Teaching—Who, Why and How?

For almost two years now, we have been taught on Saturday nights not only by me, but also by a set of teachers known as "the teaching team." Because I am sometimes asked about our teaching, I thought it would be helpful to write a little about who these people are, why they teach for us, and how they do their work.

Before embarking down that path, however, I must say that we speak often as a teaching team of how, while we work to do the best job we can, the emphasis not really on our teaching but rather on the learning of those who hear. If the Word of God is not penetrating the minds and hearts and then influencing the actions of our hearers, what we teach—in our fellowship or any other—is for naught. That's why you will hear us speak of how we are learning these lessons we are teaching, hopefully right along with you. It's also why our bulletin employs the title Learning over the description of the message for the night. Both the speakers and the hearers are in the business of learning what God would have us learn—both on Saturdays and on every other day of the week.

Who?
The teaching team is currently comprised of three couples (the Beckers, the Hollands, and the Elenekes), as well as two individuals (Patty Cappelluti and me). First off, you may note that all of these people have been regular attenders of TFH for ten years or more, with the exception of the Beckers, who have been with us for just under that amount of time and who serve in a pastoral capacity. In other words, these folks are well-known to us. This means that we know their foibles and even sins, but we also know that they are fully pointed toward Christ and invite His constant and strong influence in their lives.

You may also notice a couple of oddities. For instance, Patty is on the team but has not yet taught for us. She serves primarily as our "audience member in resident," someone who gives us excellent feedback on the teaching and offers great input in our study discussions. She won't necessarily sit on the sidelines forever, though! You might also note that Dave doesn't stand up and teach; no, but he is side-by-side with Kim in preparing the lessons that she delivers (I think he likes the behind-the-scenes role). Finally, from time-to-time you might see that we have someone teaching who is not on this team. This usually is the fruit of a conversation I have had with someone who has shared with me some specific things that God has been teaching them, and we have agreed to have them teach us all in a "one-off" role, as we might do with a guest speaker, like Andy Glover or Jeffrey Cranford. Amy will be back in a few weeks to round off her reflections on judgment and discernment, a pair of messages that were the result of some discussions we have had at the Council level and that are indicative of the study she is doing at the Mennonite Brethren Seminary here in town.

Why?
We began the teaching team two years ago when the work being required of me at the Links Players ministry was increasing greatly. Because teaching prep can be a big chunk of time, this has been very helpful to me, as I also have been teaching the youth at both Wednesday night gatherings each month. Such shared teaching is not a rare concept; it reflects the elder-taught model of many churches throughout history and into our time.

Things have turned the corner somewhat for me, and I will be teaching more frequently in the weeks and months ahead (this Saturday will be the third time in four weeks, for example). This should help in terms of establishing a bit more consistent identity in our teaching again, but I also want you to know that I think there is real value in the shared model, for it allows others to offer perspectives that I cannot, primarily due to the differences in life experiences and the way our faith is applied to those.

How?
The teaching team is, as I have noted, no accidental group. In addition, they are committed to a weekly meeting where we discuss reading that we are doing together. This not only helps fortify us individually in our understanding of the Word of God and how it is most faithfully taught, but it allows for us to be (for the most part) on the same page in that understanding and methodology. Most of these books are more theological than personal in nature, but we seek to move across the spectrum somewhat.

As an example of our reading, we are currently going through a small book by John Piper called, The Supremacy of God in Preaching. Every other week we are interweaving that with a three-part video set of teachings by Piper called The Centrality of God. Some of it is weighty stuff pointed at pastors, but key to its message is that we must remember that we are bringing people the most important words in the world, not just another in the parade of bright ideas. This is also one of at least two books that we have read that I would ask anyone who would join the team in the future to read in order to "get up to speed" (the other is Humility, by CJ Mahaney, and possibly Desiring God, by John Piper). FYI, the next book on the slate, starting in November, is called When People Are Big and God is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency and the Fear of Man, by Edward Welch, in case you are interested in ordering and reading what is influencing us.

The leading of the Holy Spirit and the personal study of the teachers (including some of this reading), then, causes them to produce the teachings you hear on Saturday nights. Some teachers and some messages will be more polished than others; some will sound more "gritty;" some will effuse grace; some will come off more like admonishment (which is also grace to one who is heading toward a cliff of disaster!); some will be direct studies from the Scripture; some will be more personal and/or appeal to writings of godly teachers of our time. Whatever you hear on a Saturday night, I hope I can every week assure you of this: the teacher or teachers have committed to prayer and study on behalf of us all, that we might learn things that don't just sound good but are both good and sound according to the Word of God.