What Teaching Has Taught Me
Someone asked me last night when was the first time I knew I was called to “teach”. I had to think for a minute because even when I first started to teach the word of God, I wasn’t sure anyone would ever listen. I knew that to communicate to people God would have to step in and lead the way. It wasn’t long before I began to realize how much I enjoyed sharing the word and how God had made me passionate about teaching. Add some years and a little bit of creativity and many years later people actually show up to hear the word taught and applied to their lives.
Several years ago God shook my world upside down when I attended Rick Warren’s, “Preaching For A Life Change” Conference. It was there after 15 years of teaching that God challenged me to take the Gift that He had given me to a whole nother level. Here are some things that I have learned in the last 7 years.
- teaching is not about information, it’s about transformation. I used to be worried about getting all my information done in the alloted amount of time. Now I ask, “Is this going to transform lives”? I hear how people all the time leave churches because they want to “GO DEEPER”. They want more info. But information without transformation is an abomination. It’s just data. The question we all should ask is, “How wide am I reaching with the transformational gospel of Jesus Christ”? So teaching should take us “deep and wide”.
- When you speak you are in relationship. At the very core of every good relationship is communication. When you teach it is all about relationship. The better you learn to relate the better communicator you will become.
- If your not passionate about it, your hearers won’t be either. Andy Stanley says that he finds one thing that he is passionate about in his message and that is what he focuses on. He then says all he does is find a way in to that thought and then a way out. Simple but profound.
- Make sure that you answer questions that people are asking about the bible. They want to know what the bible says about the End of the World, and How to Connectand Relate, and Love & Sex, and Purpose. Does our teaching address the issues our culture is facing?
- There is a Gift of Teaching and you either have it or you don’t. It is a gift from God.
I am so thankful for the priviledge to use my gifts for the Lord to build His Kingdom. What have you learned about teaching?
