Teacher, God has gifted you

By Elmer Towns

In 1928, a single young lady named Henrietta Mears was invited to serve as the director of Christian education at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, California. At the time, no one could have known how significant her ministry would be. In an age when ministry was largely considered the domain of men, Henrietta Mears made a difference in a Southern California church—a difference that changed the world.

To Henrietta, Sunday School was the hub of the educational ministries, so she devoted significant energy and resources to building a strong Sunday School. Under her leadership, the Sunday School attendance exploded from an average of fewer than 400 students to more than 4,000 attendees weekly.

Like many other churches in America in the early twentieth century, Henrietta’s church used a unified curriculum throughout its Sunday School. This meant that everyone in the Sunday School studied the same lesson, regardless of which class they attended. While Henrietta understood the reasoning for this approach, she felt there was a better way to involve people in Bible study. She designed a Sunday School curriculum that covered the entire Bible and contained a separate lesson written for each age level’s Sunday School class. She loved to say, “I didn’t grade children, God did.” Because she wanted Sunday School material for each age level, she began writing her own curriculum, which eventually became the foundation of Gospel Light curriculum. Her eleventh-grade course, a book-by-book survey of the entire Bible, was published under the title What the Bible Is All About. It continues to be used worldwide as a Bible study resource.

Henrietta Mears was not content to just manage a Sunday School and equip teachers to teach. She had a deep love for teaching and appointed herself teacher of a class of college students. Her class grew to include some 600 college students, many of whom were saved or called into full-time Christian service under her ministry. Among those influenced by Miss Mears were Richard Halverson, who went on to serve as Chaplain of the United States Senate, and Bill and Vonnette Bright, who established and led Campus Crusade for Christ to become a world-leading institution for reaching young people. Even Billy Graham identified his visit to Forest Home, a church conference grounds developed by Henrietta Mears, as a significant turning point in his early ministry.

TO BE AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER, YOU MUST DISCOVER AND IDENTIFY YOUR UNIQUE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. YOUR GIFTS ARE THE ABILITIES, OR TALENTS, GOD USES TO GET HIS WORK DONE.

In a discussion among leaders in the Sunday School, Henrietta Mears was identified as the single greatest female leader in the Sunday School movement in the twentieth century. She learned to identify and use the gifts God had given her so that she could maximize her effectiveness in ministry.

To be an effective teacher, you must discover and identify your unique spiritual gifts. Your gifts are the abilities, or talents, God uses to get His work done. Think about the spiritual gifts that tend to be task-oriented and that shape the way you do ministry for God. These nine task-gifts include

• evangelism (see Eph. 4:11)

• prophecy (see Rom. 12:6)

• teaching (see Rom. 12:7)

• exhortation (see Rom. 12:8)

• shepherding (see Eph. 4:11)

• mercy (see Rom. 12:8)

• ministry (see Rom. 12:7; 1 Cor. 12:28)

• giving (see Rom. 12:8)

• administration (see Rom 12:8; 1 Cor. 12:28)

God’s goal in giving us gifts is not just to help us develop labels for ministry but also to help us find ways to be effective in ministry. When you know your gift, begin thinking about how you can use that gift as a Sunday School teacher. If you are gifted in evangelism, find ways to incorporate the gospel into your lessons in order to lead your students to Christ. If you are gifted in prophecy, God can use you to point others to God’s Word for them and, many times, help them to discover sin in their lives. If you are gifted in teaching, study hard to accurately communicate the content of Scripture. If you are gifted in exhortation, motivate your students to apply the lesson in practical ways. If you are gifted in shepherding, tend the Sunday School flock over which you have been given oversight. If you are gifted in showing mercy, be alert to ways you can counsel those in your class. If you are gifted in serving, look for ways to teach the practical implications of Scripture by helping others. If you are gifted in giving, use the insights you have gained to help others with stewardship. If you are gifted in administration, manage well the learning experiences in your class.

God has given you a unique combination of spiritual gifts to accomplish a unique purpose that will lead to unique results, but you must be willing to use your gifts to glorify God.

While most Christians have a dominant spiritual gift, it is not uncommon to have a blending of gifts. God equipped you for the specific tasks He plans for you to accomplish. Recognition of your spiritual giftedness will help you discern God’s will for your life and ministry.

Not every teacher can accomplish what Henrietta Mears accomplished, because God has not gifted everyone the way he gifted her. But every teacher can accomplish what Henrietta Mears could not accomplish, because God has uniquely gifted each one of us for a custom-designed ministry.

You may find a spiritual gift inventory to be a helpful tool to identify your giftedness. One such tool is my Spiritual Gift Test at www.elmertowns.com. Or you may find that talking with a friend is a good way to discover your spiritual gifts. Many people have identified their gifts through both study and ministry experiences.

To identify your spiritual gifting, ask yourself three questions to confirm your initial feelings. First question: Is my thinking about spiritual gifts consistent with what the Bible teaches? Second question: Do others recognize the spiritual gifts in me that I think I have? If you possess that gift, it should be apparent, at least in embryonic form, to more mature and spiritual Christians who know you. Third question: Am I effective in using this gift in ministry? When you use your spiritual gift, you will experience maximum effectiveness with minimum effort.

GOD HAS GIVEN YOU A UNIQUE COMBINATION OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS TO ACCOMPLISH A UNIQUE PURPOSE THAT WILL LEAD TO UNIQUE RESULTS, BUT YOU MUST BE WILLING TO USE YOUR GIFTS TO GLORIFY GOD.

God has gifted you for a task that only you can do. When you discover your spiritual gift, use it in ministry and continue to develop it to become the most effective Sunday School teacher you can be.

Elmer L. Towns, What Every Sunday School Teacher Should Know (Ventura, CA: Regal; Gospel Light, 2001), 25–32.