Category Archives: Miscellaneous Teaching Skills Needed

We hear a lot about safety issues these days. Church leaders undoubtedly have policies and measures in place to guard against potential harm. Bible teachers should be careful to adhere to those policies but also maintain vigilance to the welfare of their students remembering that love “always protects” (1 Cor. 13:7).

Questions Bible Teachers Might Have about Classroom Safety Issues

Why is it important for parents to know their children are safe in the classroom?

If parents feel insecure about their children’s safety it can affect their ability to fully engage in their own Bible class or worship, being distracted by worries. It can even lead to keeping their children with them which can then become a distraction for others as well and a boring and unfruitful experience for children. Or, it could produce enough anxiety that parents decide to leave the church in search of something better for their children, and maybe not even attend elsewhere.

The Bible Teacher’s Handbook of Frequently Asked Questions also asks:

What safety issues do we need to be aware of?

The handbook looks at 48 other issues related to Bible teaching, asking a total of 153 questions.

Teacher Training Resource: Classroom Safety Issues Worksheet

If creativity is essential in Bible teaching, then many may question if they should be teachers. We all, however, have the potential and purpose for being creative.

The Potential and Purpose for Creativity in Bible Teaching

If we remember these two points, we’ll tend to be more open to learning what we can about creative Bible teaching.

1. Our potential to be creative: We’re all made in the image and likeness of a creative God.

Part of that likeness is creativity, not the part of bringing something into existence from nothing but rather the more imaginative side that invests what is already created with new form, that uses variety, and that puts purposeful design into what is done. Hence, creativity goes beyond innovative methods and riveting visualization. When our teaching is about lining up with God and His ways, creativity becomes essential for Bible teachers affecting all we do as teachers like the overall goals of teaching, our view of the teaching-learning process, classroom structure, and approach to the lesson. Creative teaching also affects our role as teachers and how we relate to students.

Learn More: Creative Bible Teaching with Results Workbook

2. Our purpose in being creative: Creativity has a positive effect on the learning process.

Teachers need to get beyond themselves and realize the effect their teaching can have on others. Creativity moves students to higher levels of learning. Creativity brings many benefits that will make the classroom conducive to true learning and growth.

Learn More: Turning the Benefits of Creativity into Reality Worksheet

We must do more than just realizing our potential to be creative and understanding its benefits. We must implement steps to make it a reality. The training resources listed above can help with that. Also find more resources at: Teacher Training Resources for Creative Bible Teaching

Perhaps you acknowledge that relationships with and among students are important. You might, however, have questions about the implementation of such an objective.

Question About Relationship Building During Class Time

How will we have enough time for the lesson if we incorporate relationship building?

Relationship building and teaching go hand in hand. Jesus, Truth Incarnate, came to earth to dwell among people and foster a relationship between them and the Father. At the same time, as the Word (Jn. 1:1), He constantly pointed people to Truth. We aren’t Jesus so we can’t claim to be Truth as He did (Jn. 14:6). Yet, by the Spirit’s help, we can model alliance with Truth. Purposefully incorporating community building activities doesn’t have to consume a lot of class time. We can foster a relational climate in many other ways that lay the groundwork for students to “be devoted to one another in love” (Rom. 12:10).

You’ll find a list of ways to foster a relational climate in the Bible Teacher’s Handbook of Frequently Asked Questions along with a response to this question:

Why is relationship building in the classroom important?

The handbook looks at 48 other issues related to Bible teaching asking a total of 153 questions.

Teacher Training Resource: Teachers Either Block or Promote Community Worksheet

We must be careful teacher training gets beyond natural principles in the teaching-learning process. If we only work within the natural, our end result will be behavioral modification, not heart transformation. Changed lives from the inside out takes supernatural power.

Bible Verses about Supernatural Power

While we could point to quite a few verses showing the need for God’s power to be at work in people’s lives for lasting change to occur, reflect on the following.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know … and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms … (Eph. 1:18-20)

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Pet. 1:3)

… it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Phil. 2:13)

Rely on God’s Power in Bible Teaching Yet Remember How He Designed People to Learn

While changed lives from the inside out requires divine power, that doesn’t mean we ignore natural principles of learning. God made people to learn certain ways, so we should work within that design. We must, however, always run the natural principles through the grid of Scripture. Just because something seems to work or is used widely in public education, doesn’t mean it’s right or profitable in Bible teaching.

Also check out The Holy Spirit & My Teaching Devotional which encourages teachers of all ages to rely on the Spirit for the supernatural power needed in teaching.

If teaching children, the worksheet, Heart Transformation or Behavior Modification?, would also be helpful.