The Roles of a Sunday School Teacher

Recently I have had the opportunities to discuss with a few fellow Sunday School teachers about the curriculum of our Sunday School.   In my reply to my fellow teachers, I stated that because I did not have theological training, I will most likely not able to suggest what are the good topics for the curriculum but I can certainly pray that Holy Spirit will give us a vision as to what we should do with our curriculum.

While I do not have much input on what are the subjects that we should touch on, it did prompted me to think of this question – “What is the role of a Sunday School teacher?”. 

Before I share what my view on this subject is, can you ask yourself what it should be?  I believe different people (teachers and students) will have different answers.

What then is my view?  My view is based on the following 3 important elements

1. What is the main purpose of Sunday School?

For me Sunday School is not just a place to learn about Bible knowledge but also a place to learn how the various Bible verses are relevant to our daily lives.  The job of a Sunday School teacher is not so much to tell the students spiritual insights but to help them understand (Matt 13:23), accept (Mark 4:20) and hold fast (Luke 8:15) God’s Word. (I learn this from the Parable of the sower).  

Let God's Word do its wonders to change lives.  After all in I Corinthians 2: 4 - 5 it stated that our faith should not rest on human wisdom but the Power of God "... and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."

2. How to be an effective Sunday School Teacher?

Another important aspect is to be able to know the needs of the students and what are the things that are going through their lives.  With this we can tailor to our application on the Bible verses which indirectly affects our curriculum. I have been trying very hard to build bounding with the students as I believe our ministry is only effective if we can build a good relationship with them as well as knowing what is going on in their live.  

3. Able to fight the Spiritual Battle

I believe I have share this before in my previous blog post that Sunday School is in fact a spiritual batter and therefore being a Sunday School teacher, we also need to be a prayer warrior.  Before each lesson, how many hours have we spend on praying for the lesson?  Do we pray first or do we dig right into trying to understand the passages that we are going to teach.  Prayers are needed in the Sunday School ministry.

The Role of a Sunday School Teacher

Therefore the roles of a Sunday School Teacher are:

• To be a coach
• To be a friend
• To be a prayer warrior

   

When does Sunday School ends?

Our Sunday School is from 10:45 to noon. But realistically when does the class end?

One of my previous blog post talks about  the Parable of the sower where there are 3 steps in learning God's Word.  I have been using this as a guideline in teaching God's Word:

• Understand (Matt 13:23)
• Accept (Mark 4:20)
• Hold fast (Luke 8:15)

I believe we can only use the class time to help student understand God's Word.  The lesson, however, do not just end there.  

 

For Students

As a student after the physical class ended, we need to ponder on the lesson and see if the Bible verse taught during class time will talk to us and if there is any specific things we can do in the coming week.  Students has the disadvantage of not spending as much time as the teacher on the Bible verse and thus need to continue to read and meditate so that God's Word with the help of the Holy Spirit can sink in.

 

For Teachers

As a teacher after the physical class ended, the lesson is still not done yet.  There are at least 2 things that the teacher needs to do.

 

Teachers need to interact (which is sometimes difficult) with the students to see if they have question when the students have time to meditate and to think about what was being taught during class time. Most of the time after one week, students are not able to tell you what was being taught the previous Sunday.  While this may be a facts of life, it is the responsibility of the teacher to promote and to encourage the students to continue to digest what was being taught.

 

Another job after class time, the teacher needs to pray for the students so that they are willing to accept (not just agree mentally saying "Ah this is good" but to put the lesson into practice).  Eventually to hold fast that idea until the end.

I think teaching ministry will be more effective if we can all look beyond the physical class time and continue to pray for the students to be blessed by God's Word that we taught during class time.

James 3:1: "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment".  When we teach, we uncovered the truth and we teach the lesson.  After the lesson we are bound to up hold that standard in our lives. Students are looking at us like kids looking at parents to see if we do what we preach.

So  the class never ends.

When you read the Bible is your eye opened?

You must be thinking that I am stupid to ask such a strange question. Of course we need to have our eyes opened to read the Bible.

I am actually talking about the eye of the mind - ὀφθαλμός

Eye of the mind
This word is used 100 time in 85 verses of the New Testament. It can be used to describe the physical eye as in Matt 5:29:
“If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell."
Or it can be used in Luke 24:31:
"Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight."

In the context of Luke 24, when the eyes of the 2 disciple were opened, they were able to recognize that it was Jesus that was walking and talking to them.
 
Another usage of the "eye of the mind" is in Ephesian 1:18:
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,"
 
In fact in NASB, this is being translated as "eyes of our heart" and the description is not just to open but to be enlightened.

When we read the Bible we need to have our eye of our mind/heart be open and to be enlightened.

Implication to Sunday School
So in the context of Sunday School, both the teacher and the students has the responsibility to pray that the eye of the mind/heart be opened so that God's Word can make an impact in both the teacher 

Spiritual Battle
Sunday School is not just the teacher talking or explaining the Bible it is in fact a spiritual battle. To fight the spiritual battle we need to use spiritual tools and the most effective tool is - prayer

How many hours have we pray for the Sunday School lesson?

If our spiritual mind is not opened it will not be enlightened by the Holy Spirit and we might understand God's Word but we will not be able to accept and to hold fast God's Word. (remember my last post on Parable of the Sower?).

3 things we need to do when we hear God's Word

 

image source: http://www.truthinlove.com/gallery/parable_sower.gif

I heard about the Parable of the Sower when I was a kid and immediately without knowing what it means, I told myself I wanted to be the seed in the good soil. This parable is mentioned in all 3 synoptic gospels and interestingly one of the very few parable that Jesus go into length to explain what the parable means.  This parable is about learning God’s Word and its possible outcome.

Today, I am going to look into the seed that is in the good soil. The explanation for this in Matthew Mark and Luke are:

^{Matthew 13:23} And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”

^{Mark 4:20} And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

^{Luke 8:15} But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.

If you look at the explanation they are not exactly the same.  One common theme is that after learning God’s Word, we are to bear fruit thirty, sixty and hundredfold.  When we examine the 3 verses, there are 3 different reactions to hearing God’s Word and they are:

1. Understand
2. Accept
3. Hold fast

These 3 reactions are different but related. It describe the entire process or outcome. I am going to go into this in more detail but the entire process is that we need to understand God’s Word, accept God’s Word and then hold fast to God’s Word with perseverance.

I have been using this principle when I teach Sunday school. First of all, I have to follow these 3 steps and then my goal is for the students to follow these 3 steps. 

First step - Understand

Sunday preaching, Sunday school, radio programs and Bible study are the usually place that we hear God’s Word. One of the Holy Spirit’s jobs is to help us understand God’s Word. We need to also pray for ourselves consistently so that we will be able to understand God’s Word.

Inductive Bible Study is a good way to understand the Bible.

This is why it is very important for Sunday School teachers to use illustrations to explain the Bible verse during the lesson. It will be even better after the illustration, if we can use real life example to show if we fail to do what the Bible teaches us or examples of how we can achieve what the Bible teaches us to do.

 

Second step - Accept

To accept is not just to agree with what the Bible said.  We also need to live it out in our daily life especially when there is no other people is around you.  

If we can live out what the Bible teaches us even when there is no other people that is around, we are truly living out God's standard.  I often ask my kids "We do not go over the speed limit even if there is no police (or we think) is around?".  On a business trip when when we are along in the hotel room, do we visit web site that we will not when we are at home or when others are around us?

 

Third step - Hold fast

The Book of Luke has the most detail in the explanation of what it means by seed in the good soil.  We are to hear/receive God's Word with a honest and good heart.  Honest and good heart in Chinese is 誠 實 善 良 的 心 but it is used to describe how we are to hold fast instead of to hear/receive with a 誠 實 善 良 的 心.  After we understand and accept God's Word the most important and difficult part is to hold fast with perseverance.  We need to hold fast until the end and we are to bear fruit with perseverance.  This is something that really takes faith and love to hold fast on God's Word.
  
Do you also wanted to be the good soil such that when you hear God's Word, you will understand, accept and hold fast until end and to bear fruit with perseverance?

Secret source for cooking up a delicious Sunday School lesson

What is the Purpose of Sunday School?

Sunday school is a place where we learn about the Bible but it is not for knowledge about God but the ultimate objective is to know God as He speaks to us through the Bible.  God Word (the Bible) is alive:

"For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart" Hebrews 4:12

What is a Delicious Sunday School Lesson?

I like to eat and I always use food for illustrations and beside God’s Word is our spiritual food.  For me a delicious Sunday School lesson is not with tons of knowledge or deep theology.  A delicious Sunday School lesson is where God speaks directly to us via His Word.  I still remember on particular lesson 30 some years ago on II Chronicles 1 about when God ask King Salomon what did he want and King Salomon just ask for wisdom to rule the country instead of asking thing for himself.  It was just a simple story and yet I remember this very well and practice this myself all these years.

Secret source for a Delicious Sunday School Lesson

The secret source is – Prayer, Prayer and Prayer

Both Sunday School teachers and students have to pray earnestly for the lesson.  One verse particular talked to me:

"My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God" I Corinthian 2:4

This verse shows me that when we teach Sunday School, we should not to rely on human wisdom and to use persuasive words in our lesson. Often time we would look up tons of commentaries and try to make the lesson as deep as possible. While this is a good thing to do but it should not be the main preparation for a Sunday School lesson. This same verse also tells me that the objective of the Sunday School lesson is to build up faith and that the faith should be toward God and not toward the teacher or any other person.

This verse tells us that when we teach or preach it should be able to demonstrate the Spirit and God's Power. There is one thing we can do so that we will be able to demonstrate the Spirit and God's Power. 

This one thing is prayer. How many hours have we prayed for the lessons? 

But what are we to pray about? 

We should pray that God will speak directly to us from the passage that we are to teach and that God will also speak directly to the students.  Our job as a Sunday School teacher is just to facilitate God's speaking directly to the students.  When we teach we are the prophet of God and our job is to speak for Him so we must let God's Word speak to us first before teaching the lesson. It is not easy and and takes time and it is much difficult than digging into the various commentaries.  But this is a spiritual battle that we need to fight every lesson.

God Speaking to us directly - Rhema

Sunday School is all about God speaking to us directly through His Word and this is what we called - Rhema. I have another post that talks about this and will not repeat what Rhema is here.  

So let's put in the secret source for this coming Sunday's lesson so that it will be delicious.