Purpose
To start us off, let’s ask the question: What is the primary purpose of Academy Hour, Sunday School, Second Hour, or whatever churches call it? Teach people!
I would tend to agree with you that for most churches their Second Hour’s purpose is about instruction or knowledge transfer; to give you information. While knowledge transfer is helpful, I would submit to you that is not the primary purpose for the Academy Hour.
The primary purpose of the Academy Hour is supporting Life Transformation. Life Transformation.
What do I mean by that? People’s lives being transformed into the image of Christ. People’s lives are being transformed into the image of Christ, making them a disciple of Christ. This falls under the primary purpose of the church.
So, how does the church support life transformation? Now there are a lot of ways to explain it, but the most simple one that I’ve come across is through an acrostic: W.I.F.E.S. And it’s actually what many churches use. So does anyone know what it stands for?
Worship
Instruction
Fellowship
Evangelism
Service
When we look at most churches, at a minimum, they normally have a worship service. So on any given Sunday you’re going to have communal singing and a sermon. You check off worship and instruction. So that three things that are left out: Fellowship, Evangelism and Service. So, if you have the people of the church together for a second hour, what would you want to try to focus on, knowing that you already hit worship and instruction? Fellowship!
Right, back in the 60s and 70s when Second Hour, Adult Sunday School was the best thing, God was using it to grow His church. But the objective was not on instruction or knowledge transfer, but fellowship. I am not saying that instruction does not have value, but when we evaluate what the church is doing already, we need to figure out what is truly going to support their life transformation process. I believe that the primary objective for Adult Classes needs to be on Fellowship and second is Instruction. For children, given their life stage, I would say that their primary objective is instruction. For youth, if I had to pick one, I would pick Fellowship as primary.
***Side note. Most of the churches I’ve been to the actual value that is coming out of Sunday School and Small Groups is on Bible Study or instruction. There is actual values and stated values. Stated values are what we say that we value. Actual value is what we actually value. For example, I can say that I love my wife. But if I never spend time with her, I never talk to her, I never give gifts to her, I never do anything for her, then I still can say that I love her, but according to my deeds, I don’t actually love her. We do it with church too. Churches say that they value children, but how much space do they give them, how much of the budget do they actually receive? Most times, kids get short changed. So, we need to honestly reflect and determine if our stated values are really actual values.
So as a review, the primary purpose of Academy Hour, Sunday School, Second Hour is supporting Life Transformation and the primary objective is on Fellowship and second is Instruction. This is really important, we need to keep this in the front of our minds when we are crafting lesson and teaching it because if we miss this, we are missing the mark on our role in supporting people to become more like Christ.
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Now that we understand the primary purpose and objective, let’s talk about Sunday School.
Question: Think back on your Academy Hour, Sunday School, Bible Study Group. What were some of your best lessons you’ve ever been in? What made it that way? What were some of the worst?
One of the biggest problems teachers have is that they don’t have a Big Idea. They don’t have a grasp at what all the components of the lesson fall under. As a result, many lessons are disjointed, shooting off in all directions, and don’t have a particular point. If we want to see life transformation, we need to have a clear statement that encapsulates the passage.
Big Idea
Any successful lesson needs to have a single, unified idea. As people listen to the points of your lesson, they are thinking: What is this all pointing to? In general, people are looking for some unity to what is being presented to them.
Example: Little dipper. The stars of the night make sense to us when we connect the dots.
Passage Example: Ephesians 1:13-14
13 And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
So what are some things we can talk about?
1. Gospel of salvation
2. Sealing of the Holy Spirit
3. A future inheritance
4. God’s redeeming His own possession
Now hitting on all those points can help people have a better theological frame work, but it makes a poor lesson. There is nothing bringing it together.
The Big Idea, the proposition of this passage is:
The reason the Ephesian believers were to praise God, according to Paul’s observation, was because He guaranteed their future inheritance through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
That Big Idea has:
1. Unity – a sense of oneness
2. Order – structural relationships
3. Progress – moves towards a goal
So how do we get there? Glad you ask. We have to understand the text.
Understand Text
Every passage in Scripture has a specific message which is a piece of a stained glass window, that when put together is a picture of Christ. That is why we teach and preach the Scriptures as it reveals Christ and how our lives should resemble him. This is essential in the Life Transformation Process.
Now to quote a wise sage: A haze in the mind of the teacher will be a fog in the minds of the students. Let me state it again, a haze in the mind of the teacher will be a fog in in the minds of the students. If we as teachers don’t have clarity on the topic we are teaching, that obscurity will be amplified for the learner. So, we need to understand the topic or in our case, the text, the passage of Scripture.
To do that there is an exercise called subject/complement. It helps us to understand what a text is talking about.
Let’s look at some everyday examples:
Who – The identity
Hint: Look for a “person”
Ex: George Washington was the first president of the United States.
S/C: The identity of the first president of the United States was George Washington.
When – The time
Hint: Look for a “time”
Ex: Church ends at 1:00
S/C: The time which church ends is 1:00.
Where – The location
Hint: Look for a “location”
Ex: Disneyworld is in Florida
S/C: The location where Disneyworld is in Florida
Why – The reason
Hint: Look for “Because”, it reflects back
Ex: I am sick because a patient coughed in my face.
S/C: The reason I am sick is that a patient coughed in my face.
How – The manner
Hint: Look for “By”
Ex: Jim will go to the store by bicycle.
S/C: The manner by which Jim will go to the store is by bicycle.
Wherefore – The purpose
Hint: Look for “In order”, it is forward looking
Ex: I went to the gym every day in order to lose 5 pounds.
S/C: The purpose for going to the gym every day is to lose 5 pounds.
What – The [—–]
***If the sentence does not answer any of the above, it is a what Question.
What is the [Noun] of the sentence. [Quality, Character, Author’s Opinion…]
Ex: The stand is made of metal.
S/C: The [material] the stand is made out of is metal.
Let’s go through some biblical examples.
- Mark 1:16 When he (Jesus) had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.
Possible S/C:
- The time in which Jesus saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets was when he went a little farther.
- The identity of the one who had gone a little farther and saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets was Jesus.
- The identity of the ones who were seen by Jesus as he went a little farther was James son of Zebedee and his brother John.
2. Ephesians 1:12 I (Paul) pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people
Possible S/C:
- The purpose that Paul prays that the eyes of their heart may be enlightened is that they may know the hope to which he has called you…
3. Philippians 1:14 And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
Possible S/C:
- The reason that most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear is because of Paul’s chains
4. Ephesians 2:8a For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Possible S/C:
- The manner by which we have been saved is by grace, through faith which is not from ourselves, but a gift of God.
5. Mark 1:5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him (John the Baptist).
Possible S/C:
- The identity of the person who the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem is John the Baptist.
- The amount of people who went out to John the Baptist from the Judean countryside and Jerusalem was everyone.
A Passage of Scripture
So what if you have 2 sentences? You have to figure out what those two sentences are trying to communicate. And you keep doing this until you have one Subject/Complement for the whole text. Thus, each passage of Scripture has only one main idea. There can be lots of little good hidden gems in the text, but all of those gems lead to one main idea. We call that the exegetical proposition or if you like the Big Idea.
Conclusion
A lot of times people will get fixed on a gem or great point in the passage, but ultimately lose the thrust of the text. Those gems are like individual pearls that make up a beautiful necklace. When we highlight only one pearl, we miss the necklace, the whole point of the passage. If we do that, people miss that picture, or if you like, the piece of the stained glass window of Jesus that the text is revealing. Thus, doing Subject/Complements will help clarify in your mind what the whole text is talking about.
Resources
Constable’s Commentary
Now sometimes we need some help to understand what some the text is talking about. That is why there are commentaries to help us out. For an online commentary that I agree with, I would probably say well over 99% of the time is Dr. Constable’s Commentary. And it’s a great price. It is well worth your investment. It’s absolutely Free. Check it out. It can be located on the web:
Net Bible footnotes
Netbible.org
Homework
Subject/Complement some proverbs or the texts they will be working on.
Assessment
- What did you like about the lesson?
- What would you do differently?