Bible Lesson for Bible Teachers, Lesson #8
It is a sin to bore people with the gospel
Matthew 7.28; Mark 6.2; Acts 14.1;
Psalm 39.3; Acts 18.25. Romans 12.11
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 who is the most enthusiastic teacher you have ever been taught by?
DIG
- Mathew 7.28; Mark 6.2. Jesus was the greatest teacher ever. What do we learn about teaching from these verses?
“When Aeschines spoke, they said, ‘How well he speaks.’ But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, ‘Let us march against Philip.’”[1] Jesus was more like Demosthenes. People were ready to march.
Consider Matthew 7:28 (NIV): When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching.
I draw your attention to the word “amazed.” Look how it is translated in various places. (These from the NLT.)
Another way to mine the meaning of a word is to see how this same verse is translated in various translations. I call this vertical and horizontal word study. Here are a few examples [emphasis added].
- Matthew 7:28 (NIV) 28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,
- Matthew 7:28 (CEV) 28 When Jesus finished speaking, the crowds were surprised at his teaching.
- Matthew 7:28 (ESV) 28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
- Matthew 7:28 (MSG) 28 When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this.
- Matthew 7:28 (AMP) 28 When Jesus had finished these sayings [the Sermon on the Mount], the crowds were astonished and overwhelmed with bewildered wonder at His teaching,
The Greek word is formed by combining two Greek words. Taken together, it could be translated, “To stand out” or “outstanding.” It sounds like the word ecstasy.
Do you get something of the flavor of this word that described Jesus’ teaching? Does it describe the last Bible Study you went to? Does it describe the last Bible Study you taught? Does it make you want to pray this prayer: “Lord, help me be more like Jesus.”?
Repeat these statements (Say them out loud if you are in a place where you can): I want to be an amazing teacher. I want people to be amazed by my teaching.
- Does this sound like the last Bible study you attended? Were you amazed or bored?
We have too many teachers who are the opposite. Their teaching is very un-amazing. It is boring. Howard Hendricks said, “It is a sin to bore people with the gospel.” If you teach the gospel and people are constantly looking at their watches, learn to teach like Jesus. His teaching was amazing. He got people talking. He created a buzz. — Josh Hunt, Teach Like Jesus, 2012.
- What percentage of Bible study classes that you have attended were boring?
My research indicated about a third of our teachers drop below the bar of being even half-way decent. I am not talking about the bar of being incredible. I am talking about below the bar of half-way decent. Houston, we have a problem.
How many times would you go back to a restaurant where the food was not half-way decent one third of the time? How many times would you stay at a hotel chain where every third time the room was dirty?
Regular evaluation and improvement could move every teacher toward being an Effective Bible Teacher. — Josh Hunt, The Effective Bible Teacher, 2013.
- How important is it that we not be boing when we teach the Bible?
The college required that I take a certain number of courses in lab science, a certain number in non-lab science, and a certain number in the social sciences. For one of these last requirements I enrolled in Introduction to Philosophy.
Talk about dry.
For my first assignment I read David Hume’s Inquiry into Human Understanding. Which human’s understanding this guy was inquiring into, I had no idea. Next we read something by Immanual Kant, and I was even more confused. To make matters worse, the professor was soft-spoken in class and his teaching style lacked passion. Frankly, he was boring. I went to the class every other day, and when I was present my mind remained absent. It wasn’t as if I was wasting the time: I tuned out the lecture and read pamphlets of sermons by Billy Graham. I was reading about Jesus, and that’s all I wanted to know. I hid in the back of the room and propped up my notebook so the teacher wouldn’t see that I was ignoring him. My soul was awake to God, but my mind was asleep.
All this changed the afternoon the professor lectured on the philosophy of Augustine. He explained this early Christian theologian’s philosophical under standing of creation. I perked up my ears. I wasn’t so committed as to pick up my pen to take notes, but I did close Billy. That soft voice explained Augustine’s view of the majesty manifested in a Being who could bring a universe into existence by the sheer force of his command. Augustine was blown away at a God so transcendently powerful that he could simply say, “Let there be light,” and the lights came on.
I was blown away with him. My mind came awake. I had to learn more about this God who is so powerful, great, and majestic.
Being an impulsive person, after that class I went directly to the registrar’s office and changed my major from Bible to philosophy. It was not that I wanted to study philosophy so badly; I was still brain-dead as far as Kant was concerned. But I wanted to study under that teacher. God used that man to awaken me to a new understanding. — R.C. Sproul, Choosing My Religion, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000).
- Do you think boring teachers know they are boring?
We’ve all had that teacher–the one who speaks in a monotone voice and reads aloud from the textbook. And we’ve all had the opportunity to not be that teacher. We’ve even had our moments, recognising that flash of interest in our students’ eyes, smiling as the bell rings because the energy is so high and no one wants the period to end. How do we extend these moments? How do we create an environment that keeps students stimulated and craving more? How do we have more fun?
One study of student boredom suggested that almost 60% of students find at least half their lectures boring, with about 30% claiming to find most or all of their lectures boring.
“Although a range of factors may contribute to these findings, they do prompt the question of what it is about the learning experience that might be deemed ‘boring,'” says Dr Sandi Mann, a senior lecturer in occupational psychology at the University of Central Lancashire.
- Let’s suppose you wanted to be boring. What steps would you take?
In a 2002 paper called The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion and its Influence on Group Behavior, Yale University researcher Sigal G. Barsade separated 94 business students into small groups, each with the same hypothetical task of allocating employee bonuses. Barsade secretly planted one student in each group to act out a different emotion: enthusiasm, hostility, serenity, or depression. When the infiltrator was enthusiastic, he smiled often, looked intently into people’s eyes, and spoke rapidly. When he feigned depression, he spoke slowly, avoided eye contact, and slouched in his seat.
Barsade measured participants’ moods before and after the exercise and found that students who caught the actor’s positive emotions were perceived by others and by themselves as more competent and cooperative. The positive groups also believed they were more collegial than those in the bad-mood groups. But when Barsade asked the students what influenced their performance, they attributed it to their skills. “People don’t realise they are being influenced by others’ emotions,” she says.
Mimicry is a basic biological mechanism that may confer an evolutionary advantage, says Peter Totterdell, PhD, senior research fellow at the University of Sheffield in England. “It helps you understand what another person is feeling and thinking–even when she’s trying to hide it.”
And research shows that if you can put your students in a good mood, they will learn more too.
“Brain research suggests that fun is not just beneficial to learning but, by many reports, required for authentic learning and long-term memory,” writes Sean Slade for The Answer Sheet. Neurologist and educator Judy Willis’s book “Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning: Insights from a Neurologist and Classroom Teacher” (ASCD, 2006) is one of many that have highlighted the learning benefits of fun:
“The truth is that when the joy and comfort are scrubbed from the classroom and replaced with homogeneity, and when spontaneity is replaced with conformity, students’ brains are distanced from effective information processing and long-term memory storage.”
“The highest-level executive thinking, making of connections, and “aha” moments are more likely to occur in an atmosphere of “exuberant discovery,” where students of all ages retain that kindergarten enthusiasm of embracing each day with the joy of learning.”
So fun actually seems to promote learning by increasing dopamine, endorphins, and oxygen in the brain.
- So, how do we not bore people with the gospel?
Last week Republican Presidential candidate Jeb Bush was giving an important speech in New Hampshire. He was into it. He had a lot of things to say about jobs, the economy and healthcare. However, as he was delivering his speech the cameras caught a few people nodding off. One lady in particular looked like she was just about in full REM sleep before she quickly awoke and checked her watch. Many people, including Donald Trump, have seized this opportunity to poke fun at Bush and even try to discredit him as a candidate. I see it as an opportunity for us who are in ministry or who teach God’s word to be reminded of the importance of honest self-evaluation in view of not being boring.
Many of us who preach can identify with ole Jeb: we are sometimes kind of boring. And listen, you know this when you look up and see people fast asleep (hint: they are not praying for you when their eyes are closed). So we have some preachers who have a style and voice like Jeb Bush. It’s kind of dull. What can we do?
Pray
Ask God to help you discern how you can do a better job. Ask God to give you a humble heart that desires, more than anything, to be effectively used to communicate the truth of God to people in a clear, faithful, and engaging way.
Work at it
Be willing to work at your preaching and teaching. Some guys seem content to just settle in and say, “This is who I am.” Well, we must remember that while we may be boring at times, God’s word is not. It is our job to get out of the way. The first step here is to be willing to work at it. If a guy is not willing to try to get better than there is no use reading anything else here.
Listen to yourself
This is painful but so important. We have so many technological advantages today that previous generations did not. Take the opportunity to listen to yourself preach. Listen for long pauses, repeated phrases, swallowing of words, random or disconnected thoughts, or simply a monotone voice. If you expect others to listen to you the least you can do is listen to yourself. As you do, give yourself some honest feedback.
Get feedback
It is invaluable to have people around you who are willing to give you honest feedback. These people are rich blessing to you and your ministry. Listen to them, don’t tune them out. Ask for constructive criticism. And, don’t get frustrated when they don’t simply compliment you with, “Man, you are just like John Piper.” Remember, it is about feedback and getting better not simply affirmation and staying the same. My wife is one of the best avenues for feedback; I know she will shoot straight and reserve compliments to their appropriate serving size. I also enjoy constructive feedback from fellow elders and friends.
Get creative
So you want to get better? You have to work at it. Here are some ideas:
Read broadly: I am not particularly drawn to fiction books but I read them just to have my mind shaped and informed by something that is not theology, sports, or my own experience. Reading fiction opens you up to a whole new world. It will allow you to import antidotes and illustrations from those world as they apply to the sermon. I try to have at least one fiction book going at all times to draw from. I would also suggest reading a newspaper instead of just reading or watching the 24-hour news channels. The newspapers (at least the good ones) tend to have more broad information and interaction that tends to be helpful in communicating the truth of Scripture. (more info on this)
Use illustrations: Can you imagine if Jeb Bush actually mixed in some word pictures or provided some compelling illustration to make his point? If you want to improve your preaching then you need to use word pictures and illustrations. These homiletical tools are like opening windows in a musty basement. They get fresh air in. Your sermon should not smell or look like grandma’s basement. Open some windows. Hang some nice art (word pictures). Put on some fresh paint (use current events to show the cultural idols, etc). This whole world is stamped with God’s creative seal, therefore find how it illustrates, elucidates or further communicates your point and go and get it. If you want more help on this read Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. You could also read Thomas Watson, my man was a homiletical artist.
Mix it up: If you always give application at the end of the sermon, try moving it to the middle or at the beginning. If you have become predictable then shuffling things up. How effective would a baseball pitcher be if he had the same pitch sequence each batter? Fastball, change-up, cutter. Repeat. By the fifth or sixth batter he is going to be throwing batting practice.
Make eye contact
If your head is buried for most of the 30-45 minutes then it makes it more difficult to engage with you. Try to rely less on your notes and interact with the people. Look them in the eyes, engage with them, and read them.
Remember what makes you compelling is not you. If you have read everything above you might be thinking, “Erik, you sound like a pragmatist.” Well, pragmatism is not bad, it just can’t govern us. The power is in the Word of God. What makes you compelling as a preacher is not how you turn a phrase, use an illustration, fluctuate your tone, or look people in the eyes. It is your preaching of God’s word. It is the giving away of the truth of God. This is the big difference from a politician who has to talk about themselves and various issues. We are supposed to be talking about God! How glorious is this? This is the compelling aspect of preaching. We must do our very best to get out of the way and give our people the Word of God and the God of the Word.
I’m hopeful that some of these may be helpful to those who preach and teach the Bible. I’d love to hear back from you with some more suggestions.
- There is more to good teaching than just not being boring. What else is there?
Audience interest, then, has never been preaching’s main purpose. The sermon is the workhorse of the ecclesia. Preaching was established by Jesus because God has a job to do. To get the job done preaching must be committed to two goals: first it should be passionate and second, fascinating. Passion makes preaching seem imperative and urgent. Narrative is a force that postmodern preachers must use and listeners must reckon with. Narrative handcuffs intrigue to the ancient text. So, the homily gains relational force when the sermon is passionate enough to be visceral and story-driven enough to be visual. Neither of these two qualities is enough considered alone. Speaking only to get people to listen is an art that ends generally in egotism. If fascination alone is the goal of keeping attention, a Dale Carnegie course would be as good as the Gospels in preparing the preacher to preach. Still the new homiletic has too often yielded to this shallow goal. In recent years this low road for preaching has become a major highway that runs between seminaries and lifeless parishes. As America has moved further away from the revivalistic zeal that endued the sermon with passion, sermons seemed to grow more congenial but also more sluggish. Thanks to advancements in psychology there is no longer any real sin lurking about and, therefore, no real sinners to reform. Since sin and eternity have been discarded in the ash can of postmodernity there seems to be little serious work for the sermon to do. So preachers have often jettisoned incarnational preaching and opted for merely trying to be interesting. — Miller, Calvin. Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition (pp. 12-13). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.