FRIDAY, JUNE 15: As we continue the third part of our series on Teaching with Style, we are reminded that we need to prevent the number one excuse of why persons don’t come to Sunday School or to church — boredom.
In an international survey it was discovered that the problem with spiritual teachers was simply a matter of style.
When we teach the wrong spiritual content we see that is heresy, but yet, we can have the right content and bore people, which is just as bad.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was someone who captivated his crowd. He was one who spoke with authority, attention-getting illustrations, mixed with spontaneous events. He is the Master Teacher.
For this reason it would make perfect sense to emulate our teaching style after His. After all, He was the best teacher that walked the earth.
This week we are going to learn that God’s style of teaching is multi-sensory and captivating.
It is important to note that Jesus used everything around Him when He taught. Everyday objects, customs and culture were part of his teaching, including politics and geography, all were used a teaching tools.
Every one of the five senses were used as learning channels for those who followed Him. He touched, spoke, showed, fed, and even made a spiritual point from a woman using a costly, aromatic perfume.
If all of these worked on his disciples, why not use the same type of teaching for your students.
Instead of boring them with a lecture, why not an object lesson that involves their senses.
Think about it… communion service, water baptism, the feeding of the 5,000, the feeding of the 4,000, and the list goes on.
Secondly, Jesus’ teaching was captivating. He does this to astonish us, to grab our attention, in order to teach relevant truth.
We see this is not only the New Testament, but in the Old Testament as well. How was it that God grabbed Moses’ attention to give him a strong message that he was calling him to be a deliverer for His people?
He had to create an experience which was new to Moses and that he could not ignore — something never seen in his lifetime. God used a burning bush! Let’s look at Exodus 3:1-6…
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.
3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
Once God had Moses’ attention, he could give him the message. The message was not only that God is holy, but a burning bush that was not consumed was a testimony that God had heard the cries of his people in slavery (the bush that was burning); however, the nation of Israel would not be consumed by this “fiery” trial (the fire around the bush).
God would deliver them and He was going to use Moses to do it.
When it comes to your teaching this week, move beyond just lecturing to your students. Rather, think of creative ways that you can communicate truth by making your teaching multisensory and captivating in order to teach powerful truth that they would remember and apply.
Isn’t this how God works with us? Capture your students with God’s creative teaching style this week.
Pastor Gary Simons serves as the Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Bible Fellowship. Sunday services are located at CedarBridge Academy at 10am.