"Knowing What to Teach, and How"
Roberta Hestenes
Knowing what subject to teach and how to teach it can become less of a mystery and more of a ministry.
—Roberta Hestenes When I was on staff at Las Canada Presbyterian Church, a group of women said to me, "We want to do a small group Bible study, but we want more than a series of Bible lessons. Frankly, we get bored and turned off by that." Since these women were from Hollywood, I agreed that they would need something a little more creative. So I began by asking what was going on in their lives, where they were struggling, how meaningful their prayer lives were, what they were learning about their faith. From that I got a fix on their needs and their learning style. Together we designed a study on the Book of Psalms that became a turning point for many of the women. Not only did they read and meditate on the Psalms, section by section, they also danced, sang, and wrote their own versions of them. They ended up doing a presentation of the Psalms for some other women in the church. They lived in the Psalms in a way that changed their lives. Preparing to teach people—and not just a subject—is one of the most challenging aspects of the teaching ministry. Sometimes we hit it right on the mark, like the Psalms study. Sometimes one or more things don't click, and the class becomes increasingly sparse as the weeks pass, finally ending in a whimper—and this in spite of the fact we're leaching the vital message known to humankind. Sometimes the reason for the dismal class is obvious—lack of teacher preparation or competition from other classes offered during the same hour. Other times, we can't quite figure out what's going on. That's a discouraging experience for class and teacher alike. But it can be avoided, or considerably lessened. ...
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