Well, I have posted our first First Sunday recording. As I explain on the First Sunday page, I have a practice of taking questions on the First Sunday of each month in Sunday School. On First Sunday, people can ask any question they want to ask. Over the years, I have shared this practice with many preachers and teachers and they are always appalled. They are so worried that someone will ask something they do not know or cannot answer. Yet, they have been teaching for years.
First Sundays are important to teachers in two very simple ways. First, by allowing your students to ask questions, you find out where they are and what they are concerned with. You get to know them and how their lives are going and what they need to learn. You can solve real problems that they are struggling with, but which would never have occurred to you or come up in your curriculum.
Second, it tests you. What kind of teacher are you? Are you just someone who reads a lesson and then regurgitates it to your class? Are you a sort of "walking video" of someone else, just repeating what someone else has said to you? Or do you have real thoughts and real ideas? If you are not learning, then what does that say about those whom you "teach" on Sunday mornings?
If you have been teaching classes for a few years, then you can do a First Sunday. If they ask a question to which you have no answer, then just tell them you cannot answer it. They are your brothers and sisters in Christ and, hey, if they could answer it, they wouldn't ask it. By taking their questions, you show them who you are and you learn about who they are and, who knows, you may find that teaching really is a lot more than just repeating a lesson from a teacher's manual.
If you want to know how it goes, check out our First Sunday page. On this First Sunday, we talked about Christ's distress as he approached the cross, about the theory that he was somehow separated from God (whatever that means), and other issues of real importance to the people in the class. And we had fun, too.
Try it. I think you'll like it.
First Sundays are important to teachers in two very simple ways. First, by allowing your students to ask questions, you find out where they are and what they are concerned with. You get to know them and how their lives are going and what they need to learn. You can solve real problems that they are struggling with, but which would never have occurred to you or come up in your curriculum.
Second, it tests you. What kind of teacher are you? Are you just someone who reads a lesson and then regurgitates it to your class? Are you a sort of "walking video" of someone else, just repeating what someone else has said to you? Or do you have real thoughts and real ideas? If you are not learning, then what does that say about those whom you "teach" on Sunday mornings?
If you have been teaching classes for a few years, then you can do a First Sunday. If they ask a question to which you have no answer, then just tell them you cannot answer it. They are your brothers and sisters in Christ and, hey, if they could answer it, they wouldn't ask it. By taking their questions, you show them who you are and you learn about who they are and, who knows, you may find that teaching really is a lot more than just repeating a lesson from a teacher's manual.
If you want to know how it goes, check out our First Sunday page. On this First Sunday, we talked about Christ's distress as he approached the cross, about the theory that he was somehow separated from God (whatever that means), and other issues of real importance to the people in the class. And we had fun, too.
Try it. I think you'll like it.