wfn.org | Taiwan: Let go of being "The Teacher" and join your students

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

Taiwan Church News 2590  October 21, 2001
Reported by Wang Huei-chu, Written by David Alexander
    People who have taught Sunday School in Taiwan for some time often
testify to two feelings: That students are harder and harder to teach,
and that they are fewer and fewer.  Liou Ching-yan, who has taught
Sunday School at Taichung's Tung-Rong Presbyterian Church for many
years, suggests that if one really does not want to alienate the
children who come to Sunday School, one must give up "The Teacher" role
and focus on the with one's students.
    Liou began leading Sunday school when he was only 14 years old.  Even
when he left Taichung to study university and graduate school in Taipei,
he didn't give up teaching.  He sees himself in the Sunday school
setting not as "The Teacher" but as his students' spiritual companion.
"Good leaders are flexible, not reciting the teachers' guide line by
line and leading songs and verse memorization, but using whatever
methods most fit leading children to faith. We need to act this way
because faith is not something spoken with the mouth, it is something
lived out in our lives." The most important thing to do when leading
children is to try and see things from their angle so both students and
teacher make discoveries together.
      A recent survey of Sunday School age students found that 72% of
them world rather be elsewhere.  Churches are less and less part of the
society at large, so children are less and less part of churches.  "In
the past most Presbyterian churches in Taiwan had Vacation Bible School
in the summer.  Recently we see less of that, and more of weekend
programs on Saturday.  This is a good thing.  The buildings need to be
open so that children can come in and play. Adults will follow the
children."
     From his many years of leading children in and into faith, Liou
observes, "Picture books and coloring books are the most useful tools.
Through story telling we can make the contents meaningful to the
children, linking the story to daily life.  If we just tell a bible
story to tell it, so that children learn it, they will be bored. But if
we can link the story to their daily life, they will be happy to hear
this one and more of them."
For More Information: Tung-rong Presbyterian Church
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