Feb 2014 Teaching for our Time - Teaching with the Power and Authority of God

Teaching with the Power and Authority of God BY DAVID M. MCCONKIE
First Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency

INTRODUCTION

The Lord has provided the way for every worthy Latter-day Saint to teach in the Savior’s way.

SAY: What is the Savior's way?  This lesson is to teach us how to teach in the Savior's way.

SAY: When I was a teenager, I was very frightened to teach.  I look back and am amazed.  Over the years worked on developing the talent.  Sometimes I do better than other times.  Sometimes I feel the Spirit very strong.  Sometimes I look back at a lesson that I taught and notice that there might have been too much of me and not enough of the Spirit in the lesson.  I guess I am a work in progress.

My patriarchal blessings tells me: You will teach and instruct in the auxiliaries of the church and in your priesthood quorums and you will grow and develop in knowledge and spirituality as you give this service in the cause of our Father in Heaven.

So my goal has always been to give this service in the cause of our Father in Heaven.

LEARNER READINESS

READ A

A - There is indeed a secret to becoming a successful gospel teacher, to teaching with the power and authority of God. I use the word secret because the principles upon which a teacher’s success rests can be understood only by those who have a testimony of what took place on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of 1820.

Q: What do think the secret is?

READ B

B - In response to a 14-year-old boy’s humble prayer, the heavens were opened. God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared and spoke to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The long-awaited restitution of all things had begun, and the principle of revelation was everlastingly established in our dispensation. Joseph’s message, and our message to the world, can be summarized in two words: “God speaks.” He spoke anciently, He spoke to Joseph, and He will speak to you. This is what sets you apart from all other teachers in the world. This is why you cannot fail.

SAY: Brother McConkie derives three principles or secrets that make it so we cannot fail as teachers.

READ C [write CALLED on the board]

C - You have been called by the spirit of prophecy and revelation and have been set apart by priesthood authority. What does this mean?

READ D [write on board: Lord's errand]

D - First, it means that you are on the Lord’s errand. You are His agent, and you are authorized and commissioned to represent Him and to act on His behalf. As His agent, you are entitled to His help. You must ask yourself, “What would the Savior say if He were teaching my class today, and how would He say it?” You must then do likewise.

READ E [write on board: teach the gospel of Jesus Christ]

E - Second, you are called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. You must not teach your own ideas or philosophy, even mingled with scriptures. The gospel is “the power of God unto salvation,” and it is only through the gospel that we are saved.

READ F [teach principles ... 1. standard works, 2. modern day apostles and prophets and 3. by the Holy Ghost]

F - Third, you are commanded to teach the principles of the gospel as they are found in the standard works of the Church, to teach the words of modern-day apostles and prophets, and to teach that which is taught you by the Holy Ghost.

LEARNER INVOLVEMENT

SAY: Brother McConkine than asks the question, "So where do we begin?"  Brethren, where do we begin as teachers?

Q: What do you think is the most important thing that a teacher or any member must do on a daily basis?

READ G [wait right here.....pause.....if no response, repeat the question]

G - Speaking to teachers today, the First Presidency stated: “The most important part of your service will be your own daily spiritual preparation, including prayer, scripture study, and obedience to the commandments. We encourage you to dedicate yourself to living the gospel with greater purpose than ever before.”

Q: What is the most important thing that a teacher must do?  [daily spiritual preparation]

Q: WHY is you own personal, spiritual preparation, the most important part your service in the church?

LEARNER APPLICATION

SAY: B.M. spends the last part of his talk, going a little deeper into the nuts and bolts of teaching a lesson.

READ H [write on board, LISTEN]

H - Next, you must learn to listen. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught this principle to missionaries. I will quote from Elder Holland’s remarks but have taken the liberty of replacing the terms missionaries and investigators with the terms teachers and students respectively: “Second only to the responsibility [teachers] have to listen to the Spirit, is the responsibility they have to listen to the [student]. … If we’ll listen with spiritual ears, … [our students] will tell us what lessons they need to hear!”

Q:/SAY: Part of listening is to observe what is going on the class. Q: If half the class is falling asleep or non-attentive what might that be telling you?

READ I [Write on the board, Spiritual Edification]

I - Elder Holland continued: “The fact of the matter is [teachers] are still too focused on delivering comfortable, repetitious lesson content rather than focusing on their [students] as individuals.”

Q: What make a lesson repetitious?

Q: What is the goal here?  What are we trying to do when we are teaching each other? [Spiritual Edification, helping the individual feel in the hearts, that whatever is being taught is true]

Example: (if there is time), If we are speaking of the atonement, what do we want the student to go home with?

Q: What can we as teachers do to make the lesson more interesting?

READ J [Spiritual Witness that what is being said is true]

J - After you have prepared yourself and your lesson to the very best of your ability, you must be willing to let go. When the quiet promptings of the Holy Ghost come, you must have the courage to set aside your outlines and your notes and go where those promptings take you. When you do this, the lesson you deliver is no longer your lesson, but it becomes the Savior’s lesson.

Q: When a lesson is being taught and the Holy Ghost enters the room and is present, does the Holy Ghost trump lesson or does the lesson trump the Holy Ghost?

READ K

K - Finally, you must stand as an independent witness of the things you teach and not just be an echo of the words in a manual or the thoughts of others.

Q: What do you think it means to not just echo the words of the manual?  How do you become and independent witness?

CONCLUSION

As you feast upon the words of Christ and strive to live the gospel with greater purpose than ever before, the Holy Ghost will manifest unto you that the things you are teaching are true. This is the spirit of revelation, and this same spirit will carry your message into the hearts of those who desire and are willing to receive it.

Let us now end where we started—in the Sacred Grove. Because of what took place on that beautiful spring morning not so long ago, you are entitled to teach with the power and authority of God. Of this I bear my solemn and independent witness in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.