In order to teach the Bible to children, Sunday School teachers need a relationship with Jesus and the Bible that is vibrant. Here are 3 questions to ask yourself to help you grow in these relationships and be strengthened in your God-given calling to do your very best for the children that He has strategically placed within your care.
To be effective in your ministries, your Sunday School teachers need a relationship with Jesus and the Bible so that the love and truths of God are passed onto the next generation.
Doling out encouragement for Sunday School teachers and Christian parents and teachers is one of the biggest parts of my ministry. Yes, most of the time I am standing in front of hundreds of children every month. But the other side of my ministry allows me to stand in front of Sunday School teachers, Christian preschool and elementary teachers and parents. To this latter group I get to share my teacher training workshops in which I share MANY creative ways to help them get their kids excited about the Bible.
One of the most important truths that I can share in my workshops is that Sunday School teachers need a relationship with Jesus and the Bible that is vibrant and that motivates them to step into their classrooms each week.
This need for a vibrant relationship with Jesus is international. Christian teachers all over the globe are trying to motivate their Sunday School workers and families to teach the Bible to their children with excitement and passion.
Take for instance, Marianne. Marianne is one of my new subscribers who happened upon my site by “accident.” Marianne shared with me that she worked with children for 30 years in Brazil. She was used to working with large groups of children.
Now Marianne is working in the northern part of Germany in the former socialist part of the country. Normally, she will only have 4 to 10 children come to Sunday School. Her main task is to train and motivate people to work with children.
Marianne says, “It takes a lot of motivation to get people excited about working with children.”
Why is this? Why is it difficult to motivate people to share the good news of Jesus Christ to our children? I think the answer to these questions lies in the truth that Christian teachers, parents and Sunday School teachers need a relationship with Jesus and the Bible that is filled with passion.
Here are 3 questions I encourage you to ask yourself regarding your relationship with Jesus and His Word, the Bible to help you grow as a teacher of His Word.
How is my own personal relationship with Jesus? – Have you ever switched a light on and it didn’t go on? At first, you think it needs a new bulb. Later, you simply find out that the lamp was not plugged in. If you want the power of Jesus Christ working in your life, you MUST be plugged into a relationship with Him. (John 14:23)
Yes, most Christian workers call Jesus their Lord and Savior, but many are not nurturing their relationship with Him.
Children are very perceptive. They can see if your “talk” matches your “walk.”
If you are being an example of someone who loves God and His Word to the children that are placed under your care, they will be drawn to you and want to exemplify you. The opposite is true as well. If you show a laissez-faire attitude toward Jesus, your children will emulate this. (1 Timothy 4:12)
How do I nurture a relationship with Jesus? – Relationships take work. God worked very hard to have a relationship with you – He died on the cross.
When you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you now have complete access to Him living inside of you. Sadly, on the day some of us accepted Jesus as our Savior, we invited Him into our life and then stuck Him in a closet where we pull Him out now and again like we pull out our winter coats.
Nurturing a relationship with Jesus means spending time with Him through prayer, the reading of His Word and obedience to what He has called you to do on a moment by moment basis.
When you became a Christian, you, in effect, were saying, “I am no longer my own. My life is yours. Your will is my command.” (John 14:15)
If God has called you to share His Word with children, you must first be in His Word yourself. You need to daily “eat” from the scriptures to be strengthened to teach and minister to your children. (Ps 119:28, 32)
How can I grow in God’s Word, the Bible? – If teaching the Bible to children is what you have been called to do, then you must be a student of the Bible yourself.
If you went to college, you expected your professor to know more than you did about the topic you were studying. You didn’t expect him to know everything about the topic, but he had to be, at the very least, several “steps” ahead of you. The same truth applies to you as a Sunday School teacher or a parent of a child whom you want to teach the Bible to.
The Bible can seem very daunting at times. Many people lack confidence when studying the Bible. I think this happens because they feel overwhelmed by all the Bible has to offer. Being overwhelmed can paralyze you. Don’t let the enemy of your soul keep you from discovering the absolute greatness and truth of God’s Word. (Hebrews 4:12)
Do you want to know how I look at the Bible? I look at it as a treasure box.
When you open a treasure box it is filled with all sorts of valuable jewelry and money and things you have never seen before. You can’t help but reach in and pull out one of the valuable baubles and examine it. You have no idea, yet, that the particular ring or gold coin you picked up is connected to another piece of jewelry.
At this point, you are just admiring it and all the other pieces in the treasury. Then as you dig deeper and deeper, you begin to learn of the greatness of the treasure that is before you. Your excitement grows and grows at the riches that lay before you and you can’t help but share it with those around you.
I believe this kind of excitement needs to be a part of every Christian who is teaching God’s amazing Word. And the only way to get this excitement is to reach into the treasure that the Bible is and ask God to give you understanding.
God says this in Jeremiah 33:3: “Call to me and I will answer you and I will tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
God is your Professor and He DOES know everything. Take His class and you won’t be disappointed.
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