READING REFLECTION ON “EDUCATION THAT IS CHRISTIAN BY LOISE E.

LEBAR

A Paper
Presented to
Mrs. Albert A. Abigail
ECWA Theological Seminary, Kagoro

In Partial
Fulfillment of the
Requirement for the course
Teaching Method

By
Ibrahim Solomon
B. A. Pastoral
ESK/2021048

September, 2022
 INTRODUCTION:

Christian educators need a renewed sense of hope. In today’s confusing world,

parents need encouragement to bring up children in the discipline and instruction of the lord.

Anti-Christian values place tremendous pressure on families, churches, and schools. The

Sunday school teacher gives a sigh of relief when the class is finally over and the camp

director often secretly wonders if any long-range actually take place in campers. Survival

rather that effective Christian teaching becomes the ultimate objective. Many Christian

educators in seminaries, publishing houses, and parachurch organizations also sense

discouragement, dissatisfaction, and a growing hunger for renewal. The theory and practice

of Bible teaching must be reevaluated in every agency of Christian education. Parents, youth

directors, college and seminary professors, camp counselors, missionaries, Sunday school

teachers, directors of Christian education, Christian school teachers, and small group Bible

study leaders will benefit from education that is Christian. It is a book for everyone interested

in revitalizing the teaching of the Bible.

NEED OF FOUNDATIONS FOR CHRISTIAN TEACHING

Education should make us live life with pleasure and keenness, with exuberance. But so

much that passes for education takes away the wonder of life, and puts us in deadly peril of

things named and classified. So much that passes for education is only the smoke of a futile

fire that has done nothing but consume life. The reason in because so much that passes for

education lacks the important element. But the important education that holds to the spiritual

conception and that has room for God in it, calls us from apathies that benumb and deaden

the soul.

Christian teaching operates at the level of life. Anything less is sub-Christian. The

Christian life, fullness of life, the abundant life, embraces the whole man and has

implications for the whole of life here and now as well as for eternity. How do poor young

people leave their Sunday school classroom on Sunday morning? With eyes sparkling with

new vision and insight with serious determination to practice the will of God? With the chin

up ready to face and unbelieving world in the power of the Spirit? With deep question about

God Himself? Too often they are glad for release from a dull, boring session. The use of

man-made educational systems is a chief reason for the lack of life and power and the reality

in our evangelical teaching is that we have been connect to borrow man-made systems of

education instead of discovering God’s system. Secular educators do not give central place to

the unique revelation of God’s word that is communicated by God’s Spirit. A group of

graduate students made a survey of the total program of an evangelical church that had been

a leader in teacher training for its area. Because most of the teachers in this church held
certificates earned by taking six teachers training courses, the student expected them to be

superiors teachers. They are surprised to find that the teachers training has made very little

difference in the actual teaching ministry of the church, and they searched for the reasons.

Observation of each agency and activity of the church revealed the fact that the teachers had

read manuals, had discusses their contents, had answer questions on the content that were

factual, general, and abstract. They did not see the relation of the principles they had studied

to their own classroom teaching or they did not know how to translate the principles into

procedure. Why should Christians borrow a system of education from the secular world?

Why should we not derive from God’s revelation our own philosophy, God’s own ways of

working that are inherent in the very structure of universe? Of course there will be

correlation between the secular and the spiritual, for both deals with the same human learner.

Secular educators have studied the learner much more thoroughly than have Christians. But

the foundations and the orientation of Christian education are distinctive if they are truly

Christian. Every area of life that the word of God enters is changed.

Because some of the evangelicals have not bothered to search God’s word for their

philosophy, they lack the unity of purpose and method that should strengthen their cause. I

an era when many evangelicals groups are producing their own literature and visual aids, the

underlying philosophy of these materials differs widely because each leader does that which

is right in his or her own eyes. All of us grow in our comprehension of the truth and grow

nearer to Him who is the truth as well as the life, we shall come nearer to each other. Then
we can do more to strengthen each other’s hands instead of competing with each other. Many

today seems to use teaching and preaching interchangeably which is wrong. People preach

and teach to both save and unsaved. Teaching is causing to learn, a term usually used with an

indirect object, “teaching the people.” Preaching is heralding the good news, used with the

direct object “preaching the word.” The point here is, we need both preaching and teaching,

each with its own methods. Pastors are called and trained to preach. Teachers should be

called and trained to teach. It is amazing that pastors will allow lay teachers with no training

to preach at his congregation in Sunday school the hour before he has a chance at them. By

that time they are ready to run around the block, not to sit though another sermon.

Many adults who grew up in church confess with regret that their patience has been

so sorely tried by being expected to sit through so much talking that now, even though they

want to listen, their minds automatically turn off whenever a person starts. We train our

church people to be professional listeners rather than leaders. Lois also suggested that in this

critical day in which we live, Christian leaders are needed in every work of life. the church of

Christ should be developing these leaders by a program of training from birth to death. Every

believer has been given a gift of the Holy Spirit for the building of the body of Christ. Our

talent or ability is God gift to us; the skillful used of the ability is our gift to him. we will

know fullness of life until we are in the centre of God’s will, making our unique contribution

to the church of the living God.

 Sunday school of toady seems to be teaching routine instead of life. Today, another

problem is becoming more common in our churches. A good number of church educators are

rejecting the mere transmission of Bible knowledge, tired of routine instead of life, but they

overreact, using the entire class time to reflect on life experiences. They have given up on

teaching the content of the Bible. Dull “second sermon” in Sunday school are being replaced

with shared life experiences divorced from the word of God. Both extremes are dangerous.

The first teaching Bible content as an end and the second teaches personal application

without biblical foundations. Teaching biblical content is necessarily, but not sufficient for

promoting spiritual growth. A dynamic interaction between the two is essential.

Lebar Lois does not deny that “all truth is God’s truth.” She is saying that secular

educational philosophers don’t give a central place to the word and the spirit. We can learn

much about human development and about the teaching-learning process from secular

systems. While these are helpful, they will never be sufficient for a Christian philosophy of

education. Christian educators have more advantage of teaching the truth instead of abiding

by the secular educational philosophy. They should also keep in mind the theological

principles of impacting knowledge to the learners. Because biblical foundations are lacking,

teachers are subtly influenced by secular philosophies which are below the level theological

awareness. Even in evangelical churches, behavioristic methods are often used to motivate

children to sit still or learn Bible studies. There is urgent need today for Christian educators

to get back the basics of biblical foundations in education. In order to renew Christian
education we need to rethink the meaning of teaching. Too often we think of teaching as

telling. Lebar emphasizes the need for a small, intimate group and for overt interaction. Most

Bible teaching today lack intentional interaction between the life needs of the learner and the

living and powerful word of God. The church around the world is facing a critical need for

leaders/ disciple makers who are able to teach and to stimulate spiritual growth. This has

shown us that teaching has a vital role to play even in the church, for the edification of the

body of Christ. For Christian education to continue in changing and transforming lives there

is a need for biblical foundation in education.

OUTSTANDING PATTERNS OF EDUCATION

Factors inside learners refer to the way they feel about the whole situation. Because of their

past experiences with this class other classes, are the learners eager to come to class today or

did they have to pressure under protest? Do they enter heartily into group work? Are they

indifferent toward the group, or do they bestir themselves to invent their own interest?

Factors outside the learner are mainly the teacher, the course of study, the class members,

and the room. Of course the place of teachers themselves is strategic. Do they consider their

roles to be that of benevolent dictators, or the most experienced members of the group? They

may rule in the sense that everything that happens depends upon what they want, how they

want it, and when they want it. Or they may include the group in the planning and executing

and evaluating. Teachers determining whether the methods shall revolve around themselves

and their oral and book presentations, whether models and specimens and other visual aids
shall be brought into the classroom, whether the learners shall interact with each other in the

process of learning or whether they shall talk only to the teacher. The teacher may not have

complete control over the physical environment, but he or she can usually regulate the

temperature, lighting, arrangement of furniture. The course of study may be strictly definitive

or it may suggest only a broad area of interest. The class members may be free to contribute

a great deal to each other or they may have a competitive spirit toward each other. It is easier

to manipulate outer factors than inner factors because the teacher can sit in an office and

decide exactly what is going to happen in the classroom-or at least what he or she hopes to

happen. Te teacher tries to deal with only one of the types of factors involved. If he or she

allows the pupils to become actively involved, anything could happen. They teacher may not

feel adequate to cope with inner factors if he brought them into play, so he may feel more

secure if he concentrates on the outer that he can control. The simply method is for the

teacher to organize the course of study logically, hand it out piecemeal to the students, and

ask them to give it back in the same form. Moreover, if the teacher’s aim is merely to teach

content, he/she may feel no need of bothering with inner factors.

EMPHASIS ON OUTER FACTORS

The education that God gave the Jewish people whom He chose for his own purposes was

theocentric and practical’s with a salutary balances inner and outer factors. They were to

glorify Him in national destiny and personal character by questions and moral discipline,

memorization and sensory appeal. Their worship of Him and their daily morality were
closely connected. These were also the methods of Christ Jesus, the Master Teacher, which

Lois gave emphasis on it. Apostolic education was also dynamic and individual. The word of

God was studied and practiced by the illumination and power of the Holy Spirit. Knowing,

feeling, and doing were balanced in doctrine, worship, and holy living. Believers multiplied

themselves by assembling together, building themselves up in the faith, and witnessing

wherever they were. The New Testament set the pattern for holy, powerful church through

the ages.

But soon early church instruction degenerated into formal lectures and catechetical

questions and answers. Theology was developed to relate Christian doctrine to pagan

philosophy or to show its contrast, church authority and organization were developed to

stabilize the church. These trends led directly to the ascetic and ecclesiastical formalism of

the middle ages. As in the ancient nations, methods again grew transmissive, repressive and

stereotyped. From the inception of the Sunday school in the latter part of the eighteenth

century, the aim of Christian education has usually been stated as knowledge of the Bible and

conversion. Conversion has been conceived as a natural by-product of knowledge of the

Bible. Most Bible teachers have labored under the impression that if they taught the outer

facts of the Bible, the Holy Spirit would do the inner work of re-generating the pupil. They

didn’t consider it necessary for them to study human nature or to know the developmental

stages through which the pupil passed.

 At first pupils studied the catechism, then came the period when they were urged to

memorized quantities of scripture. At Sunday school concerts they repeated by rote what

they had learned, in order to receive prizes. Finally in the nineteenth century according to

Lois leaders began to pay some attention to the selection of scripture portions, the writing of

lessons, grading of pupils, training of teachers, building of churches for teaching, and

organization of Sunday schools. Even in the great Bible study period of 1860-1880, pulpils

studied the Bible factually with little understanding little appreciation, and little relationship

to daily life and problems. Thus throughout the ages teachers have most often considered

their task to be that of exposing pupils to factual content and of getting them to give back in

words this outer knowledge. They have relied almost wholly upon verbal communication of

facts.

How much of the factual knowledge to which probably some were exposed in high

school is now their personal possession? Why? Which parts of school background mean

most to many now? Why? Which mean least to some now? How could that material have

been made operative in the life of one then? Can one suggest ways in which his or her high

school training could have been made more profitable to him/her?

Have you learned all the facts to which one has been exposed in church and Sunday school?

Are you now practicing all the scriptural truth that one knows? Is one pupil practicing all the

truth that they know? Why is it that people often hear the lament, He knows better than that,

why does one do o it? How helpful is it for teachers to speak Bible facts into the air?
 CONCLUSION

Lois E. Lebar, gave a highlight of problems in the educational setting, she discussed about

the most common problems like, outer and inner factors of education. She also called on the

Sunday school teachers to teach the right doctrine so as to promote and give more

understanding to the intergenerational age. She also urged Sunday schools teacher to fulfilled

their ought of impacting knowledge of the Bible and conversions in their teaching for a

broader expectation of building generations that will God fearing.