Life Change Teaching
What is the purpose of teaching? What are your goals in teaching? What is it that you want your students to come away with? Is your role in teaching just to fulfill an hour called Sunday School or Small Group? Are you simply going through the motions? The main question here is, are you teaching lessons or are you teaching lives? There is a huge difference and it mainly comes in the form of Life Change. I believe that Life Change should be the desired result of every teacher.
Teaching Lessons. When we make it our goal to simply teach a lesson, all to often we get caught in the mere transference of content. Many times it is not about the student at all and more about making sure we transfer lesson content into the heads of our students. We even get caught up in the notion that we have to finish the lesson at any cost. Finishing a lesson is well and good, but when it comes at the expense of our students actually grasping what the Word of God says and applying it to their lives, we may need to refocus our intent. What is the value of the Word of God in our lives if we do not take time to understand it and apply it?
Teaching Lives. No doubt you have heard me speak or write about the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge. I will try not to bore you with a lengthy review only to say that teaching lives focuses heavily on heart knowledge. Teaching lives means that we are more concern with making sure our students know the Word of God, yes, but even more so making sure they understand how to apply it. Our focus is more on the student than it is the mere content of the lesson. Please do not misunderstand, solid content makes for good teaching, however solid content is no good if you do not know how to apply it.
In his book, Understanding Teaching, Dr. Greg Carlson defines teaching by placing one hand on the Word and God, the other hand on the life of a student, and bringing them together for life change. Go ahead, try it. Stretch your right hand out to your side and call it the Word of God. Take your left hand and stretch it out to your left and call it life. Now, bring your two hands to the middle and interlock your fingers. That is what teaching is all about. We must make it our desire to come along side of our students and not only give them the Word, but help them make the Word of God come alive in their hearts and lives.
Recommended Reading
Understanding Teaching – Dr. Greg Carlson
Creative Bible Teaching – Lawrence Richards
Communicating for Change - Andy Stanley
