans wouldn’t be so welcome.
So when I read of missional communities, house church, simple church, organic church, etc. etc. I feel a longing for something like that but the culture here hasn’t seemed to be conducive to that sort of movement. People seem to be just fine with the way things are but I just can’t go on this way. So I feel like I’m longing for a home that I’ve never seen, and wrestling with the thoughts of whether I am to start something, keep looking for something already existing, or what. Somehow I know that I’m not the only one around here that feels this way.
So, I’ll ask you the same question that I asked Bettie in response to her comment: Why do you think you feel a restlessness about “the way things are” while others seem to be fine with it? How does someone move forward in this situation?