A teacher’s job is to take a bunch of live wires and see that they are well-grounded.

Darwin D. Martin

 

When I was sixteen I taught a class of second and third graders in the church my father pastored. My young life had been spent under Bible instruction, the class needed a teacher, so I volunteered.

Visual aids at that time consisted primarily of flannel graph boards with paper figures and scenes to be cut out by hand. I have never been artsy-craftsy, but this was easy enough. It was certainly easier than when, in a burst of some treacherous creative urge, I had the class make mobiles one Sunday. These consisted of wire hangars, string, and cut-outs of things and people having to do with the lesson. Sad, wobbly things, I considered them with no pride and my foray into crafts was ended.

In my class there was a seven year old named Robbie. His family did not come to church, but he was brought regularly by someone in our fellowship. A high-energy kid with bright red hair and a smattering of freckles, Robbie loved raising his hand with great enthusiasm to answer questions.

We had been studying Jesus’ life and, on the previous Sunday, had learned about His first miracle. This is pretty interesting when you are seven or eight years old and my students were impressed. So this Sunday, after taking roll and putting gold foil stars on the roster in little boxes next to the kid’s names, I asked some review questions.

“What are we studying?”

Hands went up and the correct answer was given by one of the girls: “Jesus!”

“What was Jesus’ first miracle?”

Robbie’s hand shot up, he bounced in his chair and yelled, “When Jesus turned the water into whiskey!”

Through the years I’ve thought about that young boy with his shock of red hair and enthusiasm for what he was learning about God. I’ve wondered if his short time in my class was the only Bible teaching he ever received. And I hope I gave him an extra gold star that morning. He deserved it.

(How and what, I wondered, did that seven year old know about whiskey?)

A 2016 study by Lifeway Research found that the biggest factor in predicting the spiritual health of young adults is regular Bible reading as a child. When you think about it, that is an astonishing prediction. There is, in my opinion,  some degree of Divine attention to any human being reading the Bible. There is certainly a Divine response to open hearts that turn to its pages. Now, current statistics confirm the lasting spiritual work done in the hearts of young children who are read to from God’s Word or are able to read it themselves.

It is this work of the Holy Spirit and the possibility of lifelong impact that makes teaching Sunday school such a singular ministry. For some years now I have continued teaching fourth through sixth graders. And, taking my cues from C.S. Lewis, I do not “teach down” to them. In an interview after the death of Lewis, his stepson, Douglas Gresham, said: 

He didn’t talk down to us. He may have brought himself down to our level, but he never talked down to us from above. Jack was always conscious of the fact that children are people. They may be small and unformed mentally and emotionally as yet, but they are people with all of the same trials, tribulations, frights and foibles as other people.

Lifelong impact is legacy. When it comes to actually knowing God’s Word, you can’t beat sowing it into the heart of a child. Directors of children’s ministries are always looking for men and women willing to teach. Think about how you might affect the heart of a Robbie, how you might occasionally have to sort out a Bible detail while struggling to keep a straight face. How the time you invest will bear eternal dividends.