Teaching Element Lacking

The pulpit stands for more than preaching. If Christ was the perfect example in His ministry, then the preachers today have much to learn.

BY H. L. RUDY

The pulpit stands for more than preaching. If Christ was the perfect example in His ministry, then the preachers today have much to learn. Jesus taught His disciples. Even His preaching was pedagogical. Infinite lessons of truth were clothed in such language, explained with such illustrations, and revealed with such carefulness and sequence that they had an abiding effect upon His hearers. They could understand every thought. They were enriched by every word. When Christ left, He asked of the Father that the Spirit of truth might come and continue to teach His followers. (See John 14: 26; Luke 12:12.) This spirit of teaching remained uppermost in the labors of the apostolic church. In Acts 5:42 it is stated: "They ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." Likewise now, ministers in the pulpit should be teachers as well as preachers.

Prof. H. H. Horne sums up the educational work of the minister in a very concise way. He writes:

"Like the president of a college, he has general supervision of his educational world. Further, in his individual work in the pulpit, the teaching function must appear both in matter and in manner; in matter something true and instructive, provocative of meditation on the part of his congregation; in manner something for children and youth as well as for adults, must appear in the sermon. He will probably find it better to have an educational lecture or address in the endeavor to keep his people fairly abreast of the established religious thought of the day. Also he will probably find it better to remember children and young people in all his sermons, rather than to have an occasional sermon for them. To preach an occasional sermon to children or young people is to lead them to suppose that the usual sermon is not for them. Occasionalism of any kind may make other times appear insipid by contrast. Again, it may fall to the lot of the minister, as the most capable man, to lead the weekly training class of the Sunday school teachers. In general the minister must be a dynamo of ideas to innervate and enlighten the life about him at every touch he gives."—"Psychological Principles of Education." pp. 401, 402.

Riga, Latvia.

BY H. L. RUDY

May 1934

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