Page 133 - Ecclesiology Textbook Masters

Study Section 17: The Methods of Teaching Christian Education

17.1 Connect.

We are all called to teach others the ways of God. If you are a parent, you have a direct calling
from God to pass on your faith to your children. If you are a part of a church, you also will be
involved in teaching others or making disciples. That’s what Jesus commanded us to do in
Matthew 28! So it would be important, since we all are teachers in one way or another, to learn
some important methods to best accomplish this task. Today, we are going to look at Jesus, the
Master Teacher, and observe how he taught those around Him. If we copy what He did, we can’t go
wrong.

17.2 Objectives:

1. The student should be able demonstrate numerous of methods or ways to impart knowledge
to others. These, we will learn, are called teaching methods.

2. The student should be able observe Jesus’s principal methods for teaching to better
understand how they work.

3. The student should be able describe the recipient’s attention spans to better fit our teaching
moments with the ability of our audience to receive the information.

17.3 The Methods of Teaching Christian Education

How we teach content to a student involves various teaching methods. A method is, of
course, a means to an end, not the end itself. Methods are chosen based on how God has
made people and how people best learn. Christ, the Master Teacher, used an amazing variety
of methods to instruct his disciples and the greater populous. “In the Old Testament God
taught man through a diversity of means. In the Garden of Eden, He used a tree to teach
Adam. Since the Flood He has used a rainbow to inform the world that He will not again
destroy the earth by water. The entire tabernacle was a prophetic object lesson, setting forth the
person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ”
50

Jesus’ Methods in Teaching

When Jesus was teaching larger groups of people, He employed three major methods in his teaching
style. Let’s look at them and see why they were his primary methods utilized.

50 The Christian Philosophy of Education, bjupress, from Handbook of Christian Education.

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