Jesus did over half of his teaching in response to a question or a problem. In other words, it was unplanned. This is likely true for you as well. A student comes and asks you a question or a fellow staff member wants you to solve a problem and you need to be ready to respond in the moment without preparation. Some of Jesus’ best sermons were unplanned. There is an art to leading an unplanned lesson—whether it is in a large group, small group or a one-on-one conversation.
When someone asks us a question our instinct is to immediately try to give them our best answer. But often our time would be better used taking them on a journey of discovery. We need to avoid the impulse to immediately give an answer and instead help them think through the question they are asking. Jesus was a master of this. He often answered a question with a question or told a story that helped the person find the answer for themself.
How do you do unplanned teaching? First, ask everyone in the group to raise a question or a problem that they want solved. It can be any type of question related to life or ministry. It can be practical, theological, or ministry strategy, it doesn’t matter. It only matters that they really care about it. As a group, you are going to make a list of all of your questions, and then pick one that you are going to work on. Give your group a few minutes to think of a question.
#1 Choose a Question, Challenge, or Problem-> #2 Define the question -> #3 Create Guardrails -> #4 Bible/Theology/Jesus -> #5 Solution
- Choose a Question, Challenge, or Problem
- As a group, decide which question you want to work on for the rest of your time together.
- Define the Question, Challenge, or Problem
- Have any of the rest of you asked this question before or experienced this challenge before?
- Why was it important to you?
- Why is this such an important question or why is this such a significant challenge?
- Why does this question matter?
- Create Guardrails
- How would we definitely not want to solve this problem?
- What should we not do?
- What isn’t the answer to this question?
- What won’t help us in answering this question?
- Bible/Theology/Jesus:
- Can you think of a time when someone asked a similar question to Jesus?
- How did he answer it? What can we learn from this?
- Can you think of a time Jesus faced a similar problem?
- What did he do? How does that help us know what to do?
- Are there any stories in the Bible that would help us with this question or problem?
- What can we learn from that story? How does it help us?
- Can you think of any Biblical themes or principles that might help us understand this?
- What does the Bible say about the nature of God or the nature of people that would help us with this question or problem?
- Can you think of a time when someone asked a similar question to Jesus?
- Solution: Based on what we’ve talked about, if someone asked you this question what would you say or how would you respond?
For those of you who were facilitating or leading the unplanned group learning, here are reflection questions for you. Take a few minutes to reflect on your teaching time together.
- How was this different from how people usually respond when someone asks them a question?
- When was it hard for you not to jump to solutions?
- Why are each of these steps important in the journey?
- What happens if we skip the second step?
- What happens if we skip the third step?
- What were some of the most helpful things that people in your group said or did and why were they helpful?
- What did you learn about taking people on a journey of discovery?
Jak můžete nejlépe využít tento zdroj?
- Požádejte Ducha Svatého, aby vám dal moudrost a vhled, co z tohoto zdroje použít nebo aplikovat a jak. Pak to proveďte.
- Sdílejte tento zdroj s ostatními, o kterých si myslíte, že je toto povzbudí a vybaví.
- Přečtěte si tento zdroj s někým — partnerem, kamarády, týmem, dobrovolníky, studenty, rodiči, pastorem — a diskutujte o tom.
- Použijte tento zdroj k přípravě jednoho nebo více zamyšlení, kázání, seminářů, workshopů nebo lekce pro skupinku vaší mládeže nebo církve.