Author Archive for Richard Nations – Page 2

A Transformed Life – It Began With Sunday School

By Richard Nations · Comments (0)
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

Maria is a single mom in our church in West Des Moines, Iowa.  She has a little boy who is in elementary school.  About a year ago, our church asked the guidance counselor at the elementary school where our church meets to give us names of families needing a little help with food during the Christmas holiday season. Maria and her boy were identified to us and we helped them with a food basket.  Later they started attending our Sunday school.

I met Maria in our class one day and I was surprised at the refreshing, honest questions she was asking.  She would ask questions like “Why would God do that?” and “So how does a person know God?”

Our adult class encourages discussion.  We sit in a circle and the conversation, questions and stories are always lively. Maria is Hispanic and was Roman Catholic.  She knew of God in only a distant way.  After several months of studying the Scriptures and hearing the Word preached, she responded to the gospel invitation one Sunday morning to ask Jesus to come into her life in a personal way.

She has been baptized and is actively sharing her new faith where she works and with her extended family.  It began in our Sunday school class where open discussion and real-life application is always stressed as the Bible study unfolds each week.  Our class members are a diverse mix of long-time believers and brand new seekers of the Lord.  We have a couple of ladies from a halfway house attending.  A few of the members struggle with addictions.  Some of our folks have been believers for a long time.  But in the class all the walls come down and the discussion flows around the Bible passages.  Our teacher is quick to tell stories that reveal his own honest struggles. As he often says, “We are on this journey together.”  His stories of spiritual transformation are often followed with honest stories and questions from the class. 

Are you seeing lives transformed in your Sunday school ministry?  Encourage members to share, to ask honest questions.  Don’t be in a hurry to always finish the Bible passage for the day.  Help your class be a discussion-oriented class.  Reflect on what the Bible passages mean for our lives.  And by all means, reach out to the lost, those struggling with life, those who hurt, who are hungry and need the Lord in their lives.   

Are you seeing lives transformed in your Sunday school ministry?  Leave us a comment and tell us about spiritual transformation in your church and class.

_______________

Richard Nations is the Church Health Team Leader for the Baptist Convention of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa.  Contact him at rnations@bciowa.org.

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Categories : Sunday School, Transformation

Applying the Bible in Sunday School

By Richard Nations · Comments (1)
Friday, January 21st, 2011

I have learned, as a teacher, that I need to do three things as I present a Sunday school

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lesson.

  1. Explanation. I need to explain God’s Word and help the students discover the truths of the Scriptures.
  2. Illustration. I need to help the students understand the concepts by giving visual illustrations, telling stories, eliciting stories from the class or using examples to illustrate the truth being presented.
  3. Application. The teacher must help the student with the “so what?” question. What does this truth have to do with me? Why should I believe this and what should I do as a result of this teaching.

Bible application is sometimes left out of a Bible lesson and the lesson is incomplete unless the students have gained a feel for the “so what” of the passage.

Many, if not most, curriculum plans have a section of application that usually follows the explanation and illustration sections of the teaching plans. It may be a set of questions for reflection, an activity to draw out discussion or a small group discussion time to reflect and apply the truths.

A resource I love to use is the Life Application Bible, which is published by Tyndale House. Take a look at a couple of paragraphs of their introduction to the “Life Application Bible. ”

“What, then, is application? Application begins by knowing and understanding God’s Word and its timeless truths. But you cannot stop there. If you do, God’s Word may not change your life, and it may become dull, difficult, tedious, and tiring. A good application focuses the truth of God’s Word, shows the reader what to do about what is being read, and motivates the reader to respond to what God is teaching. All three are essential to application.”

“Application is putting into practice what we already know (see Mk 4:24 and Heb 5:14) and answering the question, “So what?” by confronting us with the right questions and motivating us to take action (see 1Jn 2:5,6 and Jas 2:17). Application is deeply personal—unique for each individual. It is making a relevant truth a personal truth, and involves developing

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a strategy and action plan to live your life in harmony with the Bible. It is the Biblical “how to” of life.”

So as you teach the Bible in Sunday school, be sure you don’t skip over the application section of the lesson.

  • Ask good questions.
  • Ask for stories and examples of the Bible truths being applied in the lives of your students.
  • Give action-oriented tips and suggestions for application.
  • Follow up with your students and help them discover actions to apply the Bible to their lives.
  • Don’t let the end of the class session come around until you have tried to do a little Bible application each Sunday.

______________________

By Richard Nations, Church Health Team Leader, Baptist Convention of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa.

Quoted from “Why the Life Application Study Bible is Unique.” Life Application® Notes and Bible Helps. Published by Laridian Bible Software. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Copyright 1996 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois. All rights reserved.

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Categories : 31 Days to a Better Teacher, Leadership, Sunday School

I’m New, Help!

By Richard Nations · Comments (1)
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

So you’ve been enlisted to be a Sunday school teacher and this is your first time to serve in this role.  You probably have some questions.  These may have been answered by the person enlisting you or maybe you didn’t think to ask them as this role was being discussed with you.   Here are a few questions you will want to ask and maybe you can think of some others:

  • Who are the members of the class?  Do we have their contact information?  Do we know anything about them, for instance, their birthdays, their family members, etc?  Can the church office help me find this information out if it’s not on our Sunday school roll book?
  • Do we have a prospect file?  Are there people who would possibly come to the class if we invited them?  Do we know their contact information or anything about them?  Are there some family members of our existing members who would be prospects?  Do we know their spiritual condition?
  • What Sunday school materials are available for our class?  No doubt there is a leader guide and some learner books.  Is there also a resource kit (tied to the curriculum)?  Maps? Charts?  Any videos available?  Do we have a budget if we need supplies, etc.?
  • What training is available to me or expected of me?  Does the association, the state convention or the church have any training events planned or is there something available via the Internet that can help me become a better teacher and Sunday school leader?  Do we have Sunday school teacher/worker meetings in our church?
  • Who are the people in our class that are potential leaders to help with this ministry?  Do we have a substitute teacher or better yet an apprentice teacher (being trained to become a teacher someday also)?   Do we have someone “keeping track of people” (a class secretary)?  Do we have people who are focusing on outreach, prayer, care groups or social activities? 

There are a lot of questions that could be asked.  This will get you started thinking in this direction.

What other questions would you have or would you pose as good questions for a Sunday school teacher to be asking?  Post a reply to this blog and let’s talk about it? 

Blog post by Richard Nations, Church Health Team Leader for the Baptist Convention of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa.

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Categories : Ministry, Sunday School, Teaching, Training

The Blended Teacher

By Richard Nations · Comments (1)
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

A Sunday school teacher or a small group leader needs to stay personally fresh and recharged spiritually in order to be most effective at teaching the class or leading the group.

Sharp, creative ideas and a soul that has been to the well of God’s Word along with time spent in prayer will come together to make an effective classroom experience.

Here are some ideas I have found that help me do these two vital things:

  • Keep a file of creative ideas. Look for photos in magazines, video clips, things you can print off of the Internet and clippings from the newspaper that focus thinking on an issue, a problem or a relevant topic to the Bible study lesson text.
  • Always scan your class for people who “have a story” and find ways to draw them out and share their stories in the class setting.
  • Ask great questions. Avoid questions that can be answered with a “yes” or a “no.” Find ways to insert open-ended questions into the discussion which will stimulate conversation on the Bible topic or text.
  • Study, study, study! Read the Sunday school lesson or the small group book chapter a couple of times during the week. Read entries from Bible dictionaries and commentaries to add to the background.
  • Read materials on the context of the Bible passage to gain understanding of the customs, geography and political settings of the day in which the Bible text is set. A good resource here would be “Biblical Illustrator” – a magazine which is available from LifeWay Christian Resources at www.lifeway.com.
  • Find a different way to start the class session out each week. One week use a visual illustration with objects and a key point from each one (think about the children’s sermons you have observed in church). The next week show a short video clip with a pungent point. Another week get a couple of people to act out a short skit dramatizing a dilemma or a moral quandary.

And, keep yourself spiritually fresh. Don’t just let the Sunday school or small group lesson be your only Bible study. Have a plan to read the Word daily and draw from devotional writings of others. You can’t go wrong with the book “My Utmost For His Highest” by Oswald Chambers or some other great devotional guide. The website www.crosswalk.com has a wealth of personal Bible study resources available online.

Read the word, pray, share Christ with people, encourage, serve, minister and love people.

It’s all a part of the mix of a great Bible teacher.

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Categories : Ministry, Sunday School, Teaching

Connecting with Others in Sunday School Ministry

By Richard Nations · Comments (0)
Monday, August 30th, 2010

One of the great values of Sunday School ministry for me is the opportunity and forum for connecting with others on a deeper level in a small group.  Bible teaching is important and should be done with excellence. But determine to have good connections among class members and prospects in place as well.

How do you ‘connect’ a group of a dozen or so class members?  This day and age requires more than merely a paper class list and a prayer chain by phone.  Obviously computer technology gives us many opportunities for connecting people:

1. Emails to class members are the most basic step.  Upcoming lesson topics, questions for thought and discussion, prayer needs and social opportunities are easily communicated to the group.

2. A next step from there might be a class blog-these are easy and inexpensive ways to connect people and they allow for interactivity as people can discuss things online.

3. Facebook and Twitter are also free and easy ways for a class to connect as a group and they are fast (and a lot of people are using social media).

4. For a class member who is stationed in the military a possible connection could be to use Skype and have face to face talk time with the member.  Another option would be to video a lesson and send it by internet to the overseas class member.

5. But in my opinion, nothing takes the place of face to face connecting with a cup of coffee or a Coke.  Inside or outside of the church building, make time to visit with class members and prospects and interact with them.

Technology isn’t the answer.  Connecting is the key.  I sat down at my computer to write this blog post and my office computer network had to be shut down due to a virus on our system.  So I write this on a typewriter to be faxed to our blog coordinator.  Technology will fail but the Lord is pleased when we connect with people in need of Him on a personal and spiritual level.

_________________________________

Richard Nations is the Church Health Team Leader for the Baptist Convention of Iowa.

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Categories : Great Expectations, Leadership, Ministry, Sunday School, Teaching
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