If you’ve been a leader in the Church’s Christian Education Ministry for very long, you have likely heard many excuses for why people can’t attend teacher training. While people may truly be busy and the like, we must ask if that should excuse them from training.
Why There is No Legitimate Excuse for a Lack of Teacher Training:
When we understand and take to heart the following truths, we will conclude that training is vital for all Bible teachers.
1) Bible teachers teach the inspired Word of God. This is not just any old textbook to be taken lightly.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God … (2 Tim. 3:16, KJV)
2) God holds Bible teachers to a high level of accountability.
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. (James 3:1)
Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. (1 Cor. 4:2)
3) God deserves our best in all we do, whether teaching or any other ministry.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (2 Tim. 2:15)
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Cor. 10:31)
4) To stop learning is to stop growing; and to stop growing is to stop having more to offer.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Phil. 3:12)
Based on the above understandings, we must conclude that all Bible teachers need teacher training. The question then becomes not “if” people should be trained but rather the what, when, where, and how.
In the next three posts we’ll look at excuses people might give for not participating in teacher training opportunities in light of some realities and remedies.