5 Keys to Developing Spiritually Mature Adults

Written by Richard E. Dodge

Teachers face challenging circumstances when they guide adult study experiences. Teachers need to encourage independence in learners. Teachers who retain total control of the process, content, and structure of a class act in ways similar to parents who cannot release their children. In both cases, growth can be stunted and independent thought and functioning can be hindered.

Most adults are capable of making wise spiritual decisions and developing strong foundations of faith when given the chance to think, discuss, debate, question, and wrestle with biblical content. Here are five keys for helping adults become more mature spiritually.

Encourage involvement - Learners will not spend time studying the Bible, the lesson content, or other resources if they know that the teacher is going to provide all the information they need each week. We need to encourage learners to answer questions from one another as we slide out of the picture and encourage group discussion. Even when differing viewpoints arise, we can encourage thought and reflection by mediating discussion rather than affirming or denying responses.

Ask, Don’t Tell - We can teach an entire lesson without making very many direct comments based on lesson commentary. This technique is based on directed questions designed to prompt learners to provide content from the lesson as answers to the questions.

Go Deeper - Deeper Bible study is a matter of connecting more of ourselves - our actions, values, beliefs, prior knowledge, experiences - with what the Bible says. Deeper study is not a matter of new or different methods or more Bible study content.

Take a Different Perspective - When we teach God’s Word, we should become part of our learners’ lives, which means that we share the task of growing. We grow with them. We cannot move learners to higher levels of spiritual development if spiritual growth is not part of our own lives and we are not informed by how they are applying the Word to life.

Start Where Learners Are - We must start where they are and move from there. Transformational teaching is not a matter of which Bible study series to use, how big the class or church is or even how we as teachers prefer to teach. Teaching for transformation comes when we know our learners enough that we can start where they are and then move forward with new material.

Tragically, some teachers begin preparing lessons on Saturday nights and rush into class each week to present materials. Success that day is measured in whether all the verses were covered and the teacher covered the application suggestions in the Leader Guide. But teachers must wrestle with one critical question: Will the lives of learners be different after class because what they learned connected them directly with God and His will for their lives today?

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