Training Sunday School Teachers -- By: Robert E. McCubbin

Journal: Central Bible Quarterly
Volume: CENQ 16:2 (Summer 1973)
Article: Training Sunday School Teachers
Author: Robert E. McCubbin


Training Sunday School Teachers

Robert E. McCubbin

Introduction

Without training many teachers will not possess the necessary knowledge or the skill to do an effective teaching ministry in the lives of pupils in Sunday School. Tools are important and proper tools should be used. Many teachers do not know what tools are available. Others do not know how to properly use the tools with which they are acquainted.

J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, wrote: “The qualified teacher is a basic factor in strengthening the Sunday school and, ultimately, in promoting the spiritual strength of the nation. The fundamental wisdom of the Bible does not become available to the individual by some automatic means. It must be made accessible to him; that is, it must be taught to him in understandable form. The Sunday school teacher must have the capacity to convey the real meaning of the Biblical lessons; to reveal the great truths which glow forth when properly presented; and to bring alive the exciting drama in the greatest Book ever written. And the teacher must be competent in other ways. The methods of presenting Biblical lessons to children of primary age necessarily differ from those afforded adults…. The problem confronting Sunday school authorities not only is the one of finding persons who know the basic material, but also finding teachers who know how to present it in an interesting and understandable manner.”

Good teaching is especially important because one is teaching the Bible. In the Sunday school, one is teaching the most important truths in the world. The Bible in both the Old and the New Testaments contains many commandments to teach. When Jesus issued the Great Commission, He used educational terminology in Matthew 28:19, 20: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” The commission to teach is direct and simple, “go and

teach.” It involves the making of disciples and it centers in the teachings of Christ.

The educational goal that those taught might “observe all things” carries the meaning of obedience or putting into practice what is taught. It goes beyond simple listening, and asks for more than mere knowing or memorizing of certain truths. The teacher is “teaching for results” in the lives of his pupils. Christ certainly did more than impart knowledge. His teaching changed the activities of those He taugh...

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