Why?: How and why might you teach a lesson using only lecture as your method?

What?: There are a number of reasons you might teach using only lecture for a particular lesson. Your time may be very limited and you want control the flow so that you get through the entire lesson. Lecture allows you to do that. Your group of learners may be very large and in a confined space. Lecture allows you teach them where they are. The point is that there ARE legitimate reasons for using lecture as your method. Arguments against a lecture format in a class are typically arguments against the teacher rather than the method. Some people just aren’t good lecturers.

So how might you lecture?

Considering the first four verses of John’s first epistle, here’s one way I’ve used lecture to help learners answer The Effective Four questions—Why? What? So What? So What Now?

My teaching idea from 1 John, chapter 1, verses 1-4 is that Real joy comes from real fellowship with the real Jesus. My affective aim is that The learner will desire real joy as a member of Christ’s body.
I draw them in by asking a rhetorical question: “Why can’t Christians just get along?” This is my Why? Then as I transition into the text, I explain how doctrine divides today just like doctrine divided the early church that wrestled over the truth that Jesus is 100% God and 100% man.
Then I help them answer the What? question; what is the truth in the verses? Here I walk through the verses and show them the teaching idea: Real joy in v. 4 comes from real fellowship in v. 3 with the real Jesus, who is described in the first verses.

Then the biggest question: So What? So What difference does that truth make to our life as the church? What might we do to be in fellowship with the real Jesus so that we can experience the joy of His body, the church? I present possibilities that may even raise other options as they think about answering the question.

Then I end with the So What Now? I ask them to commit to doing something that had been suggested or something they thought of themselves. Even getting mental agreement by asking “Will you commit?” primes them for transformation.

So What?: Teachers are divided arguing for or against lecture in a Bible class. Considering the fact that the central teaching event in the church—the sermon—is typically a lecture format, there seems to be good grounds for having lecture in your skill set. The problem is that not every teacher is a good lecturer.

So What Now?: If you’re going to use lecture, even occasionally, will you commit to lecturing with excellence? Grab their attention in the first few moments and hold it until you get them to commit to transformation.

Why?: People say we’ll have all the answers to our questions when we get to heaven. Will we really?

What?: In Ephesians, chapter 2, Paul describes how we’re saved by grace through faith. In verse 7, he tells us why. Paul writes, “… so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” How long will it take for Him to show us what Paul describes as “immeasurable riches of his grace”? The answer is, in a word, “forever.”
Every day we’ll learn more of the “immeasurable riches of his grace.”
I’m reminded of the last stanza of the familiar hymn, Amazing Grace: “When we’ve been there ten thousand years bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’ve first begun.”
The same will be true a million years later. We’ll still be learning about God’s grace poured out on us. We’ll still be learning more about our Creator, our Savior, our great God as He reveals Himself day-by-day.

So What?: We’ll never know everything, otherwise we would be God. But, since God has made us in His image, we can know everything He reveals to us. A billion years into our eternal lives, we’ll be excited to say, “Lord, we thought we knew you yesterday, but today you have revealed yourself in a new way. You are an awesome God.”

So What Now?: As Bible teachers, we have the privilege of giving our learners a taste of the learning they will experience every day, forever. We get to show them how great God is in every one of our lessons. Are you… will you be that excited every time you have the privilege of teaching those God has placed under your teaching ministry?

Why?: How do you construct a Bible lesson based on The Effective Four?

What?: The Effective Four are the four questions you should help your learners answer so that they might gain wisdom rather than mere knowledge from your Bible lesson. The questions are: Why? What? So What? So What Now?.
The first question is Why? Why should they want to know the truth you are going to show them from Scripture?
The second question is What? What is that truth?
The third question is So What? How might the truth be applied to their lives so that they can grow in wisdom?
Finally, So What Now? What transformation would they commit to as a result of the lesson?
That’s the order of the lesson — Why? What? So What? So What Now?.
But, the lesson is constructed starting with the What? This is where you will spend most of your time in preparing the lesson. What is the big idea from the passage you are going to teach? Once you understand what the human author, inspired by the divine author, meant to say to the original audience, you can bring the truth to your learners. Then, think through how that truth could be applied to your learners. That’s the So What?. The So What Now? is the way in which you will have your learners commit to being transformed. Finally, knowing where you’re aiming, develop the Why? that will draw them into the lesson. Raise a tension that needs to be settled or ask a question that needs to answered by the passage you’re teaching.

So What?: In summary, you prepare the lesson beginning with the What?, but you present the lesson beginning with the Why?. This is the method of constructing a lesson so that you are, as the title of the book says, Bible Teaching for Wisdom.

So What Now?: Rather than reading from a lesson prepared by another or presenting a lot of interesting Bible facts, know the truth that leads to wisdom and then teach that truth using The Effective Four.