Preaching and teaching

 

Teaching and preaching

 

For the last week and the next two weeks I am teaching a class on weekdays. I sit in front of a camera and the students sit in another building in front of the screen.

 

Today, Sunday, I am preaching. I sit in front of a camera and my hearers sit in other buildings in front of their screens.

 

Monday to Friday we open our Bibles, pray and I talk. Today we open our Bibles, pray and I talk.

 

So what’s the difference?

 

On Monday to Friday there is difference in methodology. I talk to the students, they talk to me and they talk with one another. They work in small groups and individually to produce oral assignments that testify to, express and cement their learning.

 

The Monday to Friday class involves 40 hours of teaching over some weeks. Preaching has a different time frame and is more a one-way communication.

 

My teaching is of a unit of Scripture, and so is the preaching – and so the content is common.

 

A key difference between my preaching and teaching is in the emphasis among outcomes. Both preaching and teaching have goals of head learning, attitudinal change and change in actions. This is the ABC of education: Affective, Cognitive and Behavioural learning. To paraphrase Kant, teaching without actions is empty and preaching without content is empty.

 

As I say the difference is of emphasis in outcomes. If the students in my class emerge with more knowledge of the contents of this part of the Bible and increased skills in using it in ministry to themselves and others, then my work is considered well done. It’s different in preaching. The cognitive content in my preaching is a means to an end – I long to see lives changed as attitudes are transformed under the Spirit-illumined word and I want those changed attitudes to manifest in changed actions.

 

The different emphasis among goals informs my prayers and preparation. For teaching, I use the educator’s various arts. My prayer is for faithfulness and clarity in what I say, the ability to teach in ways that connect and for the students to build their knowledge and cognitive skills. When preaching I pray for faithfulness, clarity and connection in my words and that my life gives them integrity. My prayer is that God is present through his Spirit to break down defences, soften the hardness of heart and turn unbelievers into believers, believers into followers and followers into gospel servants.

 

Teaching are preaching are not so close as to be identical and not so different as to be antithetical.