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How Do You Feel About Teaching?

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I’ve already started a teacher training session with a circle response activity wherein I asked everyone to communicate in one word or noise how they felt about teaching.  Replies ranged from “ugh” to excited.  What I discovered is that responses often stemmed out of one of the following:

1)  how they were gifted

2)  how they were recruited

3)  how they perceived God would use them

How They Were Gifted:  If a person did not have the gift of teaching, exhortation, prophecy, or perhaps pastor, they tended to feel insecure, afraid of failing, and frustrated.  However, those who had these gifts, especially the gift of teaching, tended to find themselves with a renewable energy that converted into an excitement and passion about teaching.

How They Were Recruited:  If arm-twisted into teaching or made to feel guilty if they didn’t, more times than not, even if spiritually gifted to teach, they tended to lack enthusiasm and even begrudged the time they had to invest into teaching.  If nabbed in the parking lot, they tended to have a low view of their role.  However, those who were approached in a serious manner and were given time to pray about their decision, tended to perceive teaching with more of a priority and sense of purpose.  They tended to be more enthused and willing to invest time and effort into it.

How They Perceived God Would Use Them:  If just doing their time with hopes something good might come out of it, they tended to display some apathy, having a spiritual lethargy.  However, if they truly believed that God would use them to make a difference in people’s lives, trusting God to not let His Word return void (Isa. 55:11), they tended to find joy and have a sense of anticipation every time they entered the classroom.
Teaching Feelings of Joy?

The PowerPoint Presentation, Rediscovering the Joy of Teaching, addresses this point, showing how JOY comes through an anticipation of what Jesus will do through you as you invest into other people’s lives, keeping a proper perspective of your place and purpose in teaching.

If the needle on the gauge of your feelings toward teaching is pointing more toward “ugh” rather than excitement, perhaps  this resource is for you.  It can be used by individual teachers or in a group.  You do not need to have the PowerPoint program on your computer if you download Microsoft’s free viewer.

What Do We Do About these Feelings about Teaching?

For those of you who are in leadership, remember these points as you recruit.  Look for people who are spiritually gifted to teach.  Take great care in the way you recruit people that you are communicating the importance of the task.  And, be sure to emphasize the ultimate purpose and potential of them teaching.

For those of you being sought after to teach, look for your best fit in ministry based on your spiritual gifts.  Do not let someone pressure you into teaching without spending time in prayer.   Know if it is something GOD wants you to do.  If it is, depend on Him to use you to make a difference in people’s lives.

For those of you already teaching who do not feel very good about it, trust God to work through you, even if teaching is not your best fit or if you are not doing it for the right reasons because of how you were recruited.  Work toward a better fit in ministry when the time is right.  It is about God’s will and timing, which could be a temporary placement in teaching.

For those of you already teaching who do feel good about it, praise the Lord yet be careful.  Stay alert, standing firm in the Lord and His mighty power.  The enemy is like a roaring lion looking for those he can devour.  All that he must do is to rob you of your joy to render you less effective.

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5 Replies to “How Do You Feel About Teaching?”

  1. Your topic is really very good, i love teaching and i always willing to teach everything i know, but unfortunately by profession i can become a teacher, my father was in army, and he wanted to see me in army any ways i am happy to fulfill his wish, For me teaching is a God gift, I love all my teachers.

  2. Thank you so much for providing materials for Christian growth and development. I have had the benefit of using your materials over this past year for our teacher training. We used Creative Bible Teaching with Results and the Be-Attitudes for Teachers. We trained ten teachers evenly split between men and women. Five of our teachers are teaching adults. The other five are building their classes and have not taught yet, but hopefully soon.

    I will be using your materials on the Foundational Pilliars of Truth for Maintaining a Healthy Perpective for our Christian Education session this Sunday.

    Thanks again.

    • Thanks for taking the time to write, Drena. I pray God has used this material to help equip your teachers but also to develop that passion within them to teach His Word. I also pray He uses the Foundational Pillars of Truth to reinforce the kind of perspective that helps us react to both the good and bad of life and ministry in healthy and God-honoring ways.

  3. I feel like there is something I’m liking to be complete and ready to go on to a higher level. Maybe it’s because there is no completion of learning until it is finished at the end day. We are forever learning therefore I will continue to thirst and hunger for more and more. Pray for me that God will increase my knowledge, wisdom and understanding of his word so I will be a better teacher to HIS PEOPLE!

    • Hello, Min Dan. You are in a good place when you realize that you always have something to learn. You will be a better teacher because you will keep yourself open to God increasing your knowledge, wisdom and understanding. You will be a good model for your students of how the Christian life is a process in which we keep growing. If we think we have already arrived, that we know enough, we will be less prone to study the Word for lessons as we should and miss what God might want to do not only in our own lives as teachers but also in our students’ lives. May God help you to “press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of you” (Phil. 3:12).

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