Teacher’s Training

LEARNING TO TEACH GOD’S ECONOMY

IN AN EXPERIENTIAL WAY, AND
CONVERTING DOCTRINE INTO EXPERIENCE
Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 1:3-4; 2:4; 3:15; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; 2:2, 15, 22, 25
I. When you help the young people, do not give them a lot of doctrines; instead, give
them something practical:
A. We should not put too much emphasis on doctrines, not only when we have
personal contact with them but also when we are preaching the gospel or giving
messages to them.
B. Because young people have many practical problems, we need to spend some
time to study the problems of the young people in their practical living; then what you
speak is practical and related to the practical matters that you have touched in their
lives.
II. In teaching the truth to the young people, we need to learn how to teach God’s
economy in an experiential way—1 Tim. 1:3-4; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; 2:2, 22:
A. The teaching in the New Testament is focused on God’s economy; however
through the centuries there have been many teachings that have not been on God’s
economy; we must learn from history not to teach anything other than God’s economy
—1 Tim. 1:3-4:
1. The Greek word for economy means “household law” and implies
distribution; this word denotes a household management, a household
administration, a household government, and, derivatively, a dispensation, a plan, or
an economy for administration (distribution); hence, it is a household economy—v.
4; Eph. 1:10; 3:9.
2. There are many other matters in the Bible, such as the law, history and the
prophecies, which can become distractions to us; some are distracted from God’s
economy through their readings of the Psalms or Proverbs.
3. As we teach in the Summer School of Truth, we should not have any
burden, any view, or any vision other than God’s economy; in our teaching we
should know only one thing—God’s economy.
B. In order for us to be those who are competent to teach God’s economy and fulfill
our commission, we have to be on fire; this is the reason Paul reminded Timothy to
“fan into flame the gift of God,” which was in him—2 Tim. 1:6; 2:2:
1. God has given us two precious things—His divine life and His divine
Spirit; now we need to fan the gift of God into flame:
a. The first step in fanning the gift is not to exercise; the first step is
to open all the “doors” and “windows”; we need to open our entire being—our
mind, emotion, and will, our entire soul, our heart, and even our spirit.
b. Those who teach in the Summer School of Truth must open their
entire being so that the “draft” may come in; the Spirit is in us already, but we
need to fan the fire, the Spirit, into flame.
2. If our being is closed, we need to call on the name of the Lord Jesus; as we
call on the Lord, we open not only our mouth but also our spirit and our heart; then
 the draft will come in, and that will fan into flame the eternal life and the eternal
Spirit within us—v. 22.
C. If we would go to our class in the Summer School of Truth with a flame, we must
be a person of prayer; if we are such a person, we will bring a spirit of prayer, an
atmosphere of prayer, to our class.
III. Once we have an atmosphere of prayer, we are now ready to teach, not in a
doctrinal way but in an experiential way; by doing this we will turn our teaching
from doctrine to experience; this experiential fellowship will deeply impress the
young people:
A. We should not ask our students merely to remember and recite all the points
related to the lesson; that would be to teach in a doctrinal way:
1. If we would teach in an experiential way, we should help the young people
to realize their situation and condition.
2. We must learn in our teaching to touch others experientially; we must
apply every point of our teaching to their personal, practical situation.
B. When we teach a class in the Summer School of Truth, we should not take the
way of giving messages or lectures; instead, we need to have personal talks with the
young people, teaching every point experientially:
1. Every point of the lesson should be presented in a way that will create an
experiential impression; apply every point to their actual situation.
2. As we are talking with them, we should be watchful over each one, paying
particular attention to their expressions; this will help us to know the needs of our
students.
C. If you want to stir up a praying spirit in the person with whom you are speaking,
you yourself must be a person who is full of the praying spirit; adequate prayer will
accomplish at least three things: it will impress the young people in an experiential way
with the points of the lesson, stir up the praying spirit within them, and cause them to
become living.
IV. In order to teach in an experiential way, we must convert every point in the lesson
from doctrine into experience; after making such a conversion during our time of
preparation, we should then speak to the young people about each point in the way of
experience:
A. The more we speak in this way, the more they will be unveiled; they will see a
vision that will expose them, and spontaneously they will be ushered into the
experience of the very matter we have been presenting.
B. If we teach in the way of merely imparting doctrines from the printed materials,
we will do nothing more than impart some knowledge to the minds of our students; as a
result, they will gain nothing in an experiential way:
1. The knowledge they gain may damage them; later, on another occasion,
when they hear that word, they might say, “I know this already; I heard all about it
in the Summer School of Truth.”
2. We must not damage the young people by giving them mere knowledge;
in order to profit them with the truth, we must always teach them in an experiential
way.
V. Before we begin to teach the young people in the Summer School of Truth, we
ourselves need to receive Paul’s inoculation and be filled, soaked, and saturated with
the truth—1 Tim. 2:4; 3:15; 2 Tim. 2:15, 25:
A. The word truth has been wrongly understood by many readers of the Bible
because they regard truth as a matter of doctrine; in the New Testament truth refers not
to doctrine but to the real things revealed in the New Testament concerning Christ and
the church according to God’s New Testament economy—1 Tim. 2:4; cf. 1 John 1:6.
B. The element of the inoculation against the decline is the structure of the divine
truth; the structure of the divine truth is the Triune God plus His redemption, which
becomes our salvation.
C. The general subject of the first series of lessons in the Summer School of Truth is
God’s full salvation; the full salvation of God is actually equal to the truth, because the
Triune God with His all-inclusive redemption is the structure of the truth.
D. As we prepare ourselves to teach, we should not merely put our trust in the lesson
book; we need to immerse ourselves in the truth concerning God’s full salvation.
( Raising Up the Next Generation for the Church Life, Lesson 24).