Scripture Teaching

If a minister is unwilling to teach children, he's unfit for ministry. It's true, you know. And even though I still bare the scars from Scripture teaching at Lidcombe Primary, I remain committed to teaching kids about Jesus.

I foolishly thought my first Scripture teaching experience would be relatively pain-free seeing the kids were only grades one and two. But even I was shocked when my opening comment, "Today we're going to be learning about Jesus and God" was met with the reply "I hate God and I hate Jesus, and I'm going to hell." I couldn't argue with the little tackers logic, but it certainly didn't stop me trying to change his mind. Plus, he didn't raise his hand to ask permission before speaking. That's a big no-no in my class.

On Moore College Mission I was pleasantly surprised by the small army of twenty or so church members who faithfully taught Scripture at six different schools in the parish we visited. I imagine it is a rare occurrence for one church to have such great involvement with so many schools. One of the ministers at the church told me many of the teachers were older females and their husbands weren't Christian, so this was one of the ways they felt able to serve.

Now most of the half dozen ministers I have worked closely with during my few short years of vocational ministry have been personally involved in Scripture teaching. First and foremost this is a great commendation to these men and their maturity and understanding of their role as servants. But as I've thought more about it, I got to thinking that perhaps this is a peculiar experience of our time. My personal experience of Scripture growing up was almost exclusively from full-time mothers who used the freedom of raising children to teach other peoples kids about Jesus as well.

Is the high percentage of full-time paid ministers involved in the noble task of teaching Scripture a result of more women re-entering the workforce soon after starting a family? Have most churches lost their army of the brotherhood of motherhood?

If so, it's a great shame. Not because the work is left to paid gospel workers, but because in general there are less gospel workers on the ground. It's rarely a good thing when an army downsizes.