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Saturday, March 12, 2005
When I was taking youth ministry classes in seminary, frankly, I had more experience than most of my classmates. I had been in youth ministry full-time for six years prior to taking classes (while most of my fellow students were just starting out in their ministries). I had taught hundreds of Bible lessons before crowds of varying sizes. I had taught a wide range of topics. I had been teaching many different small group Bible studies, too.
One particular class was called "Teaching Process." Yes, the class was precisely about what it was called...
Anyway, on the first day of that class, the professor asked us what was our goal when we taught our students.
People in the class offered up several different answers. It was obvious that we were all around the answer but not getting the answer...you know? We were aware of this because the teacher kept waiting for us to offer more answers.
I think I said something like, "To clearly communicate God's truth." Or something similar that would either make me sound good or get the professor to get that look on his face that one of his students got the answer correctly.
I think the professor said something like, "Yeah...we want to clearly communicate God's truth, that's certainly a good goal. But I'm thinking more about our students. What do we want to see in our students as a result of our teaching?"
To me, that sounded something like, "Wrong answer, goofball...but a nice try. You're still missing the point of what I'm trying to get." I wasn't about to try again, either.
Nobody got the answer. Finally, the professor asked us to turn to 1 Timothy 1:5:
"But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."
It's a short sentence. It's easy to glaze over, too. Well-meaning and well-intended platitudes that no one could really disagree with. It's like a politician saying he's for lower taxes and better education and taking care of the poor: You can't disagree with it, but it seems vague enought that you don't know exactly "how" it'll happen, either. So you just say, "Isn't that nice?" and move on.
But that short, well-meaning verse refocused my ministry.
See, for my first years of ministry, I had been putting together Bible studies that I hoped were clever, and innovative and clear in what they were trying to communicate. I was trying to get students to see the beauty of the Word of God and understand that it was intended to get them to live an abundant life.
Those are good things. But they're more like the red circles around the bullseye on a target. They aren't the bullseye.
The bullseye of time in the Word...the very breath of God...the living and active Word of God...
...is love.
In this case, the Greek word agape, which means a love for which no sacrifice is too great.
So the goal is that people will choose to love God more...with a love for which NO sacrfice is too great.
And I believe that this would naturally lead to people choosing to love others more...with a love for which no sacrfice is too great.
This love is to come from three things:
A pure heart. The Message translates this "uncontaminated by self-interest." I wonder if we really thought through that and found out how self-focused we are and how much we make choices based on our selves how much we'd want to live a life with a pure heart.
A good conscience. Elements of hypocrisy erased.
A sincere faith. The opposite of this would be a counterfeit faith. A fake one. One in which we focused on what others thought instead of what was really going on in our hearts and minds and actions and dealing with those things.
See, living a life that is littered with self-interest, a guilty conscience and hypocrisy it tiring. It will wear you out. It's self-focused and won't give you time to love others or truly love Him.
And when you realize that the result of time in the Word should be, plain and simply, love. Built of the foundation of a worthy, honest walk with Him.
That one class hour that focused on this verse refocused my energies in ministry that last to this day.
A friend of mine who is in a Christian band said something like this over dinner, "Anybody, with enough practice and enough effort can have kids walk away from a concert saying, 'Wow! What a great band!' It's hard to have kids walk away from a concert saying, 'Wow, what a great God He is and He loves me, and the guys in that band love me.'"
It's the same way with a Bible study or sermon. It's easy, with enough practice and effort to have people walk away from Sunday School saying, "Wow! What a great lesson and creative presentation!" and mean it.
It's difficult to have students walk away saying "Wow! What a great God He is and He loves me, and that guy who taught it loves me, and I want to love others."
But that's the goal.
And it should be.
So the question today is how much do we really love God considering the amount of time we spend in the Word? How much do we really love others?
Brent 4:57 AM
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