Profiting from the Word

Johanna Campbell | December 2008

Growing up in a Christian home, teaching Bible in elementary and high school, and raising four children in the fear of the LORD, has provided me with some insight into the teaching of the Word. As a teacher I often thought: how can these students profit from their study of the Bible? Is the Word really being studied in this course or are we only studying about the Word? Do we have all kinds of rabbit trails, traditions, denominational distinctives that cloud the Word of God and hinder us from putting it into practice? These questions spurred me on to look at several groups of Christian schools: the Mennonite, the Pentecostal, the Lutheran and the Reformed. I looked at their Bible textbooks, interviewed their teachers, and viewed their denominational history to discover how each group transmitted God's Word to succeeding generations or to students from non-Christian backgrounds. One teacher told me that one of his Senior year students who had gone to a Christian school all her life, could not find the book of Mark in the Bible. Another high school teacher confided in me that she hated teaching Bible; the students were just not interested. When one of my teenagers came home and told me outright that Bible class was so boring, I thought: there has to be a better way. How should we teach Bible so our students come away with a passion for the Word of God, want to apply it in their lives, and have a burning desire to grow and profit from the Word?

These questions spurred me on to discover how other denominational groups taught Bible. As I examined the Mennonites to glean their best practice, I found a phrase in their history books: "the corporate exposition of Scripture by the band of believers." In other words, these 'brethren' believed in acknowledging the work of the Holy Spirit in each of their numbers, and as they studied the Word they listened to hear from one another how to interpret the passages, as in Acts 15, where at the council of Jerusalem, the apostles needed to interpret God's will regarding how to view the Gentile believers. This methodology implies studying the Word not only individually, but also corporately, waiting on God's Spirit and listening to the Spirit in the text: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us..." (Acts 15:28.)

As I moved on to the Lutherans to see how they transmitted the Word of God, I found this phrase in each of their teachers' manuals, at the head of every lesson plan: 'that by the power of the Holy Spirit, working through the Word, the students will understand..." Both groups mentioned above relied on the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word working together. Both stressed interpretation in community and acknowledged interpreting the Word within the body of believers. The Lutherans added another tenet: the centrality of Christ. Christ was to be seen and glorified in every book of the Bible. In Christ everything, all their study, was to be held together, as we read in Colossians 1: 15-20.

Moving on to the Pentecostal schools, I heard phrases like: 'Spirit-led teachers', a 'Spirit-filled day' and 'Spirit-guided students.' This spurred me to a passionate study of the work and role of the Holy Spirit in our daily life, our classrooms and our school communities. How was this power to be implemented in the classroom? As I examined the Pentecostal schools, I did not notice much difference between their classrooms and those of the Mennonite schools, for example. There were chapels, singing of praise and worship songs, and lots of service opportunities, but the Bible itself was not studied in a canonical way. By this I mean, the Bible was looked at more moralistically; character studies were emphasized which took students from John the Baptist to Abraham and back to the apostle Paul so students were not able to get a holistic picture of God's plan of salvation from creation to the new creation. Yes, the work of the Holy Spirit was emphasized, but how did that play out in the study of Science, History, Language Arts or Math?

The strength of the Reformed schools was exactly that: each subject was to be studied in the light of Scripture. How was God moving in history? How was His power and glory displayed in the laws of nature? How did man's rebellion affect creation? And how was God restoring all things in the new creation? Interestingly in these schools, though they stressed the integration of God's Word in all subjects, the Holy Spirit was mentioned very little, usually only in connection with Joel 2 and Acts 2. Even the role of the Holy Spirit in creation, such as we read in Psalm 104:30, was not brought up in any of the text books. Yes, the Bible was studied from creation to new creation (with a stronger emphasis on the Old Testament, I might add), but this was done in a more historical sense: the students were to have a head knowledge of the Word and the knowledge that God's Word does not return to Him void gave the teachers a sense of urgency in transmitting the truths, with a strong emphasis on memory work and a more academic approach to the Bible as a subject.

Whereas in the Mennonite and Pentecostal schools, the Bible was studied in a more piecemeal, topical fashion, the work of the Holy Spirit in opening the eyes of students was stressed. In the Lutheran textbooks, the Word and the Spirit's work were seen to be combined, with Christ being the centerpiece of Scripture. In the Reformed schools, the Word was studied more rigorously and canonically while the work of the Holy Spirit, in its interpretation, was largely missed in the textbooks and curricula. Of course, in all these denominational streams, the role of the teacher is crucial. If the teachers did not have a passion for God's Word and work, nor did they rely on the power of the Holy Spirit as they taught the Scriptures, the Bible classes would be very boring indeed and perhaps even inculcate a hatred for the Word instead of a love for it.

So how then should we teach the Bible in our schools? In my humble opinion, having looked at these strengths from each of the four groups, and having studied and taught the Word for most of my life, prayer for the work of the Holy Spirit is crucial: "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law" (word, decrees, statutes, commandments, precepts, ordinances) as the writer of Psalm 119 prays. Paul stresses this working together of Word and Spirit as well:

"I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also 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 the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and power and dominion..." (Ephesians 1:16-21.)

If this prayer is on our lips daily, for us and our students, we will study God's Word individually and communally, and listen to the Holy Spirit in the text and exalt Christ in every book of the Bible. Studying each book holistically and honoring its place in the canon is crucial. We will start with God and have a great passion for His Word, which will naturally rub off on our students. We will incarnate the Word before their very eyes, just like the Lord Jesus did, and we will serve our fellow man with a love that mirrors that of our Savior. We will be Trinitarian in our approach, giving equal emphasis to each person of the holy Trinity. We can only be balanced in our walk if the Holy Spirit guides us into all Truth. Paul equates the Spirit's power with the resurrection power that raised Christ from the dead (see passage above.)

Looking at the strengths of each of these streams, what methodology should we use to help our students profit from the Word? We should start by expecting the Holy Spirit to work in our classrooms, whether we teach social studies, Bible or music. I believe reducing our Bible study to filling in the blanks or a language arts exercise or a scholastic enterprise, or being loaded down with a heavy curriculum expectation, quenches the Spirit. In contrast, we should have lots of oral work: a storytelling walk throughout the entire Bible would give teachers and students great opportunities to internalize the Word. Memory work should include lots of choral speaking, and should flow from the stories and passages being studied. For higher grades, I would suggest journaling through a Bible book as well as passage analysis to grasp the meaning of the Word. High school students should not graduate before they have walked through the five wisdom books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs.) Why not? By camping around these books i.e. revelling in the power of God, seeing the beautiful crafting of each of these books, meditating on them and memorizing large chunks of them, knowing the outlines of each and rejoicing in the God of the Word—the created Word, the written Word and the Incarnate Word (see Psalm 19), our students will be thoroughly equipped to meet all aspects of life. They will know how to live with skill toward greater harmony within God's created and revealed design. By concentrating on a book for several weeks or days, students will be immersed in what God is doing so the Word becomes part of their very being. Since faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, the Holy Spirit will be actively involved, working through the Word in the hearts and lives of our students. We dare not expect less.

If we boil down our study of the Word to a mere scholastic exercise, a 'systematic theology', a set of doctrines or certain denominational perspectives, we reduce the Word into terms that we can handle and we often do not even think of asking the Holy Spirit to be present. Not only that, we put God's Word at arm's length so we do not have to deal with its parameters and demands. It does not cut into our lives as a two-edged sword; we do not consider it a living, eternal Word. We use it as a mere textbook, just like any other. Let us expect the Word of God and the Spirit to work together so that our students will not only be hearers, but doers, thus profiting from the Word.

Johanna Campbell, BA, MTS, DTH, is the former executive director of the Christian Teachers' Association of British Columbia.