Using the Gifts God Gave You . . . Wisely

In her 1947 essay, “The Lost Tools of Learning,” Dorothy Sayers (1893–1957), an English writer and Christian thinker, argued that students learn best when they proceed from grammar, to dialectic (or logic), to rhetoric. These three disciplines, known as the trivium, are necessary, according to Sayers, before pupils can go on to the quadrivium, which consists of arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy.

On the whole, these seven disciplines find their origins in the ancient instructions of classical Greco-Roman culture and were brought forward through the Medieval institutions of Christian learning. Without denying the need for subject learning, the well-formed student will understand the subjects they study and the means by which they arrive at those conclusions. And specifically, students at different ages and stages of life are best suited for grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

Today, the classical school movement has popularized Sayer’s methodology. And, if you have been involved in home schooling to any degree, you probably know something of the trivium. Just the same, if you haven’t read her classic essay, you should—as it has application for all of us, but especially for those who teach children, adolescents, or adults.

An Age Graded Approach to Teaching
For our purposes, I want to apply Sayer’s application of the trivium to the way we teach children, adolescents, and adults at OBC. In what I will lay out below, I am using Sayer’s approach as a springboard for thinking about the aims and expectations that teachers should have as we teach.

Thankfully, our church is filled with members who love God and his Word. And we have countless men and women who are doing a remarkable job teaching God’s Word in a host of settings. And so, I am happy to say that all I share here is not corrective, but instructive. I am offering this blogpost as an encouragement to keep going as you serve in the church.

On Sunday, during the Sunday School hour, I will follow up with a number of helpful tips for those who teach. And in preparation for that lesson, here are some things to consider as you teach children, adolescents, or adults.

Teaching Children

First, in “Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning,” Sayers argues that the elementary years are best suited for memorization, repetition, and cataloging a growing number of facts. She calls this the Poll-parrot stage, for the reason that students are best equipped to recall and repeat basic information. Children, at this age, are sponges. And we shouldn’t fear the use of rote memory; we should encourage it.

Applied to Christian instruction, children at this age are best prepared to learn the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the stories of the Bible. Whether at home, at school, or in church, wise teachers will avoid abstract ideas and focus on helping fill the mind of children with vivid stories and concrete images of biblical truth.

Accordingly, if you are teaching younger children, explaining the Trinity is not the goal, but confessing the one God in three persons is. Teachers who excel at this age should not grow tired of repeating songs, reading stories, or rehearsing basic truths—God created the heaven and the earth; Jesus is God and man; salvation is by grace alone not by works; et cetera. As Sayers puts it, “The Poll-parrot stage is the one in which learning by heart is easy and, on the whole, pleasurable; whereas reasoning is difficult and, on the whole, little relished.” If you are going to teach our younger children, this is the goal—giving children a basic grammar of the faith.

Teaching Adolescents

After the Poll-parrot stage that focuses on grammar, we come to the Pert stage where dialectic and logical thinking is the thing. If memorization is key for the younger years, making arguments and breaking down the arguments of others is key for these adolescent learners. As Sayers defines it, this stage “is characterised by contradicting, answering-back, liking to “catch people out” (especially one’s elders), and the propounding of conundrums (especially the kind with a nasty verbal catch in them).”  

Now, one might hear these descriptions as combative, and to some degree that is true. Teenagers are not content with just knowing the truth, and those who teach them should not be content with merely giving “Sunday School answers.” At this stage in development, adolescents are processing why a good God permits evil in the world and how their Christian faith holds up against a city filled with idols. Indeed, wise teachers will not fear hard questions, but will fill their lessons with hard questions, followed by answers that strengthen confidence in the whole counsel of God (i.e. the whole Bible). Whether in Sunday School, small groups, or personal dialogue, the excellent teacher will make adolescents think, as they connect the facts of the Bible to the features of life. And practically, this will include a large portion of dialogue.

Teaching Adults

Finally, as we move from children to adolescents to adults, we should consider the place or rhetoric. In Sayer’s taxonomy, this is the Poetic stage and it is reserved for the upper levels of education. But as I am applying her trivium, I am applying it to teaching adults. If you are called to lead a Bible study, teach a Sunday School lesson, or preach a sermon, then you must think of more than just relating biblical facts (grammar) or asking good questions (dialectic). Both of these are assumed as foundational for teaching adults. And in any lesson, there will be doctrinal truths that are expounded and apologetic answers that are given.

Still, what makes teaching adults challenging (and exhilarating!!) is helping men and women, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to grasp truth in fresh ways. In other words, teaching adults must do more than give information; it must persuade, prove, reprove, and exhort. In the gathered church, this kind of teaching is largely reserved for men who are gifted by God to teach and qualified by the Spirit to serve as pastors. Yet, as the church grows, there will always need to be new teachers who feed the flock of God. And thus, healthy churches have places for aspiring elders to use their gifts, so that the congregation can recognize future elder candidates.

Short of teaching the whole congregation, however, there are other places where teaching adults is found. And in those settings, employing rhetoric is vital. Now, some may hear in the word “rhetoric,” the need for some technical skill or oratorical method. That’s not it.

Rather by rhetoric, or what Sayers call the Poetic, I am urging that good teachers for adults will not be satisfied with simply conveying information. Instead, they will strive to make an argument that employs language, illustration, logic, argumentation, and modes of speech that capture the mind and stir the heart. In a word, they don’t bore people with the Bible.

Understandably, this kind of teaching is the most difficult to master. And, if we are honest, keeping the bar high will mean that this stage of teaching will take the longest time of preparation and will have the least number of suitable candidates. Not everyone in the church is gifted to teach. And as James 3:1 reminds us, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers.” The reason James gives for this truth is that “we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” And this is undeniably true. But it also true that not everyone who will teach the congregation is ready to do so, the moment they so desire.

And so, it is right for churches to labor in teaching teachers how to teach. And this Sunday that is my aim. Acknowledging that we have gifted members serving in all areas of the church, teaching children, teens, and adults, it is my hope to offer a couple dozen, age-graded tips that will help you handle God’s word and lead God’s people—young and old—to best grasp the truths of God in the various places of teaching in the church.
If you are able, come join me at 9:00am in the sanctuary for a time of training. And if you can’t make it, then listen to the lesson later. We will send the audio next week.