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Divine hunger Marilyn Anderes shares a dimension to intimacy with God.
Gospel in the flesh Boyce A. Bowdon tells of one ministry spreading the gospel to inner cities.
Our working theology Philip Turner examines the theology of the Episcopal Church.
Ready for His return Joel Green reviews what John Wesley taught about the end times.
The cosmic catalystScott T. Kelso revels in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Editorial The gospel of radical inclusion
Next Generation Word becomes real
RENEW Women’s NetworkDo we honestly believe...
The Great Commission A quasi-Bohemian approach to mission
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Pastor helps police with stressful job
Judicial Council declines reconsiderations
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U.S. churches face crisis, discipleship leaders say
Membership dips in U.S., but increases in other countries
UM lobbyist calls for impeachment of Bush
UMW in financial crisis and membership decline
Culture in View
The Omen
I love teaching the Bible to teenagers. Most of the time, their questions are honest. If they ask, they really want to know. And they lack the pseudo-sophistication that moves us as adults sometimes to read a text "for its beauty" instead of for what it actually calls us to do. In short, teenagers seem to understand ".if this isn't going to affect the way I live, I'm not going through the motions of Bible study just to look religious." This is precisely the point James is making when he says, "Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:22).
That is the essence of the seventh and final of the Seven Laws of Learning set forth well over a century ago by John Milton Gregory, a Baptist minister and educator who had a real burden for sound and effective Bible teaching. Over the last few issues in Good News, we've been walking through these laws one by one:
Law One: The Law of the Teacher. The teacher must know that which he or she would teach.
Law Two: The Law of the Learner. The learner must be interested (or made to be interested) in the material to be learned.
Law Three: The Law of Language. Use language that is common in meaning to both teacher and students.
Law Four: The Law of the Lesson. The truth to be taught must be learned through truth already known.
Law Five: The Law of the Teaching Process. Excite and direct the self -activities of the students; tell them nothing they can learn themselves.
Law Six: The Law of the Learning Process. The students must be able to reproduce in their own minds the truth to be learned.
That brings us to Law Number Seven: The Law of Review and Application. The completion of the learning process comes through in-depth review and practical application.
"Do what it says"
I used to write a column for a magazine published by Focus on the Family. Breakaway went out every month to about 120,000 teenage guys, and in every issue I wrote a question & answer column called (and this always made me smile) "Yo Duffy." One of my favorite letters came to me from a student whose question obviously grew out of complex exegetical issues.
Yo Duffy: What is the point of Song of Solomon? First of all, there's nothing about God. Second of all, there's everything about lust, breasts, and sex. If there is a spiritual meaning to all this, tell me! I need to know. - Nick, La Mirada, CA
I won't bore you with the whole of my response, but I did admit that I appreciated his honesty and found his letter to be refreshing.
What I really appreciated about this guy is that he really wanted to know what this stuff meant, and what was he supposed to do with it.and whether God actually knew it was in there.
We don't expose teenagers to the Bible so that their hearts can be warmed. We expose teenagers to God's Word so that their hearts can be stormed, so that there might blow across their lives a mighty wind of God's presence.
The completion of the learning process comes through in-depth review.
If you're a parent, you know that most kids don't hear anything unless they hear it a lot. Their audio landscape is pretty packed. Ours is just one of the many voices that vie for their attention. Any time I teach, I want to repeat my main point as many times, and in as many different ways (video, art, music, physical movement, etc.) as possible. For stimulating ideas along these lines, see Creative Bible Lessons on CD-ROM (ed. Dave Urbanski, Youth Specialties, 2005).
Next time, in our final article in this series, we'll talk about the element of practical application, the phase of teaching that moves our students beyond information (what does it say?) to transformation (what does it mean for my life and community?)
Click here to send your response plus the title of this article to us at Good News.