Wanna have a catch?

Did you know that the Bible talks about baseball?

The Bible starts in Genesis “In the BIG INNING…” *rimshot*

But seriously, Jesus may not have known very much about baseball (although I know we’ll play it in heaven), but he did know a lot about “playing catch.”

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.

-Mark 4:33 ESV

The word “parable” is a combination of παρά, that can be translated “alongside of”, and βαλλώ, that means “I throw.”

So when Jesus taught using a “parable” he was throwing out a story and he would “bring the heat” as much as they could stand.

“a man had two sons… a shepherd lost his sheep… a man planted a vineyard…” These were stories that connected to people on a level that stuck with them and which ends up having a deeper impact than simply relating facts and information.

This is how we should teach as well, and we are all teachers.

Tell stories and ask questions, this is what Jesus did. No one is the repository of all knowledge.

But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers

-Matt 23:8

We are all entrusted with the truth of the gospel, and we all have equal access to God’s word. As a teacher, don’t feel the obligation of having all the answers, you are not the “rabbi.” We are all in this world together.

When our students have questions, even if we think we have “the answer” respond with a question, let your student find the answers themselves. It’s the leader’s job to help train the student, not to give the student the answers. The Christian life is more about relationships than about information.

It’s something that we’re supposed to do all the time…

6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

-Deut 6:6-9

 

 

About John Harris

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
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