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48. Church School Principles
Video 8
Teachers Outlines
This church school principles video outlines why the teacher should be teaching. This video begins the second section of the video course "Kingdom Kids" training course for Sunday School teachers. We are going to look together at different parts of our Sunday School ministry. We begin by looking together at the Questionnaire at Sunday School Quiz. Let us look together at the various statements there that are reasons for teaching Sunday School. Next to each of the ideas, fill in either "True," "False," or "Maybe." When the group has completed the questionnaire, we would ask you to look back at those answers and consider them together. You may view a complete overview of all videos on YouTube at Tellout Online. You will find Video 9, which is 2 minutes and 54 seconds long, of this effective Sunday school series at Video 9.✞
Jesus Parable Teaching
After a teacher's preparation in prayer, the first thing he or she should do is consider how the adult teacher communicates truth to the child learner. A handy guide to this is to look at some of the Biblical examples of how Jesus taught. The New Testament is full of Jesus' parable teaching, as he told stories to a crowd or addressed his disciples. Even while conversing with an individual, he took a cup of water and explained spiritual truths from his stories and parables in his teaching. As we look closer, however, we discover that there are many different ways of communicating truths. Here are just a few of them.✞
The Sower Parable
There are almost forty parables recorded in the Gospels, two-thirds of them being found in Luke's Gospel, only nine in Mark, and not a single one in Saint John's Gospel! Jesus loved to use earthly stories with a spiritual meaning, which is precisely what a parable is. Scholars define parables as "earthly sayings with heavenly meanings." One of the better-known parables is the sower's story, which is also one of only a few found in all three of the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.✞
Jesus Countryside Teaching
Jesus' countryside teaching, such as the sower's parable in Luke 8.15, explained activities that would have already been very familiar to Jesus listeners. Jesus said, "But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word retain it, and by persevering produce a crop." There may have been a farmer working his field in the direct view of the crowd as Jesus spoke. One could imagine Jesus acting out the story as the man reached into the sack at his side and casts his precious grain over the land in a long sweeping arc.✞
Spiritual Meaning
An equally familiar scene to us today might be the mailman delivering letters, strolling up the drive and depositing them at our door, or stopping to place them in our mailbox. Jesus' teaching set out to explain the spiritual meaning behind the individual items and the overall story as it unfolded. In the sower's parable, the seed, path, birds, thorn bushes, and soil all take on a new dimension, revealing new spiritual meaning in a hidden drama.✞
See But Not See
Jesus countryside teaching concluded his parable with, "Listen, then if you have ears!" to drive home the message with a challenge. But when the disciples asked what the parables meant, Jesus revealed another side to this teaching method. Jesus said to them in Luke 8.10, "The knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven has been given to you," "but to the rest, it comes through parables, so that they may look but not see, and listen but not understand." He seemed to imply that his teaching keeps everyone happy. The spiritual implications of the message strike those who know God personally. Those who don't know God think, "What a pretty story."✞
"Church School Principles"
by Ron Meacock © 1982-2021
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