A New Way To Teach...A New Way To Learn

In our church the leaders gather twice a year to give instruction and inspiration through the spoken word and music. They also use that time to announce church-wide changes. The meetings are held the first weekends each April and October. This last October they announced some major changes and some that--on the surface--didn't seem that big, but upon closer examination, are going to shake things up.

Changes in the way we teach each other are coming.

I am part of the Sunday School leadership in our congregation so it's up to us to help roll out the new plan. Tomorrow we meet with the teachers to instruct and answer questions they may have. The biggest change in our new system is this: the teachers will no longer be instructing the students as the main focus of their callings. Instead, the students will need to basically learn the lessons before they arrive. Class time will be spent discussing what everyone learned as they went through the lesson on their own at home.

Currently, we meet for three hours on Sundays. The big announcement we received last October is that our total church time will be cut down from three hours to two. Because of the reduced time, Sunday School classes will no longer meet weekly, but every other week. Because of this, the emphasis on learning will shift form the teacher to the student.

I've been a member of this church my entire life. I've had callings where I was an instructor. Shifting the responsibility from the teacher to the student is huge. I know some will get more out of their studying time than others--that's just life. I am looking forward to see how this big change works out.