Training Category: Teaching Ministry
Whether a parent, preacher, or Bible teacher, we should want our teaching of God’s Word to make a difference in people’s lives. But, are we willing to make the commitment?
While such a commitment will take time (the topic of the next post), effective Bible teaching takes more than outwardly doing all the right things.
The Kind of Commitment Needed for Effective Bible Teaching
Effective Bible teaching requires that we “be” the kind of teacher who makes a difference. Who we are matters, not just what we say and do.
To be effective we need to …
focus on being over doing in our own lives and in our students’ lives,
- Article: Being Versus Doing: Which is most important in ministry?
- Article: Teacher Acrostic – What’s in Your Heart?
- Article: Words & the Teacher’s Heart
so that what we do grows out of a good heart.
- Article: Be-Attitudes for Teacher: Be Be Be
- Resource: Be-Attitudes for Teachers Devotional Guide
When what we say and do doesn’t match what’s in our hearts, people soon pick up on hypocrisy and even the “right” words can lose their effectiveness.
Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. (Matt. 12:33-34)
You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” (Matt. 15:7-9)
- Article: Hypocrisy is a Heart Issue
- Article: Hypocrisy Affects Our Teaching
Effective Bible Teaching Therefore Takes a Divinely Empowered Commitment
Think about it: Who builds within us the kind of inner qualities, or spiritual fruit, we need to be effective? — To “be” the kind of teacher who makes a difference takes the work of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).
Effective Bible teachers therefore acknowledge their need for God’s wisdom and power and submit to and rely on His Spirit. They realize that they can’t be effective on their own. It takes a divinely empowered commitment.