Bible Lesson for Bible Teachers, Lesson #12
Reproduce / 2 Timothy 2.2
Good Questions Have Groups Talking
If you like this format of lessons, I have a couple of thousand at
OPEN
What is your name and one thing that is occupying your mind this week.
DIG
- 2 Timothy 2.2. This is a great verse, worthy for any teacher to memorize and mediate on. Can anyone quote it?
If you’re serious about being spiritually strong and mature, the greatest habit you can develop is memorizing Scripture. In fact, the Bible says in James 1:25 that it’s one of four habits that leads to a blessed life.
Read your Bible. “Whoever looks intently …”
Review the Bible. “… continues in it …”
Remember the Bible. “… not forgetting what they have heard …”
Respond to the Bible. “ … but doing it …”
You don’t want to be a spiritual baby anymore. It’s time to grow up and live the blessed life you’re meant to live. Hiding God’s Word in your heart is an important way to start.
- What kind of follow up did you receive as a new Christian?
When I was a young believer, Bud Hinkson became my primary mentor, and he set out to teach me everything he knew about walking consistently with Jesus and learning to share my faith in a way that makes sense. He had a lot of spiritual “gray hair” that I simply didn’t have, so I attached myself to him. He not only taught me how to live a Christlike life; he modeled for me what that looks like. I am forever indebted to Bud and his wife, Shirley, for the things I learned from them.
Today I am a seasoned believer, and I spend my days pouring out my life for those who look to me for guidance. When I mentor a young man in his faith, I call on all the experiences I’ve gained through the years to try to teach and mold him into the man God wants him to be. I make no claims of being perfect—I’ve made my share of bad decisions. But I do have enough spiritual insight and knowledge to say to others, “Watch me and do as I do, as I follow Jesus.” — Jim Stump et al., Power of One-on-One, the: Discovering the Joy and Satisfaction of Mentoring Others (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2014).
- What kind of follow up for new Christians does our church currently provide?
Daws marked 1 Thessalonians, the first New Testament book written, with stars beside each verse that said something from Paul’s heart about nurturing new Christians.
“I put twenty-four stars in this one little epistle. It indicates that at least twenty-four times Paul recognized his responsibility to follow up on the young church at Thessalonica. Why didn’t I see this truth before?”
Following the example of the Bereans in Acts 17:11, who “received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily” (emphasis added), Dawson began to search the Scriptures on the subject of follow-up. He also got all those around him to do the same. They singled out the life of Christ in the four gospels for lengthy research. How did the Savior train His men? What went into those three years of earthly ministry? They concentrated on passages such as Mark 3:13-14: “[Jesus] goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach” (emphasis added). What principles were involved in that phrase “with him”?
They spent weeks of study in the book of Acts. Dawson saw that both Luke’s gospel and the book of Acts were written because Dr. Luke wanted one friend, Theophilus, to get the straight story. It became clear that when one man becomes a true disciple, then another can become one, and then more, and then hundreds, and then thousands — but it starts with one.
This kind of personal attention is important because decisions are only the beginning — the birth of the Christian life. As Daws put it so often, “Making a decision is 10 percent; following through is 90 percent.” That follow-through, Daws believed, is done by people, not materials: “Is the answer merely materials to distribute to those who come to Christ? No, it is obvious from the experience of successful follow-up programs, both in the New Testament and out of it, that follow-up is done by someone, not by something. Paul wrote to the Romans, ‘I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established’ (1:11). — Robert Foster, The Navigator (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2014).
- In an ideal world, what would follow up for new Christians look like?
One of the most important aspects of being an effective mentor is learning to model the faith and character you are trying to teach. That’s why this principle is so critical to being a successful spiritual mentor.
It’s my job as a mentor to model the Christian faith as well as teach it. My desire is to help others develop a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Jesus simply by allowing them to come alongside me as I seek to draw nearer to God in my own walk. — Jim Stump et al., Power of One-on-One, the: Discovering the Joy and Satisfaction of Mentoring Others (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2014).
- How were you recruited to teach? How were you taught to teach? Did anyone mentor you in how to be an effective Bible teacher?
A young woman, an award-winning interior designer, saw that her church needed a Sunday school teacher for one of the children’s classes. She volunteered. They put curriculum in her hands and said, “If you can read it, you can teach it.”
She couldn’t. She tried, she read, she stumbled through some classes—and she quit. Though it has been years since, she was traumatized by the experience, and if anyone asks her to teach, she responds with a decisive, “No!”
She is not the only gun-shy ex-teacher sitting in the pews of our churches. And who can blame her? At the same time, who can blame pastors, Sunday school superintendents, and education committees? Just as my daughter-in-law had curriculum shoved in her hands, many pastors have teacher training dropped in their laps, having little more expertise in teacher training than she had in teaching. And training teachers can be as tough as teaching a primary class.
But it’s not impossible. In fact, multitudes of churches across America—both large and small—are doing an outstanding job of equipping volunteers to teach with excellence. As I have participated in and observed such programs, I see a few common threads that run through their teacher training. — Howard Hendricks, “Training People to Teach,” in Mastering Teaching, Mastering Ministry (Portland, OR; Carol Stream, IL: Multnomah Press; Christianity Today, 1991), 129–130.
- In an ideal world, what kind of training would each teacher receive in order to train them to be an effective Bible teacher?
What is the best way to teach skills? I was talking with the man who heads the training of IBM personnel, and I asked him, “Who’s doing the best training? Industry? The military? This is your field. Who do you think is getting the job done?”
“The best training is being done by the cults,” he said. “They send people out in twos, with one person always mentoring the other. Once the trainee is capable of going on his own, they say, ‘Now you’re on the verge of the greatest learning experience of all: taking what we’ve taught you and teaching it to someone else.’ ”
Mentoring, of course, is not the invention of the cults. It is the model Jesus gave us, and we are wise to put it to effective use. — Howard Hendricks, “Training People to Teach,” in Mastering Teaching, Mastering Ministry (Portland, OR; Carol Stream, IL: Multnomah Press; Christianity Today, 1991), 133.
- As you understand it, what does our church typically do to help people to be effective Bible teachers?
When it’s been possible, I’ve tried to alternate formal teacher training with experience in the classroom. One week I gather future teachers to train them; the next week I disperse them into classrooms where they observe a trained and experienced teacher, help in the class, and perhaps teach a portion of the lesson. This not only gives people confidence, it makes them more eager learners in the training sessions. — Howard Hendricks, “Training People to Teach,” in Mastering Teaching, Mastering Ministry (Portland, OR; Carol Stream, IL: Multnomah Press; Christianity Today, 1991), 134.
- What does a beginning teacher need to know?
First and foremost, effective teachers understand, consciously or intuitively, what teaching is and isn’t. Unfortunately, many teachers still think of teaching as dumping content. They assume that when they have unloaded the weekly information from the curriculum, they have taught. As long as they didn’t forget what to say or stumble around in the lesson, as long as the students didn’t break into bedlam or look too bored, they have succeeded.
But open eyes and a smooth presentation do not measure effective teaching. The ultimate question is not what the teacher does but what the student does as a result of what the teacher does.
Years ago I discovered that the Greek and Hebrew verbs translated in the Bible as “teach” could frequently be translated as “to cause to learn.” For example, in classic Greek literature there is a passage where a man picked up a stone and threw it at a tree; then he explained to his son, “This is how you hold the stone. This is how you extend your arm. Keep your eye on the tree and follow through.” The father then said, “Now I will see if I have caused you to learn.”
This way of looking at teaching revolutionized my approach. Instead of getting worked up about how I was going to tell students what I knew, I began focusing on how I could get them to learn. That made me a much better teacher. So at the beginning of teacher training, I want teachers to see their task in this light. — Howard Hendricks, “Training People to Teach,” in Mastering Teaching, Mastering Ministry (Portland, OR; Carol Stream, IL: Multnomah Press; Christianity Today, 1991), 130.
- 2 Timothy 2.2. How many generations are delineated in this verse?
Multiplication requires several passes of the baton. Four generations are mentioned: Paul, Timothy, reliable men, and others. Paul sets the philosophy that for the gospel to be preached widely, its message must be broadly entrusted to others. The job is too large for a few and too long for a single generation. Paul’s statement gives substantial credence to the fact that the belief in multiplication itself was passed from Jesus to the disciples to Paul and then Timothy.
Multiplication requires that those who have it must pass it on. The previous principle highlights the need for the multiplicity of passes; this point focuses on the pass itself. Most breakdowns in the multiplication take place when the time comes for passing it on. — Bill Hull, The Disciple-Making Pastor: Leading Others on the Journey of Faith, Revised and Expanded Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007), 171.
- We always want to read the Bible for application. What is the application of this verse to our lives as teachers? What are we to do as teachers?
I take a bit of an exegetical leap in my interpretation of 2 Timothy 2:2. I think it has the force of a command. Paul is not only giving Timothy a command, but, by example, he is giving the rest of us a command as well. He is commanding every teacher to take the stuff they heard when they were a student and teach others. In that group of others, find a Timothy who can take that stuff to still others.
By way of example, I think it is true of every other spiritual gift as well. People who have the gift of mercy are to scope out others who have the gift of mercy and teach them what they know. People who have the gift of administration are to recruit and disciple other administrators. People who have a gift for hospitality need to reproduce other hospitality people.
The process of reproduction works on every level. It works on the small group level where little platoons reproduce little platoons. It works on the congregational level as congregations give birth to new congregations. It works on the individual evangelism level. It works on the level of inreach leaders recruiting other inreach leaders. There is some evidence to support the idea that it even works on denominational levels; that the hope of the next generation is in new denominations; that the next generation will not be reached by the denominations of their parents.
Reproduction is painful. It is painful on any level. It is painful on the physical level, and it is painful on the spiritual level. On a spiritual level, it is painful because of the pain of saying good-bye. When we create new groups, we must say good-bye. Saying good-bye is the highest price we ever pay in church growth. But it is necessary in order to punch the Devil’s face. We must grow and reproduce and grow and reproduce and grow and reproduce. In order to reproduce, we have to be willing to say good-bye.
Saying good-bye is difficult because we really do love people. Heck, we not only love them, we actually like them. We enjoy them. We have them into our homes. We go bowling together. We have come to enjoy God together. And it hurts, it really hurts to say good-bye to such friends. As well it should.
There is an iron law in Christian education that is called the one to ten law. There is a one to ten ratio between the number of groups and the overall attendance in your church. If your church has one hundred in attendance, you have about ten groups. Maybe eleven; maybe nine; but just about ten. If you want to go from one hundred in attendance to two hundred in attendance, the path is very predictable: just go from ten groups to twenty groups and you will go from one hundred in attendance to two hundred. This is the law of reproduction. — Josh Hunt, Enjoying God (Josh Hunt, 2000).
- Imagine every teacher in our church were to say 2 Timothy 2.2 to someone in their group every couple years. What would that look like in ten years?
- Imagine you were to take on a Timothy. What would you want to impart to him or her?
When I visited the Air Force Academy in Colorado some time ago, I talked with the head of the mathematics department. I found out the Air Force has a unique policy about tenure.
“We will not allow a person to teach in the Air Force Academy longer than five years,” he said. “After that the teacher must return to active military duty.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“We consider ourselves an infection institution: we want to infect men and women with enthusiasm for the military. We’ve found that a teacher who is removed from active military service for more than five years is no longer infectious.”
Like the military, the church wants teachers who impart not just knowledge and skills but also passion. Without passion there’s no life, no drive, no animating energy to the teaching. There’s no infectious quality to the message taught. Teachers need more than knowledge and skills to teach effectively. They have to want to teach.
Passion is the most important quality a teacher can have. Those hungry to teach will get knowledge and skills one way or another, whatever price they have to pay. And their passion makes their teaching compelling and winsome. The good news is that there are more people in our congregations with the potential for passion about teaching than we realize. — Howard Hendricks, “Training People to Teach,” in Mastering Teaching, Mastering Ministry (Portland, OR; Carol Stream, IL: Multnomah Press; Christianity Today, 1991), 134–135.
- How? How would you impart to him what he needs to know?
Great disciple-makers will always take their followers through a process. It starts with “You watch; I do” and moves to “Let’s do it together” and then to “You do; I watch.” Finally, the disciple starts this same process with someone else—someone who watches while the disciple does. — Jim Putman, Real-Life Discipleship: Building Churches That Make Disciples (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2010), 59.
- In what way would you want your Timothy to have a better experience in learning to teach than you had?
In an article published by the Harvard Business Review, author Joseph Bailey examined what it took to be a successful executive. In conducting his research, he interviewed more than thirty top executives and found that every one of them learned firsthand from a mentor. If you want to raise up leaders who reproduce other leaders, you need to mentor them.
We’ve been told that in hospital emergency rooms, nurses have a say-ing: “Watch one, do one, teach one.” It refers to the need to learn a technique quickly, jump right in and do it with a patient, and then turn around and pass it on to another nurse. The mentoring process for developing leaders works in a similar way. It happens when you take potential leaders under your wing, develop them, empower them, share with them how to become persons of influence, and then release them to go out and raise up other leaders. Every time you do that, you plant seeds for greater success. And as novelist Robert Louis Stevenson advised, “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.” —Becoming a Person of Influence / John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader within You and Influence Those around You (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008).