Christian Education
Spirituality
The Four Needs
Teaching has been a crucial element of the church through the ages. The church would never have lasted if God had not endowed some with the gift of teaching the faith. Christian education includes Bible study and topics that deepen members’ faith and ready them for ministry.
Christian education cannot be restricted to certain places and times. The business of the church, for instance, can be conducted more effectively after centering individuals on Scripture and prayer. Even brief Scripture study as part of meetings can focus the group on discerning God’s will more faithfully. The church needs to be concerned with faithfulness first and efficiency second.
The supply of teachers expands as you learn the gifts of members. Team teaching is a practical and economical way to share the load and offer inexperienced teachers opportunities to develop their gifts through apprenticeships. Inviting guest teachers is another way to widen the exposure of the congregation to new insights, approaches, and methods of learning.
Remember that all your teachers need to be trained, nurtured, and stimulated. They also need opportunities to share about their classes and their students. For a study methodology, consider Biblical Equipping: God’s Wórd in Your World. [David A. Paap, Biblical Equipping: God’s Word in Your World (St. Louis: Stephen Ministries), 1996] The author, David Paap, lays out steps by which group leaders use Scripture as their primary resource for small group study. This is a way to present the Bible, not as dry academics, but as a living, breathing organism. The author of Biblical Equipping makes this true for his readers.
The church calendar provides impetus for many special-interest studies. Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Pentecost, the lives of saints, World Communion Sunday, Reformation Sunday-these all might warrant short- or long-term classes.
Vacation Bible Schools, Sunday schools, and youth programs lead children to Jesus. There are community Bible studies, home study groups, and brown bag dinner studies on almost every subject. Also available for educational ministries are videos, computer-aided Bible studies, and audio tapes–every type of media is used in the church, and many excellent programs sit upon shelves just waiting to be used.
One admonishment: Church studies should be linked with people’s need for God and the practice of their faith active in love. This is not always the case, and it sets the church up for ridicule when it strays too far outside this boundary.
