Page 139 - Ecclesiology revised short_Neat

Chapter 17: The Methods of Teaching Christian Education

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.

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.

The Lesson ...

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” lxvii

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.

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