{"id":4680,"date":"2025-03-14T02:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T02:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=4680"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:31:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:31:54","slug":"sanctuary-as-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=4680","title":{"rendered":"SANCTUARY AS CLASSROOM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As I continue thinking about my dissertation work, one conviction is gaining some clarity: To be effective for the Kingdom, a pastor needs to function as a teacher.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This doesn&#8217;t need to be complicated. The basics of good teaching practice are pretty straightforward. I&#8217;m talking about things like:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\n<li>Probing for prior knowledge\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Rooting out false assumptions<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Repeating main points<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Fostering curiosity and interest<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Drawing out an inward motivation for self-directed study<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Checking comprehension in meaningful ways<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Et cetera<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have started to look for resources which address these matters within the local church, but I&#8217;m not seeing much so far.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you google &#8220;teaching and Christian faith&#8221;, you will <b><i>not <\/i><\/b>get results outlining ways principles of good teaching practice can be applied to the teaching the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead, you get core doctrines that must be taught in order to consider the teaching to be &#8220;Christian&#8221;.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I looked for books on teaching and the church and ordered one off Amazon that looked promising: <i>Everyday Christian Teaching<\/i> by David Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the subtitle reveals its focus: <i>A Guide to Practicing Faith in the Classroom<\/i>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So &#8230; this book is for the Christian classroom, not the sanctuary.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And it&#8217;s as dry as dust to boot.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Written by a Calvinist! \ud83d\ude09)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I continue thinking about my dissertation work, one conviction is gaining some clarity: To be effective for the Kingdom, a pastor needs to function as a teacher.\u00a0 This doesn&#8217;t need to be complicated. The basics of good teaching practice are pretty straightforward. I&#8217;m talking about things like: I have started to look for resources [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,78,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dissertation","category-education","category-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4681,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680\/revisions\/4681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}