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If you are a Sunday School teacher, superintendent
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don't know how?
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School is operating, but you don't know how one is supposed to work.
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AUGUST
2008 SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Sunday School Teachers and
Leaders!
Well, we have come to the end
of the series on lesson preparation per se. However, there is one more
issue I would like to address, and that is environment. Some of you are
not going to identify with this e-newsletter, but that’s OK. For those of
you that are no longer content to meet in a backroom with paint peeling off of
the wall, wooden fold-up chairs, a homemade lectern, no windows, 2” pile,
orange carpet from the 1970’s and that musty odor that says the building has
been shut up all week with no moving air in it, then this is for you.
Effective teaching depends,
to some extent on environment, on the physical location of the class and on the
condition of the place that Sunday school classes meet. For a number of reasons
you may be stuck with a classroom you wish you could change. But not all
is lost. I want to first go through a list of general principles about
classroom environment and I want to share some examples and specific ideas you
might want to consider.
1. The type of
classroom environment you develop will vary according to who you teach and what
age group they are. You will produce a different environment, with
different decorations, color schemes and equipment for the senior adults than
you would for the nursery age children… that is obvious. But the same
should be true for teens verses young adults, each needs the environment set up
for their own needs and tastes. First principle then is decide what suits
the specific group you have, and don’t cookie-cut your environment, personalize
it to your group and students, their needs and to some extent tastes.
2. Your church might
not have a lot of money, but there is NO EXCUSE for a dirty, untidy and
unvacuumed classroom. Whatever else you do to your classroom it should be
clean, tidy and pleasing to the eye. Renting a carpet cleaning machine
from Food Lion is cheap enough. Don’t let them store boxes of torn, musty
hymnals in the corner of your room because they lack courage to throw them away
(James Lanier donated, them you know in 1935). By the same token a gallon
of paint costs just $20-25 at Home Depot, in any color you can imagine.
Three gallons of paint, two flat latex, one semi-gloss latex, for the trim, and
a tube of caulking will freshen up most moderate sized rooms and make all the
difference in the world. An inexpensive throw rug in the middle of the
room from Big Lots can dress up and moderate that old carpet. You can buy
some pretty nice posters from you local craft store, or Bible bookstore, for
not a lot of money, and inexpensive frames to put them in. Or find some
pictures at that last Roses left standing in your community, or go back out to
Big Lots and look for a framed picture or two. With a sharp eye and good
imagination you can find some pretty amazing things. You will be
surprised that for less than $200 you can dress up an old classroom and make it
the envy of your Sunday school.
3. Seating is
critical. Arranging the seating in a classroom is very important, but the
least considered feature of most classrooms and teachers. Rows of seats
are common, with a lectern or stand at the “front” of the room. But that
might not be the best arrangement for your group. The rule to follow is
that somehow you want to direct the attention and focus of the students to the
teacher and whatever teaching aids they may employ in the lesson. So
decide where the central focus of the room needs to be. However, after
that you need to ask how the seating can best enhance your teaching
style. If you are going to lecture, rows of chairs are good. If you
have handouts and need your students to take notes, then you may want
tables. Preschoolers can sit on a nice storytelling rug in the middle of
the room. If you are going to encourage discussion, you may want to
arrange the seating so that everyone can see whoever is speaking, and yet
maintain the focus on the teacher (usually a circle works in that way).
If you are totally trying to produce a fellowship environment and to use an
interactive approach, then if your room is big enough you can set up small
round tables around which 5-6 people can sit at a time.
4. Audio/visual
considerations are important. The classroom should be set up to stimulate
as many senses as possible. Every student should be able to comfortably
hear and see what the teacher is doing and saying. Visual aids should be
centrally located so that everyone can see. Most teachers do not need
amplification, but you do need to speak up loud enough to be heard. You
will need to use a voice that is about half as loud again as ordinary conversation,
but you should use conversational inflection and voice tones in the
classroom. Don’t preach in the classroom… please! Teach
instead. Impart information and encouragement and truth, don’t be overly
concerned with motivating student to go to the altar! Good teaching will
bring conviction every time! By all means use technology, pictures,
projectors, PowerPoint, object lessons, etc. but make sure the presentations
are visible from every location in the room. Go during the week and sit
in each seat and check out the visibility of the teacher and the visuals.
Now here are some specific
suggestions. Many Sunday school classes routinely provide refreshments
during Sunday school (usually for adults). This is not your grandfathers
Sunday school! A coffeepot costs $25. A tub of coffee about $4-6,
filters $2, creamer and sugar $2, water $0.00001, the joy of holding a
comforting cup of coffee in your hand while the lesson unfolds,
priceless. The point is that the while the barriers are coming down, the
lesson is being absorbed in a non-threatening environment. In my
classroom we serve soft drinks too. It is well worth the effort because
our lessons are interactive and thrive on discussion, laughter and fellowship.
Why not provide your teens
with some nice, well looked after living room furniture, donated to the church
by someone who has been careful with it. Soften their environment and put
them at ease, and maybe they will be more willing to listen without boredom.
It is surprising what teens will open up and discuss and confess when they are
made to feel comfortable enough to genuinely consider the Word of God as
relevant. What you are doing is bringing the Word of God into an
environment with which they are most familiar and comfortable, and that says to
them that God’s has relevancy to their lives.
In one church I visited
recently I was surprised to see a large classroom furnished with rows of
armchairs! I mean, living-room furniture. All of them were in the
same style, but alternated in a pleasing blend of deep green and
burgundy. This was obviously the senior adult classroom! What a
powerful statement of value they must have felt that the church would go to
such trouble to make them comfortable and at ease. They have to sit in
uncomfortable pews for an hour and a half for worship and preaching, stand
through long sessions of praise and worship, so what a blessing to have a
classroom furnished especially with their needs in mind.
I hope these observations
have been helpful.
JULY
2008 SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Sunday School Teachers and
Leaders!
In our series on adult lesson
preparation without using prepackaged material, we have now moved to lesson
delivery. By lesson delivery we mean actually teaching the
lesson in the classroom. Last time we discussed the preparation of an
outline, a roadmap that gives us a turn by turn analysis of the lesson.
The outline should contain all of the relevant information you wish to
communicate to your students in the correct order so that they can follow your
line of reason throughout the lesson and come to recognize the points you are
trying to make, and identify the underlying theme of the lesson.
The first thing to make sure
of before you enter the classroom is that you know the lesson plan from
beginning to end and to be sure that you can “fill-in” the outline with the
important material you have discovered in the study stage. Even if you do
take a book into the classroom and read excerpts, reading supporting material
for 45 minutes to your students is no more effective than a lullaby in a
nursery. So know your material so that you can walk the student through
the supporting ideas and arguments of the lesson plan that are represented in
summary form by the outline.
Secondly, plan your
illustrations and have what you need ready to hand… if you have an object
lesson, picture, drama or skit to show to the students, a video or slideshow,
make sure everything is in order and ready to go before you get to the
church. Don’t try to put that together on the day of the lesson.
You must have all of that ready at least one day before the lesson is scheduled
to be taught. Know when and how the supporting illustrations fit into the
lesson, and exactly when to use them. Make sure you know what point you
want to make and make sure you connect (by what you say and communicate) the
point of the lesson with the illustration. For instance, if you are
demonstrating the fragility of some people’s faith by squeezing and egg on its
sides until it breaks, make sure your students understand that the pressure you
exert is like the trials we all go through, and the shell of the egg is
represents fragile faith. Trials can crush faith if we are not
careful! But under other circumstances, well tended faith is like an egg
under pressure end on end, and almost impossible to crush. It has to do
with the orientation of the egg toward the pressure. If we have strong
faith in God, which we have nourished on his Word and through prayer, worship
and fellowship, he will orient us in such a way toward trials that they will
not overpower us!
The next thing to pay
attention to is to setup your classroom. If you have a lot to setup you
may want to do that a day ahead. If not arrive sufficiently early that
you can be finished before the FIRST student arrives. Cardinal rule
number one, never let you students see you setting up! It removes the
mystery from the lesson and spoils the excitement.
Every class that meets
regularly should have a start up routine. We often take roll and
offerings in small groups settings and Sunday school or systematic Bible study,
so a time should be scheduled for this. In an adult class this is
important time for fellowship. In the class I teach, we have coffee and
drinks available and during the first 10 – 15 minutes we talk and fellowship,
share prayer requests and tell one another about what is going on in our
lives. This is not structured time, but the teacher should sort of
facilitate it. There should be a definite lesson beginning, a moment when
everyone’s attention is drawn to the lesson itself. This is where the
striking introduction should be used, something that will command the attention
of the students. If you never get the students attention from the
beginning you will never make the lesson stick, so the beginning is very
important.
Now from the point at which
the lesson begins you need to follow your outline. The introduction is an
invitation for the student to follow you in the process of your thinking
through hearing you. Now I do not want to insult your intelligence by
talking about progressing through the outline, but I want to now share five
important principles of oral communication…
1.
Don’t mumble – don’t shout – oral communication should be at a comfortable
volume for everyone in the class to hear. You are not preaching, you are
teaching so speak loudly enough to be heard, but not as though you are in the
Kenan Stadium with no sound system.
2.
Speak clearly – Don’t slur your words. In fact take greater care in the
classroom than you would in ordinary conversation to clearly pronounce each
word, and even deliberately slow it down just a hair (don’t be artificial about
this stay natural)! You can get an idea of how bad you diction is by
listening to a CD or tape of yourself. I know it shocks me when I listen
to myself and realize my diction is awful!
3.
Use inflection – Don’t drone on like Paul the Apostle did when Eutychus fell
out the window because he nodded off (yes, even Paul was occasionally
boring). Don’t rapid fire like a machine gun out of control. Vary
speed of speech and intonation in your voice, and use these to great effect in
making emphasis.
4.
Use facial and bodily expressions – Let you face tell the story… smile, frown,
laugh and look your students dead in the eye while you teach. Similarly,
let you arms and hands move freely and naturally as though you were in a
personal conversation. Don’t cling to a podium like it is a life
preserver and don’t be immobile for 45 minutes! By all means let
all gestures and expression come naturally, do not practice them in the mirror
or they will come off as
insincere. You are not trying to produce a performance, but communicate
truth. The rule of thumb is be conversational in the classroom setting as
though you were talking to just one or two others! (Preaching requires a
slightly different approach.)
5.
Move about, but be controlled – If you have ever seen a sped up video of a
Pentecostal preacher he looks like a restless lion pacing up and down inside
his cage! Use movement, but keep it under control. Don’t stand there
like a robot, but don’t thrash about like a giddy monkey. Movement makes
the lesson interesting and can be useful when you use illustrations or objects
to make your point. However, meaningless movement and movement that is
out of
control is distracting. It will hurt the lesson.
Now a sixth principle is in
order but it strictly speaking doesn’t belong with the other five! Know
when the lesson is done. Get to the conclusion and leave it there.
Don’t fly over the lesson like a reconnaissance plane looking for a place
to land. Land the lesson on time, firmly and deliberately by making your
point and pressing for a response.
JUNE
2008 SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Sunday School Teachers and
Leaders!
Up until now we have been
looking at the process of preparing the lesson from the perspective of doing
the research and discovering the truth behind a passage of scripture.
Assuming we now have a good idea about what the scripture means, now let’s go
on to prepare an outline.
An outline is basically a
list of points you want to draw out of the passage for your students.
Here are some rules about outlines…
1. Keep them simple: no more than 3 sub-points to every main point
2. Keep them concise: don’t let your points run on an on with
detail
3. Keep the structure of outline clear: develop a habit and stick
to it, so that you can easily follow you own plan
An outline is simply a map, a
Tom Tom or Garmin telling you when to make the next turn and taking you to the
desired destination. Now the goal and destination of the lesson is the
central idea or truth you want to get at and have your students take way with
them. The outline is route you will take in the lesson that leads to that
point and demonstrates why this idea or truth is worthy of their attention,
where it comes from, and what authority (biblically and spiritually speaking)
stands behind it. More about conclusions later.
An outline MUST have three
parts, a beginning, middle and an end. Just like a story in fifth grade
English class! An outline should consist of an introduction, a
development (body), and a conclusion.
1.
The introduction is the point at which the lesson begins and your students
enter the passage, subject or topic you have chosen to teach or speak on.
For that reason many writers, speakers and preachers prepare the introduction
last. My dad used to say how can you introduce something until you know
what you are going to say about it! You introduction you do three main
things:
A.
Begin with a striking start (a provoking statement, notion idea or
audio/visual) to grab the attention of the listener immediately (you can seldom
recapture attention if you never had it at the start)
B. An introduction should introduce the idea that you want to
communicate, not some other random notion… stick to the lesson
C. Introductions should begin where you student is, as if they were on a
journey to the destination you want to show them
2.
The development or body is the part of the outline where you discuss your
topic, give your evidence, engage the logic of your argument, demonstrate the
validity of your point and challenge the thinking and emotions of your hearers
A.
You should plan to break down your lesson into logical sections that have a
sense of progress of thought about them, easily moving from one idea to another
so that it is like building a bridge from the introduction to the conclusion,
something to get the listener from where he is to where you want him to
be.
B.
Keep your main points to under four, two or three are better. Give them
catchy, easily remembered titles that can be understood at a glance. Each
main division or point should be supported, expanded and explained by a series
of sub-points that fill in the details of how you arrived at your conclusions,
explaining the topic and demonstrating the validity of what you are
teaching. Keep the sub-points to no more than three levels!
C.
Bridge each main point with a logical point of contact where they overlap one
another. Don’t change topics at the next main point, but step up or over
in some logical and comfortable way. If you take the corner too fast,
someone is sure to fall off of the bus!
3.
The conclusion is where you wrap things up, and more importantly, in our
setting at spiritual teachers and leaders, press for a decision. The
object of any given lesson can be as different from previous lesson as chalk is
from cheese. However, having studied the material and knowing what the
passage teaches about spiritual life or about God himself, you should have a
fair idea about what response is appropriate from the student. You may
want an mental assent, a repentant attitude, action or prayer and commitment.
Whatever it is you must press for it in the conclusion and make sure you have
time to do so before the end of the lesson. Without the conclusion the
whole exercise is a waste of time, and energy!
A.
A conclusion should return to where the students are (spiritually, morally,
socially) and imply a question as to what they are going to do in response to
the new information.
B.
The conclusion should wrap up the loose ends, and tie them off, so if you have
been talking about spiritual gifts for instance, you could ask you students to
observe the church at worship and jot down any time they think they have seen a
spiritual gift in operation. In the next lesson you could discuss some of
their observations.
C.
Lastly a conclusion should do just that, it should close the door on the
lesson, and provide a good place for the student to land, a place where they
know exactly what is expected next, how to respond and what results to expect
from their acceptance of the lesson and obedience to it. In other words
your conclusion should spell out what the required commitment or response
should be, and explain exactly what the student or listener can expect by
responding positively to the message.
MAY 2008
SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Sunday School Teachers and
Leaders!
Sorry there was no April 2008
e-newsletter. I was crushed by too many things calling my name and
completely overlooked it!
Now let’s get back to our
example of Job. This book is notoriously hard to interpret. It is
full of long-winded speeches and hard to understand metaphors. Not many
preachers use Job and when they do, they usually lift a couple of verses out of
context to make a point that nowhere near reflects the real message of the
book.
In step one we said we must
read the book through… more than once if necessary to try to get a feel for the
overall direction and content. When we do that job does become
clearer. It is the story of a very rich man who loses everything he has,
including his children, in a series of catastrophic events that occur
simultaneously. When the news comes to Job, it is like the drum beat of
some relentless, somber dirge, as each servant relates what has happened one by
one (cf. chapter 1). But job refuses to turn bitter and, in spite of his
obvious pain and discouragement, he bows in worship to and trust in God (Job
1:21).
A very important statement
made about Job is often overlooked by commentators, in their headlong quest to
find the flaw in Job’s character, and to criticize his bitterness, represented
in his harsh words against God. Most people reading the book want to be
able to accuse Job of bitterness and ultimately of spiritual failure, and use
that criticism for the rationale behind the rebuke of God at the conclusion of
the book. However, what is interesting is that Job is declared to be a
righteous and just man at the beginning of the book, before all of this occurs
to him (Job 1:1). There is no question of his integrity. God
himself declared Job to be a man of integrity and righteousness, when he spoke
to Satan (Job 1:8). And even after Satan has destroyed Job’s livelihood
and family, God declares him to still be righteous and blameless (Job
2:3). These declarations of Job’s integrity are not incidental to the
story they are key factors. Job is not a sinner or reprobate, and neither
does he become one as a result of his troubles! At the end of the book
God continues to uphold Job’s integrity in the face of the criticism of Job’s
friends against him (Job 42:7-9)!
The story of Job revolves
around the attempt by Job three friends to persuade Job to admit he has sinned
and failed God, in order for God to forgive him and restore his fortunes.
There was something mercenary about their motives. They believed that the
headlong decline in Job’s circumstances were obviously a sign of God’s
displeasure at Job because of some sin or lack of integrity. They even
begin to accuse Job of the worst acts of unkindness to the needy in his
community and of injustice. No matter how hard they try, Job refuses to
admit that he had failed God morally or spiritually
No make no mistake. Job
did not claim that he had never sinned, as some people think from reading the
book. At some point, Job spoke of God revisiting punishment on him for
the sins of his youth, the things that he done when he was younger, which he
thought were forgiven and expunged from God’s record against him. God was
obviously bringing them back up (Job 13:26)! All Job claimed was that his
heart was right with God, that he had no unconfessed sin in his life, and that
he was a man of integrity before God, whose sins were forgiven.
Furthermore, he claimed that the things that had happened to him were unfair,
because God was punishing him unjustly, since he was a man of integrity.
He had done nothing to deserve the treatment he was getting.
At this point we must realize
a couple of things. First Job had no idea about the contest between God
and Satan that was at the root of Job’s troubles. Second, Job and Job’s
friends were working from the perspective of a false idea about how God deals
with men; namely God blesses the righteous and he punishes the wicked, so Job’s
circumstances were obviously a sign that God was punishing him for
something! Job friends encouraged him to repent, but Job refused to admit
he had breached his integrity, and instead blamed God for some kind of terrible
mistake. The endless rounds of speeches contain the expressed thoughts of
the various characters as they seek to reason out their views. Job rails
against the injustice of his situation, and presumes that if God would give him
audience, he could point out to him where he had gone wrong (Job 9:32-35;
23:1-7)! This is the explanation for the apparently irrelevant reply of
God to Job about the stars and creation… it is that Job had questioned the
wisdom of God to conduct his affairs, and God replies by demonstrating that Job
has no idea of the complexity of creation and how it is to be governed.
He has no authority and not enough knowledge to presume to tell God has to
conduct his business. Yet in spite of Job’s bitter complaint, God does
not charge Job with sin or blasphemy, even though he does severely reprimand him
for his presumption (cf. Job 38-42).
Now let’s subject this
summary analysis of Job to the scheme we used in the last e-newsletter.
What are the themes that keep coming up, that indicate the message or central
point of the book? Well, there are two or three very clear ones.
First, the integrity of Job is central to the book, that Job had neither failed
God, nor was he being held accountable by God for sin. Job’s unfortunate
circumstances had nothing to do with personal failure, and they were not a punishment
from God. Secondly, everyone, I mean everyone, Job included, had it
wrong; they all thought that Job was being punished. He friends thought
he had failed God badly and was being punished. Job thought God was
making a terrible mistake. Thirdly, human beings don’t know and cannot
know all that is involved in the purpose and plan of God, and it requires a
certain amount of trust in God when things go badly wrong.
It is in this last point that
Job turns out, in spite of his harsh railing against the justice of God, to be
a shining example. The climax of the book comes at the point that Job
blurts out in total frustration with his friends, “Even if God were to put me
to death, I will trust him!” (Job 13:15). In another place he confesses
that he believed that even if the trial never lifts, and he dies in this
condition of forlorn hopelessness, he knew that his Redeemer would not fail
him, and that he would be raised from the dead to see God in the flesh, and to
participate in God’s ultimate reign on earth (Job 19:23-27)! Job believed
in ultimate resurrection, way before Jesus actually rose from the dead and
conquered death! Job had a problem with God and God’s justice, he did not
understand why he was being treated in such a way, but he never lost sight of his
faith in God and never let go of his integrity and confidence in God.
This is as it turns out the
key element of Job. The affairs of this world are complex. They are
not straight forward. A great deal of trust and confidence in God is
needed to navigate the seemingly unfair injustices of life. It will take
more faith than most of us understand to serve God in such a world where the
sinner is not always punished immediately and the righteous are not always
rewarded in this life! Job’s underlying confidence in God and God’s
ultimate triumph and his ultimate vindication is the most vital element of life
and the key to the book. Job knew that ultimately he would see God.
God would balance the books one day (apparently just not now). Job would
stand before God justly treated, even if it took resurrection to bring him to
that point. Ultimately, Job believed, God would not fail him, even if he
was struggling with the issues at hand for the rest of his life.
What I have done here is to
take the book of Job and to apply the principles we talked about in the last
e-newsletter, in an effort to discover the underlying theme and message of the
book. Now you are in a position to go back to particular passages, and
against the backdrop of this analysis, interpret them. Remember Job is a
book of poetry, or Wisdom literature, as it is called. So the language is
very free and full of metaphors and pictures that require careful consideration
to arrive at their underlying meaning. Also remember that Job is not about
trials per se, but about a believer’s underlying trust in God, even when we are
not confident in the circumstances of our lives. Also beware of the
tendency to extrapolate spiritual principle from the erroneous arguments of
Job’s friends, or the bitter complaints of Job himself. Try to look at
the particulars against the back drop of the overall scheme.
MARCH
2008 SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Sunday
School Teachers and Leaders!
This month we will continue
our discussion of adult lesson preparation using a particular passage of
scripture, without any preprinted lesson material. This will be a two
part discussion. In this edition of the e-newsletter my focus is going to
be not on a single passage, but teaching the spiritual principles of an entire
book of the Bible. For our discussion we will use the book of Job.
In order to make this work,
let me again remind you of my method in this discussion. As we analyze
the material and develop teaching points, I will be sharing principles of
research and lesson preparation that can be applied to any material in the
Bible, in order for teachers to develop lessons plans.
Since the task before us is a
daunting one, teaching a series of lessons from an entire book of the Bible,
let me first list the object of our teaching exercise in order of priority for
the teacher.
1.
Understand the
book
2.
Identify its
major spiritual theme or principle
3.
Identify
sub-themes or contributing ideas (often keys to application)
4.
Apply
These are the major steps in
lesson preparation. We can further break these down as follows:
1.
Understand the
book
a.
Read the book
through entirely at least once (in a single sitting if possible), and make
brief notes about what you notice as recurring ideas or themes (does a single
idea or theme stand out?).
b.
Identify what kind
of literature you are reading (narrative, poetry, prophetic, etc.), and how you
should handle the language
i. Narrative should be understood to carry its message
through the repetitive ideas in a story (notice how many biblical stories are
told in triplets, with a variation on the third leg of the story, this is an
important clue. For example the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 18 in the
mouth of Sinai’s cave. Three loud events followed by a quite small
voice. Three repeated protestations by him about being the only one left
serving God! He was depressed because the
ii. Poetry relies upon metaphors and other figures of
speech to convey its meaning. (You must learn about ancient Hebrew and Greek
figures of speech and historical objects to understand some of these. Get
a good Bible dictionary.)
iii. Prophetic literature needs to be understood in light
of its historical context (when, where and to whom it was first written,
actually preached), and in light of its biblical context (how does it relate to
other biblical themes, teaching, the law of God, his covenant with
iv. Epistles (letters) are circumstantial and address real
people, dealing with real life issues, so historical background is key (there
are usually clues given in the book by repeated ideas, themes and instructions
which indicate what situations are being addressed)
c.
Your approach to
a given book will depend on these factors
i. We naturally understand the difference between reading
a novel and the newspaper; that one is supposed to be true to life, the other a
fiction that sometimes mirrors life, but is not a true account of a real life
situation. We do not regard or interpret the message of both in the same
way. I do not read a letter with the same eye that I read a book teaching
me mathematic principles, and I don’t interpret poetry literally, because I
know it is designed to paint word pictures. I have to adjust my thinking
for each type of literature.
ii. We should have the same discernment with respect to
biblical books
2.
Identify its
major spiritual theme or principle
a.
Sometimes the
major themes and thus their message in a book are stated. For example
John 20:30-31, Ecclesiastes 12:1. Others are implied and are more subtle
and require interpreting and identifying by careful reading. For example the
books of Genesis, Numbers, 1 Chronicles, Esther or Job; the themes of these
book are hard to discern.
b.
The major theme
of a book is the idea that keeps coming up, or rising to the surface. For
example in the gospel of John notice the repetition of the idea of believe,
this is the key idea (i.e. John 3:16-17). In Genesis notice the repeated
idea of God’s intervention to establish a covenant (Adam and Eve, Noah,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph) and to overcome the effects of sin by putting a
plan of redemption in place. In Philippians notice the numbers of ways
Paul refers persistence and perseverance in faith, his own and that of his
readers.
i. Major themes contain the basic idea or message the
writer desires to communicate to his reader, it is his main concern and thought
which he wants his readers to identify and apply to their own lives.
ii. The theme is the message!
iii. The theme should be the foundation for
your lesson, it is what you want to teach the students in your class (This is
KEY)
iv. Every book in the Bible has a series of variations and
take-off points from the main theme and these can be explored, but remember the
effective lesson does not force a passage to say what it was never originally
intended to mean! Don’t play games with scripture, let it say what it
means! To do that stay close to the main theme and let these take-off
points support, not take over the main idea.
3.
Identify
sub-themes or contributing ideas
a.
Sub-themes are
the take off ideas that come out of the main discussion in a given book.
For example in Paul’s writings when he says, “…be angry but do not sin; don’t
let the sun go down on your wrath….” This is a sub-theme arising out of
the main teaching. In fact it is a practical application of the
principles found in chapters 2-4 of Ephesians, that there is one God and one
body, and that it only works when each part does its best to support the body as
a whole through faithfulness and service (cf. Eph 4:11-16).
b.
These can be most
easily identified in Paul’s letters where he often divides his correspondence
into instruction and practice. In the practical section (second part of
his letters usually) Paul will take his carefully reasoned theology and apply
it to a number of practical situations faced by his readers. For example
in several places he addressed food in the market stalls on sale, that had
previously been offered to idols. He also addresses how slaves should
treat their masters, and masters their salves, husbands and wives, children and
parents, based on the principles he has previously taught. The book of
Romans is the most thoroughly theological treatment of salvation in the New
Testament, and yet the whole book can be viewed as a treatise on what unifies
Jews and Gentiles in their salvation through a common faith in Jesus
Christ. To see Romans as pure theology is to miss the obvious emphasis
Paul places on the relationship between Jews and Gentiles who have been saved
through faith in Christ. At the conclusion of his book Paul draws these
implications together in a series of instructions about how Christians of
different cultural and ethnic backgrounds should treat one another, respecting the
differences!
4.
Apply
a.
The final step in
the lesson process is to take the principles you have identified and apply them
to real life in the modern world
b.
What does it mean
in today’s world to be a member of the Body of Christ? How should we
apply respect for ethnic and cultural differences between people? What is the
modern equivalent of food offered to idols in the market place? How do I
address issues like alcohol consumption and smoking, which are not directly
addressed in the New Testament, and what is meant by my body being the temple
of the Holy Spirit? Do I really have an obligation to love my
enemies? What should be my attitude toward my government, and do I owe
taxes? These are all questions about application of scripture. You
cannot answer them without first reading and carefully considering what the
Bible says with respect to these issues.
The job of the teacher is to
discover biblical truth and to teach it and its correct application to the
student, in a transparent way, so that each student can see clearly how the
conclusions were derived. Next month we will apply this process in a
summary approach to the book of Job.
FEBRUARY 2008 SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Sunday School Teachers,
Superintendents and Leaders,
As we stated in the last
e-newsletter, for the next couple of months we will be considering the
preparation of adult lessons directly out of the biblical text. To do
this I am going to interpret a given passage, which will contain hints on what
to look for in the text itself. We will try to look at three different
kinds of texts so as to get a greater variety of literature. My comments
on the mechanics will be limited, and we will expect the reader to notice
the indicators in my treatment as to how I have “discovered” the meaning of the
text by first identifying the questions that need to be asked.
This month we will look at
Ezra 1:1-5:
1. What is the
background to the passage (context historical and literary)?
The book of Ezra is a written
account of the return from exile of one man, Ezra the priest. The nation
of
Ezekiel in his book chapters
8-10, shows how God reluctantly gave up on his people. He withdrew his glory
(presence) from them, and turned their enemies loose to attack and deport them
from the land. This was the lowest point of all in
All of this information can
be obtained from a good commentary with an introduction to the book of Ezra, or
from a good Bible dictionary (try New Bible Dictionary, InterVasity Press,
obtainable from www.christianbook.com).
Knowing this back ground you can read the opening of Ezra with much more
feeling for the importance of the events taking place. Ezra was standing
on the threshold of the realization of God’s promise of restoration, revival if
you will. He was not longer waiting for it, the moment of the fulfillment
of God’s promise and of spiritual renewal had come!
2. What is the key
thought in the passage?
When we read the first five
verses of Ezra, something stands out… The timing was just right for the
fulfillment of God’s promise according to his precious word, but the people
needed to respond to God in order to enjoy the benefits of this renewal or
revival. Notice the key idea in verse five, that the people responded to
God, and that God moved their hearts. There is an implicit
acknowledgement here that it takes a divine urging and human response or
cooperation for renewal and revival to take place! The promise had been,
but the people would have remained in
This idea is very important,
because in chapter 9 Ezra discovers that a significant group of the even these
returned exiles have compromised their resolve and are no longer cooperating
with God as they originally promised they would. The clear implication
from Ezra’s prayer is that they were endangering the revival and restoration
that God had granted his people. The revival was in danger of falling
apart because of spiritual compromise, and an unwillingness on the part of a
number of God’s people to keep up the effort (Ezra 9:1-15).
Notice that in many passages
key ideas like this are what bring the truth alive. By finding these key
ideas you discover what the author is intending to say about God and about
serving him. The goal of exegesis (discovering meaning in the text) is to
find out what the author intended to say about God! Often it is a key
idea like this that makes it clear.
In this case, after centuries
of failure and lack of cooperation, God finally finds a group of people who
will respond to him and cooperate! What follows is a renewal and
restoration of his promises and providence, just as he said he would do when he
called Abraham, Moses, and David. The picture is of a moment of
cooperation with God that contrasts with a lack of cooperation and
faithfulness, ultimately resulting in the deportation that they were now
experiencing.
Here is a hint to an
application of this scripture passage. If we are looking for revival,
then we need to ask if we are prepared to cooperate with God. Are we
willing to respond positively when God moves our hearts? Will we, like
these Israelites, pack-up our belongings and leave the old life and attitudes
behind us in pursuit of God’s will, and in obedience to his leading.
These are the hints from the
text… now let’s put some ideas together in an outline for a lesson.
The Text’s Interpretation
Introduction
(Ezra 1:1-5)
“Have
you ever had a partnership, where only one partner is really trying?”
It’s
not much fun to carry the load by yourself
-In fact it can lead to hard feelings and resentment