Have you ever read a book or an article that was so much like what you believed that you almost thought you were reading your own thoughts? Well, that happens to me from time-to-time. It happened to me again this week. While surfing AMAZON.COM for a new book on Christian Teaching, I discovered one that I had never heard of by some author that was unknown to me as well. I read the table of content on AMAZON and thought it was worth buying so I did. I was really unsure as to the real worth of the book, but figured I could affort to buy it even if it wasn’t the best book on the subject.
The book came yesterday. I have had a hard time putting it down!
The title of the book? Rather generic: The Craft of Christian Teaching-Essentials for becoming a very good teacher, by Israel Galindo, a professor at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. I know, not a kosher Baptist Seminary, but I did attend classes at Union PSCE in Richmond in order to complete my church administration certification! BTSR is on the campus of Union PSCE. I have a coffee mug from BTSR I bought while attending classes at Union. Oh, well, back to my first thought!
I starting reading this little book and the more I read, the more I regretted that I had not put my own thoughts to paper before this prof from BTSR! I am so excited by the content of the book that I have decided that it is worthy of being one of two books I will provide for my adult Sunday School teachers for 2008. This is something I started last year, hoping they would read these “free” books since not all of them make an attempt to attend worker’s meetings. Last year they received two GREAT BOOKS: Disciple-Making Teachers by Josh Hunt and 6 Core Values of Sunday School by Allan Taylor. I tell you, this new little book is in the category of these books! Was I surprised!
My hope is to try to share my reflections on the individual chapters of this book each week. (I learned to use the word “reflect” from the Presbyterians I encounted while in seminary at Memphis Theological Seminary and Union PSCE. However, I have learned what that word really means from our “word-miester” pastor, Ron Madison.)
Now, for this week, I just want to give you two lists from the first chapter, one by Loren Mead, founder of the Alban Institute, the other by Israel Galindo:
12 Theorems for Working with Churches:
1-Nothing works: Don’t worry if it ain’t broke, pretty soon it will break!
2-Almost anything can work a little bit better-Commit to making something work…tinker with programs.
3-There are no easy answers. There is no quick fix.
4-There are no quick answers. We want something like a shot from a doctor. Take it and you’re well.
5-There may not be an answer. Many problems in the local church have no one answer.
6-There is no such thing as strategy, only tactics. Life happens too fast to get long-term clarity and have a long-term plan…Learn to live experimentally.
7-There are no big deals anymore.
8-Money won’t solve your problem. The problem isn’t the money; it’s having the initiative to do something.
9-A new _________ won’t solve your problem. You fill in the blank–pastor, deacon, staff member. Talk as if somebody new from outside will solve your problem and you dodge the issue.
10-You can’t get there from here. In times of change, by the time you figure out where you want to go and organize yourself to get there, “there” has moved.
11-You won’t get anyplace if you don’t start from here. Ministry is here and now, not in the future.
12-Ministry is the journey, not the destination. Ministry is now, and the task of helping people enter into leadership in Christ is the radical reality that this is it.
Now, the second list is from the author, Dr. Galindo, The Theorems of Christian Education:
1-Stick to the basics. If you don’t know what the basics are, you’d better find out, fast!
2-Decide who you are before deciding what you’ll do. Christian teaching flows from who you are in relation to God and others, not from how well you can perform.
3-Process is more important than content.
4-No curriculum will solve your program problems.
5-You can’t teach anybody anything. But people learn. Good teachers facilitate learning; Great teachers inspire learning.
6-People don’t remember lessons. They do remember relationships. Even after people die, relationships go on forever–that’s why people grieve. Are you concentrating on lessons or relationships?
7-There are just so many ways people learn.
8-Learning never ends. It’s a lifelong adventure.
9-There is no perfect program. So quit trying to find it! There are good and better, valid and sound, and great and good enough. And any one of them is only good for its time because people grow and time change.
10-Learning is change. Teaching is not entertainment; learning is not always fun. Change is difficult, sometimes painful, often resisted. The kind of change (learning) we seek in Christian teaching at its highest level is metanoia, “conversation.” In the final analysis, that’s the work of the Spirit, and that’s real change!
There are a lot of other “I wish I had written that first!” moments in this first chapter, but I have gone on long enough for this week.
What I hope is that you will read this and respond with some constructive criticism of these words or some words of affirmation and application in your experiences of teaching. I hope to hear from you this week!
Happy teaching!
Michael Davis
Since I was in high school, I have hoped and planned to pursue a doctor’s degree in Christian Education. Well, now, at the age of 48, I am finally going to get the opportunity to do so! Just about 34 years after I first thought about it.
