Impromptu Lessons

Steve sent me a great question:

"I'm constantly being call on to speak to a group of Sunday school classes, more on the line of impromptu. I wonder if you can suggest something for me."

Here's how I answered Steve:

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Steve,

Thanks for your question. I'm in the habit of taking notes in my Bible in such a way that my personal study makes it easier to create mini-lessons from a verse or short passage. Using the kinds of questions I have in "52 Model Questions," I can usually teach without much preparation -- counting on good interaction and dialogue to help fill out the lesson. I will string mini-lessons together if I have more time to work with.

To get started with this, why not take what you're learning from your personal devotions, and spend 15 minutes thinking about how to make that into a lesson? Make a few notes. Bang, you're prepared. Do that a few times, and you have a small number of lessons ready.

Now if you're expected to speak beautifully, in detail, as a sermon -- this approach won't necessarily get you there. But if you want to teach from the heart, with what the Lord is sharing with you, with integrity, my approach should be helpful.

I've also seen good teachers ask a group about what they're interested in, or struggling with -- and pick something from that conversation to run with. Let's say that a group is interested in worship music styles. "Let's see what the Bible tells us about worship music." Then split the group into smaller groups and have them look in the Bible themselves for 5-8 minutes. Report back. "What do you think about that?" "Did you notice that there are no mentions of organs?" Build on the interactivity you can develop. This is a nice approach because it doesn't feed people's desire to be lazy and just be "told" something.

Hope these ideas help,

Glenn

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And how do you handle impromptu situations? Do you have a strategy to be ready to teach with 5 minutes notice? Or even one day's notice?