Teacher Training The Art of Customizing a Lesson

Agenda State of the Class The Law of the Teacher Customizing a Lesson Facilitating Questions Handling Difficult Q&A Wrap Up

State of Class Baseball Cards and Memory Verses We as teachers have the opportunity to change lives What are some of the issues you face today with your class? What does the future look like in your class one year from now? – Dream Exercise In Acts – Christianity expanded across the globe – People were sharing the gospel and living out the gospel

The Law of the Teacher “The effective teacher always teaches from the overflow of a full life.” – Howard Hendricks Neither personality nor methodology can substitute for this principle. The teacher must be in a perpetual state of learning Peter says, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The good teacher’s greatest threat is satisfaction – the failure to keep asking, “How can I improve?”

The Law of the Teacher Luke 6:40 -"…but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher" Does this verse scare you or excite you? – Why or why not? On a scale from 1 – 10, are you inspiring your class to go deep in the Word of God or simply scratching the surface?

The Law of the Teacher How have you changed in the last 3 months? – Be very specific – What specifically has changed? – What specifically have you learned? Hebrews 4: For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The Law of the Teacher (the Heart) “Teaching that impacts is not head to head, but heart to heart.” – Howard Hendricks Deut 6:4-6 reveals the scriptural context for the word “heart”. - …Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.” To the Hebrews – “Heart” embraced the totality of human personality – One’s Intellect, One’s Emotions, One’s will.

Customizing a Lesson Start with the lesson content – pore over it early in the week and then pray. Allow it to penetrate you and challenge you. Read and research other materials on the passage you are meditating on. Provide a balance of teaching and discussion 1.Deliver the content, but in a way that is challenging and fresh and personal 2.Ask a penetrating question (one that can’t be answered immediately and forces one to think deeply) 3.Facilitate Discussion 4.REPEAT

Example Acts 4:31-32 – “ 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. 32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.”

Example Con’t Pull commentary and sermon notes from the “great thinkers” on this passage – AW Tozer – Charles Stanley – Tim Keller – Beth Moore – Hank Hanegraaff – Max Lucado – C.S Lewis – Augustine

Provide context and background Ask a penetrating question: – How does V. 31 lead to V. 32 (in what ways does the filling of the Holy Spirit and boldness relate to the radical sharing of material possessions?) Share some more content – A basic mark of Spirit-filledness is “boldness”. Why? Romans 8:15-16 tells us that the work of the Spirit is to oppose “a spirit of fear”. This happens as a result of the Spirit assuring us of our being the children of God. The more we sense God’s personal love for us, the more our attitude toward material possessions and generosity will be changed.

Ask a penetrating question: – Have you ever thought about that correlation before? – Think about your own life for a moment when you have struggled to be generous – Do you think it was related to the fact that the assuring work of the Spirit was not very strong in you? Why or why not? – What paradigm shift do you need to make in your life as it relates to this new discovery?

Handling difficult Q&A From the passage in Acts 4:31-32, someone could say, “No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared… - wouldn’t this be a form of communalism or communism? Points – Let these difficult questions be asked and let people ponder them before immediately answering – Ask what other people in the class think about this before answering yourself – Research it together as the Spirit leads (you may elect to table this and move on or go into it based on how the Spirit is leading you – It’s really powerful if you can anticipate these and prepare in advance

Q&A