In our churches, we spend a lot of time giving answers and preaching sermons, but in the gospels, Jesus spends a lot of time asking questions and telling stories. How can we make our teaching more like Jesus? In this course, we will talk not only about questions and stories, but also about to how to make our teaching more provocative, visual, reflective, emotional, humorous, and experiential, using Jesus as our model. From the Learning Pyramid, we’ll see that people retain very little from lectures, sermons, and reading, and that they remember far more from discussion and other participatory teaching methods. We’ll also look at cultural examples of effective teachers who use stories, questions, and other creative methodologies. As we follow Jesus as teachers, our goal will be to make our teaching and therefore our ministry more impactful.
Much of the material will be based on the book, co-written by Shannon and I, Teach Like Jesus: Ask Questions, Tell Stories, and Create Experiences that Change Lives (IVP, to be released February 9, 2027).
The course meets Mondays from 6:30-9:30 pm (ET) from Jan 25-April 5, 2027.