Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 20
September 26, 1968
NUMBER 21, PAGE 4

"Teaching Them ..."

Editorial

"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you," was the way Jesus gave the mandate to his disciples. This is the second half of the great commission. And by common agreement is far more neglected than is the first part of that great charge.

The tragic division within the body of the Lord these last two decades gives sad and eloquent testimony as to the failure in the general area of teaching Christians. Thousands have been baptized — and then have acted with almost brutal indifference to "all things — whatsoever the Lord commanded. They simply have not been taught. The very teachers themselves (those who taught the first principles) have all too often been in the vanguard of those who have exhibited such a lack of understanding and practice in the area of Christian living and Christian attitudes. Bitterness and ill-will have taken over; fellowship has been broken; falsehoods have been told; misrepresentations galore have abounded — the whole scene has been sickening to sensitive and dedicated Christians.

But let no one suppose this is a new and strange development. This sort of thing happened froth the very beginning. When Paul had established the cause of Christ in Corinth does anyone suppose the Corinthian Christians lived up to the "all things whatsoever (Christ) had commanded"? If so, go back and read the Corinthian letters. You will find division, strife, back-biting, law-suits, adultery, misuse of spiritual gifts, drunkenness at the Lord's table; denial of the resurrection, and a varied assortment, no doubt, of "lesser" items on the agenda of wrong-doing. "Teaching them to observe all things" is not a once-for-all job, but is a continuous and continuing process.

We are happy to have in this issue of the Gospel Guardian two articles that are related to the "teaching" task of the church. Brother Lowell Williams has written a series of six articles, detailing the magnificent work of the congregation at Kirkland, Washington. And near the opposite corner of the nation, Brother Martin M. Broadwell of Atlanta, Georgia, resumes his splendid series on "Teaching For Learning." We are happy to bring such material to our readers, and solicit your continued interest and reading as each man continues the series he has begun. This is something practical, concrete, and which the average man and the average congregation can understand and use.

It is of utmost importance that every lesson by every teacher should have some specific objective. That objective should be refined, studied, worked over with the most intense and prayerful thought — and then stated in one clear sentence. Is it to "gain information"? If so, let the class session be structured for that very purpose. Is the objective to "teach appreciation"? And if so, what IS "appreciation" (see Broadwell's article). Is the objective to develop habits and attitudes? If so, what habits, what attitudes? And just HOW is the class material to be used to reach the objective desired?

Frankly, this writer has felt for many years that a great deal of our modern "Bible School" teaching program was largely wasted effort. Poorly prepared teachers, using poorly prepared lessons have whiled away the time of bored and inattentive classes until the bell sounded! But there is no reason why this should be so; there is really no excuse for it. Laziness, ineptitude, and a general lack of vision will make any Bible School a waste of time. It takes imagination, enthusiasm, "know-how" AND SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES to make a class session worth the while.

We hope to have more to say about these things as time goes on. Meanwhile, we urge you to continue to read the fine series by Brother Williams, telling of the activities of the Kirkland church; also the series by Brother Broadwell, dealing specifically with the realm of "communication" as we seek to develop character.

F. Y. T.