Blog Article Tags
We love building relationships. Subscribe to our blog to receive weekly encouragement in your email inbox.
Search Blog Posts
- Details
Written by Michelle J. Goff, founder and director of Iron Rose Sister Ministries
Experience is the best teacher. Some things cannot be taught in a classroom, but rather must be learned in a real-life context. I can tell you how to do several things, but until I show you, until we share an experience through which we can learn together and strengthen our Christian bond, mere teaching will always fall short.
Jesus lived day in and day out for three years with the 12 apostles. We see Him teaching the crowds, but He spent even more concentrated time with His closest disciples (men and women). He revealed more to them than He did to the public. He explained the meaning behind the parables. He gave them a vision for what they would be called to do in the future.
Paul followed a similar pattern with those he mentored. Check out the summary of shared experiences with Timothy, whom he considered his “true son in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2).
10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it. (2 Tim. 3:10-14)
It is believed that this was the last letter that Paul penned, likely from a Roman prison. His final words were an encouragement to continue to remain true to Christ’s teaching and to the Word. It was a passing of the baton (2 Tim. 2:2) to his son and close friend. Paul even asked him to bring a cloak he left along the way and his scrolls, especially the parchments (2 Tim. 4:13). This was much more than a casual friendship.
A few verses later, in 2 Timothy 4:19, Paul sent greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, among others. In Acts 18, we learn that Priscilla and Aquila were Jews who had been living in Rome, but after getting kicked out by Claudius, ended up in Corinth. Since they were tentmakers, like Paul, he stayed and worked with them. They became his “home base” while in Corinth, which was “for some time” (Acts 18:18). Later, they join Paul in Ephesus, where they instructed Apollos about “the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26).
Priscilla and Aquila were like family. They had worked together in secular and Kingdom work in the port city of Corinth. We know from Paul’s two lengthiest letters that the church in Corinth struggled extensively. And based on a reference in 1 Corinthians 7, there were likely more than just two letters written to that church.
These three tentmakers had the blessing of never walking alone through a time of spiritual struggle in a church. They had a kindred spirit as family and support. It is no wonder Paul sent greetings to them by name in more than one letter.
Another disciple of Christ that Paul considered family, even a son, was Titus.
4 To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. 5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. (Titus 1:4-5)
Paul trusted Titus to finish the good work they had started together. If we go back to the time when Paul and Barnabas parted company, we recognize that Paul was picky about who he mentored and who he trusted (Acts 15:36-41). Barnabas mentored John Mark and Paul chose Silas with whom to take his second missionary journey. Later, Paul forgave Mark and even asked for him to visit (2 Tim. 4:11).
The greetings in Romans 16 are evidence of the time Paul spent with each of those people: the shared experiences, being in each other’s homes, the friends and a few relatives, the coworkers, including, of course Priscilla and Aquila. The letter to the Romans was penned by Tertius, who sent along his own greetings (Rom. 16:22). I suspect Tertius got to hear more stories than just what he scribed in the letter to the Christians in Rome.
Which leads me to one final way I will mention that Paul taught: by writing letters together. First Corinthians was written by Paul, along with Sosthenes. Second Corinthians and Philippians were written by Paul and Timothy. First and Second Thessalonians were written by Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
I can’t wait to get to heaven and listen to all the stories shared by the reunion of these old friends and coworkers in the Kingdom. What stories and experiences have you learned through?
#IronRoseSister #teachthroughrelationships #learnthroughrelationships #learnfromamentor #mentoring #Paul #missionsexperience #blog #MichelleJGoff
- Details
Written by Karyn Dancy, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Arkansas
There are many different styles of teaching. What I’ve found most effective, though, is intentional teaching through relationships. Paul gives us examples of this, especially in his relationship with Timothy.
I used to be a classroom teacher at the elementary level. I worked in two low-performing schools and I was told from the beginning by other teachers that these children were worthless. It was appalling to me that anyone would say such a thing. As a new teacher, I went in, excited to share some of the resources I’d learned about in school with the other teachers, and the response was actually that these children weren’t worth the effort. This started my determination to show those children and their families that they were very valuable and capable. I wanted them to know they weren’t limited by the expectations of others, not even teachers.
I set out to show the students and their families that they were important to me by building relationships with them. I learned about their cultures and invited them to share things in the classroom that were important to them. Many of them came from immigrant families, so we had a great opportunity to share the diversity of their cultures in the classroom.
Each month we featured a language of the month. The quiet signal for that month would be counting to five in that language and I would teach the kids common words. They would earn points for good behavior, and then at the end of the month, we would have a cultural celebration. (We weren’t allowed to have “parties.”) I invited parents to share about their cultures and bring food for the kids to sample. One particular family was a great example of how that relationship benefited their student. Our language of the month was Samoan. When I asked the student’s mother to help me with the basics of the language, she not only did so but also became active in the classroom in many other ways. Previously her son had not been the best student, but once his mom took an interest in the class, so did he. It was like they were invested in the learning process once they felt valued. It turned out that the student’s grandfather was a tribal chief back in Samoa and had made a video of how to harvest coconut. The student’s mom brought the video in to share with the whole class.
The way it all worked out, once I’d built a foundation of relationship with these children and their families, they came alongside me and cared about what I had to share with them. I was able to teach more effectively because they trusted me. When there was any particular difficulty, for example, math with fractions, we’d explore different activities that would help them until we found what worked best for them.
These students were sixth graders at the time. It’s been about 18 years now, and I still keep in touch with some of those families. It was a very rewarding experience.
Similarly, Paul built a relationship with Timothy. Then Paul mentored and equipped Timothy to follow him as he followed Christ, and Timothy was then able to do the same with his students. Paul didn’t only want his students to learn information; he wanted them to act on that knowledge. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:19 that he became like the people he was teaching so that those people could relate to him and believe. Paul shows us through his example how a teacher positively reinforces through encouragement, modeling, and monitoring. The relationship didn’t end when he handed things over to a student to become a teacher. He followed up because it was a true relationship, not simply a means to an end.
Since you’re reading this, I know you care about relationships with your sisters in Christ. Keep building and nurturing those. Let’s follow Paul’s example. We can be the students. We can find mentors to trust and build relationships with. Then we can pass on what we’ve learned to others, with our own added flavor, and keep the process going to win as many as possible and build each other up.
#IronRoseSister #teachthroughrelationships #learnthroughrelationships #intentionalteaching #valueothers #trust #mentoring #teachbyexample #intentionalteaching #blog #guestwriter