The Art of Teaching | Workbook

"God's speech makes our speech necessary. We are called to pass on the message we have heard to others. We must speak what he has spoken or, in other words, we must preach."

— John Stott, The Challenge of Preaching

"Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you."

— 2 Timothy 1:14

Welcome

Welcome to The Art of Teaching Masterclass!

You have an incredible role to play in the unfolding story of God's kingdom on the earth and we are so honored to partner with you in your journey to becoming all that God has called you to be.

Our hope is to deposit all that we have learned through years of trial and error about the craft of teaching and preaching to serve your gift and role in the body of Christ. May you feel equipped, inspired, and empowered to go back into your context and deliver God's word with more passion, skill, and authority.

As the preachers go, so goes the church.

Let's do this!

Table of Contents

Section 1: John Mark Comer

Section 2: Jon Tyson

Section 3: Guest Sessions

Section 1: John Mark Comer

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Session 1: The 3 C's of Teaching

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"Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers."

— 1 Timothy 4:13–16

Session Recap

There are 3 main components of teaching: craft, content, and character.

1. The craft is your gift. It's the very artwork of teaching.

2. Content is what you have to say. Your great task as a teacher is to remain a student and to partner with God to learn Kingdom truth, wisdom, understanding and love. This is where your sermon content should come from.

3. Lastly, character is at the root of all teaching. You are your ministry — not your sermons, and so you must aim to become the best version of yourself through apprenticing under Jesus.

Exercises

1. Spend some time in prayer talking to God about the following:

   • Give Him thanks for what He has in store for you throughout The Art of Teaching Masterclass.
   • Thank Him for the gifts He's given you and ask the Holy Spirit to help you mature in them.
   • Ask God to give you the heart of a student and a deep hunger for His Word and Truth.

2. Sit with your pen and journal and talk to God about your character. Ask Him to reveal anything in you that does not reflect the nature of Jesus. If you need to repent, do so. Commit to a lifestyle of personal transformation and integrity so that your internal world can always sustain your public ministry.

Session 2: The Architecture and Design of a Sermon

"Jesus said to them, 'Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.'"

— Matthew 13:52

Session Recap

In order to craft a more compelling sermon, we recommend using a "narrative art form" model of teaching, which uses storytelling through ideas and concepts and texts into a form of art in order to communicate a particular message. This style of teaching starts with a hook that incites mystery, latches the listener's heart, and makes them want to listen. After the hook, the body of the teaching typically follows this flow: from the head, to the heart, to the hands. First, get into teacher mode and pour out content in order to teach your listener what to think. Then, let the sermon build up to a climax where you reveal your main point. Next, connect your main point to your own story. Teach out of your own vulnerabilities in order to let the teaching sink from the head to the heart of your listeners. And to end, inspire your listeners toward spiritual formation, either with a provocative or probing question, a prayer prompt, or some practice to implement.

Exercises

1. How would you describe the general architecture and design of your sermons? Do they follow the "Term Paper Preaching" style? Do you not follow a particular structure?

2. Reflect on some of your favorite movies. How do they begin?

3. Reflect on ways you can design a hook that better engages your listeners.

Session 3: Movements, Chunks and Seams

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

— Colossians 3:16

Session Recap

We recommend you organize your sermons into 3 categories: movements, chunks, and seams.

1. A movement is a large section of a sermon, like the hook or the application piece. Most sermons have 2–4 movements total.

2. A chunk is one unit of thought that would likely fit on a 3x5 card, such as a story or a quote. Having your chunks written down as individual thoughts allows your brain to move them around to see where they fit best with your movements. Once you have your basic movements and chunks and you have decided where they all fit, craft your seams to serve the flow of your sermon.

3. Seams are 1–3 sentence transitions from one movement or block of thought to the next. Utilizing these 3 categories as you design your sermon will help you uncover the best way to craft the message you want to communicate.

Exercises

1. Craft a simple sermon using the Narrative Art Form method (whether you'll ever teach the sermon or not).

2. Then, reflect on the process:

   • a) How is the Narrative Art Form method different from your process of sermon writing?
   • b) Which pieces of the Narrative Art Form method do you want to adopt for your own sermon prep?

Session 4: Manuscripts vs. Outline vs. Extemporaneous

"Where there's a haze in the pulpit, there's a fog in the pew."

— C.H. Spurgeon

Session Recap

Once you have crafted your sermon, you need to decide what kind of sermon notes you want to utilize when you speak. There are 4 basic ways to prepare your sermon notes: You can not prepare notes at all and speak extemporaneously. You can create a basic outline of 1–2 pages of bullet point notes or an in-depth outline of 2–4 pages of notes with your movements, chunks and seams all written out. Or you can create an 8–15 paged word-for-word manuscript to teach off of. Find what works best for you and your style of teaching and aim to be crystal clear on what you are trying to say.

Exercises

1. What kind of sermon notes do you regularly utilize? Taking what you learned from this session, how could you improve your sermon notes so they better serve you?

2. John Mark Comer said that pastors generally underestimate their people's intelligence and overestimate their maturity. Take a few minutes meditating on this and write down your thoughts.

3. In this session, John Mark Comer talks about avoiding cliches. What cliches do you want to mindfully avoid in your sermons? What words or phrases could you use to replace them?

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   Cliches To Avoid	Replacement Words or Phrases

Session 5: Feedback and Editing

"If I come to your house for dinner, I don't need to know how you cooked the meal or every ingredient you used. All I need to know is that it has been well-prepared. Similarly, when people come to church, they don't need to know every step you took to prepare your sermon. They just want to know that it was well-prepared."

— Tony Evans

Session Recap

Editing is often the difference between a good sermon and a great one. Spend time combing through your sermon, looking for ways to say what you want that's more memorable, concise, clear, and to the point. If possible, get feedback on your sermon before you preach and put in the time to utilize the feedback in your edits. Though it can be painfully slow, editing will make a worthwhile difference in your preaching.

Exercises

1. When asking for feedback, it's very helpful to tell people what type of feedback you are looking for. Are you looking for feedback regarding your use of Scripture and the accuracy of your interpretation? Are you looking to make your hook more compelling? Take inventory of those you can go to for feedback before you preach your sermon. What areas of feedback would they be most equipped and gifted in giving you?

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   Specific Type of Feedback	Name of Person

2. What are your biggest roadblocks to editing (e.g. time, attention span, endurance, intentionality, etc.)? How can you better address these?

3. Taking what you learned from this session, how could you improve your sermon editing process so it better serves you?

Session 6: Preaching

"What is the chief end of preaching? I like to think it is this: It is to give men and women a sense of God and His presence."

— Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Session Recap

It's important to be intentional about the hours and days leading up to your sermon so you feel rested, energized and prepared when you walk onto the stage. Once you're in front of your audience, relax, follow your outline, and flow with the Spirit. Let your unique personality, your communication style, and your humanity shine as you preach. And work hard to sound the same on the stage as you do when you're off the stage. Keep in mind that a sermon is not just content. It's a medium for the Spirit of God to do a work through the preacher and in the community. The best sermons don't just engage ideas; they encounter God. So be yourself and watch God do what only He can.

Exercises

1. What are the days and hours leading up to your sermons like? Do you have any rituals? Would you like to start incorporating any? (For example: drinking your favorite coffee the day before you speak as you comb through your notes one last time, or setting aside 10 minutes in the morning to envision how the Holy Spirit wants to empower you and the message you give to change people's lives, etc.)

2. John Ortberg says, "People will not listen to or trust a communicator who is not willing to reveal his or her own humanity. An appropriate self-divulgence is one of the most important and powerful tools that a teacher has. To neglect the use of this wisely is like a doctor going into surgery without a scalpel." Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal if there are any parts of yourself that you are hesitant to let be seen from the pulpit. Are there any adjustments that you need to make so that you are the same person on stage as you are off the stage?

Session 7: Recovery and Growth

"What is it that always heralds the dawn of a Reformation or of a Revival? It is renewed preaching. Not only a new interest in preaching but a new kind of preaching."

— Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Session Recap

Preaching requires us to give of our whole selves — spirit, soul and body, and that is hard on us. So, it's important we allow ourselves the proper time to recover once we walk off the stage. First, take care of your body by relaxing, eating good food, and sleeping. Then, do something regenerative for your soul and fun for your personality. And lastly, tend to your spirit. Once your body, soul and spirit are refreshed, it's vital to finish up with feedback and learning if you want to grow as a preacher. Preaching is a craft; to grow, you need a feedback loop. Invite feedback from those you trust and watch or listen to your sermons so you can grow and mature in your craft. Remember, it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master something, so give yourself a lot of grace.

Exercises

1. What can you do to restore your body after preaching?

2. What can you do to restore your soul after preaching?

3. What can you do to restore your spirit after preaching?

4. Take inventory of those you can go to for feedback after you preach your sermon. What areas of feedback would they be most equipped and gifted in giving you?

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   Specific Type of Feedback	Name of Person

Session 8: Odds and Ends

"Those who preach only out of duty produce listeners who listen only out of duty, a miserable exchange of boredom."

— Darius Salter

Session Recap

When learning how to find your voice, there are a few helpful steps you can follow. Step one: find preachers you want to sound like that are both a good fit for your personality and your context and listen to them often. Step two: learn how to preach and deliberately practice. Step three: put away every other preachers' voice and find your own. Part of finding your voice comes as you discover your style and your substance. Your style is a combination of things like your turn of phrase, your cadence, whether you speak more formally or casually, more passionately or relaxed, more emotional or down to earth, etc. And your substance is your life message; the message God has uniquely wired you to teach that no one else can. Though it may feel far off, you will discover the unique voice God has gifted you with.

Exercises

1. Calculate, as best as you can, how many hours you have taught.

2. How would you describe your style of teaching and communicating? Take some time to write down your particularities.

3. Without overthinking it, what do you know about your unique life message so far? Jot down whatever is near to your heart.

Session 9: Preaching for Spiritual Formation

"He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ."

— Colossians 1:28

Session Recap

The end goal of preaching is what we are trying to do not in a sermon, but through a sermon in a people. It's one thing to teach people what Jesus commanded them. It's another thing to teach people how to obey what Jesus commanded them — i.e. the work of spiritual formation. As pastors and preachers of the Word, our primary work is spiritual formation: to preach in such a way that Christ is formed in people. Our great task is to both raise the horizon of possibility for people, and give them small steps forward on the long journey to God.

Exercises

1. John Mark Comer taught on the value of including cultural commentaries in his sermons in order to expose the narratives people live by that are untrue. Philip Rieff said the best way to critique something in culture is to biopsy it. In other words, take a little piece out, put it under a microscope, hold it up to the light, and calmly analyze it. Where does it come from? Where is it going? To put this skill to practice, take some time to build some of your own commentaries surrounding the culture you are in and the people you most often speak to.

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   Culture at Play	Cultural Commentary	Your Response
   (What are some common phrases used or commonly held beliefs or assumptions about life and society?)	(Where did it come from? Where is it going? How is it shaping us and our worldview? Is it at odds with Jesus?)	(How can you help people see the ways of Jesus and His Kingdom as beautiful and the ways of the world as ugly?)

Session 10: A Working Theory of Change

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will."

— Romans 12:2

Session Recap

Spiritual formation isn't a Christian thing; it is a human thing. We are all being discipled and formed every minute of the day. So, the question is not, "are you a disciple?" But "who or what are you a disciple of?" We can be spiritually formed unintentionally with little to no effort by the stories we believe, our habits, our relationships, our environment, or over time and through experience. Or, we can be spiritually formed intentionally by truth, spiritual disciplines and practices, community, and the Holy Spirit. While the world is constantly trying to make us more worldly, the task of Christian discipleship is to push in the opposite direction, against the tide, and to become more like Jesus.

Exercises

1. In order to lead well in this area, it's important to regularly inventory what is contributing to our own spiritual formation, whether intentionally or unintentionally. What is discipling and shaping you in this season of your life? (For example: The Bible, the news, a Netflix series, your coworkers, etc.)

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   Unintentional Spiritual Formation	Intentional Spiritual Formation

2. Upon reflection, is there anything you want to rearrange in your life to better serve your spiritual formation?

Section 2: Jon Tyson

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Session 1: Vision for Preaching

"In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction."

— 2 Timothy 4:1–2

Session Recap

Preaching is sacred. We are not professors, entertainers or motivational speakers. Rather, we are bringing the Word of God to the people of God in the Presence of God. As we preach, our job is to partner with the Word to lift our listeners' vision beyond the present to a vision of Christ, His Kingdom and His coming and to allow the Spirit to break his power forth into the hearts of a congregation. The work of preaching is to correct, rebuke, and encourage with patience and careful instruction. Preaching is not about trying to give the best message or having the greatest teaching techniques. Preaching is a calling that we marinate in, and our pastoral duty is to be prepared in and out of season. Let us always let the Word of Christ dwell in us!

Exercises

1. When did you first feel called to preach?

2. What doubts, if any, do you have about your calling and ability to preach to this generation? Spend some time with God and give Him room to address them.

3. What are some of your core convictions about preaching?

Session 2: Understanding Your Audience

"We have a responsibility: First to the truth, and secondly to this particular group of people."

— Alec Motyer

Session Recap

When preaching, it is crucial to understand your audience. No matter how good your sermon prep is, if it is not geared toward the specific people you are speaking to, there will be a disconnect. We must work to understand the people we are speaking to — the history of the community we are leading, their hopes and fears, the wounds, the theological traditions they come from, and the family dynamics that shape who they are. We must also learn to preach in the context we find ourselves in. The cultural context you speak in, the openness of your audience, and their level of Biblical understanding should be what determine your content and appeal. Lastly, we must speak into the culture at large. We must preach the beauty of Jesus and the Kingdom of God in order to persuade people that the person of Jesus, the vision of His Kingdom, and life in God's family is the best possible way to live.

Exercises

1. Who is your primary audience?

2. Do you feel like you have a good understanding of your audience and their cultural context? How can you be better in touch with your audience? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal if there are any assumptions you've made about your audience that you need to put down.

3. In light of the culture at large, reflect on how the beauty of Jesus and His Kingdom can be persuasive to those who are unaware.

Session 3: Planning a Preaching Calendar

"The kind of God we believe in determines the kind of sermons we preach. The essential secret is not mastering certain techniques but being mastered by certain convictions. In other words, theology is more important than methodology."

— John Stott

Session Recap

Preaching done responsibly is about the long game of formation, and planning a preaching calendar with consideration and intentionality makes all the difference. When planning your preaching calendar, always prioritize prayer and the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, craft your preaching calendar in community. Invite your elders, pastors, key leaders, and team members to pray and share what they sense, and share the pulpit with those whose giftings are different from yours so you can better reflect the whole body of Christ. It's also important to consider the needs of your congregation when planning out your preaching calendar. Are they learning enough of both the Old Testament and New Testament, ethics and evangelism, discipleship and mission and so on? Lastly, make sure to incorporate essential cultural conversations, those that are both proactive and reactive to cultural crises, in your preaching calendar.

Exercises

1. Taking what you learned from this session, how could you improve the process of planning your preaching calendar?

2. How are you getting in touch with the actual needs of your people?

3. Take an inventory of your strengths and the strengths of those you can share the pulpit with. Who is good at what? Consider rotating them throughout your preaching calendar to better reflect the whole body of Christ from the pulpit.

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   Name of Person	Gifting and Strength (i.e. exhortation, teaching, care, evangelism, etc.)

Session 4: Preparing a Sermon Part 1

"Sermons work best as artistic visions that are a curious combination of improvisation and painstaking work."

— Darius Salter

Session Recap

When considering how to start preparing your sermon, first, select the passage you want to preach from and sit with it. Read it. Pray it. Get to know it. On a blank page, write down your initial observations and sparks, questions or assumptions the passage raises, and ways the passage might resonate with the things God is doing in you, your community, or your city. Continue to braindump and write down whatever comes to mind — stories, quotes, stats, illustrations or content. Next, start working your way through the passage with commentaries in an effort to understand the text, its original setting and meaning, the bridging context, and modern day application. Once you have developed your boundary of interpretation, move into crafting the sermon for your people. Create a storyline for your sermon with major movements of talk, bridging thoughts, illustrations, application points, etc. and move the pieces around until they are in place and framed in a way that best serves the impact you intend to make.

Exercises

1. What is the most painstaking part of preparing a sermon for you?

2. Which tips from this session do you want to start incorporating as you prepare your sermons?

Session 5: Preparing a Sermon Part 2 — Framing Your Perspective and Finding Your Voice

"Preaching is truth poured through personality."

— Phillips Brooks

Session Recap

Having a framework for creativity will help you craft the artistic vision and inspiration behind each of your sermons. We recommend you develop your own checklist of essential points to utilize as you prepare and frame your sermons in order to fully capture your voice and creativity. Some essentials could include the following: acknowledgement to the non-believer, a one sentence church father or church historian quote, a story to shape and add a personal element to the talk, Biblical insight that people haven't heard before, the influence of a minority theologian, the influence of a female theologian, application for the week, the beauty and brilliance of Jesus, unexpected pop culture reference, self deprecating humor that makes people laugh, a repeatable phrase, illustrative metaphor, an art reference or illustration, or a chart.

Exercises

1. Do you have essentials you like to include in the artistic component of your speaking that give personality, shape and voice to your sermons? Start crafting your own framework for creativity.

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   Essentials	Extras

Session 6: Prayer

"I'd rather be able to pray than to be a great preacher; Jesus Christ never taught his disciples how to preach but only how to pray."

— D.L. Moody

Session Recap

Relying on our own abilities and knowledge when preparing sermons and preaching is simply a waste of time. More important than focusing on teaching methods, techniques, and processes, we have to focus on the connection between prayer, preaching, and power, and we must dedicate ourselves to the practice of prayer. As you think about the art of teaching, think just as much about your call to intercession. Make sure you make time in your schedule to pray over your word and make space for the Spirit. Behind every great preacher, you'll find a life of prayer.

Exercises

1. What is your relationship and practice of prayer when it comes to preaching? After you've labored over the craft, do you pray over it? Travail and press in? Is there fasting connected to your preaching?

2. If you need to, spend a few minutes with the Lord and repent for not prioritizing prayer in your preaching.

Section 3: Guest Sessions

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Charlie Dates

"The Preacher has to be kept by the one who calls him to preach."

— Charlie Dates

Session Recap

Your preaching framework should typically start with the Biblical text. First, aim to create a basic translation of the text by uncovering its context and the dominant idea at work. Then, work to formulate your main idea in light of the challenges we face today. Once you have an interpretation of the text and the main idea you'd like to make, craft together a conversational storyline. In doing so, consider the ways you want to lead the congregation through the movements of the text — the moods, feelings, emotions, senses, etc. And engage with the Spirit to capture a word of now-ness, a word of then-ness, and a word of always so you can move your audience back and forth between pictures of what's happening in the world now, what happened historically that is similar, and the text's transcendent truth that remains. Lastly, as you are crafting your sermon, consider creating an artwork of celebration, a way for people to experience the goodness of the Gospel, and an invitation for your audience to respond to the Biblical text in your sermons.

Exercises

1. Take a few minutes to practice some of the elements of Charlie Dates' preaching framework. What are some of the ways you can lead your audience to experience the goodness of the Gospel in your sermons? What responses are provoked?

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   How We Experience the Goodness of the Gospel	The Response this Provokes
   (E.g. illustrating Jesus' forgiveness, His heart to heal, the Power of the Spirit, etc.)	(E.g. leads to repentance, taking risks, extravagant giving, etc.)

Christine Caine

"In eternity, the most influential things that yield the most fruit are the things that no one knows about."

— Christine Caine

Session Recap

Preaching should be an overflow of your life with God, and its sole purpose is to see lives changed and transformed. Do not focus on building your own preaching ministry or making a name for yourself. If you steward your character well and are faithful to operate in your gifting, the Lord will open doors for you that no man can shut! It's not about you; it's about your assignment, so recognize where the Lord has you in this season and devote yourself to what He has placed in front of you.

Exercises

1. In what ways are you currently serving something beyond yourself?

2. Christine Caine mentioned that what we do today builds a foundation for the rest of our lives. What values are you currently pouring into your foundation?

3. What is your assignment in this season? Where does the Lord have you right now and who does He have you in front of? Are you honoring the assignment with excellence and intentionality?

4. Spend some time in prayer talking to God about the following:

   • a. Ask Him if there is anything in you that wants the stage or the highlight reel. Repent if you need to.
   • b. Give Him thanks for where He has you.
   • c. Ask for grace and endurance to be faithful with what He has put in front of you.

Jennie Allen

"Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned."

— Titus 2:7–8

Session Recap

Teaching will cost you everything, if you do it right. It requires you to be vulnerable and to live out what you preach day in and day out. Before crafting a sermon, recognize that God knows what your audience needs better than you do. Spend time in prayer and discern what God is leading you to speak about. Then, be obedient to His leading, no matter how out of the box it sounds. When crafting a sermon, start with your Bible passage and then build out your outline. Consider the felt needs and potential resistance your message might face in order to better prepare for them. Prepare, plan, and have structure before giving your sermon, but always be Spirit led. Be sensitive and flexible to redirect if the Spirit is leading you in another direction.

Exercises

1. Who have you submitted yourself to? Who are you accountable to? How can you take your accountability to the next level to give yourself a better support structure?

2. When did you first experience the weight and gravity of your calling? How do you maintain a holy reverence for the influence God has given you?

Bryan Loritts

"It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching."

— Francis of Assisi

Session Recap

Paul aimed to reach entire cities when he taught the Gospel, not just those who looked and sounded like him. In the same way, our preaching and teaching should extend to our whole city in an effort to create and embrace a culturally diverse community. It's important to recognize that every time we stand up to preach, we do not just bring our research with us. We bring our family of origin, our gender, our class, our cultural norms, and so much more to the pulpit. And so, we must work hard to cultivate relationships with those different from us, confront our bias, walk in empathy, become culturally flexible and adaptable, and preach the fullness of the Gospel. In doing so, we can intentionally become a people that love and reach those both like us and vastly different from us.

Exercises

1. Spend some time looking into the various ethnic and cultural communities across your city. What are your findings? How can you lean into the diversity of your city and aim to become more of a C2 practically?

2. Who are your Simon the Tanners? Who are you doing life with that is different from you?

3. What catalyzing experiences does God want to leverage in your journey to becoming a C2?