teaching
teaching
Saturday we visited a new Quichua community called “Sanblog,” way up in the Andes mountains. We held a workshop for teachers from 9 to 3:00pm. My experiment with doing everything “practical” rather than “theorectical” was a great success!
They told me that Sunday the workshop would be from 8 to 10 am, followed by the worship service from 10 to 12pm. We arrived at 8am at the home of our host Luis. He served us breakfast. We talked for a while. We arrived at the church at 9am, and I’m thinking, “Okay, one hour of workshop til 10am.” The room was packed, showing our success from the day before. Then the pastor instructed me, “We’re going to cancel the church service, and let you give the workshop from 9 to 1pm.” “Okay .....? Now what...?” (That’s four hours of workshop!) What would you do?
I thank God that I’ve been working with the Quichua for several years, and nothing surprises me now. I have two secrets: 1) Always prepare three times as much as you think you’ll need; 2) Never try to teach everything you’ve prepared. When the time is up, stop.
So we had a grand ol´ time for the next four hours! I divided them into four groups, and we practiced teaching the parable of the prodigal son. The first group learned “dynamic lecture.” The second group finally caught on to the idea of each person telling a little bit of the story one at a time. Dramatizing the parable was no problem for the third group. They went all out with costumes, live music, and a lot of improvisation. The fourth group prepared questions for a bible quiz on the parable. Then I did a short homily to fill in some missed details.
I’m also learning that crafts are wonderful tools for teaching! (I should have learned that a long time ago!) So we handed out a sheet of paper to each person, and began folding it a few times to create a small picture frame. Then we handed out crayons for them to decorate it, and write in the picture either the key verse of the parable or a drawing of the parable.
In all, by the group activities and the picture frame, I receive excellent feedback on how much folks are learning about the bible passage. My frustration with sermons is that you don’t get any feedback. But with these methods you can immediately see what people are understanding and what they´re missing.
And so I continue to experiment. Our God is a creative God, and so should we be.
What would you do?
Monday, October 5, 2015