The Equipping Ministry, Student Workbook, SW15

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T H E E Q U I P P I N G M I N I S T R Y

The Holy Spirit will use those persons who through discipline and spiritual brokenness have prepared themselves for the teaching ministry. The characteristics of the vessels whom the Spirit may use include those who are faithful (i.e., reliable and trustworthy stewards of God’s mysteries), teachable (i.e., able to be taught daily by the Lord and to be led by the leaders of the Church), and who hunger and thirst for the Lord and his wisdom (i.e., seeking the Lord’s wisdom like treasure). Additional characteristics of an effective teacher include a rigorous and disciplined obedience to the Word (i.e., doing what they ask others to do), focusing their teaching upon the person of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom (the King and his authority), and devoting themselves to excel in their teaching craft (i.e., building up their ability to teach the Word with skill and power). As in the preaching ministry, the Holy Spirit oversees and influences the entire process of the teaching event, including his giving the gift of teaching to select members of Christ’s body, guiding both teachers and students into the knowledge and application of the truth, providing continuous insight into the Word of God, anointing the teacher in their ministry, making intercession for us, providing illumination into specific inquiries of the truth, and supplying power to obey the Word of God. When the Holy Spirit’s work is kept central in the teaching ministry, he will enable the teacher and students to obey everything Jesus commanded, to learn to overcome the lies and deception of false teachers so as to not be adversely affected by them. He will also help the students to mature as disciples of Jesus in the Church, and become solid enough to teach others to teach others. Effective biblical teaching involves, like preaching, three interrelated steps making up the “Contact, Content, and Connection” model of instruction: we are to seek to establish contact with our audience informed by their culture and life situation, communicate the content of the Word of God in our teaching lessons clearly and boldly, and make connections in specific areas for disciplined application of the Word to their lives. We establish contact with our students in the teaching situation specifically as we prepare and teach lessons that pay careful attention to the culture and

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