Category: Teaching

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Keep It Simple Smartypants

Simplicity Is A Good Thing

 

For a beginner, simplicity is a great way to reduce the fear of public speaking, and the anxiety of preparing a lesson. It also helps prevent the lesson from going off the rails.

To the experienced teacher, simplicity can create an environment where the Spirit can guide the lesson. Elaborate lessons may not allow flexibility or can stifle the influence of the Holy Ghost.

Here are a few ways to keep it simple:

Simple Doctrine

 

At it’s most basic, the gospel is simple. Mankind, although created in the image of God, is fallen. We have a tendency to do things that are contrary to the nature and will of God, things that hurt others and ourselves. We also live in a physical world that tends to fall apart, our bodies included.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ overcomes these things.  The hurt that we have caused, as well as the guilt and emotional suffering that accompanies it can be healed. Our physical bodies, in addition, will be made whole through resurrection. The way we access the Atonement is through faith, repentance, baptism, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. God has also given guidelines to help us interact with others, and protect us. As we learn and adopt these guidelines, or commandments, we learn to live the way that God lives. This is called Eternal Life.

That is the simple message of the gospel.

Simple Lesson Outlines

 

The basic lesson format is:  an introduction, 3 main points, and a conclusion.

The introduction is designed to get the class’ attention, and introduce the topic. There are a few simple ways to do this.  An object lesson can be used easily.  Or a story.  Or a thought provoking question

For each main point, there should be supporting scriptures and quotes. The lesson manual often includes scriptures, quotes, and good questions to initiate a discussion. Most teacher manuals already break the lesson up into main points, along with scriptures and quotes.

There are several good ways to conclude a lesson. Summarizing, emphasizing the main idea, testimony, or extending an invitation are just a few simple ways to close the lesson.

Simple Teaching

 

A simple pattern for teaching is to teach a principle from the scriptures, use a story from your own life or from church history, ask questions that will elicit thoughts and feelings from the class, and bear testimony to the truth of the principle. This pattern is effective at bringing in the spirit, and usually has a good balance of rational and emotional substance. It also lends itself to increased participation.

 

Maybe now is a good time to simplify, and get back to the basics. May the Lord bless you with an increased measure of the Spirit as you do so.

 

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My Aha! Moment

If, by the title of the post, you are hoping I will tell you about the first time I heard Take On Me, you are going to be disappointed.

If you are hoping to hear about the most pivotal moment in my gospel teaching journey, then please read on.

Allow me to set the stage. I’m a nineteen year old missionary, around  9 months into it, knocking doors. I’m with my zone leader, basically an experienced missionary responsible for the training and coaching of a dozen or so other missionaries. We knocked on a door in an apartment complex, and were greeted by a woman- probably in her mid thirties. She let us in and allowed us to share a message with her. At the time, we had a guideline to not spend more than 30 minutes teaching a single female. So, we shared a few things, had a prayer, and unsuccessfully attempted to schedule a return appointment. Pretty typical for a missionary afternoon.

For some reason, I was thinking back on the lesson when- AHA! It dawned on me. During that lesson, I was fully engaged and constantly trying to see things from this lady’s perspective. When my zone leader was teaching, I was prayerfully searching her face to see how she was responding to the lesson. I was trying to understand where she was at in life, and what I could possibly say that would help her. I was filled with compassion for her, and a pure desire to say and do what was in her best interest. I was not at all thinking about my presentation of the lesson, but upon the reception of the message. Like a flash, I realized that I had actually been doing this for quite some time, I just hadn’t noticed it happening. I had shifted my focus away from myself, and to those I was trying to serve.

I have reflected often upon this moment, and have concluded that this is the most important aspect of teaching. And by far the most powerful lesson that I have learned. At some point, you must change your focus. It’s not about you. It’s not about your delivery, your tone, your body language. Yes, I believe these things are important. But, they are nowhere near as important as the person or people you are teaching. It is all about how the message is received. The great news is that as you focus on the listener, your delivery, tone, and body language become much more natural.

In his epistle to the Philippians, Paul counseled, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,  not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

I figure that this matter of empathic teaching, like so many other gospel topics, is a lesser law-higher law kind of thing. We probably need to start out by focusing on our delivery of the message before we can “graduate” to focusing on the receiving of the message. The trick is to be able to make this transition relatively quickly. As I have pondered this, I think there are a few practices that, if done consistently, will speed up this process.

First, praying for charity. This well-proven method, as advised by Moroni, really works. “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ.” As our love for others increases, we naturally become less self-centered and more other-centered. This applies to everything, including teaching.

Second, thinking about those you teach while you prepare. Make it a common practice to consider the needs of those in your class. If you regularly are teaching the same group, try to really understand where they are at in life. Praying for class members by name is a great practice to implement if you want to be a more empathic teacher.

Third, get constructive feedback from someone that you trust. Have them attend a class that you teach, and let you know how they experienced it as a learner.  You may be surprised that your experience as a teacher and their experience as a learner didn’t quite match up. This will help you realize what works and what doesn’t.

Lastly, master some basic public speaking skills, and practice them until they are instinctive. Skills such as hand gestures, voice inflection, pacing, and eye contact can become stored as a muscle memory. As this occurs, you no longer need to focus on these things, and your attention can be spent on those you are teaching.

My teaching ability, and the satisfaction I receive from teaching, increased in proportion to the degree that I looked outside of myself, and towards others. I implore you to have this Aha! moment yourself, to your benefit and, most important, to the benefit of those whom you serve.

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How Deep Can I Go?

A common concern among Gospel teachers is going too deep, or talking about doctrines that they should leave alone. A great way to resolve this concern is to understand the difference between deep doctrine and fringe doctrine.

Deep Doctrine

Some synonyms of deep include: profound, immersed, heavy, and difficult. Instead of deep, the scriptural term most often used is mysteries. Mysteries are things that can only be understood by the Spirit, according to the will of God. We learn from the Book of Mormon, “It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God; nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him. And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full. And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell.” In this context, the mysteries of God are something to be desired.

In the preface to the vision of the three degrees of glory, the Lord declares the following: “I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end. Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory. And to them will I reveal all mysteries, yea, all the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages to come, will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom. Yea, even the wonders of eternity shall they know, and things to come will I show them, even the things of many generations. And their wisdom shall be great, and their understanding reach to heaven; and before them the wisdom of the wise shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall come to naught. For by my Spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will—yea, even those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man.”

In your teaching of the Gospel, profound truths should be sought after and discussed, not avoided. The most profound truths relate to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. In fact, each and every lesson and talk you give should tie back to this central doctrine; the sacrifice offered to save mankind from physical and spiritual death.

I remember reading Lectures on Faith while preparing for a mission. I had never imagined how deep of a doctrine faith can be. This illustrates the difference between deep and fringe. The Lectures on Faith deals almost exclusively with the nature of God, and the principle of sacrifice. These are among the most basic of Gospel principles.

This dovetails nicely into the next thought regarding deep doctrines. The more that God has said on the subject, the deeper we can actually go, and also the safer the territory is. Such topics as faith, repentance, covenants, priesthood, Atonement, and the nature of God allow sufficient scriptures to delve deeply and find great hidden treasures. On the other hand, such topics as the decomposition of spirit matter in outer darkness, the location of Kolob, or predicting the second coming receive little to no treatment in the scriptures. This leads to speculation, which is no bueno. As we read in the Doctrine and Covenants, “And of tenets thou shalt not talk, but thou shalt declare repentance and faith on the Savior, and remission of sins by baptism, and by fire, yea, even the Holy Ghost.”

Fringe Doctrine

One definition of fringe is “something regarded as peripheral, marginal, secondary, or extreme in relation to something else.” In golf, the fringe is the area that separates the putting green from the rough.  Like this thicker grass, fringe doctrine is far from the target (the hole) and close to the undesired rough.

Elder Gene R. Cook used the word fringe in General Conference, “The teacher [of righteousness] will teach in simplicity, according to the true needs of the people, basic gospel doctrines like faith, repentance, and prayer, which all men—all men—can apply. (See D&C 19:31; Alma 26:22.) He will not look beyond the mark by exaggerating, by teaching in the fringe areas, by expanding on the scriptures, or by teaching exotic extremes in any principle…” (italics added).

A simple rule of thumb to follow is that if God hasn’t spent a whole lot of time talking about a subject, we shouldn’t either. This is another great reason to become familiar with the scriptures. We get accustomed to how the Lord speaks, what He speaks about, and the frequency with which He speaks about certain things.

Two Analogies

One way to look at this subject is to picture the Gospel as a big tree. The closer that you get to the trunk, the more solid your footing is. We can compare the trunk to the Atonement. All other Gospel principles are appendages to this central doctrine, and receive life from it. As we depart away from the trunk, we lose our solid footing.

Another analogy is to view the Gospel as a large lake. The closer to the center of the lake you get, the deeper it is.  The closer you get to the shore, the shallower it gets.

Some Tips for Teaching

Here are a few ideas that will hopefully help you in your teaching. First, spend most of your time teaching from the scriptures, and trying to convey the true intent of the scriptures. It can be tempting to try to use scriptures to support a point that you are trying to make, even though that is not the actual intent of the passage. I heard an example of this recently. Matthew 26:11 reads, “For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.” This was used to argue that we should not try to eliminate poverty, because Jesus himself said that we will always have the poor with us. If you look at the verse in context, it is clear that Jesus was not arguing against giving to the poor, which was what this person was proclaiming.

My second tip is to not ask speculative questions. You can easily lead a discussion down a strange path by asking poor questions. A question like, “Why do you think Heavenly Mother is not spoken of more in the scriptures?” could bring up who knows what type of speculation, and is not very useful.

Almost every class will have those who feel that they have reached a point in their gospel knowledge that they can only talk about fringe doctrines. More often than not, you will find that they, in reality, only have a superficial understanding of the core doctrines of the gospel. They actually have been lazy in their obtaining truth and light, and look for shortcuts to knowledge. Rather than pay the due diligence required to know the things of God, they resort to finding some new speculative theory. Ever learning, as Paul put it, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Joseph Smith beautifully taught how we learn deep doctrine, “The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity—thou must commune with God. How much more dignified and noble are the thoughts of God, than the vain imaginations of the human heart!”

If you can show a class how exciting and deep the simple gospel doctrines can be, you will prove to be of great worth to those children of God that He has called you to feed. If you consistently teach the fundamental core doctrines in a powerful, spirit filled, way, you will change the culture of your classroom, your ward, and ultimately the whole Church. Picture a Church full of people that have a deep understanding and appreciation for the Atonement of Christ, of faith in His power to save, of the concepts of justification and sanctification, of taking care of our fellow man. This is a Church that the Savior can call His, when he comes to make up His jewels. This is a Church with whom He would be well pleased, collectively and individually.

This is His Church, but it is also our Church. It is not called only The Church of Jesus Christ, or The Church of the Latter Day Saints. It requires both parties, in concert, to succeed. A major component of this success includes high quality Gospel teaching. It requires teaching individuals the Gospel of Jesus Christ, from the scriptures, by the Holy Ghost. That is our call, and there is no greater.

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The Big Payoff

Teaching the gospel can be a stressful calling. There are times when we feel so good about a lesson… until the lesson actually happens. Hours of preparation, feeling great about what you prepared, and it flops. This post is not about those moments.

On the contrary, this post is about those sweet moments when everything goes perfect. By perfect I don’t mean without mistake, but that you actually see the light go on for someone in the class. I like to call this the big payoff.

It can look anywhere along the spectrum from staring blankly at the ground, to nodding their head enthusiastically at every comment made. On a side note, one thing I have learned is that a quiet class is either a good thing or a bad thing; either they are hearing the voice of the spirit, or they are super bored.

So, how can you know if you have achieved the big payoff? Alma gives us this tip: “And now my beloved brethren, do you believe these things? Behold, I say unto you, yea, I know that ye believe them; and the way that I know that ye believe them is by the manifestation of the Spirit which is in me. And now because your faith is strong concerning that, yea, concerning the things which I have spoken, great is my joy.” You’ll know when it clicks for someone because you’ll feel it. And boy does it feel good. Or, in Alma’s words, great is your joy!

One great thing about the big payoff is that it can happen regularly. As it happens, you will want it more, as will your class. This leads to an increased excitement as you prepare lessons, and a better prepared class. As you build your confidence and abilities, combined with a class that is primed for a spiritual experience, the “light will go on” with greater frequency and intensity. The Lord worded it this way, “Therefore, why is it that ye cannot understand and know, that he that receiveth the word by the Spirit of truth receiveth it as it is preached by the Spirit of truth? Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together. And that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness. That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.”

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Expounding Scripture

One of the most fundamental, perhaps the most fundamental teaching skill, is expounding scripture.

Expounding scripture is, simply put, the ability to explain a passage of scripture. Great gospel teachers do this regularly and powerfully. The good news is that anyone can learn how to do it. The great news is that it will pay dividends in your life and in your teaching.

The first step to expounding scriptures is to learn how to study the scriptures.  Here are three tips to help you study:

  1.  Ask questions of the scriptures. In any given verse, you should be able to construct several questions that start with what, when, why, who, where or how.
  2. Look for “If… then” phrases. These are like mullets– after you see one, you see a million. These statements are low hanging fruit for gospel principles. Another way to view it is that these are all sub-covenants, or components of the New and Everlasting Covenant.
  3. Cross-reference. “Let scripture interpret scripture.” If you are new to the whole scripture study thing, use the cross references provided in the scriptures. As your gospel knowledge increases, you will make connections with other passages that you have studied.

The second step to expounding scriptures is to plan to expound the scriptures. In your preparation of the lesson, pick a passage that illustrates the doctrine you are trying to teach. If you are unsure where to start, give the topical guide a try. After you study the passage, prayerfully design questions that will cause your students to ponder the passage. A good generic question to ask is “what principle can we learn from this passage?” Another part of the plan is to decide which other passages you can use to cross-reference. Also, plan what method you will use to cross-reference. There are many ways to do this. You can write them out on the board and have the class take turns reading. You can hand out little papers with the reference written on them.  You can go through each cross-reference as a whole class together.

The third step to expounding scriptures is to do it. Now that you have extracted the doctrine through your personal study, and have taken the time to plan it out, you are ready to expound the scriptures in your lesson. Instead of just asking someone to read and comment on the passage, set the class up to extract principles. Let’s look at an example. Let’s say you are teaching from Mosiah 3:4:  “For the Lord hath heard thy prayers, and hath judged of thy righteousness, and hath sent me to declare unto thee that thou mayest rejoice; and that thou mayest declare unto thy people, that they may also be filled with joy.” One way to set it up is to prime the class with the question before having someone read it. You could ask, “As Brother Smith reads this verse, look for the purpose of the message that the angel delivered to King Benjamin.” After Brother Smith reads it, ask, “What is the purpose of the angelic message?” Answers would probably include something about joy. There are a handful of cross-references you could use that illustrate the joy of the gospel. Another question you could ask about this verse is, “What do you think ‘judging of our righteousness’ looks like?” A possible cross-reference is 2 Ne 9:18:  “But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever.” You could also ask the class if they can think of any “if… then” statements in this verse, like “if we pray for it, and are righteous, the Lord will send messages that will cause us to rejoice.”

Hopefully, you can see that the gospel truly is inexhaustible. There is an endless supply of questions and cross-references at your disposal to expound scriptures in your lessons. By following these simple steps, you can develop this priceless skill and use it to the benefit of those you teach.