Teaching

There are five major influences on our students: home, school, church, TV, and peers. When you consider the time that a child spends with each of these throughout his lifetime, the school and the home definitely have the potential to be the most powerful. Thus, these two institutions must talk to each other, must work together, and must coordinate efforts.

Oftentimes Sunday school teachers are very excited because they feel that they are doing their job (ministry) with great efficiency. But it has been rightfully said that efficiency is doing things right, but effectiveness is doing the right things. It is my hope that these principles will help us be more effective as Sunday school teachers.

As a principal, there are several traits I look for in teachers, and I would like to share seven of them with you:

You have heard the saying, “failing to plan is planning to fail.” There are no teachers or administrators who want to fail, but we must take time to plan out our year, our months, our days, and our school hours or we will fail. Learn to get in the routine of planning and making sure the “big rocks” get scheduled so everyone succeeds!

Parents are counting on us as teachers to support them in the training of their children, God’s gifts to them. Anything we can do to improve our communication efforts with them will encourage them to communicate with us. The overall result—students will succeed in your classroom!

Slow learners are not non-learners! They must be taught and they so want to learn and succeed! A few adjustments in their learning process can make a big difference!

The Sunday school is a tool, and I love tools! Hand tools, gardening tools, mechanic’s tools, and especially power tools.

Have you ever heard a teacher make a statement like, “I don’t teach math, I teach students.” This is an interesting statement and this manner of thinking should impact each of us who are teachers. Regardless of what we are teaching, we must keep in mind that our focus ought to be the students, not the subject matter.

You will never have a great teacher who does not have passion. The personality of individual teachers may be different and their passion may come out differently, but you have never been taught by a great teacher that did not have a passion for what he was teaching.

We have no right to dilute, delete, diminish, or dummy-down anything that God said in His Word. We are to declare it exactly the way He said it.

I am convinced that the highest, holiest, and hardest calling for the man of God is to preach the Word of God.

Jesus took His disciples with Him, and this small group of men took the Gospel throughout the world.

A little over four years ago a dear Korean lady, Mrs. Lee, visited our church for the first time. She knew the Lord, but her husband did not.

Leadership is more than just going somewhere in life. Leadership is taking others along. Maxwell is fond of sharing that leadership is influence, and as we influence others with our lives we are providing direction. It is important that we don’t think of ministry in terms of things we need to get done.

It's no secret that within the walls of American public education, biblical values and principles are no longer welcomed. I have accurately heard the public high school system referred to a mission field, but what are we doing to reach these teens?

There is no such thing as “instant holiness.

The race is on to prepare that perfect illustration, illusion or brand new game to go along with the lesson. You pull the curriculum book from the big Ziploc bag, open it up and realize that it is now . . .

The preaching of the Word of God is both negative and positive. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16, that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for: