Learning and Teaching

     I feel like we've lost something in the modern church, or maybe just misplaced it. Really it's a collection of things but they all interrelate. Let's start with a question, who does the teaching in your church and in what context? I'm willing to bet that most of you answered “the Pastor” and “on Sundays from the pulpit.” While that answer is a correct one it's not the entire answer. Nearly adult in the church should be teaching somebody something although the settings may vary as much as the content.

     I love a line I once heard from John MacArthur; in response to someone theoretically saying “but I don't know much of anything,” he says to then find someone who knows less than you and teach them what you do know! It's not just the “teaching staff” of your church or the Pastor that has instruction to teach. Teaching is a part of the great commission, we are all commanded to go forth and make disciples. Fathers should be teaching their children for instance, and so should the mothers. It's not the church's responsibility to instruct your children, it's yours! Now that isn't a blast against Sunday school or children's church but it is meant to point out that those institutions are supplemental. An hour or two on Sunday is not enough exposure to overwrite or out-balance the days that your kids spend with you. Volunteer for Sunday school or weekday bible studies, ask God to show you His truth so that you can be equipped to teach others. You don't have to be eloquent or well spoken, you only need to know God's word to pass it along.

     I think we've also undervalued the importance of having strong older Christians around us. The Bible is clear that the older should teach the younger and that the younger should respect the older. We have in these men and women valuable treasures of truth and experience that we should be tapping into and seeking after.

“But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.”

(Titus 2:1-8)

     There is a separation of generations today that I don't see in the Bible. Kids grouped with kids, teens with teens, young adults with young adults and so on; why do we do that? I don't really know and I'm not about to speculate. My thoughts are along this line though, fifty years may seem like a big age gap now but how important will that time difference be when we've been in heaven for a million years? Will not those fifty years seem like the blink of an eye? We have all of eternity to live with God and each other, the tiny bit of time we have right now should hardly make a difference on those uncountable ages. I highly recommend getting out of your group, make a friend who graduated college before you were born or even one who's just a few years older than you. Don't waste the resources that God has put in front of you.

     Don't be afraid to teach and don't be scared to learn. We all see God from a slightly different angle, and while our perspectives must be measured first against the rule of God's word, those various points of view can help us see things in a different way. Study by yourself and you'll only ever see things one way or a handful of ways. It's very likely, and I'd nearly say certain, that God has someone prepared to show you something about Himself that you never would have found on your own and vice-verse.