You can hold their attention with a sermon/lesson, but do they learn from your way of life?
This is a comment from Vincent. According to his comment, he is a new reader here. But, this week, he left an awesome comment on my post “What is teaching from the perspective of Scripture?”
In his comment, he expressed many of the same ideas that I was trying to get across in the post. Plus, he expressed it in a much more personal manner than I did.
I hope you enjoy his comment as much as I did. (Thanks, Vincent!)
Just this year I have really struggled with being the example of all I’ve taught. Years ago, the Lord called me to teach and I’ve always found myself in settings where I was teaching and often those older than me or in different life settings. For example, one of my first classes I was called to teach, was a married couples class and I was single. Now today, as a married man, I teach a class containing many of the elders in my church. From seminary, I too learned “explanation, illustration, application.” Because I often received comments on my teaching style and people enjoyed my teaching I believed I was often doing all the Lord had called me to. I was always only concerned my lessons were biblically based, which is important of course.
But recently I was really struggling with “doing all the Lord had called me to.” I say this because I realized (or it was probably more like the H.S. showed me) I was not living out all I was teaching. When I hear K.P. Yohannan speak for example, I can’t help but stop in my tracks to hear him, because I know he is speaking from all he has lived and experienced. The words of scripture come alive because he is living proof of all he is teaching. Even in the elder class I teach, there is a couple in there that are Wycliffe translators who, when they’re not traveling, are in our class. When they raise their hand to speak I hold on to all they say and think they should be teaching not me. It is because they are living examples, again, of what scripture is. I am a Voice of the Martyrs representative in Tucson, AZ. I often struggle to be their voice because I see a huge gulf between their way of life and mine (but his is a whole other topic.) But even when I would pick up a book by Richard Wurmbrand, the found of the Voice of the Martyrs, I cling to every word because he teaches from the life of a man who endured suffering for Christ.
I am truly learning and have been learning that right believing does not always translate into right living. I must be living right. Again, I must confess, while I might be able to hold a class’ attention to my lesson, I don’t see these same people flocking after me during the week to follow my way of life! Shame on me right? Your article seemed to be written at just the right time as I have been thinking about the fact that teaching is more than the transfer and discussion of knowledge. I find I have always been attracted to those whose lives are living examples of the faith and I want to be around them. Yes, teaching is more than just information, it is a way of life!
Replay: Looking forward to a Super Bowl party
Ironically, two years ago, I wrote a post called “Looking forward to a Super Bowl party.” And, guess what I’m doing this weekend? I’m looking forward to a Super Bowl party again! I think I know which teams are playing this year, but I’m not certain enough to type it here without looking it up. I love football – mainly college football. I don’t watch much professional football. But, I love Super Bowl parties!
Are you looking forward to a Super Bowl party? Why?
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Looking forward to a Super Bowl party
I understand that we’ve been invited to a Super Bowl Party by some good friends this Sunday night. I’m really looking forward to this party. Actually, I look forward to any party involving our friends and family.
Yes, the Super Bowl will be on the television, and we’ll laugh at some of the commercials.
But, my main purpose in going to the Super Bowl Party has nothing to do with the football game or the commercials. Instead, I’m looking forward to building and deepening with relationships with people who are at the party.
I never know what will be discussed during a party like this… but there are always discipling relationships… both for me to help someone else grow in maturity in Christ and for someone else to help me grow. This is what I’m looking forward to the most!
And the pride of life…
I haven’t linked to Dave Black’s blog lately. So, this gem is highly overdue.
In the post, he’s talking about learning Greek… because, well, you know, he’s a Greek professor. So, he wants his students to learn to read Greek, right. Well, yes. But, it seems like that’s not his goal.
For example, he writes (on Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 5:40 p.m.):
That pride Jesus warned us about, the leaven of the Pharisees, is so infectious today that I would sooner teach students who are obedient than those who leave seminary with heads filled with useless knowledge. If a knowledge of Greek does not lead to greater obedience, if it is not marked by a passionate love for the lost, if it is not born of a commitment to the Great Commission, then it is the same old pride that does little more than flaunt our own superiority by making others feel just how “ignorant” they are.
I think Dave’s encouragement and warning can be applied to any type of knowledge – especially theological knowledge. Are you an expert in systematic theology? What about historical research? New Testament or Old Testament studies?
Without a heart submitted to God and a life lived in a way that demonstrates love for God and love for others… what good is it?
Teaching through shared life experiences? But what about books, articles, and blog posts?
So, I’ve written two posts recently about the importance of teaching through shared life experiences (i.e., demonstrating what it means to follow Jesus Christ) and about the implications of this kind of teaching for the gathering of the church.
But, there’s another form of “teaching” that the modern church relies on heavily. And, unfortunately, this kind of teaching is even more removed from a shared life than the teaching that goes on when the church gathers.
What teaching am I talking about? The “teaching” that is available through books, articles, essays, and even blog posts! Yes, I’m including my own blog posts in this category.
As little as we sometimes know about the life of the person who teaches when the church gathers, we usually know even less about the person who wrote the book, article, essay, or blog post that we are reading. (Yes, I know that there are a few fortunate readers here who actually know me in real life…)
However, think about how often we drift toward this kind of teaching… What do we do when a couple is struggling in their marriage? Recommend a book. What do we do when someone wonders which Bible translation they should read? Point them to a magazine article that lists the pros and cons of each translation. What do we do when someone disagrees with us? Point them to a blog post that explains our position.
Obviously, books, essays, articles, blog posts, etc. can be effective means of communicating information. But, remember, we’ve already discovered that in Scripture teaching goes far beyond communicating information. If that information is separated from shared life experiences, then very little teaching is actually taking place. (By the way, you can also include podcasts – audio and video – in this category as well.)
So, what can we do? We live in an information age. We are inundated with information, including information about God, people, the church, etc. Why, there is more information on this blog alone than I care to read or could possibly process…
It would be completely impossible to try to separate ourselves completely from this kind of information transfer. Instead of attempting to stop the flow of information, we should seek to live it in community with others. That’s right… live it. When we are confronted with new information, bring it into the community and decide whether to and how to live accordingly together.
Remember, if you can’t live it together, then you are not learning it anyway.
When you begin to live it together, don’t put the emphasis on what “so-and-so” said or how “such-and-such” explained it. Put the focus where it belongs: what God is doing in and through his children – including in and through you. This is the power of teaching in lives that are shared with one another in Jesus Christ.
The power is not in the books, articles, or blog posts – even wonderfully crafted and completely true blog posts such as those you read here. The power is in the work of Holy Spirit in his children as you share your lives with one another.
Teaching and Positional Authority among the Church
My last few posts about teaching – and especially teaching when the church gathers – flies in the face of common church tradition and practice. In the normal view, teaching is tied to authority which is tied to position. If you have the right position, then you teach with authority.
Of course, this leads to huge problems. The primary problem – at least from my perspective – is that teaching from a position of authority is not really teaching as we find it in Scripture. Instead, in Scripture, teaching is from a position of service as we share our lives together.
There is another problem though. You see, if we focus on teaching and authority associated with position, then what happens when someone comes along with a “higher” position.
Skye recognizes this problem in his post “The Platform Principle.” He writes:
This radio show had more authority in Stacy’s life than I did. What authority I possessed had been built through years of sound teaching and the vetting of denominational leaders. But it was no match for the authority granted by Stacy to a speaker she heard on the radio.
In marketing lingo it’s called platform. The logic is simple—the magnitude of your platform determines the scope of your authority. Someone with an audience of one million has more authority than someone with an audience of one hundred. The assumption: the larger platform is a result of the person’s competency, intelligence, or character. That, of course, is not always the case.
Today authority is granted to those who have simply proven they can build a platform.
From the quote (and from the remainder of the article), the author is concerned that someone who should be under his authority (because of his position) has decided to rely on another person’s authority based on their position (as demonstrated by their larger platform). In fact, the author’s practice of teaching from his own position of authority leads his audience to understand that authority and teaching come from positions… and, of course, the bigger the position (such as a radio personality with a huge audience) the bigger the authority.
But, what if our ability to impact another person’s life was not based on our position at all? What if our ability to teach someone else resulted from our shared life experiences – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and demonstrated ability to live the truths of God – not our ability to speak the truths of God?
I think things would be quite different… for everyone involved… even the “teacher.”
The place of teaching when the church gathers
When you talk with someone about church today, it’s hard to keep the conversation from shifting to the church gathering (i.e., “worship service”). This is true even among people who admit that the church is people (that is, people who are following Jesus). Still, people often equate (or at least closely associate) church with a specific gathering of people.
Similarly, when discussing gathering with the church, it’s hard to keep the conversation from shifting to some form of teaching (usually in a lecture form called “sermon” or “homily”). In fact, just as church is often associated with a specific gathering, the gathering itself is often closely associated with a sermon or another form of teaching.
However, in my post “What is teaching from the perspective of Scripture,” I said that teaching in Scripture is not about sharing information but about demonstrating how to live for Christ and helping others live that way of life. Obviously, very little can be demonstrated while teaching during church gatherings. (Like I said in the post above, “application” is not the same as demonstration.)
So, what is the place of teaching when the church gathers?
First, we should recognize that in Scripture teaching is only one form of interaction between people when the church gathers. And, beyond it being only one form of interaction, it is not given a prominent place. One of the only places in Scripture where teaching (“instruction”) is specifically mentioned in the context of church gatherings is in 1 Corinthians 14. However, even in this case, teaching is only one among a list of activities, and it is not one of the activities that Paul chose to focus on. (There may be a reason that Paul chose to focus on “prophecy” and “tongues,” but he doesn’t tell us that reason in his letter.)
Second, whether we teaching using lecture, dialog, discussion, case studies, or some other method, we should recognize that these kinds of teaching are only the beginning of teaching in the perspective of Scipture – and only a small step at that. If someone only interacts with others through these kinds of teaching methods, then that person is not teaching by demonstration (like we see in Scripture). (Yes, I believe that some forms of teaching are better for sharing information than others forms. But, any of those forms are still types of sharing information, not methods to help people walk in Christ as a way of life.)
Finally, we should recognize that if we truly desire to teach one another, then we must also grow to know one another more and more and share our lives with one another. Real life is the context for teaching in the perspective of Scripture. Anything that is shared while the church gathers only becomes “teaching” when it demonstrated in the context of real life and others are helped to live accordingly.
I understand that it is popular to closely associate caring about Scripture or learning from Scripture with certain forms of teaching (sermons, for example) or certain contexts for teaching (during the church gathering or worship service, for example). However, this is not a valid (or at least a unique) association. It is much more “scriptural” to associate caring about Scripture with helping others live according to what we find in Scripture.
What would you add to my discussion of teaching while the church gathers? Have you experienced this kind of teaching before?
Studying the Books of 1-2 Samuel Together with the Church
Now that we’ve finished our “teaching workshop,” we’re about to begin studying 1-2 Samuel together as a church on Sunday mornings.
These two books were originally one book and were part of the section of the Hebrew Bible called “The Prophets” (Nevi’im). Specifically, Samuel was the third book in the “Former Prophets”: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. The “Latter Prophets” included Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve (or the “Minor Prophets”).
Later, when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek (the LXX), it appears the order of the books were rearranged and re-categorized, and 1-2 Samuel became part of the “historical books”: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.
I’m hoping that at some point we can discuss why this book was considered “prophetic.” Is it simply because there are prophets in the narratives of 1-2 Samuel? (i.e., Eli, Samuel, Gad, Nathan) Is there some other way that the books could be considered prophetic? And, how does that affect the way that we interpret Samuel today?
Have you ever studied 1-2 Samuel? What do you find interesting, exciting, or even difficult about this book (these books)?
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.
Sharing our life in Christ together and the mission of God
On this blog, I primarily focus on the gathering of the church… that is, times when believers gather together with one another.
These times are extremely important to the life and maturity of the children of God. We need one another, and we need to spend time with one another – or, as I like to say it, share our lives with one another. I believe this is part of the mission of God – seeing his children grow in their understanding of him, their trust in him, their unity with one another, and their way of life in demonstrating who he is.
However, there is another extremely important aspect of our life in Christ: taking part in the mission of God toward those who are not (yet) followers of Jesus Christ.
Last week, I wrote a couple of posts about “organic church life.” But, what about “organic church life” towards those who are not in Christ? How does our relationship with God and with one another stretch out to those who are not (yet) part of God’s family?
I’ve written about this some before, and I will probably write about this more in the coming weeks. But, for now, I want to ask you this question:
Do you have any examples of how sharing your lives with other brothers and sisters in Christ resulted in a positive impact for Christ among those who are not (yet) followers of Jesus?
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.