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.