Have you ever heard the story of Priming the Pump?
There was a man who got lost in the desert. After wandering around for a long time his throat became very dry, about that time he saw a little shack in the distance. He made his way over to the shack and found a water pump with a small jug of water and a note. The note read: “Pour all the water into the top of the pump to prime it, if you do this you will get all the water you need”.
Now the man had a choice to make, if he trusted the note and poured the water in and it worked he would have all the water he needed. If it didn'tt work he would still be thirsty and he might die. Or he could choose to drink the water in the jug and get immediate satisfaction, but it might not be enough and he still might die. After thinking about it the man decided to risk it. He poured the entire jug into the pump and began to work the handle, at first nothing happened and he got a little scared but he kept going and water started coming out. So much water came out he drank all he wanted, took a shower, and filled all the containers he could find.
Congregational Bible classes are no different. We have to Prime the Pump. It takes a little water to prepare the gasket for the next person to be able to pump water. We have to prepare our teachers for what we expect our kids to know and we have to prepare non-teachers to be teachers. If you’ve been following our discussions, we have established the following: We have a command to teach, this teaching must be Bible-based, we have to take the proper approach to the teaching. But why have Bible classes anyway?
In the Old Testament, young boys and girls learned the Torah--the first five books of the Old Testament. The word means to shoot or to point as in to instruct or to teach--it is intentional. It is not “spray and pray” it is aimed and has a point. We have to have a plan to reach our goal as teachers. As congregations, we have to have a strategic plan as we develop our curriculum and instruction. Our goal as teachers should be to raise more teachers. It is an ongoing process. To enable each person to reach the point that he/she can study God’s word by himself/herself without someone simplifying it then be able to teach others.
Paul said it this way:
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. (II Tim 2:2)
Unfortunately, I fear many congregations have taken a haphazard approach to teacher training and preparation. The teacher is the most important factor in the classroom. Sometimes we think that anyone who is bigger than a young person can teach a class. Maybe we things that anyone who has children and is a christian can teacher. A teacher has to have knowledge or the subject, knowledge of people, and knowledge of how to put it on the students’ level. The teacher is the variable. Does the teacher understand the scheme of redemption and how their material fits into the entirety of the Bible story?
How do you choose Bible class teachers and content at your congregation?
Is it random choice? What if we had no plan for the subject or the teacher or who was in class? This will not work to help students or Prime the Teaching Pump. What if we coordinate our classes a little? We decide to order some common material or choose teachers differently? We’re moving in the right direction, but we’re still not there yet. Just because we choose material from a reputable bookstore does not mean we will prepare our students or prime the pump. If we’re not careful, we will ignore large portions of the Bible. By the time a student is in High School, she is unable to tell the Bible story--this is not Priming the Pump.
To Prime the Pump we have to coordinate in the wisest way. If you’re starting from scratch, it’s hard to know what subject is needed most for a particular group especially if there is not a record kept of what has been taught. We cannot just study what students want to student--Ice Cream is always better than veggies. What if our students know the stories of Creation, the Flood, Offering of Isaac, Baby Moses, David and Goliath, the Birth of Jesus, the conversion of Saul, then we start over? What about all the gaps? The whole Bible is relevant and students need to know how the story fits together.
So let’s wrap this up. As a church, if we want to Prime the teaching Pump, we have to be constantly preparing the next generation of teachers. To do so we need quality teaching in the short-term, we need a coordinated approach to our curriculum in the long-term, and we need teacher preparation perpetually.
Let’s Prime the Pump.