It is even true after three years, not just thirty years.
This recent week was a special week. We’ve been working with a group of trainers for just two years. We decided to run a simulation of our basic (Level One) training. Eight 90min sessions. Each of them taught a session with the rest of us pretending to be learners for the first time (while also completing extensive, honest assessments as peers in training).
With every single session, this teacher was being taught.
It was one of the most thrilling few days in the entire thirty years.
May I wander through the week with you?
With the simple exposition of Nehemiah 8, with an eye on how it applies to the training which follows, O stepped up and delivered a message with such faithfulness and clarity, such warmth and gentleness, that I was moved to write on his assessment, ‘I wish John Stott was still alive to hear this message because it would make his heart sing.’ I meant it. The next morning, with Truths to Hold Us, G ‘came off the bench’ when there was a late withdrawal. He went where I’ve stopped going (due to the difficulty for translators), drawing the distinction between ‘truths holding us’ and ‘us holding truths’. I am going to try again. We want the former to be true and he went to a surprising place to illustrate that difference: the Constitution of the USA (‘We hold these truths to be self-evident…’).
Observing the Passage and Understanding the Passage provide the foundation for the learning. R & B both worked the groups so well, wandering among them, and keeping the learning on track amidst the distractions. Unflappable. They pushed us into the details in the text, labouring to draw them out from listeners and happy to go deep with some of it, rather than remain superficial with all of it. A key decision. R demonstrated how engaging the imagination mingles the painter with the poet, while engaging the details mingles the accountant with the lawyer. Preaching is both art and science, even at this foundational stage.
From Text to Sermon is at the heart of the learning. M nailed it. He lingered far longer with the ‘from the mess in the kitchen to the meal on the table’ imagery at the beginning. So effective. I’ve been content with finding 2-3 parallels with preaching. He drew nine from the learners. It gave us such a good start in the most difficult session if all. Then, in the fun we have with groups planning tourist trips around parts of the country (as an illustration of journeying through the text), M came up with the new idea of assessing the best tourist trip by using the same criteria to be used later in the learning with the assessment of the sermon, neatly preparing the way for it. Brilliant.
M populated the group work with his own resources and examples from his own teaching. So important. For example, we loved the (Acts 6) sheet with the ‘mess’ on it followed, soon after, by a sheet with the ‘meal’ on it. M is the pastor of a large pentecostal church and he clsed with a word of testimony: ‘Some people think exposition is boring, but if you follow the Langham method, especially EIA, it will never be boring’. [NB: EIA is a little acronym we use for explanation, illustration and application].
Finding creative ways to teach is always one of the goals. With The Single Story of the Bible we play with some cards (using the Phil Crowter book) and then with some chairs. D made his own teaching resource, arriving with the cards all laminated, as he took us through the facts in the story, with an extra card to help people identify a gap in the story. One of the other facilitators, V, suggested a way to transition from the cards to the (four) chairs. Ask ‘If you had only four cards in which to tell the story, which cards would they be?’ Brilliant. Inevitably, they head towards the four chairs, capturing the essence of the story. Yep, I have a lot of revisions/additions to make to my training manual!
Not just laminating cards, D also created silk labels for the chairs. Impressive. I had to go and sit in one of them, picking the same chair as Dr R, my friend and colleague with the work in the ‘big country’, selected a few years ago. I sent him the photo and had a response from him in less than 60 seconds!
Making the Connection is a note-free 90min teaching session that is totally interactive. It can be tricky in educational settings in which people are accustomed to writing down what the teacher says, like throughout Asia. It takes both verve and nerve (!), to keep things moving without loss of momentum. Our least experienced trainers, B & R, stuck close to the guidelines while quietly and assertively leading us into the world of ‘double listening’. They drew out from the groups some superb lists of issues in their world today and initiated the discussion around how biblical thinking engages with those issues. I was so proud of them.
S took us through the final session, The Life of Integrity (developed more since this post three years ago, but it gives the idea). He is a quiet, mature leader from a part of the country that is famous for its persecution of believers. That had me leaning forward to listen and learn before he even opened his mouth. His time management was perfect. His unflappability with an inadequately small whiteboard was so easy. He added his own touches here and there, like using Psalm 15 (initially, I assumed he had made a mistake and meant Psalm 51 – gulp?!) and then closing with 2 Tim 2.20-21. He slipped in this statement: ‘If we score an A+ in preaching but a C- in integrity we have failed as a preacher.’ I’ll quote this one from him for the rest of my life. By the time we reached the point of praying-in-pairs, the eyes were moistening.
A week of the teacher being taught. Not such a surprise on its own, as it happens often enough – but for it to happen, in some way, in every single session … well, it made for a thrilling few days in my life as a teacher. For a moment I found myself singing Simeon’s song: ‘now dismiss your servant in peace’ :).
May I slip in one more comment? It is so disappointing how often people outside the majority world still so easily default to thinking they are the ones who have something to give while the people over here have something to receive. It is just not true. We must work harder to find the patterns of partnership which lie beyond resourcing. We must all be both givers and receivers.
nice chatting
Paul
About Me

the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
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This is a wonderful read. Your commentary of what happened in itself "taught" – I feel very challenged to refresh, relook, and refocus my own teaching. There is an interplay between originality and authenticity in what the participants have done. One feeds into the other in a circular way. Thank you. Reading this has been a good way to start the day today.
Thank you, Paul for this insightful and inspiring post. I am deeply moved by your grace-filled humble spirit. A teacher who is open and willing to learn – what an example to follow. As one of the participants in the seminar, I learnt from the presenters but more from your clear, encouraging and gracious guidance. Nothing is more powerful than when the humility, love and grace of Jesus is exemplified. Thank you, sir.
Thank-you, Geoff. I wish you could have been there with us. Another time!
I am grateful for all that I have learned from you, as one of those students from almost thirty years ago.
Paul
You are too kind, Praveen. You don't make it easy to respond, do you?!
These years of working alongside you and Veena continue to be a source of such joy.
And it all starts up again – tomorrow!
Paul
Thanks Paul for doing this simulation. I learnt so much from each of the sessions. Each of the trainers are blessed with so much experience, gifting and character that there was so much to learn from them. Your encouraging words meant a lot to each of us.
It was a special few days, wasn't it, Michael?! As the years open up ahead of you, I pray that God will draw you into the training of preachers, as you are suited so well for the task.