When we serve God, He doesn’t look for perfection in us. So one reality in life for every teacher - whether in Sunday School or in small groups - is that sooner or later, we’re going to fall short of addressing learners’ needs or teaching with excitement.
After reading dozens of books on teaching and learning in adulthood, I’ve discovered that even college teachers drop the teaching ball occasionally. That’s encouraging and reassuring because I sometimes find myself asking whether God really wants me teaching. So what should teachers do when they face moments of frustration, failure, and fear?
Accept your limits
On any given day we are still the created, not the Creator. To think that we need to do everything perfectly every time we try is to impose on ourselves the mistaken idea that we can achieve perfection. Teachers must accept the challenge of constantly learning how to teach.
Evaluate your limits
Effective teachers work to strengthen their strengths and fortifying their limits. Good teachers always try to improve in weak areas, but balance time invested there with time invested in growing stronger where strengths have been identified.
Supplement your limits
If a member is better teacher in using certain teaching methods, enlist that person to teach a portion of the lesson using that method. Ask others to study for a short presentation on material related to their areas of expertise. Enlist professionals to provide illustrations and analyses, comparisons and contrasts, and so forth.
Expand your limits
Effective teachers make a habit of expanding their knowledge of teaching processes, methods, tools, and such. Conferences and training events in your state and association should be regular events on your calendar, regardless of how may conferences you’ve attended in the past. Training with other teachers can provide great opportunities to experiment with unfamiliar teaching techniques in a safe and low-risk environment in which everyone is working together to improve their teaching effectiveness.
If the person who has called you to teach is God’ can you afford not to become the best possible teacher? How will you respond if God ask you whether you made every effort possible to be a better, more effective communicator of His Word?
Teaching from the heart includes teaching with transformation as part of the plan. Teaching merely to present information falls far short of how Jesus taught His followers. We must teach for results.