Training/Teaching

Importance of this ministry

The Training or Teaching ministry is vital for the spiritual growth of the church. This may be why Jesus said to his disciples, “…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:20, NIV).

Our teaching and today’s culture and philosophy

Our teaching must connect to today’s culture and context to be relevant and effective as Jesus connected his teaching with the political, historical, and cultural circumstances of the people of Israel in the first century (The New interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 483-485).

We now live in a changing world shifting from modernism to postmodernism that focuses more on relativism, individualism, and philosophical pluralism where there is no right or wrong or every view, opinion or belief is correct as long as you are able to support a claim with convincing reasoning and evidence. There is almost no room for religious conviction (Reid, 74-78). We need to face this reality and address the new philosophical thinking in our teaching to help evangelical Christians to fully understand and obey God’s word and to be well prepared to defend their beliefs with compelling argument.

Our teaching and biblical family foundations

We also need to base our teaching on biblical family foundations as it was the case in the first stage of the Jewish nation. “⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9, NIV). With parents being very busy nowadays and not spending enough time with their children, “88% of those who grow up in our evangelical churches in the US leave at age 18 and do not comeback” (Pipes and Lee, 1).

Let us make teaching a priority in order to strengthen our churches and be more effective in sharing our faith.

References

The New Interpreter Dictionary of the Bible S-Z Volume 5. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2009, 483.

Pipes, Jerry and Lee, Victor. Family to Family: Leaving a Lasting Legacy. USA. 2008, 1, 6, 29.

Reid, Alvin I. Radically Unchurched: Who They Are And How To Reach Them. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2002, 74-78.