My Philosophy of Christian Education

My Philosophy of Christian Education

Patrick Tan

Teaching Methods and Principles

Dr. Ayuk Ayuk

July 21, 2009

Being a pastor is almost synonymous with being able to teach. When I first started serving as a youth pastor, teaching is one of the skills essential to me in order to impart spiritual truths to young people. And now as our church’s small groups and discipleship pastor, the vehicle of education through teaching I believe is one of the more powerful methods to instill timeless truths to every believer. Below are some of my concepts of effective teaching.

I believe that a successful teaching style, especially in the context of ministry, is the importance of establishing relationships with your students. I believe in the saying, “people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” I believe that students are more likely to listen to what you have to say when they see a genuine concern for their well-being, their success and growth. Some practical practices I do when teaching are (1) establishing who everyone is (in the context of smaller groups), (2) imparting information about my life and application related to what I am teaching, (3) spending break times with students and getting to know them, and (4) listening to feedbacks and reactions.

I believe that a successful teaching ministry should break the boring teaching strategy. For most of us teachers, often times we get used to sticking to one kind of teaching method. But as a teacher I believe in the use of variety and creativity in getting the message across. I remember hearing Rick Warren share their churches concept of “campaigns”. Campaigns are short-term topical focus in 40-day series. Throughout this campaign they bombard the student with the subject in more than one way: reading a daily devotional book about the subject, listening to it in the weekend sermon, discussing the topic in small groups, and experiencing it through small group or church projects. Having variety keeps the student engaged to what you have to say, and retains the subject much longer in their consciousness.

I believe that a successful teaching ministry must be purposeful and relevant. Purposeful in a sense that the student must understand “why” they need to know what you want them to know, not just “how” to do what you want them to do. Most of us fall into the notion that our students automatically understands that what you teach is important, so our students lose interest early on. I will most likely not to pay attention to a sermon or a lecture when I do not understand the significance it would attribute into my life. That’s why establishing purpose, and expressing them in relevant ways that will keep the students engage is important.

I believe in experiencing learning as a community. A learning community is more than a one-way learning experience wherein the teacher single-handedly directs knowledge to their students. We must learn to leave room for students to “bounce off” to what you say—allow them to analyze, synthesize and even challenge what you are teaching. This way, the class becomes experiences shared knowledge, knowledge that goes farther beyond what you only know, because of the shared input of the learning community. A good hold in facilitating discussion is important in the learning community.

Lastly, I believe that learning will impact the student more when he experiences it for himself. I recently heard an illustration made by Pastor Shane Hipps: The only tangible way for a person to know what a chocolate tastes like is not when you try to describe to him the taste of chocolate, or show him pictures of what a chocolate looks like, or round up a group of people to testify the goodness of chocolate. Even when one successfully performs all of these, it will never be enough. For one to know what a chocolate tastes like, he needs to experience it. He should let his taste buds taste it and then he will know what chocolate tastes like. Learning is more than understanding concepts, though we do not discount the importance of learning by the mind. But a more powerful combination in experiencing knowledge is when the student experiences it with both his mind and his heart. Therefore, learning must be experienced, perhaps initially in confined and controlled environments and as a community, gradually releasing the student to experience the concept by himself.

These are some of the concepts I have observed in my teaching methods. If I were to describe my values for an effective teaching method, it would be communal, experiential and purposeful.