Experience vital to learning
Kevin was recruited to teach in the youth department of his church but wasn’t given any formal training. After a few years, he was frustrated and burned out, so he quit.
According to the dictionary, learning means acquiring knowledge through experience.
Acquiring is the action of taking something on that is new and different making it part of your being. True learning occurs when an alteration of lifestyle or behavior pattern of the learner is evidenced in accordance with our teaching.
One key factor: You and I are not the teacher. The Holy Spirit is our teacher. We are His instruments. Listening to the Holy Spirit causes life change.
Gradual growth
Back to Kevin. I asked him to sit in on our adult class teachers’ meetings. When I needed someone to teach one of our classes, I asked Kevin.
After a few times filling in, Kevin ended up taking the class permanently, and for the next few years it was one of the best growing and multiplying classes in the church.
Kevin was not easily convinced by word of mouth of his potential. The principles and practices of teaching/learning and class growth had to be proven to him.
Kevin attended training conferences, read books and studied other material on improving his abilities. He knows the Holy Spirit is his teacher. He has learned to take the knowledge presented him, gain a deserving understanding, then place it in proper perspective.
Whether you are a classroom teacher, parent or business leader, how will you adapt your learning/teaching procedure?
George Yates
Church health specialist
Letters to the editor
Having picked some tomatoes and green peppers from my little garden and reading your recent editorial — “Farming life teaches spirit of flexibility, adaptability” — I’m reminded that each of us has a task in the salvation process.
Some till, some plant, some fertilize and some reap, but we all celebrate at the King’s feast.
And then we begin again. Keep that shoulder to the plow.
Bruce Barbour
Richmond, Tenn.
Thank you for the outstanding job you are doing. I especially like the news from other state conventions that gives an overview of what’s happening in Baptist life. Your articles are informative and well written.
I strongly encourage every church to provide this new resource to every person in your congregation. I see it as another dependable source to keep pastors, church staff and lay persons informed and encouraged.
Keep up the good work!
Pastor David L. Chancey
Fayetteville, Ga.
I appreciated reading the recent stories in The Baptist Paper about the trauma that is going on in the world today. I deal with these types of issues every day and can tell The Baptist Paper is on the frontline. My prayer is that our Lord will continue to bless the paper and the staff.
Pastor Jeff Holland
Brandon, Miss.
“If you have friends who look at the world through humorous eyes, get on the phone with them. perk each other up.”
The late humorist Jeanne Robertson
No one but You can turn all my pain into peace, can turn all my doubts to belief.
No one but You can take all the tears that I’ve cried and mend all the pieces inside.
I’m giving it all to You. … I was helpless on my own, didn’t realize how far I’d gone. I was covered in despair. Jesus, You were standing there.
When I could not find my strength, that’s when You carried me. You carried me. No one but You.
Natasha Owens Lyrics from “No One But You”
In John 10:32 Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Jesus is the ultimate truth who can set us free from sin and death. But truth is more than spiritual truth. Truth controls the directions of a Christian believer’s life, the steps of a believer’s actions.
No matter how difficult the truth or how attractive the falsehood, Christians are called to walk in truth (3 John 1:4). To do anything less leads away from God and can result in unspeakable consequences.
Bob Terry
Excerpt from the blog post “When Truth Is Compromised” at drbobterry.com
It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.
Dietrich Bonhoffer
A calling is a profound impression from God that establishes parameters for your life and can only be altered by a subsequent superseding impression from God.
Jeff Iorg, president
Gateway Seminary
None of us who were alive and old enough to remember will ever forget September 11, 2001. As we near this 20th anniversary of 9–11, we are reminded again of the ongoing threats to freedom around the world and to our United States of America.
While you pray for the Afghan people, also focus your prayers for the dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ our Lord who are potentially facing severe persecution against them by the ones who have come to power today, the Taliban.
Across the entire world, deep concerns are real. Some far away in places like Afghanistan, and some are much closer to us like the ongoing, deep crises on the borders of our nation.
Yet through it all, our God is at work providentially, sovereignly and compassionately. Through it all, God is still working today.
Ronnie Floyd, president/CEO
SBC Executive Committee
God doesn’t want something from us. He simply wants us.
C.S. Lewis
From the Twitterverse
@RichardBlackaby
If God prompts you to do an act of kindness, do it immediately. You have no idea how timely and meaningful it will be.
@johnmarkclifton
Pastors I humbly suggest one of our primary tasks is to preparing our flock for whatever the future holds. None of us could have imagined an experience such as the past 18 months. Perhaps one reason 30% haven’t returned is because we failed to biblically prepare them to endure.
@Benzer
We need to remind those in ministry that becoming known is not the goal. Fame is not the goal. Wealth is not the goal. Power is not the goal. The goal is faithfulness and effectiveness in the place where we serve.
@haines_matt
Any compromise of God’s authoritative word is the first step of many towards personal and moral compromise and destruction. The serpent’s words still speak loudly today, “Did God really say?”
@brocraigc
“There is a wonderful freedom in this life of simply following Jesus. This path is straight and plain.” —R.A. Torrey
@TimTebow
I think the more you fall in love with Jesus and what He did for us, the more you’re going to fall in love with people and helping them.
@relevant
What you invest your time in now will produce who you will be in the future.
@claytoncloer
Eyes that look are common; eyes that see are rare. J. Oswald Sanders
@BlalockMarshall
Today we had the joy of baptizing seven more new believers.
@BillyGraham
For the Christian, peace is not simply the absence of conflict, or any other artificial state the world has to offer. Rather it is the deep, abiding peace only Jesus Christ brings to the heart.
