Church News
Teaching 'teachers' how to better teach
By Scott TaylorDeseret News
Published: Saturday, Jan. 24, 2009
New missionary training center presidents and visitors center directors and their wives will have a unique opportunity during their two-year tenures training missionaries to preach the gospel — or, more specifically, to teach teachers how to teach.
Elder L. Tom Perry — the member of the Quorum of the Twelve who chairs the Church's Missionary Executive Council — underscored the importance of teaching as he provided the Jan. 15 concluding address at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City for the three-day seminar for new missionary training center presidents and visitors center directors.
"We're all teachers," he said. "The day we came into mortality, we started to teach, even as babies teach their parents."
He cited teaching situations ranging from individuals associating with friends to parents interacting with children. "Even in wrongdoing, we teach the wrong things," he added.
Emphasizing the importance of teaching in the Church, Elder Perry referred to the phrase in 1 Corinthians: "And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers . . ." (1 Corinthians 12:28).
"We are focusing on trying to make our missionaries the best teachers," he said. "That's their main and important function — to be teachers of the word of God."
Elder Perry projected the potential impact of maximum teaching worldwide, asking the presidents and directors and wives to consider the possibility of 25,000 missionary companionships teaching 20 discussions each week, equating to more than 25 million teaching opportunities each year.
"What a potential force that is — to teach the correct principles of the gospel to the peoples of the world," he said. "You're going to teach a core of teachers who are going out to teach the gospel throughout the world."
Elder Perry summarized the key principles taught in the February 2007 Worldwide Leadership Training satellite broadcast Feb. 10, 2007: To ask, seek and knock spiritually; to teach from the scriptures; to teach by the Spirit; to help the learner assume responsibility for learning; and to never leave a class without bearing your witness and testimony of the truthfulness of what you've taught.
"I hope and pray that your witness, your desires and your influence will be a power in their lives to change them," said Elder Perry, adding a promised blessing to the presidents and directors and their wives as they strive to be not only good leaders but also effective teachers of others.
"The witness of the Holy Ghost will be powerful in your lives — more powerful than it has ever been before."
No comments:
Post a Comment