Have you ever sat back and asked yourself why you teach what you teach? Hopefully you have, but if you haven’t don’t feel bad. You’re probably like many other children, youth, family pastors out there working hard trying to provide the best teaching you can but haven’t found the time to sit back and ask yourself that question. For me, it’s one I ask often. It can sometimes feel more like a curse than a blessing for me as I have a hard time committing to a specific curriculum for that very reason.
It’s important to know why you teach what you teach. Here are some reasons we teach what we teach:
1. We have always done it this way.
2. It’s part of the curriculum.
3. Is there another way to do it?
4. That board member is influential and it makes him happy.
Lame reasons all—and you could probably add to the list. Here’s what I’d like you to do, whether you’re using a specific curriculum or not: take a couple hours out of your week and ask yourself, “Why do we teach what we teach?”
If you ask that and you love what you’re doing—great! Continuing doing it. If you find that you have something burning in your heart, but you’ve never done it because it’s not part of the curriculum—change it. Teach what you feel God is asking you teach. Don’t feel constrained because a piece of paper tells you to teach this virtue or that virtue or this topic or that topic. Listening to God and teaching what He wants you to teach should trump and scope and sequence and weekend of the year.
Thoughts?
-PJ
