Team Preparation for Teaching

One of the most powerful and helpful ways to prepare lessons is to work with others.

I haven't done an official survey, but I observe that the large majority of Bible teachers do their preparation alone. (Same for pastors preparing sermons.) That approach, so long as you are prayerfully studying and preparing, is effective.

I do recommend you prepare your lesson by working together with others.

We have several adult classes at our church, and often are teaching the same topic or study series. We've periodically been able to get the teachers together, and simply worked through the Scripture together, sharing ideas and insights from the text. We could share our ideas and plans for hooks, illustrations, questions, and application. We sharpened one another, and enjoyed rich fellowship in the process.

You can engineer this kind of preparation, even if you are the only teacher. Get a few people together and study. Put your thoughts and ideas forward, try out your questions, and practice reading Scripture out loud.

(Yes, this means you have to be working days in advance, rather than procrastinating to the night before. Trust me, you'll find that having others involved makes it easier to work farther in advance, because you create some automatic accountability for preparation in good time.)

This is also a critical approach for mentoring other teachers. Share in the teaching process, and they'll learn faster and better!