Category: teaching

Posted in retirement, teaching

A chance to teach

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

It’s been eighteen months, but it felt just like yesterday. I haven’t taught a class since my retirement, but the scheduled teacher was sick, and they asked me to fill in. Why not?

Over the past year, I’ve gotten to know the couple of dozen men who meet to study the bible and pray each Wednesday night. A team of teachers has taken turns leading the group through books of the bible and a few books on prayer and leadership. We’re currently in the gospel of Mark, and my task would be to lead a discussion of chapters eleven and twelve.

That’s a lot of ground to cover. In those two chapters Mark takes the reader from Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to the clearing of the temple to a widow giving her last two coins. Rejected by every religious leader, Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion is just around the corner. There is much to talk about in these few pages.

I promised myself I would take in the moment and reflect upon my ninety minutes in front of a bunch of guys who only know me as Bill. The class was great, with lots of participation, discussion, and questions. Though it’s nice to not have to prepare and teach several times a week year round, I enjoy teaching and am more than glad to fill in from time to time. It helps to know the group, what makes them tick, and what gets them going.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed in retirement is the transition from teacher to learner. True, you learn a lot when you teach. But there is also much to be learned from others equipped with a variety of training and experience.

Posted in Life, teaching

Idolatry and the Dollar Tree

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I asked the class, “So what is idolatry?”

One young lady perked up and exclaimed, “The Dollar Tree?”

It was a priceless moment.

From time to time I teach a middle school Sunday School class. This year, the curriculum takes them through the Old Testament books of 1 and 2 Kings. This morning, we covered 1 Kings 12-14, when Israel divided into the northern and southern kingdoms under Jeroboam and Rehoboam, respectively. When Jeroboam sets up two golden calfs in the north, it’s a repeat of the golden calf episode in Exodus. God’s people tend to make the same mistakes over and over.

It’s a challenge to engage any class of young or old with this particular narrative. Metal and wooden idols seem kind of silly to modern ears. So we have to talk about those thing we fear, love, and trust more than God, which are our idols.

While we have much to learn about idolatry, we’re familiar with Dollar Tree. True, most of the stuff there is junk. But almost everything costs $1.25. Inflation, you know. Between them, Family Dollar and Dollar General, I never feel like I’m more than five minutes away from a discount store. This reality says much about what we value. It’s stuff. It’s the creation rather than the Creator. Once I take a step in that direction, my life drifts further and further away from God, something Paul writes about in Romans 1.

Anyway, because of our discussion this morning, when someone mentions idolatry, I’ll always think of Dollar Tree!

Posted in teaching

The raft of God

Posted on by William Douthwaite

When you’re a pastor it’s easy to fall into the habit of throwing out all kinds of phrases that make little sense to some of the youth you teach.

I’m pretty sure we were talking about the word “salvation” and being “saved” when I made reference to “being saved by [Christ] from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:9).

One of my students immediately asked, “What’s the raft of God?”

I like to use a lot of pictures when I teach, so naturally, I illustrated this important concept.

Posted in memories, teaching

The worst way to die

Posted on by William Douthwaite

The question seemed simple enough. “What do you think would be the worst way to die?”

It’s like I flipped a switch. The room full of fairly disinterested 7th and 8th graders came to life with a flood of macabre methods of taking human life. Clearly I was not the first to ask them this question, and they excitedly offered up these horrible ways of killing, some of which I’ve never heard of before.

  • Put someone in a hollow brazen bull and light a fire under it until the person bakes to death.
  • Stuff someone in a barrel and nail the top shut, simply leaving them to die and slowly rot away.
  • Impale the victim on a sharp stick which would slowly pierce the length of their body.
  • Dip someone in the Amazon River, allowing the piranha to eat away their flesh.

I’ve been teaching this age group for a long time, but I’ve never had a class so fascinated with death and dying. I doubt many had even been to a funeral or seen a corpse, so this was all theoretical.

I remember doing a play in Junior High school called “The Lottery” based on a story by Shirley Jackson. It was about a small town that annually chose the name of one citizen who would be stoned to death by everyone else. The tradition provided a communal outlet for hate and anger. When everyone you know takes your life, that seems to be a pretty bad way to go.

Posted in children, Ministry, teaching

Can I have your attention?

Posted on by William Douthwaite

loren-joseph-286131-unsplash
Photo by Loren Joseph on Unsplash

Post-Easter Sunday excitement, wiggles and sugar-hangovers made the Good News Club a little more challenging last week. After a few songs and teaching about the resurrection via the account of the two disciples who met the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus, it was craft and review time. The room divided up by grade to work on a few peel-and-stick crafts and see who could remember a few things from the story that day. Conversation and laughter filled the room, but everything remained under control — except for a few boys in the second grade group. The adult working with that group could have used a few dogs from the herding group to help corral those nine children. I was done teaching for the day so I tapped the four boys on the shoulder and said, “You guys come with me.”

Continue reading “Can I have your attention?” →

Posted in church, lessons, teaching

Paper airplane and cootie catchers.

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Picture1So here’s what I learned in bible class yesterday. I am teaching a class on Dr. Howard Hendrick’s book Teaching to Change Lives, previously titled The Seven Laws of Teaching. It is part of our ongoing effort to quip our bible class leaders to become better teachers.

Yesterday’s class on “the Law of Education” encouraged teachers to involve students in learning, teaching them how think and learn rather than just simply sitting there hopefully absorbing material. I used a suggested exercise and gave each person a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Each was to draw a picture on the paper, make something with the paper, or do something with the paper to symbolize the statement “How does a person learn?” I knew it would be a challenging exercise, but I was surprised at how effective a lesson it was.

There were as many creative ideas as there were people in the room, everything from a paper airplane to a “cootie catcher” to stick people learning in some way. The exercise actually primed their creativity for further exercises in the class, and will probably be the thing they most remember about that hour.

So what did I learn? Give my classes more things like that to do! I’ve done it from time to time, but it may be worth adding to every class. One activity per lesson each week is well worth the time spent to encourage discussion, questions and creativity.