Jesus Christ Learning Teacher

(Revised and updated by Angus M. Gunn) Horne examines how Jesus secured his listeners' attention, made contact with them, and applied Scripture and contemporary concerns to reach his goals.

The Christian presence in education has never been more controversial. While some secularists oppose any form of religious involvement in schools or universities, some Christians also wonder why the churches are there. Conflicting narratives surround the purpose of Christian involvement in education. Yet at the heart of Christianity stands an educator, whose passion and resurrection can be understood afresh as learning. But what does it mean to say that Jesus was a teacher? If he was a good teacher, was he also a learner? Is today’s Christian church learning? Can educators help the church to recover a ‘learning Christ’ who places learning at the heart of the Godhead and the church? How could the Christian churches take the educational significance of Jesus more seriously? Christian teachers often find themselves divided between a professional discourse on learning and making progress, and a theological vocabulary which they do not fully own, connecting only sporadically with their professional identity. This book helps educators to treat their teacher identity as a theological resource, rather than an obstacle, and in so doing to discover new insights on Christ which can be of relevance to the wider church and its mission.

As a teacher, you long to help others do more than understand the Bible. You want them to experience its relevance and power for their lives. Teaching like Jesus is the answer! This commonsense guide offers examples of Jesus' teaching style from the Gospels, then shows how you can make these principles work for you -- regardless of what age group or ethnic background you're dealing with. Using a proven, four-step plan, Teaching Like Jesus gives you action steps, summaries, and other practical resources that will make your classroom a lively place to learn and apply the lessons so vitally important for transforming lives and nurturing disciples. You'll learn to think in terms of "see, hear, and do" in your lesson plans. And you'll find sample plans for age groups and cultures ranging from African-American preschoolers to Chinese married couples.

If the goal of catechesis is to cultivate an encounter with Christ, why do religious educators spend so much time focused almost exclusively on ideas and not experiences? The reason is that many have never been shown a method that inspires the heart while also instructing the mind. Jared Dees, creator of the popular website The Religion Teacher, shows how applying the steps of lectio divina to teaching can reorient religious education toward encountering the person of Christ rather than merely sharing information about him. In Christ in the Classroom, Catholic author and speaker Jared Dees applies the five steps of lectio divina—reading/learning, meditation, prayer, contemplation, and action—to the ministry of catechesis. He offers teachers and catechists a practical framework for preparing lessons that broaden the focus of teaching from mostly intellectual learning to also encountering Christ in prayer, reflection, and action. Using this method, students and catechists come to know intimately the person of Christ at the same time that they are learning the tenets and traditions of the Church. Dees shares stories of success and failure from his own teaching experience and he offers dozens of field-tested strategies, tactics, and teaching methods to effectively integrate the steps of lectio divina into the classroom or other catechetical setting. Outfitted with these tools, both experienced and new religious educators will feel confident in their ability to teach effectively and lead their students to a life-changing encounter with Jesus.

Christian teachers have long been thinking about what content to teach, but little scholarship has been devoted to how faith forms the actual process of teaching. Is there a way to go beyond Christian perspectives on the subject matter and think about the teaching itself as Christian? In this book David I. Smith shows how faith can and should play a critical role in shaping pedagogy and the learning experience.

"Formerly published as Secrets of the Master Teacher: Unlocking the Power and Potential of the Jesus Teaching Model, Ã2010 by Thousand Hills Publishing, Baltimore MD."

Although much has been written about P-12 teaching from a biblical perspective, this study focuses on Christ's relationships with a diverse group of individuals: wealthy and poor, women and men, unschooled and well-educated, loud and quiet, influential and powerless, those whom Jesus knew well and those who were strangers to him, those of his own faith and culture as well as those outside of it. These individuals are remarkably similar to the students we teach in our public and private school classrooms today. Each interaction between Jesus and an individual focuses on what we can learn from the student and Jesus as well as what we, as teachers, can apply in our profession. As in our own practice, some students learned their lessons well; others failed. For some, we are uncertain when or if they achieved Jesus' objective for them. Whether we are novices or experienced educators, we can learn through these instructive relationships how to be teachers who follow Jesus' example in seeing our students' potential, holistically caring for them, and ultimately having a positive impact on their lives. Through exploring these biblical relationships, we can gain a better understanding of how to teach like Christ's disciple.

Bible teachers have an ideal model for evaluating their pedagogy: the Master Teacher Jesus Read through the Gospels, and you quickly reach the conclusion that Jesus was a dynamic, remarkably effective teacher; never boring, always stimulating; never obtuse, always clear; never pompous or distant, always personal and lovingly concerned," writes Roy Zuck Zuck explores Jesus' involvement of students in the learning process, his modeling of truth, his method of responding to questions, his use of rhetorical technique, visuals, and illustrations, and his attitude toward those who sat under his instruction. Zuck covers the Rabbi's overall style and its impact on disciples, the general public, and those who rejected him.

How can you improve your effectiveness as Christian teachers? Essentially, it is by imitating JESUS CHRIST: The Great Teacher. You may wonder, ‘But how can we imitate Jesus?’ ‘He was the perfect, divine, Son of God.’ Admittedly, you cannot be a perfect teacher. Nevertheless, regardless of your abilities, you can do your best to imitate the way Jesus taught. JESUS CHRIST: The Great Teacher will discuss how you can employ all of his teaching methods when you share the Word of God with others.