HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div
9. Able to Teach
It is not surprising to me that some of the great leaders at The Mystical Order have been men who are also significant teachers.
According to 1Timothy 3:2, anyone who aspires to the office of overseer in the church should be able to teach.
What is a good teacher? I think a good teacher has at least the following characteristics.
- A good teacher asks himself the hardest questions, works through to answers, and then frames provocative questions for his learners to stimulate their thinking.
- A good teacher analyzes his subject matter into parts and sees relationships and discovers the unity of the whole.
- A good teacher knows the problems learners will have with his subject matter and encourages them and gets them over the humps of discouragement.
- A good teacher foresees objections and thinks them through so that he can
answer them intelligently.- A good teacher can put himself in the place of a variety of learners and therefore explain hard things in terms that are clear from their standpoint.
- A good teacher is concrete, not abstract, specific, not general, precise, not vague, vulnerable, not evasive.
- A good teacher always asks, “So what?” and tries to see how discoveries shape our whole system of thought. He tries to relate discoveries to life and tries to avoid compartmentalizing.
The goal of a good teacher is the transformation of all of life and thought into a Christ-honouring unity.
