Mastering Teaching

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I've always felt that the heartbeat of the church is adults. Jesus loved children, but he did not call children. He called adults.
—Roberta Hestenes

Some years ago, I knew a Christian attorney who was appointed by the church board to be chairman of the adult education program. He was perfectly willing to oversee the program. He was willing to teach. He was a good teacher. But he was completely unwilling to take a course. I asked him why.

"I learned everything I need to know about the Christian faith when I was a kid in Sunday school," he replied. "Now I'm an adult and the challenge is to live what I already know."

To him adult education was remedial, for adults who somehow missed getting a Christian education when they were younger.

This is not an uncommon view. It arises, in part, from the common attitude toward all education in our culture, that schooling is something you do when you are young. At a certain point you graduate and you are all done with education. Even worse, the attitude upon graduation may be Thank goodness I don't have to do that anymore!

Often our Sunday schools, confirmation classes, and youth programs parallel the public education experience so that we send the subliminal message. Education is for children. The sooner you're through with it the better.

But that attitude can be turned around. When I first came to one church, there were fewer than 200 people in Sunday morning classes out of a congregation of 4,000. That meant only 5 percent of the congregation was involved in adult education.

...

Here, then, are a few insights that have guided me as I've worked with adults in various educational settings, ideas that not only have helped adults get involved but have changed lives as well.

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