Fathers as Teachers

Fathers As Teachers

“The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve stated, ‘By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness’ (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102). This obligation includes the responsibility to teach the gospel.

Sometimes fathers become preoccupied with the temporal welfare of their families. Some fathers leave all the responsibility for gospel teaching to the mothers. This should never be. To all fathers, President Gordon B. Hinckley said:

‘Yours is the basic and inescapable responsibility to stand as the head of the family. That does not carry with it any implication of dictatorship or unrighteous dominion. It carries with it a mandate that fathers provide for the needs of their families. Those needs are more than food, clothing, and shelter. Those needs include righteous direction and the teaching, by example as well as precept, of basic principles of honesty, integrity, service, respect for the rights of others, and an understanding that we are accountable for that which we do in this life, not only to one another but also to the God of heaven, who is our Eternal Father’ (in Conference Report, Oct. 1993, 78-79; or Enisgn, Nov. 1993, 60).

President Ezra Taft Benson suggested ‘ten specific ways that fathers can give spiritual leadership to their children:

‘1. Give father’s blessings to your children. Baptize and confirm your children. Ordain your sons to the priesthood. These will become spiritual highlights in the lives of your children.

‘2. Personally direct family prayers, daily scripture reading, and weekly family home evenings. Your personal involvement will show your children how important these activities really are.

‘3. Whenever possible, attend Church meetings together as a family. Family worship under your leadership is vital to your children’s spiritual welfare.

‘4. Go on daddy-daughter dates and father-and-sons’ outings with your children. As a family, go on campouts and picnics, to ball games and recitals, to school programs, and so forth. Having Dad there makes all the difference.

‘5. Build traditions of family vacations and trips and outings. These memories will never be forgotten by your children.

‘6. Have regular one-on-one visits with your children. Let them talk about what they would like to. Teach them gospel principles. Teach them true values. Tell them you love them. Personal time with your children tells them where Dad puts his priorities.

‘7. Teach your children to work, and show them the value of working toward a worthy goal. Establishing mission funds and education funds for your children shows them what Dad considers to be important.

‘8. Encourage good music and art and literature in your homes. Homes that have a spirit of refinement and beauty will bless the lives of your children forever.

‘9. As distances allow, regularly attend the temple with your wife. Your children will then better understand the importance of temple marriage and temple vows and the eternal family unit.

’10. Have your children see your joy and satisfaction in service to the Church. This can become contagious to them, so they, too, will want to serve in the Church and will love the kingdom.’

President Benson concluded by saying, ‘Remember your sacred calling as a father in Israel—your most important calling in time and eternity—a calling from which you will never be released’ (in Conference Report, Oct. 1987, 62-63; or Ensign, Nov. 1987, 50-51).”

Sunday School General Presidency Message

“Helping learners feel the love of the Savior would be uppermost in the mind of Russell T. Osguthorpe, Sunday School general president, if he were a gospel doctrine teacher right now. ‘The New Testament is the story of love,’ he commented. ‘It’s the story of the love of the Father in giving His Son to come to us, and it’s the story of how His Son loved all of us.’

In a recent Church News interview, Brother Osguthorpe and his counselors in the Sunday School general presidency, David M. McConkie and Matthew O. Richardson, spoke of the New Testament as this year’s gospel doctrine course of study for adult and older-youth classes.

‘That really is the message of the New Testament,’ agreed Brother McConkie. ‘It’s the love of the Father and the love of the Son and how we should love one another.’

‘The New Testament has such a positive overtone to it of this principle of overwhelming, overarching love,’ Brother Richardson remarked. ‘And then the invitation comes to us to do likewise. And so every aspect of the New Testament invites us to be like the Savior, to love as He loved, and we can grow to be like Him in this respect.’

Brother McConkie said it is important to spend time as families talking about the Savior, ‘not just the principles of the gospel, like the Atonement, that are so critical. But I remember the Primary song ‘Tell Me the Stories of Jesus,’ and I wonder if in our families we spend enough time talking about the stories of Jesus, about the things He accomplished, about His parables, about His life and His mission. We have a wonderful opportunity to do so this year as we study the New Testament.’

Brother Osguthorpe said he is amazed as he reflects how the stories of the Savior ‘are already inside of us because we’ve grown up with them.’ He finds that even youth in the Church have already internalized much of the New Testament content. ‘Having teachers find ways to draw from them what they feel about a story rather than always trying to expositorily teach that story is what we need more of,’ he said.

Alluding to the New Testament analogy of a good shepherd knowing his sheep, Brother Richardson said a teacher, by knowing his or her sheep, can draw from them edifying thoughts and conclusions. ‘In so many cases we’re so lesson-oriented and so busy with the content—which is important—that we haven’t considered the sheep we’re teaching and what those sheep need to hear,’ he said.

‘That’s why we try continually to remind teachers in the Church,’ Brother McConkie said, ‘that our goal is not to try to get through the lesson. Too often we think that we have to cover all of the material that has been prepared in the lesson, rather than getting the inspiration and direction from heaven as to what needs to be taught from this material to these individuals sitting before us. There may be one point, one key doctrine, that is important for that particular class or this particular person in the class.’

So how can a teacher ascertain the particular needs of the learners?

‘The Lord showed us that,’ Brother Osguthorpe said, explaining that He often fulfilled His ministry while on the way to a destination, when he would be approached by someone with a specific need. ‘He would then change what He was doing. That is how we ought to teach, not be locked in to what we initially think we need to deliver, but when somebody in the class says something that triggers this inspired change in our hearts, then we say, ‘Let’s go this direction for a minute and help you with your need.’

‘And we can’t do this without preparation,’ Brother Richardson added. ‘I think there is a misunderstanding that if we are prepared, we must deliver everything we have prepared, and that is never the case in gospel preparation or in teaching and learning. The preparation will always be valuable, even if it’s not necessarily spoken outwardly. Actually, the lesson is what is unfolding in the moment because of proper preparation guided by the Spirit. Christ did that so wonderfully, thronged by crowds but always able to see Zacheus in the tree or feel the woman touching the hem of his robe.’

Brother McConkie said preparing properly entails not only the lesson material but the teacher’s own spiritual self-preparation.

‘Teachers have to have the Holy Ghost to help them, and that means they have to be doing those things in their lives that will entitle them to have the direction of the Spirit when they teach and when they prepare,’ Brother McConkie explained. ‘That means they can’t be serving two masters. They have to focus on trying to prepare their lives by prayer and by scripture study, by keeping the commandments and by earnestly seeking the Lord’s direction during the week.’ ‘That is the number one priority,’ Brother Osguthorpe agreed, ‘to make sure the Spirit is with you, make sure you’re preparing in that way.’

Brother Richardson identified a recurring circumstance in the New Testament, that those who found the Savior were those who were actively seeking Him.

At His birth, ‘wise men were seeking Him,’ he observed. ‘The disciples who came to Christ were those who were out looking. They may not even have known what they were looking for; they were seeking relief, some kind of solace. Yet they were seeking, and they found Him.’

‘That provides a model for this year’s New Testament study,’ he said. ‘I would hope that as the teacher prepares, the learner would come with the disposition to seek the Savior.’

He cited the incident in John, chapter 1, of Jesus asking two disciples who were following Him what they were seeking. They asked, ‘Rabbi, where dwellest thou?’ And He replied, ‘Come and see’ (John 1:38-39).

‘Then, after that, those two followers of John the Baptist abode that day with the Savior, and it changed their lives,’ Brother Richardson said. Later in the chapter, Jesus says to Nathaniel, a believer in Him, that he would see yet greater things that had been thus far unfolded to him.

‘Come and see’ is an invitation for first-timers and 100^th-timers,’ Brother Richardson said. ‘We will always see new things with the Savior. Always. I’m confident of that.’

And having done so, Brother Osguthorpe added, followers of Christ have the duty to invite others to come unto Christ also. ‘To do that, we just need to be a disciple, and it will come naturally,’ he said.

“And this should be easy for teachers,’ Brother McConkie added. ‘Even a new teacher who’s just been a Church member for a short time can do this. He can prepare prayerfully, deliver a message and then invite class members to do something from the lesson as they feel impressed.’

‘It’s not complicated,’ Brother Osguthorpe said. ‘The Savior’s love is not complicated. It’s pure, it’s clear, and everybody can feel it.’”

Class Member Study Guide

New Testament – Class Member Study Guide

This month's Sunday School message comes from the booklet all Sunday School members receive in their Sunday School classes entitled, New Testament - Class Member Study Guide. The basis of the introduction to the booklet is to help the student or the class member understand their responsibilities. "Jesus said, "Learn of me" (Matthew 11:29). Learning of the Savior and his truths is an essential part of living his gospel. Your efforts to search the scriptures daily will help you draw nearer to him, for "these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through him name" (John 20:31)".

"This study guide is divided into numbered sections that correspond with the lessons in the New Testament Gospel Doctrine course. Each section provides the week's reading assignment and questions to enhance your study. You may use the questions to improve personal application of the scriptures, to prompt gospel-centered discussions among family members, and to prepare to make meaningful contributions to class discussions".

"This study guide is a valuable resource for families. Each section contains a suggestion for an activity of discussion to add interest and variety to gospel learning in the home".

The booklet also explains how to mark your scriptures and how to create a scripture chain, which would be very valuable for future reference. It also lists your responsibilities. "You share with your Gospel Doctrine teacher the responsibility to help the class be successful. The Lord has said that teachers need to "preach...by the Spirit of truth" and that those who receive "the word of truth" should "receive it by the Spirit of truth" (D&C 50:17, 19). Come to class prepared to contribute insights, ask questions, share experiences, bear testimony, and listen attentively to the teacher and the other class members. When you have studied the reading assignment and pondered the questions in this study guide, you will be better prepared to experience the fulfillment of the Lord's words when he said, "He that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together" (D&C 50:22)".

As you can see from the above information, the class members are highly recommended to be prepared to participate in the class through reading the Class Member Study Guide, which contains a very short, quick, easy-to-read summary of what will be discussed in their Sunday School class. The guide always lists some questions, and it always lists some suggestions for family discussion.

"An additional section at the end of the study guide contains statements by latter-day prophets on the blessings of scripture study".

One of the scriptures found at the back of the pamphlet that we as a presidency like is the very first one by Joseph Smith: "Search the scriptures--search the revelations which we publish, and ask you Heavenly Father, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, to manifest the truth unto you, and if you do it with an eye single to His glory nothing doubting, He will answer you by the power of His Holy Spirit. You will then know for yourselves and not for another. You will not then be dependent on man for the knowledge of God; nor will there by any room for speculation. No; for when men receive their instruction from Him that made them, they know how He will save them" (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 11-12)".

It is our hope and prayer that teachers will be prepared with gospel-centered questions that will encourage gospel-centered discussions, and that class members will come with questions and participate in the discussion. Teachers should remember that a few class members come to class with a burning question that they have always hoped to get answered, and we need to be sure to give them an opportunity to voice that question and receive answers from either the teacher or other class members. There also may be class members who want to participate who have spent time reading the prepared materials as recommended by the Class Member Study Guide. Therefore, teachers should make every effort to allow class participation and discussion that will provide answers for class members, and never cut discussion short in order to try to finish the material that they have prepared.

It is a great work that all of our teachers do in the wards, and also a great work we do in our homes teaching our spouses and our children. We pray that we might all be able to "learn of me", as the Savior would have us do.

Invite Diligent Learning

Invite Diligent Learning

December 2010 Edgemont Stake Sunday School Teaching Message

“A teacher’s responsibility is to awaken in others the desire to study, understand, and live the gospel. To fulfill this responsibility, you can focus on three things:

1. Awaken and hold the interest of those you teach. A key to doing this is your own enthusiasm for studying the gospel. Another is your use of teaching methods that make your lessons clear, interesting, and easy to remember. Awakening interest is especially important at the beginning of a lesson. As you plan your teaching, look for ways to invite the Spirit, get everyone’s attention with an interesting beginning, and focus on the doctrine or principle to be taught in the lesson.

2. Encourage participation. Plan ways to have everyone participate in your lessons. You might ask someone to read a quotation or scripture or to tell a story. You might invite them to respond to questions and freely discuss the lesson material. You might ask one or more individuals to sing a song or play an instrument. You might prayerfully select someone to bear testimony or share a personal experience that relates to the lesson topic. Sometimes it will be important to request this participation in advance so that those you ask can practice and feel comfortable participating.

The main idea of one teacher’s lesson was the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. He invited the youth in his class to think of a passage of scripture that had changed their lives. He then invited three or four volunteers to stand and share their scriptural passages with the class and to describe how the passages had changed their lives. As each person shared sweet feelings about the power of the Book of Mormon, class members gained an earnest desire to read and ponder the scriptures daily.

Some people are reluctant to participate. Do not ask individuals to read aloud or pray until you are sure they feel comfortable doing so. If you have any doubt about a person’s willingness to participate, ask for volunteers rather than calling on someone who might be reluctant. Most learners will gradually learn to feel comfortable participating if they see that those who participate are treated with respect and courtesy.

3. Help them apply what they learn. You also should help learners apply what is taught to the circumstances of their lives. This may include giving assignments and challenges that help class members have learning experiences with the truths that are taught. Remember that gospel learning is of no value unless it becomes gospel living”.