Preparing to Teach

Throughout my life, one of my greatest fears was the idea of teaching. As a Christian, I always read the Bible verse in James 3 that said, “not many of you should become teachers, for we know that we who are teachers will be judged by a higher standard.” Oddly enough, God has a funny way of getting out of your life what you have been purposed for, and it is often in the area you have the greatest fear. I swore that I would never follow my father into ministry and God pushed me right into that direction.  

Over the course of my life, I’ve found that not only have I actually been moving into the direction of teaching, I’ve also been doing it throughout my life in various ways without even perceiving it. It’s not that I was ignorant to the fact that I was teaching; I just didn’t see it in the same context as those who I looked up to as people who excel at it. 

In the coming weeks, I’ll be stepping into the role at the academic level. As a culture healers, according to Matthew 28:18-20 we are called to make disciples by teaching. I think we limit ourselves in this respect by thinking that teaching and disciple making only happens in the context of doing things within church. From the beginning of mankind, Adam was charged with teaching not only Eve but their children in the things that God had given him. This wasn’t just in relationship to worshipping God, it was in life in total. 

 Teaching honors God and brings glory to Him. Where people often get in trouble is when they teach out of brokenness, deceitful motivations, and with the intent of leading others away from a pursuit of God and His wisdom. If you take the time to talk to many teachers who love their job, they may say the reason they love it is due to the fact that they get to pass on knowledge, they are preparing generations of people for the future, the joy they get when they see a student gain understanding and develop a love for that subject, and getting to be a role model. 

The interesting thing is that we have the opportunity today to teach in so many different ways. We often take for granted some of the ways in which we are teaching. One way is through teaching by example. When we live out our lives, we get display through our daily actions the disciplines, habits, rituals, and conduct things that become transferrable. Another way in which we teach is through stories. We pass down knowledge, history, and life experience through to conveying of story. I think that those who do this well are among some of the greatest teachers because we often remember stories far more easily than just trying to retain names, dates, and figures.  

As I grow older, I appreciate with greater reverence for the power of games and how they can be used for teaching about life and the skills to navigate through it. Too often we can look at games as something to keep people entertained or occupied. Yet, a good game helps to prepare the player to see life in a way that causes them to be hopeful, imaginative, expressive, and much more. I consider games like “Mother, may I?” This is a game that not only teaches good manner, but also accepting the yeses and no’s that we come across in life. How do we build character and prevent becoming entitled as we grow up? How do we acknowledge that we make progress through stages and that sometimes progress is also met with setbacks. It can teach us humility and other character-building traits. 

As I prepare myself for this new phase of entering the halls of academia as a teacher, it is my prayer that you will find greater value in the ways that you have presented yourself as a teacher, to embrace the role of a teacher, to discover new ways to teach what you love and make an impact on those around you by fulfilling the call to teach. My admonishment to you is that if you embrace the call, be authentic, caring, and sincere. Those you teach you looking to you to provide them with the necessary thing that they have need of. May you see the opportunity in all you share cause wonder and amazement at God’s wisdom and glory.