Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Adult Sabbath School: You're Teaching More than a Lesson

Tom Mejeur

Adult Sabbath School: You’re Teaching More than a Lesson - Part 1

Our great Father in Heaven, Lord, we come together here and we want to thank you for those who are in attendance and who will be listening on this recording.

Lord, I just want to thank you for camp meeting, but also that you have, it's a time of fellowship, it's a time of learning and to sharing ideas each other and then to go back to serve.

This is a kind of a mountaintop experience, and then to prepare us for serving here, but also to prepare for eternity.

And this Lord is not only for us, and at Sabbath School, we are working for others.

And so be with us as we do this, in Jesus' name, amen.

The name of the seminar is Sabbath School, it's more than the lesson study.

And some people believe that people have different ideas on what the lesson is.

Different people are attracted to Sabbath school for various reasons.

Name some of the reasons why you think your teachers or you teach Sabbath school.

Sometimes a teacher is just like a soapbox.

Sometimes a teacher is just like their soapbox.

And some of them are great, great Bible students.

But, you know, I want to say that it needs to be balanced.

Our Sabbath school, there's 4 goals of Sabbath school.

Now, when I did this, now it's been condensed to 3.

This is 4 beliefs, goals reduced to 3, but they basically kept the same intent.

We have had, I've worked under about 4 or 5 different Sabbath School Department leaders and I've enjoyed many of them.

And with, but there's a new excitement in the air with Pastor DeVasier and he has another assistant and the 2 of them there's a synergy and I have a feeling we're going to be doing some exciting things about that.

The 4 goals of Sabbath School, condensed down to 3, is a faith.

That's Bible study and growing in your Christian experience.

There's fellowship in Christian hospitality.

These are the 2 that have been combined and they're now called mission.

It's your working with your community and be an outreach to your community and outreach to the world.

Now the question is is that what your Sabbath school is right now?

So we'll keep working on that and keep talking about that.

Our author of this seminar, this is part of a certification program.

It was under the Lead magazine and the author was Dorothy Patterson.

She's a professor of foreign languages and English at Oakwood College.

She has a lifelong strong commitment to Sabbath school.

Now I'm going to tell you a little bit, I haven't told you anything about myself, those who are the alumni, and Nick Tavaro, we're going to show some pictures from our last class.

Our last class was 4 years ago, it was 2014.

And we'll show some of the exciting things.

We actually had this class and they said we want more.

And so we actually added another session.

We went an extra, was it half an hour longer to get all the material in and we went overtime besides.

I just want to share I'm Tom Majure and I'm a Sabbath School enthusiast okay I'm a Sabbath School enthusiast and how did I get here?

It happened a long time ago by the nominating committee.

I've kind of lost track of how many years ago.

It was probably about 14 or 15 years ago.

And the nominating committee made a decision.

The pastor came to me and said, you run a college department.

We need somebody to run Sabbath school." I thought that was kind of a backward thought, but you know what?

The Lord led me to be the head of a college department.

And it was God...my secular job prepared me for my sacred job.

And Sabbath School with that...with some of the things I learned in my secular job gave...Sabbath School has become the most satisfying church office I have ever had in my life.

And what I learned from my secular thing is that SAB School is to be organized and have a purpose.

It's not something that, oh no, it's Sabbath morning and I, let me tell you of a Sabbath school I was in.

I was in North, South Carolina, Hilton Head Island.

I was on a convention and the convention was over a weekend and I told them, I'm going to church.

And when I got there, it probably started late.

And somebody said, who's got the Sabbath school program?

And that is not the way Sabbath school is to be run.

Or to grab up something the night before and just read a poem.

If you, if I went to a Sabbath school here in Michigan and the person took Our Daily Bread, there's another 1 of our alumni, Jack Sutton, I went to a Sabbath school and the person read 4 poems in a row out of our, thoughts out of our daily bread.

It's inspirational, but it's not giving us, helping, preparing our people to serve.

So, I kind of said, what am I gonna get due?

And so I used some of these principles, and that's kind of where we are, where I came to.

I went to a seminar led by Faith Crumley of Sabba School Leadership Magazine and she gave me a whole vision of Sabba School.

It's more than the Sabba school lesson and the preliminary programs and so on and so forth.

How many last night, how many of you have been to the Pastor Kelly's sermons?

What was a thought that came out of that?

What do you think that if you, he said the church needs to be bond together and knit together, do you think that you could take the word church and substitute the word sabbath school in it?

In fact, where do you think that the bonding and knitting really happens in the church.

And what do we need to do to make this the knitting and the bonding experience of the church?

Of course, we've got to do the Bible study, but we've got to do mission.

When we do missions and do projects, that's what I think he said last night, just doing mission projects, he gets a year's worth of church in a condensed form and more is bonded and that's what we can do.

So that's why and I'm speaking to myself we need to do more than just Sabbath morning.

Your Sabbath school How is it going to get that bonding experience outside of SABA school?

I'm going to jump into the program right here.

Adult Sabbath School: You’re Teaching More than a Lesson - Part 2

Our great Heavenly Father, we are in the Sabbath school work.

And Lord, you just put something in my mind, what Pastor Cameron shared during Sabbath school, that quote in Sabbath school workers, Lord, this is a vital work.

It needs to be have Commitment our souls we have to have a passion.

We have to have a vision We've got to be reaching out not only to those who who walked in the door for the first time and knows nothing about Adventism and the beautiful truths that we have, but those who have been lifelong members who are frozen in their pew and just, They're 20 years spinning in the same place.

And So just be with us as we study today.

OK, I want to go over what we did yesterday, those who weren't there, and just a reminder, we talked about vision and leadership.

It says when there's no vision, the people perish.

I talk to the superintendents, but I want to share with you, as SAB school teachers, you are mini superintendents.

It's got to be more than just studying the sab school lesson.

What are the 3 parts or 4 parts of sab school?

Let's see if we can, you guys can recite that.

Bible study, that's the obvious, and it is the basic element, Bible study, yes.

Mission, mission, and that goes back to what Pastor Kelley, if you're moving or you're a missionary movement, your church will grow.

As you serve other people, does your Sabbath school class serve anybody but you?

Is it introspective or does it have an outreach?

Once you turn that around, then your class will grow.

I tell you what, I'm gonna stay with my schedule.

In fact, I think on 1 of our days, I think you'll see here, after 1 of the topics is after the bell ring, is after closing prayer is Sabbath school over.

If you don't, write that down because I will add that into a future seminar.

Somebody mentioned yesterday about having...

If we come up with any suggestions, would you write those down and give them to me?

We do stuff like that, like barbecues, campfires, game nights, all that, you know, my side of the school, but we only, we only satisfy us, our group.

We don't reach out to anybody else, So that's what I was trying to say.

He was saying, I'm doing this for the tape, but it also reinforces the point.

And so, Kim, I will do some thought on that, and I will incorporate.

And if we have questions that are not answered, we will research them.

Jason and Debra, we have to answer that question.

That is 1 of the 3 goals, which is missions.

How do you reach out to your community to make SAV school witnessing?

The other part of missions, and that is so...

Jason, people do not ask, how many SAVS school teachers ask that question anymore?

The reason why our membership is so low is we aren't reaching out.

Well, of course, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Well, the harvest is plentiful, so the workers are few.

So if we're not reaching out, because the harvest is there, it's why we're not doing it.

And because we're not reaching out, But I tell you what, you know where the most joy is?

The part that is the most rewarding part is when you're bringing somebody to Christ.

I told you about my friend who walked into the thing 3 years ago, 2 weeks from now.

He walked in and I saw him underneath the light in the lobby just looking lost.

Adult Sabbath School: You’re Teaching More than a Lesson - Part 3

Our great Heavenly Father, I just want to thank You that You are the great Teacher.

And Lord, this morning, the lesson from the study that I got is God talked to Abraham and he said, you will be the father of a great nation, but it wasn't present.

There was no path that seemed to be possible to do, yet Abraham believed.

And the takeaway I have from that, that I want to share with the class is, your Sabbath school may not Be what the ideals and the vision that you have, the teachers here and the superintendents have at this moment.

But that does not mean, or we should not limit what you can and will do in the spiritual development of our Sabbath school classes.

Lord, be with us today as we study the different methods of teaching.

And some of these are like, ah, I know that.

We talked about last evening, some lessons learned from last evening and this morning.

And I tell you that I think that that's the Holy Spirit working here at Camp Meeting.

There's a synergy that was not pre-planned by man, but was pre-planned by God.

Sunday we talked about vision and leadership.

If the leader doesn't lead, if the members or the class is, I said the thing is if the prisoners run the prison, you don't have a prison.

If the students run the school, you don't have school.

And if the Sabbath school teacher and the leaders don't have a vision and they don't implement that vision, with loving care, with Pastor Kelly shared with his compassion and care, but holding the standards which we talked about last night, you don't have a sabbatical class.

And dare I say, some sabbatical classes are not sabbatical classes.

Once in a while you're going to say something, you're going to take the class in a direction in love that is not necessarily popular or what the majority wants to be done.

You don't want to do that too often and you better be right when you deviate from the majority.

Yesterday we talked in the power of question, we're going to review these.

We're going to look at 3 different ways of teaching, and we'll go over that in a minute or 2.

We're also going to be, this is, tomorrow is listening.

So once you pose a question, what good is it if you don't listen to the answer?

And that is from your class and hearing between the lines.

It might be 1 of the best classes you have.

This and the questioning will be the greatest takeaways you have of this seminar.

And then fellowship, that relationship, that knitting together, having the barbecue and other things.

And I've got a list of questions Kim wrote down for us and I will be addressing those by Friday either on Friday or by Friday.

And then the last 1, Friday is a summary and we may do the give-and-take that we did 4 years ago of how to share things that you have strengths and and things that you can offer and Then things you have needs and it was a fun time and maybe that will happen again So we'll pick up the pieces on Friday and close out.

And of course the 1 that everybody, the default is Bible study and it is the basis of our SABS School class.

So faith, and that includes the Bible study, and growth, fellowship, missions, community, and world missions.

And you as a leader, this is going into Monday's lesson, I mean Sunday's lesson reviewing, you are a change and influence.

If you don't change anybody, you haven't been a teacher.

If you haven't influenced people, you're doing that not only for today, for this week's lesson, but it's for eternity.

You are part of the organizational structure of the church.

You are assistant to the pastor, assisting in the ministry of the church.

You will notice the deficiencies of spiritual lagging of a person even before they stop attending.

When a person stops attending, they've actually mentally, spiritually declined over a period of time previous to their absence.

And that counseling not only happens in the Sabbath school, but some of your best counseling.

We had a one- after class, after class yesterday, we had a discussion with 3 people.

And we were here for about 45 minutes or an hour and that's part of counseling and I've offered my services outside of class to help this particular Sabbath school class and I offer that to all of you.

That's on my heart and I desire and I'm role modeling that for you to do with your classes and your Sabbath schools.

If you don't have any passion and desire for the salvation of the souls, need to work on that.

And a leader, like I mentioned earlier, Aaron, we talked about, was he a good leader or a bad leader?

He was a good leader most of the time, but there's a moments when it's vital and critical, And he really failed at some critical times.

I know Ron Kelly brought up that last night very strongly.

A good leader has to make a decision and has to stand by the standards.

Sometimes He also said that there needs to be love and compassion in dealing with the situation, but still in the broader context of the standards.

But sometimes, and he brought up the point that the woman caught in adultery, he didn't treat them, and I'm paraphrasing, but he didn't treat them the same way that he addressed the Pharisees.

He called them vipers, but he didn't call her a viper.

Her heart was already…if, within discipline, and your wife knows this, and you know this, if the child's spirit is broken, you don't need to continue the discipline, then you start the redemptive process with them.

But if The Pharisees, they weren't crushed yet, so he had to crush them with harsh words.

Or just sometimes, and I don't know, I guess the Holy Spirit, I feel, is trying to move me a certain way.

Or I'll get a, it's like I'll get what I should have said later.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit gives you the answer before, exactly when you need it, and sometimes it comes after the experience.

So we've got to have a passion, a spirituality of your classes.

And our Sabbath school classes have to be evangelistic.

If you just cover the lesson and there's been no change, there's no evangelism, there's no appeal, then your Sabbath school class has not met its potential.

Put God in the spotlight, put him in the beautiful of his character, how he loves the people and how he cries for the people in every single lesson.

And then take advantage, Don't try to do this with your own knowledge.

Of course, the Holy Spirit and pray and Holy Spirit, but also add training to that.

Go to workshops that we'll be establishing in the next year.

You can go onto the website, at least to the North American Division.

Adult Sabbath School: You’re Teaching More than a Lesson - Part 4

A great Heavenly Father, it's such a blessing to be in your presence and Lord, we have a sacred responsibility here.

Dear Lord, Sabbath school is more than teaching the lesson And we've been exploring that this week.

Lord, help us as we go back to our classes.

Lord, the reason we're here is probably because we feel inadequate.

And so dear Lord, that's what we're here to serve and we'll do our part and let your Holy Spirit do the rest.

I want to tell you yesterday, we talked about the different types of learning and learning teaching styles.

And afterwards, Janet shared with me an item that she had done, and I said, did you do that for your sab school, the adult sab school?

I said I think you need to tell your class so we're going to have some show and tell.

That takes us back to an earlier age but you know I said earlier the book I really love the title to is Everything I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.

And you know the truth of the matter is, is we use some of the best teaching techniques in our primary, in our beginners, in our cradle roll departments, our kindergarten departments, as we get older, as the people progress in age, we think that they don't need those things.

But the truth of the matter, they do need those things.

And I wanna tell you what, I'm gonna let Janet start and then I'm going to review a little bit of last night.

We had some show and tell last night if you really think about it.

So Janet, why don't you get up here and share some of the things that you do in your class.

It's not our class, I'm the superintendent.

You've even brought some show and tell, put that someplace.

Janet Walker is from the whole church, and this is some of the things that she's done.

Okay, I shared with him yesterday the Sabbath school picnic that we did.

And after vacation Bible school, we always put up a big tent for our closing program and a canopy is what it actually is.

And I told them that I wanted tables and chairs out there the following Sabbath.

And I took the whole adult Sabbath school outside for Sabbath school.

We had the serving table up front, covered in picnic-type tablecloth, red and white, check, you know.

And I had called church members and asked them to find a Bible food to bring and tell them what inspired them, and I wanted them to be able to tell what inspired them to choose that food.

Series

Adult Sabbath School: You're Teaching More than a Lesson

Adult Sabbath School: You’re Teaching More than a Lesson - Part 3

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