Teacher Training Ideas

I've lamented before that training opportunities for Sunday School teachers seem to have gone by the wayside. A few decades ago we saw weekly Sunday School meetings, regular training classes, annual regional conferences, teacher "certification" programs, and a national convention. Now I fear that some congregations manage a quarterly teachers' meeting, but most offer no organized training at all. I know we can do better.

So a recent post by the Sunday School Revolutionary (Darryl Wilson, a Sunday School leader for the Kentucky Baptist Convention) caught my eye. Under the title (you can link to his post by clicking on the title) "Twelve Months of Sunday School Teacher Training," he offers several creative suggestions for equipping teachers, including some that encourage us to spread the leadership roles with others.

send teachers an article or blog post to read and answer three questions to prepare for discussion at the meeting

ask the pastor to share the background of book(s) teachers will be covering in the upcoming quarter

ask one of your teachers (could be in each age group) to be prepared to demonstrate a teaching method for the group--allow time to debrief/dialogue

show a short Sunday School training video--allowing time to debrief/dialogue

read a short section of a Sunday School book to teachers--divide them into groups to dialogue, closing with a summary

devote one of your planning meetings to training beginning with a 20-30 minute presentation and dividing into age groups for application each one facilitated by an age group teacher

Great ideas! Implementing even one or two of them would provide a helpful shot in the arm for those who teach God's children His Word in your congregation.

What do you think? Are my impressions accurate? What is the state of teacher training in your Sunday School?

What training suggestions can you add to Darryl's list?

The Temple Test

Christian apologetics is on my mind a lot these days. The writings of Ken Ham and Brad Alles urge us to be a bit more deliberate (no, a lot more deliberate) about preparing Sunday School students to face a world that is often hostile to their faith.

How can we make sure that the lessons we teach on Sunday morning will be distinctively Christian and Lutheran?

A wise man who helped me get started in the Sunday School editing business, Rev. Earl Gaulke, spoke occasionally of using the temple test.

It works like this. Just ask yourself: Could the lessons we teach, the materials we use, be taught in a temple of another faith (Jewish, Islam, Baptist, etc.) without causing those who worship and study there to object? If there would be no objections, our lessons have failed the test! They have not adhered to the truth of Scripture that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through [Him]" (John 14:6 ESV).

We do the children we teach a disservice when the lesson we teach present godless morality, Christless salvation, or religious life absent the Sacraments through which Jesus promises to be with us. That hour of opportunity each week, when God's children gather in your classroom to study His Word, is too precious to waste!

Am I too harsh?

How do you evaluate the material you teach?

What Can We Evaluate?

I'm wrestling this week with the concept of evaluation in Sunday School.

Over the years, I've operated from the conviction that things benefit from inspection. The simple act of looking at something is the beginning of opportunity, while ignoring things guarantees the continuation of the status quo. Okay, there are exceptions, surprises ("silent growth while we are sleeping," in the words of Fred Pratt Green, Hope Publishing 1970), but even those we see only when we get around to looking.

So, what can we look at in Sunday School that will bring blessings for our task of teaching God's children His Word?

Volunteers will generally fear evaluation by others. Most are insecure enough in their role to suspect that in any evaluation they will be judged inferior, not really sufficient for the task. (In fact, most volunteers are proably duing a commendable job, else they would not remain in their positions.) They are likely open though to self-evaluation.

Other aspects of Sunday School will also defy evaluation. Faith is a perrsonal and internal matter that is not subject to our human examination or measurement. Numbers (students registered or attending, and the like) may not be helpful for evaluation; the root causes for changes in numbers may be difficult to discern.

• So what's left to look at?
  Environment (are we providing attractive space, places where children will want to be and where parents will want to bring them?)



• Curriculum (are we provide theologically and educationally sound material that above all else shares Christ are Savior?)



• Administration (are effective systems in place to provide volunteers, training, resources, and visibility for the Sunday School?)

What am I missing?

What needs to be included in a Sunday School evaluation?

What My School Teacher Says or What the Bible Says?

I had a brief debate yesterday morning with a young man, a first or second grader, who was not buying the Bible's notion of a six-day creation. It was very brief; I didn't intend to engage in any kind of contest and I didn't expect to win if I tried.

Already in his early years of, I assume, public education, this young man had been taught, and was firmly convinced, that the earth was millions of years old, the dinosaurs and man could not have been created at the same time or lived peacefully together on the earth, and the dinosaurs perished millions of years ago because of a "big volcano." (Maybe it was not public education, after all, but children's television and movies.)

That God's Word is true, a reliable source of information about all that it teaches, including a six-day creation, is ultimately a matter of faith. So I made my case, in language that I hoped the others in the mixed-age class could understand. "This is what the Bible says. The Bible also promises forgiveness of sins to all people who, like Adam and Eve, have sinned and turned away from God and then hear again God's Word of salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus."

But I'm praying for that young man, and for all the other children who hear God's Word, that their hearts will be open to hear it. And I hurt for the many ways that tender faith will be challenged as children encounter a world that does not believe what the Bible teaches.

God bless all of you who take time to teach God's children His Word.

How would you have handled this encounter?


At what age should be engage children in "serious theological discussion"?

Will You Teach Sunday School?

I spent fifteen years recruiting Sunday School teachers. Some years the task was easier than others, but it was never truly easy. Over the years, I developed a system that worked for me. It sought to address the two chief reasons adults were reluctant to volunteer to teach, two fears that kept them from saying yes.


FEAR #1: Will I have time for this? No reasonable adult will be willing to give you a signed blank check to draw on their checking account, no matter how rich they are. Similarly, no reasonable adult will give you a blank check on their personal time account. They will want to know that they can handle this new responsibility, and they will want to feel confident that you can tell them honestly what it will take.

You will need to do your homework. Provide a brief job description. Describe honestly the number of hours each week, and the number of weeks in the year, that you want the volunteer to serve. (It will not serve you well to fudge here; if you think the numbers will scare off your volunteers, you may want to honestly re-evaluate what you are expecting.)

FEAR #2: Will I succeed at this? Almost every potential teacher, whether they express it or not, will have this concern. No one wants to take a job and do poorly.

You will want to guarantee them success! Offer training and orientation. Encourage them to shadow one of your best teachers for a couple of weeks. Point out how the curriculum you've chosen helps them be successful, both educationally and theologically. Promise to stay in touch as they get started in the position and keep your promise.

If you can address these two concerns for your potential volunteers, you have a greater chance of successfully enlisting them to teach God's children His Word!

What other concerns do volunteers have?


How do you go about enlisting new teachers?

Are You a Heretic?

It's Monday. The beginning of another week of service in my life as a curriculum editor for Concordia Publishing House. I am grateful for my opportunity to serve at CPH and relish the challenge of creating resource for Sunday School teachers and students that teach God's Word accurately, clearly, and age-appropriately. I am often humbled by the responsibility my call represents.

For, you see, I am a heretic at heart. My sinful nature seek always to corrupt my work. It is so easy for bad theology to raise it's ugly head. How do I cope with that?

• I give thanks for and use the best tools I can in my work, including The Lutheran Study Bible, the Concordia Commentary series, and often the Christian Cyclopedia (though the on-line version once found through the LCMS Web site seems to no longer be available).





• I rely on my colleagues. CPH has a system of "second edits" and "senior editor reviews," and copyediting and proofreading, through which knowledgeable colleagues review the material I have written or edited.





• I treasure our system of doctrinal review. Independent, anonymous theologians appointed by our synod's president review every product with theological content that we publish. The insights of these reviewers are universally helpful in teaching God's Word accurately.





• I respond with unfeigned gratitude to the constructive criticism of those who purchase and use the resouces I help prepare.

At times I cringe at the resources mentioned or even recommended by others in our LCMS circles, including various teachers, principals, and DCEs. I would like to think they know better, and I try to cut them some slack because I am a heretic at heart. Only by God's grace am I able to assist in the production of material that teaches God's Word in all its truth and purity. And, at least occasionally, I fail. Like all Christians, I rely on God's forgiveness and mercy, and I trust His Spirit's power to use the resources I prepare to teach God's children His Word.

What steps do you take to ensure that the material used to teach God's children are faithful to the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions?

What about Easter?

What will the children in your congregation be learning on Easter? That breakfast, egg hunts, and candy are more important than Sunday School?

While it is true that volunteers can be scarce on Easter Sunday, here are four reasons not to cancel or alter Sunday School on this pivotal Sunday in the Church Year.

4. Sunday School should be a habit. This is what we do on Sunday: we go to worship and we go to Sunday School. These are the actions that make our Sabbath complete.

3. Hunting for candy and watching videos about talking vegetables pale when compared to the riches to be found in the study of God's Word.

2. Most churches will get more visitor this Sunday and any other week of the year except Christmas. Visitors equal opportunities to share the Good News of God's love in Christ with children who may have never heard it!

1. The most important reason for Sunday School on Easter? What better day can there be on which to connect the joyous celebration taking place in worship with an insightful lesson about the blessings of the resurrection?

God's blessings as you teach God's children His Word this Easter Sunday!