Well folks, I've gone and done it... I've bitten the bullet. I think I may have lost my senses... I've agreed to teach a Sunday School class. In fact, this coming Sunday is the first week.
You may be thinking "So what? You teach regularly". True enough. I teach adults at work regularly. This SS class will also be adults. However, that's pretty much where the similarity ends... Allow me to elaborate:
- Week after week there's new material. Sure, it's all from the Bible, but how many of you could teach any/every section of the Bible without study? It's a lot to prepare a lesson every week. It's not a very long time between lessons and there's lots of things to get done in that week besides preparing for Sunday, too.
- The risks are higher. Teaching students MSCRM-centric topics is pretty mild stuff. Sure, there's the occasional dissatisfied "I already knew all of this" kind of student who rails you in class, but beyond that, teaching technical courses is low risk for both me and the participant. No lives are at stake. No eternal punishment or reward on the line. In the end (ie when we all die), no one is going to hold me accountable for their opinion of my coverage of Crystal Reporting services and architecture in MSCRM. Sunday School has eternal implications. Unbelievers could attend and need to hear a solid gospel message that day. Believers could be on the brink of despair and need encouragement or guidance from the Word. Granted, I fully realize that God will pull from my little pea head (via my lips) what folks need to hear. I just don't want to be in the way.
- It's political. In my technical classes, I rarely know the students going in. There's no relationship there. There's no bond. Once the week is out, I likely will never see nor hear from most of them ever again. Not so with a Sunday School class. Ideally, there is a strong bond there. The relationships in a small study group could be nearly as strong (or stronger, in some cases) than familial bonds. However, in a church setting, there are frequently so many other issues in play that they can not only cause "strong discussions" between folks, but can divide groups or entire churches. I've dealt with many of the same issues in church that I have at work: ageism, income prejudices, intellectual prejudices, piousness, etc, etc, etc. I mean, why go into a situation and confront the newly appointed teacher and ask "What pearls of wisdom to you have for us" in a sarcastic tone? I have no motives other than to obey what I believe to be my calling and facilitate a discussion of Biblical topics. I'm not going in thinking that I have this vast plethora of wisdom I can bestow on my "students". (Come to find out, some SS class attendees don't really care for that term. Again, they see it as a demeaning term. Who's NOT a student, I ask...)
- Church-folk don't like change. I'm the new guy in their class. This is an established class (the "Newlywed" class) that has been together for a long time and had the same teacher (and amazing guy) for years. First, their old teacher was significantly older than they were. This class is largely late teens to mid-to-late 20's. I'm 29. Naturally, as in the last point, some of them wonder what "I" have to offer them. (SIDEBAR - Answer: Nothing. I have nothing to offer. They better pray I have nothing to offer. It's not about me and what I can do. It's about God and what He'll do though me and all of us.) The class leadership (I'm one of 2 teachers and a director) is discussing how to best organize the class. Traditionally (therefore some think it can't change), they've been organized by life stage: Newlywed with no kids, Newlyweds WITH kids, and the "Old-yweds" that have been married for a while (probably more than 5 years or so). We're discussing changing from that structure to a teaching format based structure where one teacher does the little lesson-ettes, one does a topical study, and another (if we find one more) does a Bible book study (book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter). I want to do the last one. Hard, but very rewarding for all. This week, however, we're sticking with the little lesson-ettes. But my plan is to severely "enhance" that little thing into my style of teaching. We'll see how that turns out. Finally, if we change the structure, some of them , may not been in the same class as some of their friends because some of them may have different preferences in learning. Oh, the tragedy.
On the other hand, I've had some folks be VERY encouraging about the whole thing. That's nice. I've had people approach me based only on the rumor that I was teaching asking me if they could sit in my class. That's kinda cool. All I want to do is see what happens. I don't plan on being any smarter or Biblically learned than they are. I'm going to be studied, that I can guarantee you. But I just want to encourage them to think about what they're reading in the Bible and absorb it (maybe) in a slightly different way than they've seen in the past. (I am a practicer of a modified Inductive Bible Study method.)
All that said, I'm pretty excited about Sunday. I'm trying to be as prepared as possible to give folks a taste of what I want to do with the class. I'm also NOT going to go in apologizing for being their age, etc. Get a grip. I'm just going to do my "thang" and hopefully someone will get something out of it, Lord willing.
Prayers cheerfully accepted.
Later.