Teaching Today's Teachers to Teach

Introduction

It has been almost thirty years since I wrote the first edition of Teaching Teachers to Teach. I wrote the book when I was beginning my specialized ministry of Christian education with a focus on equipping church teachers to become more confident and competent in their teaching ministries. The book has remained in print all these years. However, I became more and more aware of how out of date the first edition was and was even a little embarrassed by the book. How could a guide for today’s teachers be helpful when sections of the book focused on creative uses of filmstrips and 16mm films? Who has used a filmstrip or 16mm film in the past fifteen years?

The first edition of Teaching Teachers to Teach didn’t begin as a book. In many ways it was a collection of resources I was using in many teacher-training workshops I was leading at the time. The book was essentially an outline of the content of those workshops with copies of handouts I used with the participants. For example, the chapter Values and Teaching in Church Education did not fit neatly into the plan of the book. However, it was a popular topic in the mid-1970s and was one of the workshops I led, so I included it. In this edition, I have omitted that chapter, not because it didn’t contain some helpful material, but because it is no longer a topic of interest and does not contribute significantly to what I want to communicate in this new edition.

Since writing the first edition, I have been a professor of Christian education in a theological school, conducted dozens of continuing-education events for pastors and church educators, written another ten books, served as comanaging editor with my wife, Pat Griggs, of the Faith for Life curriculum published by the LOGOS System Associates, and served as educational editor for The Kerygma Program. As one would expect, I read a lot, learned a lot, and experienced a lot in those years since the first edition of Teaching Teachers to Teach.

I read, learned, and experienced so much that I decided I could no longer be happy with the first edition of the book. I had to update it to be more reflective of my approach to teaching teachers to teach. At first, I thought I would just do a little revising, deleting, and adding of material. It did not take long to discover that the book needed more than a few minor revisions. I began my writing with the original chapters and proceeded to change some chapter titles, add some new chapters, and delete several sections of chapters as well as a chapter or two. I could have written a whole new book, but I like the title Teaching Teachers to Teach and did not want to give it up. Besides, I could not think of a better title for a new book. I wrote the first edition before computers were available, but there are advantages and disadvantages not having the original text accessible on the hard drive of my computer. A disadvantage was that I had to type everything from scratch. However, this was also an advantage because it required me to think through what I wanted to communicate and to be very intentional about every word I wrote.

Education is what prepares children, youth, and adults to live responsible, hopeful, and productive lives. Education is the means through which teachers are equipped with the knowledge and skills to be effective communicators with those they teach.

I knew that the world and the church have undergone radical changes in the past thirty years and that I could not make the same assumptions writing this book that I made when writing the first edition. I knew for a number of years that I wanted to rewrite Teaching Teachers to Teach and that I wanted it to be relevant to the work of volunteer teachers as well as professional staffs in the churches. That was part of my motivation to return to a local congregation as associate pastor for Christian education for the last four years of my career, before retiring. I had served in various nonparish positions for the previous twenty-six years. As associate pastor for Westminster Presbyterian Church, in Sacramento, California, I had the opportunity and privilege to put into practice many of the theories and methods I had been teaching for those twenty-six years. I very much appreciated the chance to work with the wonderful people of Westminster Church. They were very patient with me and very responsive to my approaches of leading them to discover new ways, and to rediscover the values of some of the old ways, of doing Christian education.

My friends and colleagues often ask me, What are you doing in your retirement? My response to their inquiry is, I retired, but I haven’t quit. Now, I’m doing things that I enjoy doing. I teach regularly at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia. The course I teach is Educational Ministry and Leadership. I love sharing with the church’s future pastors and educators some of what I have learned in my ministry. I also spend a good bit of time writing, thus, this book and several others. I lead workshops for church teachers and continuing-education events for pastors and educators several times a year.

As if this teaching and writing isn’t enough, I also serve as Executive Director for the Pilgrims of Ibillin. Ibillin is an Arab village in the Galilee region of Israel where Father Elias Chacour has founded a consortium of schools, kindergarten through college. In these schools with four thousand students and three hundred faculty, Christians, Muslims, and Jews teach, study, and work together in a peaceful setting where there is much trust and appreciation for one another. Pilgrims of Ibillin is a United States–based nonprofit organization that interprets and supports the work of Father Chacour and his colleagues in the schools. I was first introduced to Father Chacour when I led a work camp of high school and college youth at the schools in Ibillin in 1996. We went again in the summer of 1998. My experiences working with Father Chacour in Israel and working on behalf of his schools in the United States have considerably widened my understanding of and appreciation for the value of education in general and Christian education in particular.

Nothing is of more value to teaching in the church than those men and women who do the teaching week by week in the church’s classrooms and other educational settings.

Education is what prepares children, youth, and adults to live responsible, hopeful, and productive lives. Education is the means through which teachers are equipped with the knowledge and skills to be effective communicators with those they teach. Education of the younger generation by the older generation has contributed to our knowing the heritage of our faith in order to live faithfully, empowered by our faith in Jesus Christ, our Master Teacher and Beloved Redeemer.

It is to that end I have rewritten Teaching Teachers to Teach. I am absolutely convinced that the critical factor in effective teaching in the church is the teachers. No curriculum, no teaching method, no educational resource, no theory—nothing is of more value to teaching in the church than those men and women who do the teaching week by week in the church’s classrooms and other educational settings. My hope and prayer is that educators and pastors who read and use this book to support their teachers, as well as volunteer teachers who read this book, will find themselves encouraged, supported, and equipped for their important ministries of teaching. May God bless you as you share the good news of Jesus Christ with those you teach.

Donald L. Griggs

Livermore, California

January 2002

CHAPTER 1

TEACHING:

The Church’s First Ministry

This chapter is written as a reminder to all of us—those engaged in the teaching ministry of the church as well as those engaged in the church’s other ministries—that teaching must be considered a high priority if we are going to be faithful to Jesus’ great commandment. Concluding his time with his followers after his resurrection, Jesus admonished his disciples, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you (Matt. 28:19, 20a).

The focus of this book is equipping teachers in the church to become more knowledgeable and skillful in the art of teaching. It will be clear that the arena for teaching is the more formal, structured, intentional setting where teachers and learners are gathered in a particular space for a specified time to study together a selected topic, Bible passage, or issue. However, even as that is the thrust of this book, we must not forget that not all teaching and learning in the church happen in such structured settings. Much—perhaps most—of what persons learn about the Bible and the Christian faith happens in informal, unstructured, unintentional settings where persons are relating to one another in the context of congregational life and ministry. The most important and effective teaching in a church will happen when both the formal and informal, structured and unstructured, teaching and learning are complementary, when there is congruence between the intentional and the serendipitous learning experiences. This chapter will explore some of the biblical foundations for teaching and learning as we consider Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Psalm 78:1-8, and Acts 2:37-42.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 must be read in the light of what precedes it in chapter 5, where the summary of the Law in the Ten Commandments is presented:

Much—perhaps most—of what persons learn about the Bible and the Christian faith happens in informal, unstructured, unintentional settings where persons are relating to one another in the context of congregational life and ministry.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

We immediately recognize some of these words as Jesus’ answer to which commandment was the greatest. The words in Deuteronomy are attributed to Moses and are part of his farewell speech to the people of Israel prior to their entry into the promised land.

When we apply Moses’ words to the teaching ministry of the church, we gain several insights into teaching. Love for God is primary. Our love for God is to be expressed with our whole being. Parents and other adults must first keep the commandments if they are to be successful in teaching their children to do so. Teaching our children about God’s love is not just a matter of telling them, but also of providing visible reminders of the centrality of God’s law. It is not a matter of teaching just at an appointed day or time, but all day, every day. The responsibility for such teaching begins with the family but continues in the community of faith. It is clear that teaching the children is the first priority.

The first eight verses in Psalm 78 provide additional insight on the priority of teaching. Psalm 78 is one of five psalms (Psalms 78, 105, 106, 135, and 136) identified as Salvation History Psalms, or Psalms of God’s Great Deeds. All these psalms are long because they summarize the history of God’s mighty acts on behalf of the people of Israel. Each psalm includes different great deeds. These psalms appear to have been used for didactic, or teaching, purposes to help the people learn and remember what God had done on their behalf. Psalm 78 is the only one of the five that includes what might be called a preamble, or preface. The eight verses of the preface suggest why it is so important to learn of God’s great deeds:

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;

incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will utter dark sayings from of old,

things that we have heard and known,

that our ancestors have told us.

We will not hide them from their children;

we will tell to the coming generation

the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might,

and the wonders that he has done.

He established a decree in Jacob,

and appointed a law in Israel,

which he commanded our ancestors

to teach to their children;

that the next generation might know them,

the children yet unborn,

and rise up and tell them to their children,

so that they should set their hope in God,

and not forget the works of God,

but keep his commandments;

and that they should not be like their ancestors,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation whose heart was not steadfast,

whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Within these eight verses, you will find a good beginning for a theory of Christian education regarding the goals and content of teaching. The goals for teaching are to tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord.

• So they will be able to tell their children about God’s glorious deeds.

• So they will set their hope in God.

• So they will not forget the works of God.

•