The Rubber Band Lesson

I heard about a pastor who had all the ushers hand out rubber bands one Sunday morning before the church service. Some people asked what they were for and the ushers simply responded that the pastor asked them to be handed out. That morning the pastor spoke on the dangers of being comfortable with the status quo and the need for growth in one’s personal life as well as growth in the church. As he concluded his message he called attention to the rubber bands that they had been given. He asked for people to share the various uses of a rubber band. As the people gave various examples one clear conclusion began to emerge: Rubber bands are only useful when they are stretched. That is true of people as well.

The Bible is full of examples of people who were stretch by God to do things they never imagined themselves doing. Abram was told to leave the comforts of home and family and go to a land he had not yet seen. Moses was led by God to return to Egypt to face the Pharaoh and lead the people of Israel out of slavery. Peter, James and John were stretched when Jesus called them to leave their fishing nets to follow Him. Even the Apostle Paul was constantly striving to “press toward the mark” knowing he always had room to grow and develop into the man God wanted him to be.

Many people do not want to stretch. They are happy to be in the relaxed, non-useful positions of life. They like the course of least resistance. I read recently that 42% of college graduates never read another book after graduation. That seems to be an amazing lack of motivation toward personal growth. I can’t imagine going to a surgeon who had such a lack of interest in the latest procedures and methods. The big problem with not stretching and growing is that it leads to real dissatisfaction in life. Some of the unhappiest people in the world are those who have settled for being less than God created them to be. I think the same is true for churches and other Christian ministries.

Growth stops when we lose the tension between where we are and where we could be. If we have no intention of be better tomorrow than we were today, then why do we need tomorrow? In athletics, an entire team is benefited when an individual team member gets stronger and more skilled. The same is true for a church. As each teacher grows and becomes an even better teacher, it benefits the entire church and the cause of Christ. When a church loses its zeal to reach and disciple more people, it is doomed for an eventual death and it loses its usefulness to the Lord.

Stretching always requires risk and change. Growth does not occur by staying in your comfort zone. Joshua would have never led the people into the Promised Land if he was satisfied living east of the Jordan River. David would have never become king if he had been content playing his harp on the hillside with a few dozen sheep. First Baptist would not exist today if its founders were comfortable with a handful of people meeting in the town hall building and one adult Sunday School class.

Henry Blackaby said, “You cannot stay where you are and go with God.” God is always leading us forward and upward. If we are coasting downhill, we can be sure we are going the wrong direction and we have stopped following God’s dreams to pursue something else. It’s a little risky to go out on a limb, but that is where the best fruit is. So keep on stretching!

Humble and Proud of it?

If you received a plaque for being a humble person, would you hang it on your wall? That’s a funny thought to wrestle with a while. Humility as such an important character quality to develop as a teacher of God’s Word. But, how can we learn humility in the midst of this world’s focus on self-esteem and trophies for everyone? We are taught early on to love ourselves and we expect to be praised for our efforts. Aren’t we supposed to be “proud of ourselves?”

One of Christianity’s greatest teachers, the Apostle Paul, had some personal battles with pride because of the great revelations God had given him. It really is easy to become proud of how much Bible we know. We get “puffed up” and start condemning and correcting others on sight—not a pretty picture of a successful Sunday School teacher. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul explains that through his “thorn in the flesh,” he learned to boast in his weakness so that God’s power would rest upon him. We learn that with great humility comes spiritual power, so how do we cooperate with the Lord in developing humility? Here are some thoughts to consider.

A healthy focus on the awesomeness of God produces humility. The greatness of an ocean, the fierceness of a tornado and the vastness of space, are all reminders of how small we really are in the face of His real power. As we study the abilities of God to orchestrate time and history to fulfill His purposes, we gain a sense of how awesome He is. As He increases in our own thoughts and experiences, we decrease, squelching our pride and teaching us to be humble.

Understanding that everything you are and everything you have are gifts from God and others will also produce humility in our lives. No one is a self-made man or woman. An old Chinese proverb says, “Those who drink the water must remember those who dug the well.” Remembering that, will help us develop a spirit of gratefulness for the things that God and others have done for us. We have been influenced by teachers, relatives, and mentors all along the way. Parents loved and sacrificed for us, pastors have taught and led us, and God has provided the very air we breathe. I like to keep a stack of thank you notes in my desk—not just to affirm others, but also to remind myself that I would be nothing if others had not invested in my life and counted me worthy of their personal sacrifices.

A commitment to being a life-long learner will help us learn humility. I love watching new Christians grow in Christ. They are like sponges, absorbing spiritual truth. They know they have a lot to learn and they aren’t ashamed to ask questions. They don’t put on the pretense that they have figured it all out or have it all together. That teachable spirit is something we never want to lose. We would do well to remember that an “ex-spurt” is a has-been who is a drip under pressure! I don’t ever want to be an expert! I always want to be an apprentice who is learning from the Master and others. A teachable spirit will be especially tested when we fall under criticism. Our openness to our sincere critics is a real demonstration of humility.

Developing a servant’s spirit will help us grow in humility. It is difficult to really focus on meeting someone else’s needs and desires without thinking about what we will get in return. It does not come to us naturally, but it is the best expression of Christ-like love. Probably the most difficult part of being a servant is when people treat you like one. But in the process of developing a servant’s heart, we become more like Jesus. That is the real goal of humility—to be more like Him.

What Every Teacher Needs: Personal Character

There are at least four areas in which every teacher needs to keep growing. We need to grow in the Word, in our people skills and in our communication skills. Today, we focus on the fourth area—the need to keep growing in personal character.

In spite of what politicians and media types might say, we all know that character really does matter, especially as it relates to church leaders. As Sunday School teachers, we know that what we teach is critically important. We also know that we teach with more than our words alone. The character of our lives teaches so much and goes beyond an hour on Sunday morning. So how do we make sure we keep growing in the area of our character? Here are some thoughts.

First, character is developed as we spend consistent, personal time alone with God. In Mark 1:35 we see the example of Jesus spending His “quiet time” with God. Following that time alone with the Father, Jesus made critical decisions, faced major spiritual battles and ministered to people in need. As a Sunday School Teacher, you are also making decisions on the direction you will take with your lesson, you are fighting spiritual battles, and you are ministering to people. If Jesus needed time alone with the Father as He started His day, it is quite apparent that we do as well. In the process of spending this time with God, we grow in our spiritual character.

Second, spiritual character is developed through personal surrender to the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Those nine qualities look a lot like the qualities we identify with Christian character. It is clear that the Spirit of God indwelling each believer produces this kind of fruit; so, in order for us to bear this kind of fruit, we must live in surrender to His control, enablement and influence.

Third, spiritual character is developed as we grow through the trials of life. We all know that “God uses all things together” for the good of those who love Him. At least part of that “good” is that we are “conformed to the image of His Son.” (See Romans 8:28-29) God uses even the sorrowful and difficult experiences of life to grow us and shape our character as He chips away those things that are unlike His Son. Our response to Him in those situations is to cooperate with His process of molding us into the image of Christ in our character. God is much more interested in our personal character than He is our personal comfort. At times He will sacrifice our comfort to strengthen our faith and our character.

Forth, Spiritual Character is developed as we deliberately study and seek to apply character qualities to our lives. One thing we can do is study the lives of those in the Bible who displayed the character traits we desire in our lives. For example, if I need to grow in the area of encouragement, I can study the life of Barnabas in the Bible. If I need to grow in the area of forgiveness, I can study the life of Joseph in the Old Testament. If I need to grow in boldness, I can study the life of Peter after the Holy Spirit comes in power in Acts 2. I can also read the biographies of great Christians to help me learn certain character traits. For example, Billy Graham’s life teaches volumes about integrity and humility and there are several biographies I can read. As I read about the life of Lottie Moon, I learn about conviction and loving, personal sacrifice for the gospel. This kind of deliberate study can help us on our way to character development and allows us to be proactive in our pursuit of holiness and godliness.

What Every Teacher Needs: Commenication Skills

There are four key areas in which every Sunday School teacher needs to keep growing. We have focused on Biblical Accuracy (Doctrinal Integrity) and People Skills. Today, I would like to focus our attention on the third skill that relates to communication. Nearly every teacher uses words to communicate, but really, we communicate much more with our attitudes, gestures, inflections and other non-verbal ways. I hope the following insights will help us to sharpen our skills in this vital area.

Good communication always begins with listening. We tend to think the opposite—that good communication starts with how we express ourselves. But communication implies that two or more people are interacting in the process of sharing thoughts and ideas with one another. To “share” requires that I listen to the other person’s words and vocal inflections and watch for body language and facial expressions. God gave us two ears and two eyes but only one mouth! That, in itself, may be a good indicator as to how important listening is to the communication process.

Good communication focuses on building good relationships. A church is only as strong as its relationships. As a Sunday School Teacher, your greatest opportunity for life-impact is more likely to come from the relationships you develop with those in your class than your teaching, even on your most profound Sundays. We aren’t just dispensing information—a good video can do that! We are building relationships which requires effort and a focus on the other person. To communicate well with the members of your class will require that you understand their struggles, their passions, what brings them fulfillment and what brings them joy. It is much easier to win a friend to Christ than it is an enemy. It is also much easier to disciple and teach someone whom you know and love and have a strong bond.

Good communication skills are just like the traits of genuine love. First Corinthians 13 is known as the love chapter in the Bible. I would like to suggest that it also is a great passage on the art of good communication. Good communication requires patience and kindness. That is how we learn to really listen to the heart of the other person. Patience and kindness allow us to focus on drawing out the deeper thoughts of a person’s soul with good questions rather than just forcing our ideas and thoughts upon others.

Good communication requires that we are not jealous of letting the other person talk more than we do. It means that we are not so proud and arrogant that we think our personal thoughts are more important than theirs. Good communicators are not rude to others. They do not seek only their own agenda. Good communicators are not easily pulled into argumentation. They do rejoice to share truth, they are truthful as they speak, and they focus on that which is righteous and good. Good communication, like genuine love, bears with people, believes in people, hopes in people and endures with people even when they are less than loving in return.

The opposite of love is self-centeredness and indifference toward the other person. That is also the opposite of good communication. Communication is much more than using good stories and explaining word meanings. It is demonstrating genuine love to the people you hope to influence to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was the greatest communicator who ever lived. He also demonstrated the greatest love of anyone who has ever lived. May God help us learn good communication from our Lord as we seek to deepen such a vital skill.

What Every Teacher Needs: People Skills

We have been thinking together about several key areas in which every teacher needs to keep growing. These areas are vital to success in your ministry as a Sunday School Teacher. The first area is biblical accuracy or doctrinal integrity. A second need for every teacher is to develop strong people skills. One major hurdle in learning better people skills is realizing that we may need to grow in this area. People with poor people skills usually do not realize they have a problem! It is clear that this comes more easily for some than it does others. But it is also clear that we all can and should seek to grow in this important area.

Before we can grow in people skills, I think we must accept the fact that this is a spiritual issue. Just as surely as our love for God is a spiritual issue, our ability to love others is a spiritual issue as well. The passage that admonishes us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, also tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. People skills are really practical ways that we demonstrate our love for others. When you think about it, the fruit of the Spirit referred to in Galatians 5:22-23, helps us focus on nine traits that help us to love others by the power of the Spirit in us. It is the Spirit of God that enables us to demonstrate those characteristics. It really is a spiritual issue and those people skills are developed best on a spiritual level.

Acquiring people skills requires that we learn empathy. Empathy is the ability to see the perspective of the other person. It is putting ourselves in the other person’s shoes. The Bible says, “Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them…” (Matthew 7:12 HCSB). This “do unto others” idea is empathy. You can ask, “If I were new to this class and insecure about my reading, would I want to read a difficult Bible passage in front of a room full of people I hardly know?” Or you can ask yourself, “If I were a first time visitor attending my class today, where would I sit, how would I want to be treated, or what would make me feel most comfortable?” Or you might ask yourself, “If I were 13 years old and already a very self-conscious adolescent, would I want the teacher to call attention to my lateness or my wet hair or the fact that I forgot to bring a Bible?” The devil is already at work trying to disturb the minds of lost and inactive people. Our ability to show empathy gives him one less thing to cause them to stumble.

Demonstrating sensitivity and kindness to others is a Christian norm that enhances people skills. On occasion I have run into a church leader who thought it was spiritual to make harsh, rude, insensitive remarks to others. These leaders often imagine themselves to be following the pattern of prophets of old who confronted idolaters and pagans who sacrificed their own children to a false god. They use the same zeal to rebuke people in their Sunday School class over things that are much less offensive. I have seen pastors who “grew” their churches from 200 members to 60 in a very short period of time using such tactics. I have seen Sunday School teachers who emptied out their Sunday School classes using the class time as an opportunity to comment on dress, or on a Bible translation, or a political issue or some gray area of behavior. When people left or stopped attending they blamed it on the Last Days or on the “fact” that the people were too immature to handle the “meat of the Word” they were teaching. In reality, their insensitivity and lack of people skills revealed the fact that they should not have been trusted with church leadership. Developing greater sensitivity toward others does not come naturally to our human nature, but it is vital to success in our ministry as Sunday School teachers.

What Every Teacher Needs: Doctrinal Integrity

One valuable ingredient to successful Bible teaching is for the teacher to have solid biblical doctrines firmly in place. Imagine a teacher who wasn’t sure if Jesus was born of a virgin; or a teacher that felt the resurrection was not that important an issue. Heresy is dangerous for so many reasons and doctrinal integrity is so valuable and necessary for the church to experience God’s blessing. Having our doctrine correct is vital to our success as teachers.

Imagine a teacher who conducts a class by saying, “Let’s just go around the room and share what each person thinks this passage means.” The problem to such an approach should be obvious. First, no one is accountable for inaccurate or false teaching and second, this approach may simply be a pooling of the ignorance people might have concerning the Bible.

Or let’s suppose a teacher starts a class by saying, “I found a book that spoke about this passage and it said…” Here there could also be a problem. The book may be full of teaching that is inconsistent with the Bible and the fundamental doctrines of the church. What if the book is published by Watch Tower, the publication house for the Jehovah’s Witnesses? Again, the problem with this approach to teaching should be obvious.

Suppose another teacher says, “I know what this passage says, but I just don’t see God the way He is portrayed here.” The teacher is elevating his thoughts above God’s Word. This is a very small, unbiblical view of inspiration and the inaccuracy of his Bible teaching could cause great damage to a Sunday School class and even the church. The teacher may think he is being intelligent and a free thinker, but he is sowing destructive seeds with such an approach.

When Jesus addresses the seven churches in Revelation, it is clear that the doctrinal purity of the church is of vital importance to Him. It is clear that the Lord is concerned about doctrinal integrity. We should also share this concern and do our part to make sure our church is resting upon the rock-solid foundation of God’s Word and our teaching conveys our Lord’s priorities.

In 1 Timothy 4:1-6, the Apostle Paul shares three very important reasons that our Bible teaching must be biblically sound. The first reason is the potential of a shipwrecked life. I know a young man brought up in the church by a Christian mother. He was at church whenever the doors were opened for a public gathering. Today his life is spiritually shipwrecked. He has bought into vain philosophies he heard in college and he has turned his back on the Lord. What we believe matters! Belief in false doctrines leads a person to spiritual shipwreck.

Paul also speaks of the intense attacks of Satan. We are in a spiritual battle and a weak understanding of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible can make a person very vulnerable to the enemy. There are many deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons still in our day. The fact that cults often take a good percentage of their membership from established churches, should burden every Bible teacher. This danger alone should motivate us to pursue doctrinal integrity.

Thirdly, Paul states that sound doctrine is vital to help Believers to have stability and steady growth in the Christian life. If we build our worldview on anything other than the Bible, we are indeed on shifting sand and have a terrible foundation for life. Christians with an inaccurate understanding of basic Bible doctrines will also have difficulty growing into a spiritually mature follower of Jesus. If the Great Commission is our purpose, doctrinal integrity is a priority.

Advice on Giving Advice

In the Book of Job we find the man Job surrounded by his “friends” during his time of calamity. Their presence is no doubt a comfort to Job until that fateful moment when they decide to offer him some advice on why he was facing the trials he was experiencing. As we teach the Word of God, it will not be unusual for people to want to hear our advice or counsel. Perhaps the following thoughts will be helpful as you consider how God might use you in this way.

Before offering counsel, be sure you are the right person to give it. Jesus had an encounter with a man in Luke 12:13 who wanted Him to settle a family inheritance issue. Jesus responded with a question, “Who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” Jesus did not offer to counsel the man or give him advice because there were other people responsible to do so. As we work with people, we may find that a parent, church official or even a lawyer is the best one to give the counsel needed. It is human nature to attempt to get people on “our side” of a dispute. Be careful not to get pulled into a situation where someone wants to use you to referee their fight.

It is also good to not offer advice to someone who is not emotionally ready to receive it. If you are generally a caring, sensitive person, you may be especially tempted to start giving advice when it is not really called for. Probably the best way to be sure your advice is wanted is to wait for the person to ask you! Even then, be careful. If you are walking away from a cemetery where a person has just buried a loved one and they ask, “Why does God allow such pain in the world?” the person is probably not really ready for you to try to answer that question.

I read about a well-known pastor whose wife was in the hospital with cancer. The hospital chaplain, who was normally very sensitive, I’m sure, no doubt recognized the pastor. The chaplain prayed and as he left the room he said, “Well, keep a stiff upper lip.” The pastor wrote, “I wanted to give him a stiff upper lip!” The chaplain may have felt intimidated or wasn’t sure what to say to a fellow minister, but his “advice” seemed trite and insensitive. The prayer for comfort and healing was appreciated, but the advice was not. The timing of the comment was simply not right. The pastor was not emotionally ready to receive advice and didn’t ask for it!

Another mistake in giving advice is assuming we have all the answers. Especially when a person is suffering, it is a huge mistake to assume we know the reason why. I may be able to give a general theological answer as to why there is suffering in the world, but it would be foolish for me to assume I know why a particular person is suffering. Frankly, the more severe the crisis, the less we really need to say. Our presence, a listening ear and a sincere prayer is all that is really needed at such a time. Even if I think I know that a person’s personal sin is directly related to their crisis, it would be best to keep it to myself, even if I am convinced I’m right. I once witnessed a funeral for a 10 year-old that was killed as he and his cousin were playing with a gun. The preacher used part of his sermon to give grieving parents advice on gun safety! The advice may have been good in another setting, but that was not the time to be the “answer-man.”

As the people in your class seek out counsel, be sure your advice is biblical and consistent with the spirit of Christ. He understands suffering, conflict and trials like no other. Our goal in giving counsel is that people would encounter Him as they seek answers to the issues of life from the pages and principles of God’s Word. Jesus isn’t just the “Answer-Man”—He is the answer!