Top 10 Things NOT To Do as a Bible Teacher

Kay >> Hi. I’m Kay Daigle of Beyond Ordinary Women Ministries. Welcome to this podcast and video episode. Today I’m talking with Nika Spaulding. Welcome, Nika. We’re glad you’re here.

Nika >> Oh, thanks, Kay. I’m glad to be here.

Kay >> Nika is the Resident Theologian at St Jude Oak Cliff in the Dallas area, and she has joined us on a lot of episodes, actually. And we’re so happy to have her on this one. She and I talked about it, I don’t know, a month or two ago, just the topic and are finally getting together to discuss it. And we’re excited about it, thinking it’ll be a fun episode for all of you, particularly you Bible teachers, because, what we’re going to talk about are the top 10 things NOT to do as a Bible teacher.

I think that probably one or both of us have done most of these. There may be a couple that, I think I added one that I know for sure, I’ve seen somebody do and it wasn’t good at all. So I think I did add one that I had not done but maybe Nika has done it. Maybe we’ve done all of these at one time or the other. So anyway, we’re going to start like any good top 10 with #10. So Nika,

#10 – “Fail to compare interpretations from more than one source.”

Do you want to start talking about it or do you want me to?

Nika >> No, I can go and should we admit every time we’ve done it or should we just let people guess?

Kay >> I think I’ve already admitted.

Nika >> OK, fair enough.

Kay >> Yeah.

Nika >> This one I think I’m fairly certain I’m guilty of. And especially when you’re first teaching the Bible, you can get overwhelmed with all the sources, right? You go, OK, I’m going to study John 1. And then you realize, oh my goodness, they’re hundreds of commentaries on just John 1. So if you’re not careful, especially if you belong to a certain theological tradition or a church tradition, you can tend to only look at those types of interpretation. And you don’t look at what have we said throughout church history? What do people from different traditions say about it?

And so it’s an easy mistake to make. But I know that when I started reading beyond my tradition, the passages became more rich and I began to understand them more deeply. And I think I became even more confident as I taught and looked at it.
What about you, Kay?

Kay >> I totally agree.
The other way that I’ve done this wrong before is looking at the passage and think I totally understand it. After all, I’ve been studying the Bible for years and years, so I’ll just quickly check one commentary that agrees with me and I feel really good about it. And then, thankfully, most of the time I’ve done that before the end I think maybe I should look somewhere else before I finalize this message and realized that there’s more to it. And I should have added that.

Now some commentaries are going to give you more interpretations than others. Some just really stick with the main one, I think. But you’re right, sometimes church history and things like that affect it. So if you don’t have a commentary that would add those things in, you probably need to check another one. There are some things online. Do you have any suggestions?

Nika >> Yeah. So there’s a great website by John Dyer, who’s down at Dallas Theological Seminary. It’s called BestCommentaries.com. And what he’s done is he’s sort of said for every book in the Bible here are more technical commentaries, here’s more pastoral, and he tells you the background of the author because that also helps. That’s sort of an advanced level thing that you learn. You kind of go, Well, this is maybe what somebody from the Reform tradition might think about Romans 9-11 versus somebody from a more Arminian background. You’ll get very different interpretation.

So I would say if you’re reading through any book about a book of the Bible and they never tell you what the other guys think, that’s probably not the most trustworthy commentary. The better commentaries say, Hey, there’s three ways that we can look at this and understand this. Here’s why I land here. But they’re very fair to the other position. So that’s what I would encourage is BestCommentaries.com. And then take a look at what he recommends. And I usually find some great resources from there.

Kay >> Yeah, I do too. I use that as well. So that’s a great recommendation.
OK, let’s move to #9.

Nika >> Love it.
#9, this is so easy to do, but you get caught, so do not do it.

#9 – “Steal other people’s material.”

Just make sure you do your own work. And that also includes stealing other people’s stories. It’s not just I’ve heard you’ll hear the big stories, right, of pastors that plagiarize an entire sermon. You kind of go, oh my goodness, like I’ve heard this sermon before. Don’t do that. First of all, it should be very obvious. Don’t do that because you need to spend time in the Word. You need to allow God to work through you and in you.

But sometimes if you need an illustration or a good story, it might be tempting to steal people’s stories. And it’s just, one you’re going to get caught. The truth always comes to the light. And two, it’s so inauthentic. It breaks trust and trust me, the best stories are the ones that are yours. I mean, those are always going to end up being the best stories when you teach.

Kay >> Yeah, I taught the last two weeks, and I was with a couple of the women last night who were there, and one of them started talking to me about it, and all she mentioned were my stories from both times, not the scriptures. The stories. And your own stories are really the strongest.

But if you do have a great illustration from a friend, something that’s happened in maybe a friend’s life, I would say check with them, tell them exactly what you’re going to say to make sure that you’re being true to their story. And you can also make it much more generic so that somebody could not trace it back to who this person was instead of telling, well, my such and such, my best friend, the person who live next door to me.

Nika >> Yeah. You know, your address is 60… Yeah.

Kay >> Yes. Don’t do that. If you want to tell one of those stories then check it out with the person before you do.

Nika >> Yeah. I think that’s so important. If you’re not in the habit of doing that… I know my roommate every now and then will do something silly or goofy and then she’ll look at me and go, You’re not going to use this as a sermon illustration, are you? I think. Well, I mean, not without permission.

And so, you want to make sure you’re also, people want to trust you. If you’re going to be teaching the Bible, you need to not only be trustworthy in the way that you handle the Word of God, but you need to be trustworthy in the way you tell stories, especially in this digital age, right? These things get put on the Internet and they live there.

And if you’re telling the story and you think, well, it’s a friend of a friend of a friend, but suddenly someone finds out, you can really hurt someone. And so just be careful. I mean, there’s this temptation to go, this is the best story this will land so perfectly, but it’s maybe not going to honor this individual, honor the person. God will give you plenty of resources in your stories. Honor the person before, you know, go for that slam dunk of an illustration.

Kay >> That’s really good advice. Really good advice.
Okay, let’s move to #8. I really like this one.

#8 – “Assume teaching is a gift and not also a craft.”

That’s really good advice. And you’re the one that wrote that, Nika. Tell me what’s behind this particular one.

Nika >> Yeah, I’ve always been the kid that kind of was out front, loud, boisterous. I think it’s part of playing sports at an early age. And so when I started teaching the Bible, I remember people saying, well, you have this gift. And then that meant some of my friends go, I don’t have that gift. I can’t teach. And I thought, there’s some there’s really the truth that the Holy Spirit, when he hands out gifts, yes, he does give some to be teachers. But to say, well, I have a gift and to not work at it and practice it and to put in the time and the effort and the energy like you would for any other thing that you would want to be great at.

And it’s like, I think about pickleball. I play all the time. All the time. And if as a pastor, someone who communicates God’s word, if I spend all this time playing pickleball and just thought, I’ve got this gift, so to speak, and I don’t need to learn from other great teachers, study the theory of teaching, read books on preaching. Right?

Evaluate yourself afterward and go, Where could I have been better at this? Or Where could I have been more clear? So I just think to say entirely, oh, this is a spiritual gift, therefore I can’t do it. Or it’s a spiritual gift, and I can kind of be lazy about it, misunderstands that this is also something that we work at and we grow at and we get better at over time as we work on it.

Kay, you’ve been teaching for, you’re a young lady, so at least five years. But I mean, how have you worked on this as a craft over the years?

Kay >> Well, I’ve definitely grown because when I started teaching, honestly, nobody taught me anything. It was just more or less, I’d just get up and talk. There was a lot of work I put into it, but I didn’t really know what I was doing. I think that at that time I started paying a lot more attention to sermons and teaching of other people and how they went through the text and how they structured it and those kinds of things to just sort of learn on my own.

But eventually when I went to DTS, I took a class in it, but before that, I had just really learned a lot on my own, I think. But it was really helpful to actually have somebody give me a structured way to put my message together. Not that I always do it exactly that way, but you have to leave room for God to show you something. I remember one time I was part of a teaching group and the leader of the group said, try to stick with three main points, three main points. A week or two later, I mean, I had six.

Nika >> Yeah.

Kay >> It was just what the narrative gave me, and I couldn’t ever distill it down to three. So it’s good to work on your craft, but it’s also good to know that you have freedom.

Nika >> Yeah.

Kay >> But you’re not just saying I have a gift.

Nika >> Yeah.

Kay >> I’m not suggesting that.

Nika >> Yeah. Well, and I think that’s, especially when you’re young, I go, how do you know, if you don’t try? I mean, I think there’s opportunities to be taught how to create a sermon. When my friends are like, do you just kind of get up there and start talking because I don’t look at my notes a lot when I preach. I’m like, you think I’m capable of just walking up on a Sunday and having like three points and sort of a So what? Yeah. I’m like, no, no, no. This is years and years of working at it.

And, Kay, you talked about learning on your own. One of the best things that I try to encourage young teachers of the Word is find someone you admire, you admire the way they teach and listen to them. But don’t just listen to them to receive the teaching, but say, why are they so effective? What can I learn about how they organize their thoughts? What can I learn about their pace, how often they repeat things? It’s like watching sport film, What makes this basketball player great? How do they shoot the ball? How do they dribble through all those things? You can do that for preaching as well, especially for somebody that you would like to emulate. I think that is a great first step on the road to learning how to become a better communicator of God’s word.

Kay >> Absolutely. I totally agree.

Nika >> This one, #8, sort of plays into #7.

Kay >> It does.

Nika >> Yeah, which is things NOT to do.

#7 – “Just shoot from the hip.”

This is one of those that I go back to. During COVID, when the whole world shut down, my roommate and I ended up working from home like a lot of people did. And I remember there was this moment when she came to me about a month into Covid and she goes, I had no idea how much Bible you studied to get ready to teach theology classes or to get ready to preach.

And I remember thinking, Do you think I just know all this information? An hour and a half’s worth of theology class on Tuesday and a 30 minute sermon? You think I can just, she was, Wasn’t that what seminary does? No, no. And so it was a good moment for me for her to say, Oh you put in a lot of time into this. And I thought, “Well, yeah, that was assumed.” She was like, “No, I thought maybe an hour. You prepped for an hour”

And so, this shooting from the hip, if you’re gifted and talented, you can kind of get away with it if you’re familiar with the passage. But it will catch up to you because that’s not where the secret sauce of teaching God’s word comes from. It’s from those hours that no one sees that you’re in God’s word, in prayer, asking God to teach you so that you can nourish his people. And that is the real, that’s where the recipe really comes together so that you can serve a nourishing meal to people.

Kay >> Absolutely. My husband asked me last week when I was working on the lesson I was doing last week, he’s like How many hours? I mean, he walked in again, I don’t know how many times he walked in and said, What are you doing? Or he calls on the phone, What are you doing? I’m working on my lesson, working on my lesson, working on my lesson. He walked in and he was finally like, How many hours have you spent on this? And I’m like, I have absolutely no idea because I don’t keep track of it, and I don’t go in expecting it’s going to take a certain amount of time. I just have to keep working on it until I feel like, I’m there. I’m sort of there, you know?

Nika >> Yeah. Oh, absolutely. That’s where people go How long does it take you to sermon prep? I go, it depends on how familiar I was with the passage. And often those are the longer ones because then you get surprised by something. And then you, I don’t know about you, Kay, but I end up on a rabbit trail doing research on things that have nothing to do with what I’m going to be talking about. But that’s part of it, right? It’s sort of immersing yourself in it.

I always tell people you don’t have to be 12 steps ahead when you’re teaching, but you want to be two to three. People want to know that you’ve done the work and that you are bringing to them something that you believe will honor God first and foremost, but also will encourage rebuke, and teach and struggle, whatever that sort of thing that God is trying to get you to communicate to them. That happens in those hours of study and reflection and prayer. And there’s no shortcut to it, not if you want to be a great teacher.

Kay >> That’s just very true.
Well, the next one at

#6 – “Cram too much info into the talk.”

Well, I think we’ve all been guilty of that, that there was so much information that nobody could leave figuring out what the message was even about. And I think some of those rabbit trails are part of the reason that you’re really tempted to do it. Because when you’re studying and you’re off on this rabbit trail, you think this is just so interesting. I need to tell them about this. They’re going to love hearing this. Well, maybe so, but they’re going to forget what the main thing then I want to teach them is if I keep adding this information. And too many details.

Last week when I was teaching and I was teaching from the very beginning of the Abraham story, and it was talking about how old Terah was, his dad. And they’re trying to figure out, the numbers don’t really jive. So I got into all these numbers and I was trying to put it in there and I thought the audience I have doesn’t need this. They don’t. They’re not looking at those numbers. They don’t care about those numbers. I will just create confusion if I tell them this. So I had to dump it.

Nika >> Yeah. I think it’s especially true, for me, it was harder when I got out of seminary right away because I kept thinking, out of my own insecurity, I want them to know that I know about that number problem. In case there’s some woman in here who’s like, why didn’t you address the number problem? And then I learned, one, that’s not the point of teaching, right, is to make sure that everyone knows I knew about some obscure thing.

And so, one, you have to keep focus on what is the point of this? Is this for me to show off what I know or to demonstrate hey, I really did my homework? Or is it to communicate God’s truth to these women or these people, whoever it is that God’s entrusted you to, for their growth, for God’s glory and their growth. And I had to remove myself from it. Because I think, I’d be like, well, I want y’all to know that I know that that is it, you know? Instead of just going, Hey, what is the main thing?

And one of the things that, with young communicators, I kind of say, OK, if there’s only one thing that you would want them to walk away with, well, this and this, I go, no, no, no, hold on. You’re going to have time to teach them a lot. But if there’s one thing you want them to walk away from, did your talk communicate that clearly? And if it got lost in the details, then let’s go back and let’s cut. I think all great communicators know what it’s like to say, “I’m really interested in this one thing, however, I’m going to for the benefit of those I’m talking to, I’m just going to cut it.”

And then I don’t know about you, Kay, but I just force my roommates to listen to me talk about it. I just go, hey, this isn’t going to make it on Sunday. But I’d like for you all to know there’s a number issue with Abraham. And here’s what I think and then they go, OK, thank you so much. And so you.ve got to have friends that you can kind of just talk Bible with so that you don’t have to be tempted to do it on stage.

Kay >> That is really true. Definitely.

Nika >> One of the things that I think is really, really tough is this one. And I think this for especially if you’re a woman who’s teaching a Bible study at your church, most likely at some point you are going to pick a book of the Bible. And I think this is one of the things that separates really mature teachers from those that are growing.

#5 – “Teaching topically when you’re teaching through a book.”

And what I mean by that is you might be teaching in a narrative, right? So Kay’s talking about the story of Abraham. Abram before he becomes Abraham. She needs to do a good job to set the gal up for next week to understand where we’re at in the story. But if she wanted to, she could just say, Oh, here’s a covenant. Now I’m going to spend 30 minutes just teaching on what covenants are. Well, while that’s interesting and helpful information in general, now everybody’s lost, how we ended up moving out of Ur of the Chaldeans all the way to wherever God’s calling Abram because she didn’t teach the story. And so that’s why I’d say that is it’s so tempting, right? You see prayer in the narrative and you think, OK, let’s talk about the ten ways to pray to God. And you go, Oh, that’s for a different talk. And so it’s hard to avoid though.

Kay >> It is. And sometimes you have to give some information. I mean, it’s interesting you use Abraham’s Covenant because that’s what I teach next week. And, I’ve been thinking, how much do I tell them about a covenant? Because they need to understand it to even understand what happened between God and Abram. But I do realize it can’t be all about that. So when you have a limited amount of time, you have to be sure that you’re getting across the main thing and giving them some help with understanding the background of what’s happening.

Nika >> Do you feel like it’s harder to do in the narrative books than, let’s say, Paul’s letters? Do you feel like it’s harder to stay in the story because it’s story as opposed to, sort of like do this, don’t do this?

Kay >> I think, well, I don’t know what I think about that. Because you can do the same thing in the letters. You can get off when Paul’s talking about justification, you can get off and start talking about James. It can happen. You can be in Romans and suddenly you’re teaching James because you’re teaching justification. So I don’t know. I think it’s just sort of a temptation the whole way through. And then the stories, it’s easy to skip little things, especially if you have a group that has studied it. It’s a lot different if you’re standing in front of a group that hasn’t studied it at all. And there is a big difference that might be we need to talk about some time.

Nika >> Yeah, that is a good point. I think you’re right, Kay. When you’re teaching in a Bible study where the women have already studied the passage and now you’re teaching, you can take for granted some information that they have. Whereas when you stand up in front of a group, maybe you’re doing a one-off talk or you’ve been invited to speak at a conference, you have to really do some of the heavy lifting of explaining the background. And that adds complexity and difficulty to the way that you teach as well.

But I think it’s easier to teach to people who are going through the book than it is to just walk into a space and go What do y’all know? You sort of have to assume that they know what you’re talking about. And so more explanation is required in those moments.

Kay >> That’s true. That’s a really good point.
OK, the next one, we’re down to #4.

#4 – “Try to be something or someone you’re not.”

I would say that probably every teacher has done that to a certain extent because we’ve seen other teachers that we admire and we want to be more like them. Or we just don’t like who we are and we try to project an image of somebody else.

Nika >> Yeah. Wow. That hit deep.
I was thinking about those moments when you meet someone off stage, you’ve only seen them on stage sort of teaching and then you meet them off stage. You go, gosh, those are almost like two different people. And that’s not to say that there’s not confidence, and a way that you can communicate on stage that’s not still true to who you are.

These aren’t plays. We’re not actors, playing a part. We are God’s women who have been entrusted with God’s scriptures to communicate to his beloved people these truths about him. And we’re trying to do it as authentically and as with love and with truth and with grace and with mercy. But it’s vulnerable. So when you say that I think, gosh, I actually I kind of understand the temptation to say, well, if I’m someone else, then that’s a little less vulnerable if I pretend to be someone else communicating in that. But people can sniff that out, especially young people. Young people can sniff that out pretty quickly.

Kay >> Yeah, absolutely.

Nika >> Yeah.

Kay >> But I do think it’s a temptation for all of us to hide a little bit of who we are. And it does get tricky when, maybe a story that you might want to tell about yourself involves other people or your family. Because you aren’t always able to use those stories, even if you’re telling something bad about yourself, which might be a really good story to tell. But it might be a negative effect on somebody else who’s involved in the story.

Nika >> Yeah. You want to be careful with that.
And I also think there’s a self-deprecating humor that’s winsome, right? I mean, there’s a sweetness to people kind of making fun. And so I feel like I have mastered that. It’s kind of one of things that if I’m going to make fun of somebody, it’s going to be me. Or I’m going to tell them, it’s usually my roommates, so I’ll tell them ahead of time, hey, I’m going to kind of poke fun at you. But it’s silly. It’s not, it’s not really, there’s no edge to it. But there’s also a self-deprecation that borders on hey, this is harmful language that and you’re modeling something to people that you would say, we don’t really want people talking about themselves this way. And so I think that’s another part.

There’s a model in Paul that’s like, hey, I’m the chief sinner. Right? That is true. But I don’t think Paul had a self esteem problem. I don’t think he went around feeling shame and despondent so much as he just spoke of it as a reality of what but in Christ I’m a more than conqueror. But in Christ I’m seated at the right hand of the throne. And so I think being careful about the way you speak about yourself because it will teach your women also how to speak about themselves. And you need to be careful with that as well.

Kay >> That’s a really good point on that. OK, let’s go with we’re getting down to the top three.

Nika >> So #3. And this is tempting to do. This one, I had to learn the hard way, I think.

#3 – “Prep entirely alone without feedback during the process or afterwards.”

Feedback somewhere in the process and afterwards.

And the reason why is I wanted, sort of like it was like this secret thing and I wanted to get up on stage and just be like, here you all go. I’ve prepared, me, I have prepared this entire thing for you. And I’m the expert and I’m good at this so I can take all the credit, which, first of all, I can’t take any credit, it’s the Lord working through me. And secondly, I got better when I would say, Hey, dear roommate, can I run this by you? Or, Hey, what do you think of this illustration? Does it make any sense? Or, Hey, I’m having a hard time thinking of a way to connect these two ideas. Can you help me? And you only get better when you invite people into that process. You don’t need to hoard this information and then sort of present it for the first time.

Kay >> I think that’s very true, and I can’t say that I’m very good at doing this though because I don’t have a lot of people to give me feedback. I think it’s hard for some of us when we’re working at home particularly, and having to develop a message and you don’t really have anybody else around. And I have many friends who are great Bible people. I mean, I could I could get them on the phone. I just don’t because they’re not just right here.

Nika >> Sure. Well, it’s hard when you’re in the midst of it. I honestly don’t invite much feedback in the early process. That’s study. That’s where I’m kind of trying to just get my head around. My head pastor is great about, Well, have you thought about this and have you thought about… Mark, Mark, Mark, I haven’t thought about anything yet. It’s all just ooze in my brain. I need to congeal it somehow. And then once it’s sort of taking shape, then it’s nice to have people helping me sculpt.

But one of the best things I did when I was a young communicator, I was just learning how to really teach to big audiences. As I got feedback immediately after. And the reason why is I taught on Wednesday morning, and then I taught the exact same message on Thursday night. So between Wednesday and Thursday, I would always joke that Thursday I got the better talk every week because I would step off the stage and a woman named Gigi Hornberger would come up to me and go, OK, here’s what I thought you did well, and here’s what I think you could have been better and here’s what I would keep and here’s what I would consider cutting. And it requires that you let your ego go a little bit because, you think, wow, I did a really good job. And then she comes on and goes I don’t think that was super clear and I go, oh, OK. But what it was really, it was an invitation in 24 hours to get to do it again.

And so that’s what I’d say is if you’re young, especially give the people you trust, people will give you feedback. There always be good to flatter you and then you’ll have people that they’re just harsh and that’s not helpful because it is so vulnerable to teach God’s Word. But find people who are for you and love you and know how you communicate, and ask them for feedback. And that will also help you grow in this craft and gift of yours.

Kay >> I think that’s really great advice. Really great advice. OK,

#2 – “Spend more time on illustrations and slides than in God’s Word.”

Nika >> Yeah.

Kay >> And I mean, I feel like right now in the series I’m in, I’m spending way too much time on slides.

Nika >> Sure.

Kay >> Way too much time on slides. I haven’t made slides in several years. And so it’s sort of like Aagh! I’ve got to make all these slides. They are time consuming. They take your time away from really the message itself. What I try to do is work on the message first and get that really down. So I know I’ve spent time in God’s Word. I know I’ve spent time with the Lord about the message and then work on the slides.

Nika >> Yeah.

Kay >> Now usually I have to do some editing after that because as I compare what I’m going to say, to exactly what the slides say, sometimes it’s not particularly good. But the less you’re used to making slides, the more time it takes.

Nika >> Yeah, that’s so true. And I would encourage anybody who, if that is becoming an absolute thorn in your side, I have a reputation for being the worst at slides. It’s just a known thing. It’s been true for about 15 years. People at Watermark would go, Why are your fonts messed up? Why does this not look good? Now at St Jude, where I minister, people like, “Wow, your slides are really bad.” And I’m like, “Thank you.”

And so a couple of things. One, if you put so many words on the slides that women stop listening to you and they start reading the slide, that’s not a good thing. So I would also caution anybody who wants to put just a ton of information on their slide, I’d say, hey, you might want to edit that down as well.

Secondly, slides are not as important as you communicating God’s Word. And so if this is the area, you go, Man, I’m great at the verbal part, the slides are tough, then I would say get a young person to help you with the slides. Have them come and do it.

Kay, one time I was teaching, and it sounds like you’re going through Genesis. and I was teaching on Isaac’s marriage to Rebekah, and that’s a big chunk. I think it’s in Genesis 24, it’s a long, long passage. I only had two kittens in bride and groom clothes, that was the only slide. They were like, “This is your only slide?” And I was like, “I just I didn’t get to it. It’s not important.” But in that preparation, you want to think, “OK, what are the illustrations and what are the slides that are helpful for people to remember this?” You don’t want people to walk out and then 2 hours later they go to lunch with their friends and like, “What was it about?” And they’re like, “I don’t really remember.”

Slides and illustrations serve the purpose of allowing people to really embody the message and carry it with them and be able to retell it. So spend time on them. But if that’s the only part of your message that’s not any good, then I will be the first to tell you join the club. I’m also bad at them.

Kay >> Yeah, I do need to cut back on the number of slides I have. I know that. So next week I will not have as many slides as I had this past week.

Nika >> I love it. All right. #1, and I think this is one of those things that is true of anything you’re doing in the Lord.

#1 – “Forget that ultimately only God can move through what you say.”

God is the one living and moving and feeding and nourishing. And it’s amazing that not only is he working through you, but he’s also working through the people listening to you. And this is how I know this is true, is one, I remember I taught one time to a very large audience, and as soon as I stepped off the stage, I was like, I didn’t love it. I want another shot. I feel I could have done that better. And three women excepted Christ that night. And I just thought Well, how? I mean, but again, it’s not you, and so that happened.

And then my favorite is when people come up to me and go, you said X, Y, and Z, and that changed my life. And you look at your notes and you look at the recording, you didn’t say X, Y, and Z. God clearly was speaking to them in ways, you’re like, that wasn’t one of my points, but I’m so glad it ministered to you. And so this is God’s work in your life, and you will be amazed at what God does despite you. You’ll be amazed at what God does through you, and it takes the pressure off of you. You just have to be faithful. You don’t have to do anything else but be faithful. And God will do all the work.

Kay >> Absolutely. It’s good to remind us about that when we think it was really terrible. And then, something happens like three women were saved. I’m not sure I’ve ever had anything quite that big happen, but, somehow God spoke to somebody and they tell you about it. And you had finished by thinking, I hated this.

Nika >> Yeah.

Kay >> Or even gone into it thinking, I really don’t like what I’m saying. I’ve never arrived at something I’m really happy with and my time’s up. I’ve got to say this. This is the only message I have and then you discover that maybe it was God’s message all along because he said something through it.

Nika >> Yeah. Isn’t it amazing when God, I think that’s the thrill of getting to participate with God on mission, is he really doesn’t need us. I mean, he really doesn’t. And, you know, the ways that God has communicated throughout history and through people, but he wants to. He wants to use you and me and you, dear listener.

And when we come to the Lord to say this is what I got, I gave it my best. I prepared, I was faithful. I did what I felt like God was calling me to do. And if I’m honest, I don’t think it’s the most winsome, I don’t think it’s the most sparkly. I think it’s a B, B+. And then someone comes to you with tears in their eyes and say, I really needed this this morning, and you think gosh, what an unbelievable gift, that God let’s just be a part of that.

And so maybe that’s the last thing I just want to say to you listening is you get to be a part of one of the most amazing things in the entire world. That God would allow you to be on mission with him. It’s such a privilege. And we have to steward it well. Which is part of what we’re doing with this top 10 list. There is a responsibility of stewardship. But you also just get to sit back and watch God do things that you couldn’t do in your own power. And that is such an amazing front row seat to get to watch.

Kay >> Amen. Amen.
Well, with that, we will wrap this up because I think we’ve covered some really great things and we could have probably had a list of 20 if we really wanted to have something very long. But if you’re out there and you’re a teacher, if you have questions about this, if you need help, just contact us at BeyondOrdinaryWomen.org. I’d love to talk to you about it. We may have some other resources we can give you, but the main thing is if God’s called you to do it, you just need to step in and step up and begin doing it and doing it to the best of your abilities and knowing that it’s really God anyway.

So thank you, Nika. This was a fun topic. I enjoyed it a lot.

We have other videos and podcasts on teaching. We’d love to have you look at those. If you go to BeyondOrdinaryWomen.org, look at the menu at the top on Resources and go down to Teaching the Bible. You can find it. Don’t worry, you can find it. It’s not that hard. Because we have a number of resources in that area.

We hope you’ll join us again and browse at BeyondOrdinaryWomen.org. Nika and I have a number of episodes. We’ve talked about all sorts of interesting things, and you can find those there as well.