Introduction
INTRODUCTION TO SHARING YOUR FAITH
This course on Sharing Your Faith is a very important one for all Christians. If we can set
our members on the path of reaching out to those around them with the gospel, they will
likely continue to be evangelistic for years to come. There is nothing the church needs
more than to be committed to bringing others to Christ.
This series of lessons seeks to motivate students to share their faith and to teach them how
to do it. Some lessons deal with methods; other lessons deal with what to teach people.
Some lessons ask students to do role-playing and others ask them to practice teaching a
lesson to someone they know.
At the end of each lesson is a suggested assignment. Our Bible class students will learn
much more if they do some work outside of class. The assignments are not long, but they
will help keep the students thinking about the subject during the week. For each class
meeting after the first, a brief quiz is suggested. This will take about three or four minutes
but if you are able to get students to take it seriously, this method will greatly enhance their
learning. You may want to have students turn in their papers for you to grade and you can
keep individual grades by student. Another plan, the one noted in the lesson plans, is to let
each student grade his/her own paper and record the grade anonymously on a sheet
handed around after the test. Thus, a class average can be kept but not grades by student.
Each test is worth 100 points. Some student or an assistant teacher can average the
grades and report the class average. A grade sheet is included with Lesson 2 (the first time
you would need it) on which you can record the class average for each lesson. An alternate
plan is to try and hand out the quiz sheets as students enter the room or about five minutes
before class starts so students can compete them before time for class to start. You can
give out the answers after class begins but would save a few minutes of class time this way.
You might motivate your students by offering a class party if the class average is 80 or
more for the course. Or you may think of a better motivation for your group. Try to use
both internal and external motivation--that is, help students to want to know because of the
good it will do them and the church, and help them want to learn because of a reward of a
party, or whatever you think will move them to learn.
For each of the lessons, there is a written "lesson text" available by lesson number through
the eBibleStudy.org Website. Tell your students about these and how to log on. There are
two good reasons for students to access these materials outside of class. If they were in
class for the lesson but want to review it or pick up more details than you had time to give
in class, they can look at the lesson on the Website. Also if they missed a class meeting,
they can go to the written text on that lesson and get information they missed. If a
Review/Notes sheet goes with the lesson a student missed, get that sheet to the student
who missed before he/she looks at the lesson text. Filling in this worksheet will be a good
way for a student who missed to be caught up and ready for the quiz on the following
Sunday.
In addition to printing out the teacher's lesson plan for each class meeting, you may wish to
print out the lesson text for each lesson. You can use it as a reference while you are
preparing your lesson since, in most cases, it will have more information on the lesson than
is included in the teacher's lesson plan. Also, if you wish to do more lecture and less
question and answer, as the lesson plans are primarily set up, then you can use the lesson
text as the basis for developing your lecture.
You might wish to make a Student Notebook of the Review/Notes sheets and other
handouts and provide them all to students at the first class session. This will save time in
each class meeting since you will not have to hand out materials each period and it gives
students their materials in advance so, in case they miss, they already have the sheet for
make-up work. Also since students would have their Review/Notes sheet in a notebook
they are more likely to have it available for study between class meetings than if they have
stray sheets. And the students are more likely to keep these materials for future reference
if they are in notebook form. Of course, if students take their notebooks home with them,
they may forget to bring them back and so will not have what they need in class. If you
do make a notebook, keep some extra sheets in class for visitors and for those who don't
have their notebooks in class.
The plan for the use of time in each class meeting requires you to keep moving pretty
rapidly. The lesson plans assume a 45-minute time period and closer to an hour would be
even better. You may have the opportunity to teach this material to both the Sunday
morning and the Wednesday night class at the same quarter. That would give you more
time for devotionals and other class business and also allow more time for review,
discussion, role-playing, and reporting on what students have been trying in sharing their
faith. If you find you need more time than the class plan allows, you can make
adjustments. You may have to shorten the introductory things, leave a little out of each
lesson, or leave out one or two of the lesson topics so you can take more time on fewer
subjects. You or some other teacher might work in the lessons omitted in another way.
The plans for each class meeting are developed on the assumption that you will want to use
the question/answer method for most of the classes. Thus, frequent questions are given for
you to ask the class--preceded by a "Q ." If you wish to do more lecture and less
question/answer, then you can adjust by using fewer of the questions and putting more in
lecture format. This will make the lesson go a little faster but will provide for less
involvement by the students. You will need to decide, as you prepare to teach each lesson,
how you wish to balance the question/answer and lecture format.
You will also need to decide, on many of the lessons, how you want to present the
suggested visuals--chalkboard, markerboard, overhead, or PowerPoint. PowerPoint slides
are supplied for downloading on the lessons where they are thought appropriate. If you
wish to use overheads on those lessons, you can make them by downloading the PowerPoint
on "pure black and white" and then using the resulting printouts to make transparencies. If
you are using the overhead a lot, you may want to use blank transparencies to write on
them what is suggested for the chalkboard.
For Lesson 7, a videotape has been prepared with some interesting archaeological finds on
it that tie to the lesson. To obtain that VHS format videotape, you may send $10 to cover
the cost of the tape and mailing to North Institute, Oklahoma Christian University, Box
11000, Oklahoma City, OK 73136. The tape will be sent immediately. Using this tape will
add good interest to that lesson. If you do not choose to use the tape, however, the basic
information about the items on the tape is given so you can present it orally. The
Review/Notes sheets have still pictures of the items.
The following general suggestions might be helpful in teaching an adult class.
1. Keep the students sold on the benefits of what they can learn in this class. You will
have to sell at the first and continue to sell all the way through the quarter.
2. Encourage students to do some out-of-class study and preparation for the quizzes. If
the students will get into a good learning mode, this will be a very productive study.
3. Keep the students involved in the learning as much as possible. Let them answer
questions, make reports on what they have tried, use worksheets, do role-playing, and
whatever else you can think of to get them involved.
4. Keep the class moving. While you don't want to seem rushed, give the class a sense of
pace.
5. You may want to meet with some of the opinion leaders in the class prior to the start of
the quarter. At this time you could ask for their help in building interest in the class, in
being willing to do outside assignments, in accepting the idea of a weekly quiz, and in
the general approach to the class. If several key class members are taken "behind the
curtain" before the class starts and you can get them on board, that will go a long way
towards good acceptance by others.
This course in Sharing Your Faith is a very important one. It will help the students to be
more evangelistic and this can help the entire church to be more evangelistic. It will ground
them in some basic doctrines and that is very important these days. Our best wishes as you
teach this important subject.
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