A central emphasis of any Christian school ought to be instruction in the Bible. In the ideal partnership of family, church, and education, the three communities are rooted in the truth of God’s Word. This is not often disputed.
However, there is a unique balance that must be considered in our Christian pedagogy, a tension in the intentions of such instruction. Neither side seems inherently wrong in theory or intent, but to choose one at the cost of ignoring the other is disastrous. Jesus reminds us of the greatest commandment we must pursue in our vocation: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37, emphasis mine). I will speak of these two sides in generalities.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:37)
On one side of the biblical studies spectrum we see a commitment only to spiritual counsel and community, a structure that primarily desires all students feel comfortable sharing and hearing. This side of the spectrum faithfully yearns for students to know that they are known by the Almighty Father, a goal no one should ignore, and establishes the classroom more like a youth “small group.”
One the other side, we have the kinds of classrooms we vividly imagine when we think about what old scary catholic schools and expensive, dusty theological seminaries must be like. This side of the Bible class spectrum perhaps interacts with the Bible like the divine self-authenticating textbook, exclusively focused on things like literary genre, language and word studies, knowing the technical facts and (likely) dates and the correct spelling of Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin.
I saw this dynamic come into play often in my own classes. Junior high students in an Old Testament survey course were split into two sections; I taught one section, and a different teacher, we’ll call her Ms. Smith, taught the other. While we both taught the same course, we undoubtedly differed in our strategy of instruction in varying circumstances. Students came to the mutual (mis)understanding that Ms. Smith’s class was more like a heart-focused church small group and mine was more a conceptual or academic study. Let’s just say the students from Ms. Smith’s class were surprised, as a new semester started and some students were placed in different sections than before, when they experienced their first “Free Discussion Friday” in my class, in-class worship time, and an improvement in their grade.
I digress.
This post is not meant to tell you where on that potential spectrum of heart-to-rigor your Bible class instruction ought to lie, but instead to present the dynamic and the possibility of a new(er) approach. I think there’s an approach less focused on balancing knowledge and emotional impact and more on reflecting the pedagogy of Jesus that results in both.
Our Bible classes are not essential to Christian instruction only because the academic study of the Scriptures produce better Christ-followers. That is, increasing your knowledge of the Bible does not always nor perfectly correlate to a closer relationship with Christ nor a greater impact in evangelistic endeavors. Many of us can think of someone who knows the Bible through and through, yet whose character and actions are miles from biblical. I myself love the Bible, and the more I read and know the Word of God the more I know and love God, the closer I feel to my Savior. Not every student in your classroom is there yet.
In the same way, our Bible classes are not essential to Christian instruction only because we need a teacher-counselor who can love us the way we think we should be loved. The goal cannot be to produce more “spiritual but not religious” persons. In fact, as an antithesis to this exclusive approach, Jesus can be pedagogically and thoughtfully termed authoritative but not authoritarian, loving but never affirming of wrongdoing; He encouraged people to think, and was a "modeler" more than a strict teller.[1]
Bible classes, with developmentally appropriate methods and content, should be about faith and foundation, grace and truth, with the Bible in the center as the true, inerrant, infallible, sufficient, comprehensive, authoritative Word of God.
Bible classes, with developmentally appropriate methods and content, should be about faith and foundation, grace and truth, with the Bible in the center.
I’d like to recommend to you, the reader, a couple resources in every Holistically Biblical blog post to help Christian educators personally and professionally develop in the ideas I’m discussing. The time it would take to make a thorough list for this post, for the proper study and instruction of the Bible, could potentially take me to retirement. Thus, I’ll list only a couple after I state this quick and obvious reminder for teachers: Teaching students the Bible in the classroom at any developmental level ought to be different from your pastor’s preaching and exhortation, different from a child’s Sunday school offering, different from the teens’ youth group, different from your family devotions, etc.; biblical studies in our faith-based schools, a non-negotiable, is a unique and cognitive discipline, but nonetheless should include elements of each ministry.
First, read your Bible. Read it every day. Read it quietly and alone. Read it out loud with your students and large groups. Study it. Study individual words. Study narratives. Study the genre. Theologize. Know the revealed Word of God.
I often tell students this quote widely attributed to Justin Peters: “If you want to hear God speak, read your Bible. If you want to hear God speak audibly, read your Bible out loud.” This is not a claim that your voice is the voice of God, rather that the Bible is indeed God’s very Words.
I would point you towards Words of Life by Timothy Ward (IVP Academic, 2013). I have cried while reading that book as the beauty and reality of Scripture became clearer. It is a treasure for any Christian and captures the sentiment and balance sought in this post. Likewise, I think every Christian educator should read Transformation Teaching by Doctors Kenneth S. Coley, Deborah L. MacCullough, and Martha E. MacCullough (B&H Academic, 2023). Their work is a compendium of educational philosophy, pedagogy, and biblical integration that, when read thoroughly, is bound to inspire this practice.
"And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children..." (Deuteronomy 6:6–7a)
Bible classes in school need not be stale nor exclusively intellectual. On the flip side, Bible classes in school should not forfeit academic rigor and growth to be a spiritual group counseling session. Bible classes in school ought to partner with church and home to carry the commission of the Lord told through Moses:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 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. (Deuteronomy 6:4–7)
Let us learn to love God not only with our hearts but also with our minds… always.
[1] Allen Jackson, “The Contribution of Teaching to Discipleship,” in Teaching the Next Generations: A Comprehensive Guide for Teaching Christian Formation, ed. Terry Linhart (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016), 6-7.