Archive for Training

Developing Apprentice Teachers

“How could I be so stupid?”  Maybe you’ve never asked yourself this question.  But I have—lots of times.  I’ll never forget the day that my perspective on Sunday School teaching changed forever.  I had always been a good Sunday School teacher.  I had shepherded my students.  I had tried to ground them in the key doctrines of Scripture.  I had tried to encourage them to live for Jesus, in church and out of church.  But I had failed to develop apprentice teachers.  I had sought to gather students in my classroom, rather than equip students to minister in other classrooms. 

I was attending a LifeWay Sunday School training, when 2 Timothy 2:2 gripped my soul.  “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”  The verse became my life verse.  I determined that I would no longer evaluate myself based on the size of my class.  I would evaluate myself based on the Christian leaders, especially the Christian teachers, who came out of my class. 

We tend to grieve over the loss of students, even the students who leave our class to teach other classes.  In some ways, that’s understandable.  The world judges us by the number of students who sit in our classroom.  But Christ judges us based on our impact on his kingdom.  We should always be looking for that student who has the potential to teach.  We should be seeking to multiply our ministry, as the Apostle Paul did, through the lives of others.

Prepared by Dr. Fred Creason

Leadership Strategist, Wyoming Southern Baptists   

Connect through others: Share with your one

Is your church eating itself?

Author and management consultant Peter Drucker once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

As a pastor, you experience it when you step on the platform and attempt to motivate your congregation. You see heads nod in agreement and even hear a few say “Amen!” But then enthusiasm fizzles out in a short time.

“Who’s your One?” may be the most significant initiative Southern Baptists have ever undertaken. What would it look like if you utilized a strategy that got your groups on and off campus involved in “Who’s your One?” as a group strategy?

Mark Clifton of the North American Mission Board says, “If you want your church to become a congregation that makes disciples that make disciples, you have to get your people into discipling relationships with one another.”

It’s more efficient and effective to teach evangelistic tools like the “3 Circles” in a group setting. It’s even more important to teach not only what the gospel is but what the gospel does. The gospel restores our relationship with God, our relationships with others and our relationship to ourselves. Relationships are important — not only to those inside the church but to those outside as well.

Groups decentralize your church. In group life people are more focused on “being” the church in everyday life rather than “doing” church. People outside of the church are not looking for religion. They are looking for relationships.

In an article for Lifeway’s Facts & Trends, Alex Himaya wrote:

“Starting with love and relationship rather than religion doesn’t change my beliefs; it changes how I communicate my beliefs. Everyday I’m trying to mimic the same manner that Jesus used when he talked to people. When he encountered the woman at the well (John 4) he didn’t start with her multiple marriages and adulterous lifestyle. He started with a simple request that began a relationship, ‘Can I have a drink of water?’

Why is this important? The Bible says so.

Scripture teaches us to be disciples and to live and share the gospel. A new strategy is to use your groups to create action for “Who’s Your One?” initiative in your church. Here are a few ideas:

  • Train your group leaders and teachers in the “3 Circles.” Teach them what the gospel is and what it does.
  • Have every member of your group identify one person they know. Encourage them to love and build an authentic relationship with that person.
  • Invite those individuals to the group and group functions so they can experience relationships instead of religion.
  • Have gospel conversations with the new people you have established trust with.
  • Fight for them and not against them.

John O’Brien, co-author of The Power of Purpose offers an additional insight into Drucker’s famous quote about culture eating strategy for breakfast. O’Brien writes, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast, but culture gets its appetite from purpose.”

Going beyond an understanding of what the gospel is to what the gospel does will significantly impact your congregation and those with whom they share the gospel.

Personal Development through Visiting a Different Sunday School Class

adssclassWHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? One of the interesting parts of serving on a state convention staff is the opportunity to visit many churches during the year. Seeing what others provides new ideas, sharpens evaluation skills, encourages critical thinking development, and reminds what it is like to be a guest. Visiting a Sunday School class other than your own can be a great way to improve.

Everyone can benefit from a fresh perspective. Visiting a different class can help leaders break out of their routine and be encouraged to try something new.

WHAT DO I DO?

  • Pick a date…Try to visit a class during a “normal” Sunday (not a holiday weekend or special emphasis day). The idea is to see what happens in the group during a typical gathering.
  • Have a plan…Create a checklist of what you want to pay attention to, such as how the class begins, how they handle praying together, how members participate in the lesson time, and other items of interest to you.
  • Note the time…Keep a log of how time is spent in class: what time did they actually begin? How much time is spent on the teaching time? How much time spent for prayer or other activities?
  • Reflect…Take some time to think back through your experience. What were some positive takeaways? What were some noticeable critiques? What can you learn about your own class?
  • Resolve to try one new approach in your own class the next week!

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Daniel Edmonds is the Sunday School missionary for the Alabama State Board of Missions

Pick up the Training Pace after Enlistment

PaceWHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? You asked God to send a leader. You began to look around for the leader God sent. You began observing the life of the leader and spending time with the leader doing life and class ministry together. When you were sure the leader was ready, you asked him/her to join you. When the leader said yes, that is a teachable moment. There is openness to learning and being led. Take advantage of the interest!

WHAT DO I DO? Consider the following:

  • pray for and with the leader,
  • write out a list of the major areas of responsibility,
  • share the list with the leader,
  • work through each item on the list (do them),
  • after carrying out each item on the list, ask questions and debrief the experience,
  • make assignments to the leader, asking him/her to enlist someone to help with each,
  • debrief the assignments, who helped, and how he/she did,
  • listen well, be generous in your affirmation, and offer ideas for next time (when there are areas for improvement),
  • increase the frequency of assignments, and
  • encourage taking initiative to carry out the assigned area of responsibility.

EXAMPLE. For each area of responsibility, the above list will look different. For instance, when training an apprentice teacher, you will focus conversation and practice on teaching, reaching, and caring duties. And you might give them one Sunday per month to teach at first but work toward 3-4 weeks per month before sending them out to teach their own class.

Start With “Why” When Training Leaders

question-mark1In all reality, I have spent most of my life training leaders HOW to perform their role as a leader of a small group; (Sunday School, Discipleship, Men’s, Women’s, Youth, etc). And to be very honest, I was pretty good in explaining how to perform and function in their role. After awhile, I felt my messages where going in one ear and out the other. Then I realized, (DUH) times have changed. Let me see if I can explain that change.

The Internet – When looking for information on the internet, I follow a precise line of reasoning in order to find what I am looking for. For example, let’s say I am looking for additional resources on www.lifeway.com to use with a study in the Bible study resource called Bible Studies for Life. When I arrived at the initial page I would then search for the program area of Sunday School. Then I would click on the box in the middle of the page for Bible Studies For Life. Next I would choose Resources/Blog to see what additional resources were available. Then I would scroll over to media and select downloads. There I found promotional videos and illustrations.

Does that sound complicated? Not to me. That is the way I think and process things. It was HOW I was taught. BUT ask someone under the age of 30 HOW they would find additional free resources for Bible Studies for Life, this is what they would do. They would choose a search engine (google) and simply put in Bible Studies for Life. They would arrive at the same page with the same information.
Sound simple? It is. My culture that I was trained in, led people through a somewhat complicated process to discover HOW to do what they were suppose to do. Our culture today that most of us are adapting to and those under 30 practice regularly is to focus on the objective, THEN figure out how to do it. We need to learn how that applies to us in the church.

Stop training people HOW to do great Sunday School! Instead, train those group leaders to understand WHY their group exists. Groups exist because it is the church’s best strategy to Make Disciples through small groups, (i.e. Sunday School, Small Groups, Home Groups, discipleship groups, men’s groups, women’s groups, etc.). Then, help them to discover WHAT priorities that group should focus on in order to Make Disciples. Then help them discover HOW to accomplish that.

The objective is to make disciples that we hope and pray become Disciple Makers. In order to do that, we need healthy effective groups that: Share the Gospel with the Lost; Develop Biblical Community among the group; assist people to Grow Spiritually; and to Equip believers to Live Missionally. A healthy group then has the right DNA to start more groups from the people in the initial group.

This changes everything. Instead of guiding people through a complicated process of learning HOW to be an effective group leader, I help them discover their purpose (WHY) and their priorities (WHAT) and then guide them to discover HOW they will accomplish their purpose.

Sound simple? It is. Easy to accomplish? NO! It’s time to discover the God given potential of every leader. People learn HOW to perform their role as leaders by observing other leaders. If your current leaders are ineffective, you will raise up more ineffective leaders. Why not help a potential leader discover WHY they are a leader of that group, WHAT they are suppose to focus on and then equip them in HOW to do it in their own unique way. All I can tell you is that I am having more fun doing this than I have ever had before.

SO, does this produce better leaders? Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. The difference is the attitude and heart of the leader. Remember, we lead an all volunteer organization. I don’t control the work and will of God. I also don’t control the choices, actions, behaviors and attitudes of others. What I do control is my plan to achieve what God has asked me to do and my choices, actions, behaviors and attitudes in accomplishing it.

Great leaders are not born, they are made. For some reason, God has chosen to use me to develop leaders to accomplish His mission. They are shaped by God to do His work. I’m just His instrument. I know God uses me and accomplishes His purposes through me.

Join me in a new culture of equipping leaders. Let’s stop training leaders in HOW to fulfill a program role. Let’s develop leaders who are willing to lead a small group of people to make disciples that become disciple makers as well.

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Written by Sean P. Keith, Sunday School/Discipleship Strategist, Louisiana Baptist Convention