As a teacher, Jesus usually took a direct approach.
Matthew 7:29: “for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”
Mark 6:34: “When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.”
These verses describe much of the teaching that goes on in youth ministry. The youth minister is the sage on the stage, and students rarely get to reflect on the ideas that are taught. They are expected to come to their own conclusions (“see you next week, go and do likewise”) without letting the content marinate. In Luke 8, Jesus taught using the parable of the sower. He ended the parable by saying, “Let him who has ears hear.” In a moment of honesty, the disciples came back and said, “Um, we want to have ears that hear and all, but what was the meaning of the seed on different kinds of soil?” (my paraphrase).
At least once, however, Jesus flipped the classroom. The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. For example, the teacher might record a video lecture or go to a museum where a pertinent lecture is conducted or assign students to watch a movie or debate. Then in the classroom, the emphasis is on application. Students have more control of their learning as they have had time to contemplate; and then in class, they can ask questions. Learning becomes more individual as students are exposed to course material outside of class, often via technology. Instructors become facilitators, customizing the learning by helping students work through questions individually and/or in groups.
The point is that content is delivered before the classroom session. In traditional classroom (and youth ministry) settings, students are expected to capture and comprehend what is being said in real time or as the speaker speaks. Sometimes an invitation is given in which the expectation is to respond immediately to the content they have heard without opportunity to reflect on what was said. As a result, they may miss significant truth because they are trying to transcribe the words of their teacher or youth pastor.
When Jesus flipped the classroom, it was an incidental lesson, yet the process we observe may give much confidence to some volunteer teachers in youth ministry. The disciples observed Him praying, recognized the value of the moment and asked Him to teach them. The lecture was by example. He created the motivation to learn before class ever started.
Also, it came about that while He was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. ‘Give us each day our daily bread. ‘And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation'” (Luke 11:1-4, NASB).
The devotion in Him stirred devotion in them. The lesson on prayer was Jesus praying. Then He gave them a model prayer as application. The Shema in Deuteronomy 6:7-9 is a bit of a hybrid, with the direction to teach diligently, but also to respond when your son asks you questions in the future. Similarly in Joshua 4, the stones at Gilgal were to serve as a point of inquiry for future generations: “When your children ask, tell them what God did here”
In Your Youth Room
I often hear volunteers say, “I am not a very good teacher,” yet I know them to be deeply spiritual. I have seen them play instruments; I have heard them pray; I have been with them as they served food in homeless shelters. They bring their stories to the classroom. Consider all the lectures that take place on the way to a destination, all the mission projects that have lessons built into the serving, the times students are in places to observe lessons in the ebb and flow of life. Students pick up the information in the classroom of life, so then the classroom at church becomes space where the lesson is unpacked.
Perhaps we can flip the classroom by creating a pre-class lesson via text or emailing our students links to some of the great prayers that have been preserved in print, audio or video. We can link to videos we’ve posted of men and women in our churches who connect with God when they pray. Imagine the buzz of a Sunday morning Bible study when the lessons on prayer already have been taught and the teacher is simply guiding the application. The win in the flipped classroom is that the principles have been modeled, explained and preached; so when students assemble, they get to adopt their form of prayer by synthesizing the elements they have seen and heard.
Lord, teach us how to pray, and teach us how to teach.
