# Being Called to Teach/Preach



## NB3K (Jun 23, 2010)

My pastor who has been teaching me for about 2 years wants me to teach in the children's church on Sunday mornings. He feels that I have been gifted to teach/preach. The only problem he has is, what he calls, the intelectual level that I am on is so much higher than the children. I am not being boastful. I am actually very scared. I know those who teach are held to an extreme acountabilty before our Creator. Inside of me, I really want to do it. I want to go and preach the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified. But as I study the Scriptures and read books like A.W. Pink's "The Sovereignty of God" I get more and more deep seated in my Reformed Theology. I have been trying to destroy the doctrines of the Reformed Faith, but every time I read the Scriptures these truths we hold are affirmed and reaffirmed. The so-called Calvinist's of our day are too scared to go out and preach it! 

I am feeling like Spurgeon. These Truth's are burnt in my conscience and to sit back while my Lord gets blaspheamed for the sake of Church growth and humanly love. I believe in the Absolute Sovereignty of God. When one believes this, IT REALLY MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN HOW ONE LIVES.

Anyhow, I am speaking at a Wednesday night prayer meeting on July 28th. I will be preaching on John 10, and showing how 2Peter 3:9 relates to the Sheep and not the whole world!

Sorry for the babbling.


----------



## White Knight (Jun 24, 2010)

Ok, I got a couple questions. 

Is the children's church held at the same time as church, before or after?

Are you asking what your preacher is preaching on so you can preach on the same thing so the church is worshipping with like mind? 

I have my own quircks with children's church being held at the same time as church. So, rather than going down that road, I'm trying to promote something we can both agree on, worshipping with like mind. So, if the adults ask the children what they learned, perhaps the children could pick up on something that the adults didn't, and visa versa. 

As to your fear, as long as you keep Matt 18:6 in the back of your mind, I think you will be ok. Having the fear of God while teaching isn't a bad thing. It will bring forth humilty and reverence which God will use to his ends.


----------



## CharlieJ (Jun 24, 2010)

I'm making some assumptions in this post, so if they don't apply, feel free to ignore. If your church isn't Calvinist, I think preaching directly on limited atonement is a poor idea. First, if you've never preached before, you haven't won the necessary trust to engage on a controversial issue like that. Second, limited atonement isn't really the logical starting point in explaining Calvinism anyway. They won't have the context to digest what you're saying; they'll just be horrified that you suggested Jesus didn't die for some people. Along that line, people only change their doctrine over time. You can't move the sheep to a pasture on the other side of the mountain all in one day. You'll lose too many along the way if you proceed with an agenda.

Why not just pick a passage of Scripture unmotivated by doctrinal agenda, expound it accurately, and apply it passionately? That's edifying both for you and the sheep.


----------



## Jack K (Jun 24, 2010)

As one who teaches children, I want to encourage you to go ahead and try to do the same. If your pastor thinks you can pull it off, if probably means you can, though it'll take practice to get really good at it. The fact that you're eager only confirms that you should at least give it a try and see how it goes.

So your intellectual level is high. Good! It actually takes a smart person to teach kids well. Kids in the average American church don't get much deep teaching and are hungry for it. You have to consider how to take deep truths and teach them in a way kids, with their limited intellectual abilities, can understand. Doing so takes more work than teaching adults because of that added challenge of putting it in ways they can understand. But doing this is better than the typical response to that challenge, which is for teachers to just skip hard truths.

Kids also are hungry for teachers who will teach, as you put it, the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified. Kids typically get even more moralistic teaching than adults do, because moralistic teaching is easy and it fits the way we talk to kids anyway. You can be of great service to your church by giving kids something better; by teaching the Gospel to children. Here again, being a deep thinker is to your advantage. You have the ability to break out of that moralistic mode and consider how to bring Christ into your lessons. Hooray!

A crucial tip: with kids, always use the Bible story. God has given so much of his Word in narrative form, and it's one way kids and adults can connect on a similar intellectual level. We both understand stories. Stories take abstract, hard-for-kids-to-grasp concepts and put them in concrete, actually-happened contexts. Use that to your advantage.

Did you get that? Use Bible _stories_. That's the main trick for overcoming the intellect gap you're worried about.

I would also echo what Charlie suggested. Don't just use the platform you've been given as an opportunity to push a Calvinist "agenda." It's good to teach out of that perspective and to defend it where necessary. But people are quick to recognize someone with a let-me-correct-you-on-this agenda, and you need to carefully build trust and respect as you present these truths, even when teaching kids.


----------



## NB3K (Jun 24, 2010)

CharlieJ said:


> I'm making some assumptions in this post, so if they don't apply, feel free to ignore. If your church isn't Calvinist, I think preaching directly on limited atonement is a poor idea. First, if you've never preached before, you haven't won the necessary trust to engage on a controversial issue like that. Second, limited atonement isn't really the logical starting point in explaining Calvinism anyway. They won't have the context to digest what you're saying; they'll just be horrified that you suggested Jesus didn't die for some people. Along that line, people only change their doctrine over time. You can't move the sheep to a pasture on the other side of the mountain all in one day. You'll lose too many along the way if you proceed with an agenda.
> 
> Why not just pick a passage of Scripture unmotivated by doctrinal agenda, expound it accurately, and apply it passionately? That's edifying both for you and the sheep.


 
Well my church is of the Reformed Faith, our documents of Faith & Order state it very clearly. The reason why I am going to John 10 & 2 Peter 3:9 is to encourage my fellow brothers and sisters in the faith. My agenda was not specifiically to defend limited atonement as much as it was to teach perserverance of the saints. My pastor was really excited to hear that I wanted to speak on John 10.

---------- Post added at 02:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:40 PM ----------

I believe I will be teach whatever they give me to teach. One of our pastors are wanting the children to learn greek and their meanings in relation to the english. I remember going in while the asst pastor was teaching he was describing to the children what these (greek) words mean and how they apply themselves. I have never seen something like that before.


----------



## CharlieJ (Jun 24, 2010)

Whew. I'm so glad, Jason, that that is the case. Onward and forward then!

Yeah, I haven't heard of the Greek thing either. Are they teaching Greek or just Greek words? The former seems unlikely but useful, while the latter seems kinda gimmicky.


----------



## NB3K (Jun 25, 2010)

White Knight said:


> Ok, I got a couple questions.
> 
> Is the children's church held at the same time as church, before or after?



It will be help at the same time as the senior pastor preaches.


----------

