[Part 6 in a series about improving gospel teaching. Previous entries in the series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5]
From Doctrine & Covenants:
And now, behold, I give unto you a commandment, that when ye are assembled together ye shall instruct and edify each other, that ye may know how to act and direct my church, how to act upon the points of my law and commandments, which I have given. (D&C 43:8)
This scripture makes reference to two primary goals when teaching: ‘instructing’ and ‘edifying’. Using these two goals as a guide, let’s discuss some basic philosophies in lesson preparation that will help students be both instructed and edified during class.
First, some definitions: ‘Instructing’ is helping students gain spiritual knowledge, ‘edifying’ is helping students gain spiritual wisdom. Knowledge helps students learn about and understand important truths–wisdom helps students understand how those truths affect them personally, and how to use and act upon them in their lives. Basically, these two paradigms represent what is true, and why it should matter to them (the students).
What happens when one of these two areas is neglected in a lesson? Some teachers give ‘instruct-only’ lessons, where many facts are presented but are not tied in to anything relevant or applicable to the students’ lives today. Old Testament lessons from last year were easy to get bogged down in historical detail–the Israelites moved from X to Y, and fought against Z, etc–without regard to why anyone in this dispensation would want to know.
Suppose we have a group of devout believers devoted to the Ming Dynasty of Chinese history. Every week, they gather together and discuss things they’ve learned about the Ming Dynasty–who the emperors were, what the predominant cultural trends in the period were, so on…
Sometimes, former members of this Ming Dynasty fan club don’t attend their weekly meetings any more. A few of the active members will oftentimes visit these lapsed members and share with them some important tidbits of knowledge. (“I want you to know…that I KNOW…that the Ming Dynasty lasted from 1368 to 1644!”) Sometimes these sincere members wonder why they’re sharing ‘truths’ that they wholeheartedly believe…and yet other people don’t seem to get very excited about them.
The answer is obvious: the things shared by this sincere group of believers are certainly true…but they’re not important. Why should I care that the Ming Dynasty started in 1368? How does that truth help me? Is that ‘truth’ going to encourage me to get out of bed Sunday morning, put on my tie, and go meet with the other Ming Dynasty believers every week? Why bother…?
(Readers may recognize this as “The Nairobi Principle” from 2005’s series on activity)
Lessons that focus on ‘instructing’ without ‘edifying’ fall into this same trap–teachers may share things that are ‘true’, but fail to explain why the students should care about them. Maybe a few students find Chinese (or ancient Israelite) history compelling…but most are probably coming to class looking for something else–something relevant to the daily struggles in their mortal existence. It’s easy for teachers to share historical details about, say, the Israel siege of Jericho in the book of Joshua, but harder for them to filter out the spiritual lessons from the story that led to it being in the Bible in the first place.
From this standpoint, it may sound as if the ‘edifying’ portion of a lesson is by far the most important–and this is arguably true, although I believe the ‘instruct’ part of a lesson serves an important purpose and should not be neglected either.
Suppose we have a teacher presenting a lesson on ‘repentance’:
“We all need to repent,” the teacher says, “Christ wants us to repent. Repentance will bring us peace and happiness. I know that repentance has brought me many blessings. Will you all commit yourselves to repent, this week?”
This sounds like it might be a very spiritual lesson, especially from an effective, sincere teacher. However, as presented we’re lacking in some basic knowledge:
- What IS repentance, exactly?
- HOW do we repent?
- HOW does repentance bring us peace and happiness?
- What does repentance have to do with Jesus Christ, anyway?
Some basic ‘instruction’ will likely make this lesson more valuable–perhaps a brief discussion of the pre-existence, the Fall of Adam, and the Atonement of Christ will make it clear what current circumstances make our repenting necessary. Discussion of the specific steps of repentance will also be invaluable in helping students make the determination to repent in their lives. It will always be much easier to commit to do something once they understand the ‘how’ and the ‘why’.
Don’t underestimate the importance of knowledge, even in areas where faith is required.
Suppose you asked someone on the street what the likelihood was–expressed as a percentage–that, when they went to bed that night, the sun was NOT going to come up again the following morning. It’s possible you wouldn’t find anyone with an answer other than “0%”.
However, in reality the answer might depend on the level of knowledge that person had about the sun. Ask someone several thousand years ago this same question, someone with an archaic and outdated theory of the sun (“It’s the sky god traveling across the sky on his golden chariot!”) and you might get a less certain answer, despite the fact that they have the same experience of seeing the sun every day as we do.
(“I’d say 10%-15%. A lot of people have been getting the flu recently, and maybe the sky god will get sick and take a day off…” Or, “My neighbor said we’ve been neglecting to make the requisite sacrifices, so the sky god is displeased and won’t be coming out tomorrow. He seems to know what he’s talking about, so I’ll say 90%”)
Modern knowledge of the sun–a basic understanding of what it is, where it is, and what the physics of the solar system are, including gravity and elliptical orbits–would likely create a more consistently ‘optimistic’ answer as to whether the sun will be returning the following morning. Knowing how the solar system ‘works’ is a key ingredient in having a firm faith in seeing the sun again tomorrow, and every day after that.
Likewise, knowledge of how things ‘work’ in the gospel and in the Church is important for creating faith. Most gospel principles can be explained in a practical manner–what it is, when it started, and what purpose it serves both historically and today. Instructing students with those practical building blocks provides the foundation for the ‘edification’ to take place.
A lesson on temples, for example, might be edifying with the teacher and others testifying to the class of the peace they feel attending the temple, and encouraging others to attend. It might be even stronger if appropriate time is spent on ‘instruction’–perhaps some time on the history of temples, explaining what they were used for, from Moses’ time until today, as well as some background on the ordinances performed within. The proper level of instruction will likely make the edifying part of the lesson better–allowing students to more fully understand what temples are and what role they play in eternal progression. Properly prepared in this way, they will be more likely to respond to the parts of the lesson encouraging them to include the temple in their lives as well.
There is no ‘golden ratio’ of instruction to edification during a lesson–how a lesson is designed might vary week to week depending on the material, and also how deeply the teacher feels the students already understand the ‘knowledge’ part of the lesson. Still, I believe it is valuable for teachers to keep both these paradigms in mind when preparing: what truths do the students need to know today, and how do I help them understand why it matters…
Next: The art of asking questions
Well, as usual, I come from the Primary perspective, so things are different where I sit each Sunday. But I think that a lot of time, the knowledge you’re trying to get across is its own sort of “testimony” — one of my biggest goals last year was to teach my kids that OT people were real, making decisions we can understand, etc., but lived very different lives — and that the scriptures are interesting to read. I also wanted them to get a sense that this dusty old stuff happened at the same time as things that they learn about in school, or find very interesting. So we did a lot more “fact transmission” than you can get away with in Gospel Doctrine: if the scriptures are important, well, then what do they say happened?
Obviously, that stuff is more interesting when the kids still don’t realize the relative ages of things like the Pyramids at Giza, or that Cleopatra was a real person (it’s arguable that they don’t “know” that anyone other than the people they’ve met, is real: they connect the scriptures to the Living Scriptures and VeggieTales cartoons more than anything else.) 7-year-olds pretty much know “The Answer” to formulaic questions (though one girl last year only ever gave ONE answer to EVERY question, no matter how inappropriate: “Jesus?” Argh.) But they usually don’t know how or why that ties into the scripture stories they already know. They were totally bowled over by the idea that David, the guy who fought Goliath, was the dad of the guy who built the temple in Jerusalem, AND the author of the Psalms. I mean, whoa. And then to find out how badly all of that family messed up their lives… heh. And then to flip to the NT and see that David was an ancestor of Joseph!
My kids already knew that when you do something wrong, you should “repent.” They even memorized the steps (as outlined in the manual.) Asking them how David could possibly “repent” for having Uriah killed? That was good times, right there. It required spending most of the lesson telling them about David, however.