SABBATH SCHOOL QUARTER OVERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR - PR MARK FINLEY: HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS FOR GOD

this is a very special uh presentation uh by pastor mark finley and pastor mark finley is one of those people who do not need a lot of introduction because i'm sure all of you that are watching this presentation know pastor mark finley god has used pastor mark finley for many years to bring people to the lord and i am so excited about the summer school lesson that we are beginning to study we actually began to study it yesterday making friends for god making friends for god and this is about the joy of sharing jesus our best friend with our friends and so pastor mark finley is going to share with us how we can use this special tool to bring people to the foot of the cross to tell others about jesus our best friend pastor mark finley thank you for joining us today well thank you pastor kenos i am just absolutely um delighted to be able to share from my studies the sabbath school lesson material for this quarter you know when you prepare a sabbath school lesson it's probably one of the most significant things you do for the church so i take it very seriously i've prepared now i'm actually writing another series on the three angels messages for a couple of years from now we usually at the general conference uh prepare the lessons about three years ahead of time and they are carefully vetted by different committees editors look at the grammar and the construction the there are those that look at the theology of the lessons we want to be sure that they flow correctly and after having written three quarterlys and i think i've written about four teachers quarterly's it's one of the most serious things i do because i recognize that the entire church will be studying them you would be interested to know it takes about a week of time to write one lesson so if you commit to write the lessons you're committing about three months of your time anyway to just really think through and prayerfully look at it do the research necessary the writing of the lessons is quite technical because you have about 3000 words there's an introduction of about 350 words on sabbath afternoon's lesson 325 to 350 then each daily lesson is about 425 words and then you come to your last on friday where you have your research your extra reading material and that's about 325. so each of the sabbath school lessons is about 3 000 words if you write the teacher's edition you add about another 1500 words to that this particular quarter the title of the lessons is making friends for god the joy of sharing in god's witness and what i'd like to do this morning is give you an overview of the lessons and then go back and look at lesson number one in somewhat detail from there we will go into five teaching tips things that i have found in my own teaching of the sabbath school lessons that are really really helpful and then we're going to look at three ways to build the sabbath school attendance i recognize that i am talking to division sabbath school leaders and union sabbath school leaders and what i'm sharing with you i hope will be helpful as you share this with your conference and union union conference personnel and also local sabbath school teachers so let's bow our heads to pray then we'll launch right in father in heaven how much we thank you for the opportunity of partnering with you in mission we're thankful that mission is god's and that you've called us to joyfully cooperate with you as we reach out to touch others for your kingdom thank you for this quarter's lessons we pray that they would make a difference in our local churches that as the result of these lessons members would have a new zeal for witnessing that they would become on fire for christ we already see many of our churches come alive and make and share your love with their friends neighbors and make an impact on their community in christ's name amen a number of years ago i was sitting in a pastor's meeting and after the meeting was over talking to some of my colleagues i was young at the time and i had the world's burden on my shoulders i i felt that god had called adventist ministers to finish the work and uh it was a great burden for me i remember going door-to-door if people would not respond as i went door-to-door if they would shut their their the door on me and not invite me in to have a bible study i would feel so defeated holding evangelistic meetings if very few came i'd feel defeated and an older pastor and i were talking and he made a comment that really was life transformational for me and this is what he said he said mission is always god's before we ever pass out literature give out a book give a bible study share our personal testimony hold a child evangelism or health meeting he said god is already at work in the community and god is at work through his holy spirit to save as many people as possible and our work is to cooperate with god and god has given us the privilege and the joy of cooperating with him our role is to work with god in what he's already doing that made such a difference in my life an amazing difference because i began to sense that god was already at work in the community and that god was moving powerfully in those communities and that my work is to see where god is working and cooperate with him in his work that is the motivation behind the lesson quarterly this quarter lesson quarterly entitled making friends for god the joy of sharing in his mission you know in luke 19 verse 10 it says the son of man has come to seek and save that which is lost so jesus is the premier soul winner he left the joy and glory of heaven he plunged into this snake pit of the world to save humanity and he's doing everything he can to save every human being let's look at the 13 different lessons just briefly and then i'll come back and spend a little time on the first lesson before we go into our teaching tips the each lesson is designed to give a deeper understanding of the aspect of witness so the first lesson this week the first lesson of the quarter why witness if god is doing everything he can to reach every human being possible why should we witness it all why don't we just let god do it i address that in the first lesson does our witness make any difference are we witnessing simply so that we will feel better and grow spiritually which we will as i show in the lesson or does our witness make a salvation difference if our witness makes a salvation difference if witnessing leads people to christ and his eternal kingdom is god unfair and unjust if we don't witness um will people be lost so i look at all those questions and i think it's fundamental the second lesson wins some witnesses the power of personal testimony in a secular post-modern culture what many in the youth generation the millennial generation and others are looking for authenticity um they want to know something authentic he they may argue with his theology but if they see a person who's been transformed by the grace of christ a person who has been one by jesus and their lives are different they're kinder more compassionate it's difficult to argue with that so you can have all the witnessing techniques in the world but if you don't have christ living in your heart if it hasn't changed your own personal life your witness will fall on deaf ears so that's why the second lesson is designed to power personal testimony third lesson seeing people through jesus eyes jesus saw people as winnable jesus saw the woman caught in adultery not as a prostitute but as a pure woman who had been abused jesus saw the thief on the cross as a good boy that went bad jesus saw peter uh not as a loudmouth fisherman but as a mighty proclaimer of the gospel at pentecost jesus saw thomas not as a doubter but as a missionary who ultimately went to india see jesus saw people differently so we focus there in the third lesson on um mark the eighth chapter the second touch where jesus touches the eyes again and people see now not trees walking the men sees not trees walking around but he sees now uh everybody really then lesson four prayer power interceding for others if christ is doing everything he can to reach people why pray for people what what's the theology of intercessory prayer and we talk about the controversy between good and evil and that god has given people freedom of choice and that god respects our freedom of choice as we pray for others and that prayer makes a difference lesson number five is spirit empowered witnessing how you can witness in the power of the holy spirit witnessing when it becomes merely humanistic to achieve certain statistical results is powerless but when the holy spirit fills your life and you do spirit-filled witnessing it makes a difference unlimited possibilities in that chapter in that lesson and unlimited possibilities i talk about spiritual gifts and this is what i point out that witnessing is not a spiritual gift witnessing is a role spiritual gifts are given by god to accomplish that role and they're given to every believer so we may not all share in the same way we may not all witness in the same way not everybody goes door-to-door not everybody gives bible studies but many more can obviously than do and we bring that out but every one of us have been given gifts as christians to be a witness for christ and we point that out sharing the word is a very practical lesson on the power of god's word and how god's word changes our lives god's word makes us over again and how as we share that word we plant the seed of the word in the soil of the mind i remember a wonderful story about george whitefield the english preacher who was riding on horseback and in those days there were no hotels and as he traveled preaching he went from house to house and preached in fields whitfield was a great field preacher wesley organized the small groups whitefield living at about the same time preached in fields whitfield would preach to 20 000 people at a time and one day he was welcomed into a very wealthy home that didn't know christ and he stayed he slept in the upstairs chamber that they would call it those days one of these english mansions and he just prayed that night lord how can i lead this family to jesus and he noticed a diamond ring that this wealthy lady had left on a dresser and when he woke up in the morning he took that diamond ring and he scratched into the window pane one thing thou lackest and he scratched that with this diamond ring these words one thing now lacquest in the window pane he left the maid came up to make the bed and she was aghast you know she was just astounded look at those words one thing thou lackest and she called the lady of the house and he said i don't like anything i mean look at this state if i did lack anything my husband so richard buy it for me the woman was angry that whitfield had scratched those words into the glass um i'm not suggesting you do that in your next bible study incidentally but anyway um so when the lady's husband came home that night she said look what whitfield did what are those words and our husband remembered that those were words of the bible the story the rich young ruler one thing you lack and they looked the story up they found it in the bible and they got on their knees that night and they wept they just wept and wept and wept and gave their hearts to jesus whitfield tells that story the words of the bible make a difference you take the word of god and you plant it in the soul in the mind to people and it changes them other other words are it may be inspiring but the bible is inspired the creative power i love that statement in education 126 roman white says the creative power that brought the world into existence is in the word of god when you share the word of god the bible has the power to transform people's life because it's a creative word it creates that which it declares what god says is so even if it were never so before because when god says that it is so god says let there be light and light appears because the audible word going out of god's mouth becomes tangible matter god's word creates that which it declares so when you help a person for example you read to them first john 1 9 that says if any man forget if if we confess our sins he forgives them that's not such simply a legislative action up in heaven but the but what god does is he creates confession and he creates a freedom from guilt in their heart so when we read the bible and accept it by faith the living word of god comes into our life and it creates that which god's declares when we read second corinthians 5 17 if any man is in christ he's a new creature a new creation and we accept that that text itself inspired by god as we put it in our hearts the holy spirit takes that and he creates a new heart in us so god's word is powerful so we talk about in lesson seven lesson eight ministering like jesus we talk about the physical mental and spiritual healing that christ gives and we talk about witnessing is is more than simply sharing a text but witnessing is the total ministry to human beings it's caring for them and loving them and developing a winning attitude the more you believe that people are not winnable the less you're going to win and so we talk about the fact there in that lesson that our attitude toward our communities our attitude toward others makes all the difference in our witness i've been in churches that have said nobody is interested here and they don't grow when we did a survey at andrews university in the 1980s and found out the number one factor for the growth of the church it was called the self-fulfilling prophecy churches that believe they're not going to grow don't grow and churches believe that they are going to grow grow now we may grow at different rates you may grow at a different rate in tanzania than you do in london you may grow at a different rate in london than you do in sao paulo you may grow at a different rate in sao paulo that you do in chicago or l.a in new york so we're not suggesting that growth is going to take place the same speed at every place but every church can grow and so we talk about the fact developing a winning attitude and we look at biblical attitudes of what particularly in the book of acts lesson 10 an exciting way to get involved that's a lesson on small groups the importance of small group ministry and how to get involved in it sharing the story of jesus practically how do you share with others the christ you know lesson 12 a message worth sharing that is how is the adventist message unique uh in sharing how can you present a christ-centered message filled with truth and that's the three angels message and then a step in faith how do you how can you personally take steps in faith when your knees are knocking your hands are trembling and you're concerned about witness how do you take that step in faith how do you make that leap so that's the 13 lessons now i'd like to go back and take a little look at lesson number one that's coming up on why witness and i should mention to you that i would really suggest that you get the teachers quarterly as well what is the difference between the regular quarterly and the teachers quarterly the regular quarterly will go through the lesson as i've suggested an introduction on sabbath afternoon five lessons of content from sunday through friday and then um at the end of the lesson on friday sunday through thursday we actually have the five lessons that on friday there is more material to study it's kind of more resources on friday in the teacher's edition you have first an overview of the lesson that you can read very quickly and it will enable you to understand the overview of that lesson then there's a commentary and that's usually an in-depth section on a particular passage and then there's life application with with them with illustrations so the teacher's edition is very very helpful now let's look at the first lesson that our teachers will be teaching this coming sabbath the quest the lesson is why witness and i outline starting with sunday's lesson there's a brief introduction and i outline a basic theology of witness trying to answer the question of why witness if god is already working through nature to touch people if god is already working through the holy spirit to touch people if god is already working through providences why witness and the central theme of that lesson is we do not witness to provide people their only opportunity to be saved whether i witness to a person or not god can still reach them so i don't witness to give people their only opportunity to be saved we witness to give people their best opportunity to be saved follow me closely nature is very confusing the sun that ripens the crops also produces famine the rose also has thorns upon it the gentle breezes that can so refresh us also can become tornadoes so although the heavens declare the glory of god the heavens also declare conflict and they can they they they declare destruction tornadoes hurricanes strife so nature is an inadequate revelation of god we see the controversy between good and evil in nature but we do not and we can see god's love but we also see this conflict in nature the the the impressions of the spirit are always through a defiled conscience so i can be confused at these inner impressions the providences of life i see good around me i see love around me but i also see hate around me i see openness and receptivity but i also see prejudice and bigotry so when you look at life can god save people without our witness he can but love motivates us to want to give people their best opportunity and where do we give people their best opportunity the best opportunity for people to be saved is to see a revelation of god's love and a revelation of god's truth in scripture and so therefore we out of love desire to give people their best opportunity to be saved now if you look at the book of romans and i point this out here at the end of sunday's lessons in romans 1 paul's point is not that the gentiles are saved because they see a revelation of god in nature his point is that is not sufficient enough and although god reveals himself in nature they're lost in romans 2 the jews who have a have the oracles of god paul says they're also lost because they've rebelled against them in romans 3 all humanity is lost so romans 1 the gentiles are lost romans 2 the jews are laws romans 3 all humanity is lost romans 4 to 6 is salvation comes by faith in christ romans 6 through 8 salvate the same christ that justifies us sanctifies us then you come to romans 10 and it says how are they going to know this except there be a preacher a witness see so paul's point is that all humanity is lost without a revelation of christ so this salvation coin has two sides one side is god's side the sovereignty of god who god saves who's never heard the name of christ that's up to god can muslims and hindus be saved who've never heard the name of christ yes not through hinduism or islam but through jesus but who god saves in his sovereignty is up to him but the other side of that coin is the priority that god has given the church and from our perspective we want to give people the best opportunity to know his love so therefore we witness we we believe that there'll be people in heaven because of our witness that wouldn't be there otherwise then i go into in monday's lesson making jesus glad why witness first to give people the best opportunity to be saved second because witnessing brings joy to the heart of god you know the bible doesn't say there's any joy because we had more committees the bible doesn't say there's any joy because we bought a new organ and built a fancy church the bible says that joy comes to the heart of god when people accept his love a lost sheep is found and there's joy a lost coin is found and there's joy a lost boy comes home and there's joy in a world where god is sad because of the heartache and suffering and sorrow we can make jesus glad that's why we witness to bring joy to his heart over salvation um tuesday's lesson i talk about we grow as we witness the more we love jesus the more we're gonna witness and the more we witness the more we're gonna love jesus and i've included a statement that i think is a very powerful statement in desire of ages 142 that's in tuesday's lesson god could have reached his object in saving sinners without our aid but in order for us to develop a character like christ's we must share in his work in order for us to develop a character like christ witnessing stars selfishness to death witnessing starve selfishness to death and then on wednesday's lesson why witness because we're faithful to christ's command he has given us a command and we are unfaithful to that command the church is disobedient to christ if it does not if it is not concerned with what christ is concerned with any church that's lackadaisical about reaching its community is disobedient to christ jesus said in matthew 4 19 follow me and i will make you fishers of men if we're not interested in fishing for people soul winning we must not be following him too closely jesus said that it is his will first timothy 2 for all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth if we are not interested in what jesus is interested in we're disobedient to christ um thursday's lesson motivated by love i cannot say i love jesus and not love my community i can't say i love jesus and not love my neighbor so we talk about motivation by love and then friday's lesson we put some further thoughts so that is an overview of the first lesson an overview of making friends for god the joy of sharing in his mission now what are some very practical tips that you can share with sabbath school teachers i have found about five teaching tips that i keep in mind when i teach personally so i'm just gonna open my heart with you and share with you some of the ways that i think we can sharpen the skills of our teachers some of these may be new and some of them may be familiar the first suggestion that i make to teachers is on sabbath afternoon or sunday don't worry about starting to do your lessons simply sit down and read the lesson for the week through it'll take you about one hour don't worry about looking up the texts don't worry about writing anything just that first time sit down and read the lesson through just like you're reading it it is 3 000 words it'll take you 45 minutes to an hour if you're not doing much detailed study now why do i make that suggestion by doing that you have an overview of the entire lesson i remember when i was teaching at the lake union soul-winning institute later to become the north american division institute of soul winning uh for the north american division i um often would we were we're in chicago at the time we were there from 1979 to 1985 and often i would fly out of chicago and chicago's an amazing city it's laid out in blocks uh every eight blocks is a mile in chicago and so i would fly back into the city at night and it was marvelous i mean i can still remember sitting in the plane and looking down at the twinkling lights of chicago and there's something about an overview of that city i've driven the streets of chicago i've held 15 evangelistic meetings in that city raised up church in the city and so forth but i i i i always thrill it writing flying into chicago so the first thing you do that i like to do is just read the whole lesson it takes me about 45 minutes to an hour i might do it on a sabbath afternoon after i've read it i pretty well now know where this lesson is going i think about it meditate about it and pray about it then i come back in my second step so the first step is read the lesson through early in the week thoughtfully consider prayerfully consider what the lesson's gonna be about and i like our teachers to do that now the second thing that we do is we begin studying the lesson and as we study the lesson day by day in that lesson we study it carefully of course and thoughtfully but i want to show you from my quarterly that how we do this as i'm studying the lesson day by day and i'll show you this page what i am doing is writing in the margin here any key thoughts that i have so that when i'm teaching i don't have to go here to the content necessarily because i'm reading i'm i'm writing down key thoughts so let me give you an example providing opportunities for salvation that's this coming week lesson one i simply wrote down holy spirit nature providence and so i talk about the fact that god's impressing people with his holy spirit he's impressing him through nature he's impressive through providence and so that helps me as a guide so i'm writing down in the margin key thoughts maybe a question that i want to engage the class in uh maybe a uh illustration that i want to use so in addition to doing the lesson and writing the answers here i'm writing key thoughts here in the margin so that as we do it day by day now the third thing that i'm doing is writing one sentence at the top of the page that summarizes that particular week so for example in providing opportunities for salvation i simply wrote god is leading us to cooperate with him in his mission what is the central thought that i want them to get that day so early in the week i'll read the whole lesson through usually on sabbath afternoon or sunday on then begin studying day by day writing notes in the margin then summarizing the lesson on top with one sentence the major one the key sentence then this sabbath school is not a lecture it is a class so i want to be able to generate discussion in class there's two dangers one people sit there and they expect you to give to do all the talking like a mini sermon but there is a second problem and that is the person who talks too much the person wants to dominate the class so how do you generate class discussion class participation without having people either sit there or with people just simply um dominating the discussion i i've developed some ways to do that and so i'm going to give you three or four ways to generate class discussion which is my fourth point my first point is read the lesson through in one sitting and get a grasp of it second point is begin studying each lesson and write notes in the margin questions illustrations third point is summarize the daily lesson by writing something on the top of the the key theme fourth point is generate class discussion or participation of five ways one way i do that is if i notice the class is kind of quiet and they're not coming out i will say um because by now you know the people in your class i just say and i know who likes to read who doesn't like to read i'll say john can you read such and such a text for us or let's underline the following statement by ellen white and mary can you please read that statement in class would you underline now what does that do it gets people familiar with speaking in class it opens them up they're not making a commitment but they're they're reading so that's one way you can begin class discussion early in the class you can have some people beginning to read a text or a statement if you notice it's a little quiet um i write questions as i've said in the margin and i like to ask why questions and i'll give you examples um so i might be going along and we might be talking about witnessing and i've written this question why do you think people are reluctant to witness why do you think that god invites us to be so actively involved in witness why do you think at times let's suppose i'm talking we're talking in that second lesson about um sharing your testimony and we're on week number two and i might say why do you think it's so important in a postmodern generation to share your testimony so why questions are critical you can ask a lot of why questions why do you think um god leads us to pray for souls if he's already actively involved in working with them through his holy spirit why pray for so you're drawing out your class so why questions then what questions i like to ask why questions what questions and how questions so um the what questions going like go something like this what do you think so you're asking them what they think see they don't have to know something i try to avoid knowledge questions in my teaching i answer the knowledge questions but i ask why questions what questions how questions so then and the class will come alive so we say in the what questions we go something like this what do you think is the reason why more people are not actively involved in witnessing um what do you think about that what do you think brings the greatest joy to god's heart um what do you think brings sorrow to god's heart or we might be talking about small groups and i might say what do you think was one of the best ways to organize your small groups so what questions so you're asking why questions what questions how questions the how questions go something like this we've just gone over now our questions we've just gone over our class in witnessing and we've talked about witnessing provide self salvation uh and best opportunity for salvation how do you think our class can be more active in reaching out to the community are there ways that you can be more sensitive in working with your community so we try to ask why what and how questions that'll typically generate quite a bit of discussion in fact a lot of discussion um then practically apply now i'll give you a couple examples of practically applying so if you want really here's some teaching tips read the lesson through begin studying the lesson each day and write your notes in the margin uh summarize each daily lesson by writing something at the top generate class questions by class discussion by asking your why what and how questions and then practically apply now what we have done in your lesson quarterly is giving you in green in the bottom like here you see hold it up right there these questions are designed for practical application so don't miss them as you go along these go for very practical applications so for example let's suppose we've just gotten through teaching june 30 on tuesday and i'll i'll save my class let's look at the bottom of our quarterly and spend a little time answering that question and sharing together what have been your experiences in witnessing to others praying with others ministering to the needs of others have these experiences impacted your own faith with the lord and then i might tell a story a friend of mine who's the elder of one of our churches in the midwest here in north america called me the other day and he was so incredibly excited he said mark uh john bradshaw of it is written and i have a real interest in that of course because i have been with it is written so many years and i'll be with john this week and john and i are going to do 13 lessons here in the teaching of sabbath school together but anyway so my friend who's an elder at the church fairly the church about 120 in the midwest of america calls me said mark i'm so excited he said our church participated in pastor brad's shores north american division evangelistic meetings and there's an interest that pastor bradshaw sent to us he's an hour and a half from my house now this man is a very successful businessman and he said i've drove to his place last week i found he was a former adventist he said i witnessed to him he's invited me back um and he said i'm on my way i have some questions for you can you help me and i did on the way back from the guy's house now understand this man is a businessman he's a very successful businessman in north america well-known and he said to me he said look on the way back from the guy's house he calls me said mark i'm so excited he said i'm so energized i said why are you so energized he said i just gave the guy a bible study and he's so excited he wants me to come back the next week so here is a businessman willing to drive three and a half hours an hour and 45 minutes each way totally excited about witness totally excited about sharing why because he had an experience personally that that did something for his life so i like to ask people i say to them look share with us an experience that has impacted your own faith and walk with the lord when people share if one or two people share in sabbath school what god has done for them in witness that inspires other people to witness my wife was teaching a witnessing class in denver colorado a number of years ago and she was teaching lay bible instructors which is her specialty and as she did she had these people give their testimonies well one lady said i don't have any bible studies that i'm going to drop out of the class my wife said that that's fine but why don't you stick with the class and so they went around came around to another lady and she said wow you won't believe this this last week i was out i got nine bible studies i'm so excited and she began sharing her testimony the first lady spoke up and said well hey you know what i think i want to stay in class the class members will inspire one another so these sections in green are really critical um on under wednesday july 1 what are the dangers to the church even a local church if it becomes so inwardly focused that it forgets what its purpose is to begin with so we we begin to see we want to draw them out in class so the green in the bottom are the practical questions that you can ask as you have as you have gone through the lesson now i want to go over one other section with you and then give you a chance to ask some questions and how do you increase sabbath school attendance what are some practical ways to increase sabbath school attendance and i call this the fcc principle you know in the united states we have something called the federal communication commission and the federal communication commission kind of guides all radio television etc and so i call this the fcc principle okay the first f is the f stands for focus focus you want to build sample school attendance i'll tell you a way to kill it i'll tell you a way not to do it just let your class discuss whatever they want don't worry too much about the lesson don't worry too much about going over the lesson and maybe allude to it occasionally but just have a big discussion people do not want to get together to pool their ignorance um oh i shouldn't have said it that way people don't want to get together just to discuss discuss discuss so focus the authors of your lesson have spent literally hundreds of hours designing it so stay with the lesson the lesson is an in-depth bible study it's the time that our people come that week not simply for a discussion to wander i have heard hundreds not a few but hundreds of having to say oh i want to go to this class because we really study the lesson so focus on the lesson go over it bring out principles if people feel they're growing in christ each week if they feel they're growing in the word they're going to come back secondly connect f is for focus the c is connection during the week connect with your people if i'm a sabbath school teacher i can send a simple email to each member saying i've been studying tuesday's lesson and this is really exciting for me here's what i learned it just could be one paragraph but connect during the week maybe a phone call during the week john how you doing i noticed you missed sabbath school last week and i was kind of concerned about your how you're doing connect connect with an email connect with a phone call if a person misses three weeks in a row is the teacher go and visit that person so connection is critical dr werner v meister tells an amazing story he was the dean of the theological seminary at andrews university a number of years ago and i remember he came to the north american division evangelism institute to teach a class for us teaching on small groups and he told this story that one of the members missed church that sabbath so dr v meister and his wife noticed that they missed and so they decided hey they're part of our group small group let's go visit them sabbath afternoon so it's about three o'clock after sabbath lunch he teaches kind of detected this group this couple may be discouraged so he went knocked on the door they welcomed him in they began to visit and about 20 minutes later the doorbell rang somebody else in the class came about 20 minutes later the doorbell rang somebody else in the class came and he said within an hour three couples from the class were visiting in that person's home telling them how much they cared do you think the person was back in church next week they sure were so connect connect connect focus on the lesson as a teacher secondly connect with your people during the week a bible study i'd rather a an email a phone call a visit thirdly community focus connection community what do we mean by community the sabbath school class becomes a community a community of friendship where we simply don't teach merely on sabbath but sabbath afternoon we invite our sabbath school class to our house and we have a a meal to a little meal together people bring their food maybe we we we play games after sabbath together we we try to create a community we in sabbath school think about projects what project can we do for our community um christmas comes let's adopt as a sabbath school class a family that we can do community with um bring uh gifts to an impoverished family we go to social services and we try to get it so the sabbath class becomes this community we choose a mission project as a sabbath school class something to support in mission it becomes community so those three things really build sabbath school when members know number one that they're going to have an in-depth bible study that they can participate in when number two we connect with them during the week uh through email through the uh through phone through visits and when the sabbath school class has that sense of community where we're together on projects and social events people are not going to want to miss they are going to want to come to your class now is if my time is correct we have about 10 minutes left and brother sam brother ramon what a joy it is to meet with this group and i'm anxious to ask some ques have them ask me some questions and so whatever questions you have about the preparation of the lessons the lessons themself uh you feel free to ask them and i want to do everything i can to help you in your division and in your unions to make a difference for christ in his kingdom finley thank you so much for that i've been making copious notes and we will be when we put this video out i'm sure there will be plenty of more questions on youtube as uh people ask uh nuances of what you mentioned we have 300 participants here we've maxed out and i want to see if we can see that in the video we have people from all over the world that are here many of them don't have their video on as they're just listening as you can see the list doesn't seem to end let's go back to the video uh feed over here if people have a question i have a association astecca wants to ask a question so i'm going to find them here and i'm going to unmute them go ahead hello pastor finley it's a privilege to listen your presentation and thank you we enjoyed we were taking some notes and just leaving here okay faster it's a challenge to motivate the members of the class to study it's a challenge you have mentioned focus connect community how can we make how can we make to motivate to inspire the members to go to the lesson to study to go deeper and to attend to the class to participate which method do you think can work better thank you very much for raising that question and it is a very practical question i think it's something that you struggle with my brother not only in mexico but all over the world and i do think that there are some principles that help us um number one i think that if we are able to do in-depth quality teaching that is going to motivate much more study i think also if at the end of the lesson so for example let's suppose i am teaching the first lesson on why witness when i come to the end of that lesson i want to give a brief resume of next week's lesson and encourage my class to study it in other words rather than ending lesson one with ending i will simply say now next week class we're going to study wins of witnesses the power of personal testimony let me tell you a little bit about that lesson and what we're going to do so encourage your teachers to take three minutes or so at the end of the lesson to promote next week's lesson and to motivate people to come next week studying that lesson so i think that's one way is promo at the end of one lesson so they can study another one i think there's another way and that is using text messaging on a key point of the lesson that you have studied so for example if i'm studying this first week and i'm studying the lesson growing by giving i may send a simple text that simply says something like this you know class i was amazed as i studied john chapter 7 verse 38 and it i was impressed again that christ is the living water that fills our lives and flows from our lives with his satisfying grace i know this week i want to be filled with grace so i can give god's grace what about you so just a very simple um so the second thing i recommend is connection during the week i think that's really important because a lot of people if they don't have the habit of studying their sabbath school lesson they're gonna forget it and they're gonna they're gonna forget that the third thing i think is is this that you can do i would spend a little time at the beginning of my sabbath school class teaching people how to study we call this seeing with a pencil or seeing with a pen my pen are my eyes i see with this pen so i teach the people how when you are studying now you'll look here okay how when you're studying how to write in the margin how you see here i've got some text circled how to circle the text how to write notes and so i think these three things are going to help you a great deal a promo at the end of your lesson to motivate them to study the next week a the ability of connecting with them during the week with little text messages and thirdly the first lesson of the quarter spend a moment or two show them your sabbath school quarterly show them how to underline show them how to write in the margin sure and once they get involved in studying it's going to become an exciting time for them i'm sure there must be some other questions thank you thank you thank you so much pastor finley will sure this will be valuable to motivate our classes and our membership here in mexico thank you thank you sam we may have some more questions so tell mike all yours yeah thank you dr philly excellent seminar i appreciate it just to add to what you said on the sabbath afternoon the judge reading over the lesson the whole lesson of south africa is it possible also to encourage us to read all the bible references on the sabbath afternoon and to take a note of the main points of the bible from the bible references that gives you a a general understanding of the theological unders perspective of the lesson is that something useful yes very useful brother telemark good to see you again my friend we haven't seen one another for a little while i'm so glad to see you yes i often do that as well that's another way to do it in other words there's you have two options i mean you can blend them certainly they're blended they're not mutually exclusive you read the whole lesson get a view of it but sometimes it's very valuable and i've often done that uh brother talmud you simply read the texts that are listed because you know um at the beginning of each lesson at the beginning of each lesson for that week you're going to find read for this week and if you read those texts i'll often read them and write them down or i will read them and underline them in my bible that will give you a very good overview and that's a very good point thank you for bringing it up okay thank you excellent next pastor kirk thomas yes uh thank you very much uh elder finley for your presentation i greet you from the united kingdom um i would like to ask you about some of the techniques that you have suggested can these be used for millennials you know that we have a problem in our church with um the millennials coming out being engaged in sabbath school etc etc any tips along that line is there anything that you have said can we apply et cetera thank you sure thank you very much i think one of the things about millennials is that last point that i made in teaching tips in building the attendance rather for sabbath school and that is community millennials really identify with community and so my own thought is on that is if you have for example a friday night meeting with millennials where you eat a little bit together you have something together you sit share the sabbath school lesson the uh and i think community is really important to millennials um and uh projects millennials love projects they love to get involved working with the disadvantaged the underprivileged the poor if you make that an object of your sabbath school i think that bonds that will help them to come out the other thing i think we have to be careful about is dumbing down our millennial generation and that is to say there's a lot of studies that indicate i was i was looking at some stuff by tom raynor who wrote uh the book on reaching the unchurched myths about the unchurched myths about the post-modern mind and raynor this group did a survey on the unchurched and he asked why are you what is the leading reason that brought you back to church he took a look at the people that were coming back to church that were unchurched and um the people that who had been post-modern secular and they said the biblical preaching the pastor and they said basically don't dumb us down um don't give us a few sweet pious platitudes and a few stories so i really think that if we're going to reach the millennial generation we need to create a strong biblical foundation that challenges them intellectually like josh mcdonald said i interviewed josh mcdonald a number of years ago on it is written and he wrote a book called christians don't have to check their brains at the door so um i think a very rational intelligent approach that is solidly biblical to millennials will really challenge them to think and second providing community for them a real warm caring loving community and thirdly getting them actively involved in some mission project i think that will help i don't think there's any single answer but i think those things will certainly help i notice you're welcome thank you for asking that was a great question um i noticed it's 10 o'clock i'm anxious to go as long as you want to go but sam i want to be respectful um to the time that you've reserved and so tell me how much time we have thankfully youtube doesn't kick us out as television would so we have a few more minutes let's give a few more minutes now that things are are beginning to get there um we i we will go next to marshana let me spotlight the video here good morning how do you help yourself and others to overcome the fear of witnessing thank you very much is it marshana marshana where are you from mashanna jamaica oh jamaica so you are going to have peas and rice or rice and peas for today could be rice and peas rice and peas uh that's good jamaican food i know i know and plantain too fried plantain yes i just had evangelistic news not a year or two ago in montego bay with just a wonderful experience mike mashona um yeah how do you overcome the fear of witnessing first you begin simply if if you can't give a bible study you feel so uncomfortable in doing that just initially give people a piece of literature that you know when you read something that has an impact on you suppose you read a track that has an impact on you we'll never give out a track that we haven't read so we have a little track and i start with a neighbor that i know and so you know joanna you know margie you know mary i read this little track it was really i really liked it a lot i just wanted to give you a copy so you do something very simple you start simply by maybe giving out a track maybe giving out the missionary book of the year that's number one number two jesus brought his disciples with him for three and a half years and after they had been with him for a little while he sent them out by themselves but he didn't send them out by themselves he sent them out two by two so you first begin marciana very simply by giving out something like a track or something secondly you then begin looking for somebody in your church that can mentor you somebody that's giving bible studies an older sister in your church one of these bible workers and you say i know jamaica's got some amazing bible work and you say can i go with you i just want to sit and listen and occasionally you read a text that's the second thing now there's a third thing you may find in your witnessing that god calls you to witness to young people god may call you to a health ministry so you begin to he may call you to a bible study ministry so you ask god god i want to be involved in your work more directly and as you pray about it ask god to impress you with the particular area of witness that he wants you to be involved in so start simply find a mentor and then thirdly find the area of witness the venue of witness that god wants you to witness and i know the lord has given you gifts and i know that he will help you and help and help you overcome others in the fear of witnessing thank you thank you uh next uh hensley morovian elder morovan are you there oh yes yes i'm here good morning good morning hensley it's good to hear your voice oh good good to see you too pastor mark you know that my my heart is in evangelism and cyber school pastor mark i have a quick question um friendship in itself has never won anybody to christ rather friendship creates an atmosphere conducive for for people to be led to christ do you agree with that statement pastor mark and in the context of this quarters lesson study can you expand on it how we can use friendship to create the atmosphere thank you sure you notice that the title of the lessons my dear brother is beyond making friends it's called making friends for god so that that that nuance is significant and then the joy of sharing in his mission so i like to put it this way we make a friend then we make a christian friend then we make a seventh-day adventist christian friend amen we make a friend we make a christian friend then we make a seventh-day adventist christian friend and i agree with you friendship you know um i can be friends with people that i am in a biking club with i can be friends with people that um play golf i can be friends with people that i jog with they're at an exercise club or so simply because i am a friend of somebody the apostle paul developed friendly relationships but he recognized that friendship alone does not save people so he preached the gospel and it was the same with jesus you know if you look at jesus the miracle-working power of christ when the woman touched the hem of jesus garment she was healed jesus said who touched me he didn't have to say that then he drew out from her a salvation response when jesus healed the paralytic he said your sins are forgiven thee so you cannot in true biblical theology you cannot separate the relationship of friendship if if i care for a person you know friendship implies caring doesn't it if you're friends with somebody you care about them so if i really have a friend that i really care about in a relationship of friendship i must not care for them very much if i don't want to eventually look for opportunities to share jesus and i must not care for them very much if i don't look for opportunities to share the most abundant life possible that god has given to us in the adventist message so it's making friends for god we make a friend we make a christian friend then we make a seventh-day adventist christian friend thank you pastor mark thank you thank you we have eight more comments uh and then we will stop uh so let's try and now go through a quick succession of comments carl cunningham is first then andre wallace malcolm ferreira vincent shirley edwards grand bahama belu plunkett ashton neil and neil and noel's iphone it's a interesting surname so first carl cunningham let's be as succinct as possible thank you so much good morning good morning i i would like to ask you please to repeat and make let's see i think carl went immuted let's see okay try again carl witnessing relationship between coming to services and witnessing and please also repeat number five tip oh five in teaching sabbath school was pre was practically applied the lesson by looking at the bottom of the daily lesson in the green bars you'll find practical application questions there so that's that was that one you've asked the balance between community service and witnessing in community service we minister to people who are human beings created in the image of god for love's sake that may be distributing clothes to the poor it may be giving food out we do that for love's sake we do not do that now some people ask do you have an ulterior motive jesus had a motive in everything he did jesus did jesus healed blind people and all ten of them and only one came back nine never came back so in all of our community service we love for love's sake but if i love a man enough to give him clothes on his body wouldn't i love him enough to clothe him with the righteousness of christ to have him desire to be cold with the rice of christ if i love a man enough to give him a loaf of bread wouldn't i love him enough to have the bread of life so although we do not superimpose or force or coerce we love for love's sake we serve for services sake we minister for minister's sake but we're always looking for opportunities to share christ and to share his love with others because we want them to be have the most abundant life here and to be saved in god's kingdom so community service breaks down prejudice to open the door for the proclamation of the gospel never forced never coerced but always looking for opportunities thank you go ahead andre good morning pastor finley thank you so much thank you for the presentation uh question uh what additional way can you share with us to motivate young people to not only study the lesson and to share but for it to also be a devotional tool for their own spiritual growth you know i think i i approach that just a little bit but that is a very key question and i really think that young people do best in community um young people are not off most of the time solo flyers they do best in community and i think getting young people together around a meal around a social evening in which you have a short sabbath school devotional sabbath school discussion i think that will highly motivate young people so for example let's suppose on a saturday night i bring young people together and we have a little meal together we have some refreshments we we share together and then for that devotional i summarize some things in the sabbath school lessons the coming week engage them in discussion i'm one that believes that young people need that social interaction in that community and at least that is one possibility that may help them in the study of the lesson i think also there's a second thing youth tend to do best when they lead out when youth lead out i you know i'm 75 years old so i may not be the best teacher kid 16 but if i can get an a a a and a college student to teach my teenagers who takes a real interest in them who can hike with them can teach with them that's going to make a big difference for these kids so to me you having youth teach youth is far more effective and then we teach the teachers of the youth okay i hope those are at least a couple of possibilities for you next question hold on and here we go on mute please milk her and go ahead sir hey melcher you're looking young my friend are you in costa rica i think your beauty is please unmute just click the unmute yeah there you go yes dr finland how are you today it's good to see you i remember our days in peru they were wonderful together yes it was was really really exciting experience there pastor feeling thank you very much it was really good uh this practical uh uh a way to show the this lesson for the next quarterly really i'm very excited i i got one idea uh on one suggestion we can put each teacher on a target after completing the lesson review with a class for example if we talk about weaknesses we can organize plan of the witnesses with a class this afternoon or that afternoon or saturday afternoon if we talk about prayer we can organize uh something prayer for the class or we're talking about the small group we can uh and and in the practical way we can organize some plan for the class the teacher and and the class and thank you that is wonderful thank you for that suggestion i hope everybody got that that is to say this will work in many contexts um many cultures will work this will work in very nicely where as you'd have the topic for the lesson you organize something practical for your class on that particular topic for example if we talk about ministry like jesus we organize something practical in the community prayer ministry practical in the community bible study ministry may be passing out invitations so thank you melcher you know i would expect you to come up with a great great um suggestion like that thanks so much next question thank you very much dr mark my question is in the time now when we have gadgets being taken to church how do we deal with encouraging individuals to do margin and things like this yeah vincent my friend you put your finger on a key problem um yeah that is a challenge that is a very challenging what i do is when i get up to preach i tell people that i'm going to be looking at the text so i hope they're not texting you know it is a challenge with people bringing cell phones to the church i don't know whether we can control that totally but i do think we can work toward it and i think we have to continually remind our people you know jesus said to his disciples can you not pray with me for one hour the church is a sacred arena where god's grace is speaking to hearts and if you if you're there texting if you're there looking at your ipad if you're looking at your facebook basically you just you're distracting the people around you number one because they see what you're doing and you may be denying them the blessing secondly you are you are denying yourself the blessing of god so we at our church are quite open really encouraging people to be in the word of god and i say to them look some of you feel more comfortable looking at the bible text on your iphone or your ipad that's fine but it for me i like the ancient scrolls and so i still use the scrolls and there's something to me and this is just personal i know but there's something to me about maybe it dates me maybe it shows you how old i am but there's something for me about picking up the word of god of letting god speak to me through the printed page but that's just a personal thing we encourage our people uh to um if they're gonna use an ipad fine they're gonna use its cell phone fine but to be looking at the text and not texting but you you put your finger on something very practical thank you next question yes good morning um i think one of the biggest challenges that we have is uh some cyber school teachers is the time allotted for a lesson review is there do you have a suggested average time um for uh the lesson reviews some places are business 20 minutes some 15 some 10 minutes some 60 minutes yeah um i couldn't cover the lesson brother in 10 minutes i would not be able to do that um i like to take 35 to 40 minutes i think an hour maybe a little too long the churches that are doing it for an hour very often do not have their preliminaries with their mission story and the preliminaries in sabbath school i do think we miss something if we are not opening sabbath school with some mission story with um general comments from the sabbath school superintendent that can really motivate um i do think that um if you take 35 40 minutes um 40 minutes particularly i you know i wouldn't uh i wouldn't um say it shouldn't be 41 or 45 but around 40 minutes i think you can cover the lesson you can have adequate um time for prayer uh prayer is really an important part of sabbath school where you're praying and also you can have adequate time to review the next lesson and also to motivate and inspire in the area of witness and application so um i would really urge you to do at least a 40-minute lesson next question yeah fairly edwards okay good morning everyone yeah i'm from jamaica i'm a suburb school superintendent and i have an issue i'm asking is there a way that the lessons can be shortened for the elderly persons because i was having a real lesson review yesterday with an elderly that's and i realized that it's a challenge to to read everything the scripture the readings and everything so i am saying well what i suggested to him was that what people do is read the birth in the morning then during the day he can read the notes and then in the half later on he can read on the bottom so it doesn't overwhelm he's not overwhelmed so i'm saying is there a way it could be done like audibly or if it's done if they have to read it if it could be shortened in pointers so that it's not because their attention span is short you understand so i'm asking and i'm asking also if they should have a class to by themselves or to make it better for them to interact and work with insurance well thank you for those questions as far as the cost by them themselves it depends on the size of the church there are many large churches that do have senior classes and so that's um that's a real possibility um each lesson is about 450 words 425 to 450 words if you read them straight through 450 words you can read the lesson without studying it in about 15 minutes if a person feels that and so i certainly wouldn't um try to study the whole week's lesson in one sitting but if a person feels that there's too much in that lesson i think you've made a very good suggestion to that person and it's one that i would have made as well that read the text in the morning then midday read a little bit more of the lesson and then think about the question in the evening so you've made a very good suggestion i don't know whether i would have anything more to say than that um if it's too much to read but i would certainly say don't try to read the whole week he'll feel overwhelmed when i was suggesting you read the whole week at the beginning that was for sabbath school teachers to just to kind of get an overview in an hour but i would certainly feel that if a person feels overwhelmed with it let them divide it up at different portions of the day that's that's probably the best the other thing that you might keep in mind that i think might be very helpful to you is one of the reasons older people have a difficult time is because the print is too small so the print is much much too small typically for older people so get if you have older people be sure to get the large print edition that will help them a lot it'll make the lesson seem much much shorter for them because they are able to see it it's very hard for some of these older people to see the smaller print okay next question but thank you for the question good these are great questions good morning pastor mark good morning thank you thank you for this wonderful seminar it's been wonderful to listen to all the points that you've covered and the questions as well my my question is that um now that we're on lockdown and we have been studying the lesson on the sabbath school lesson on zoom quite a lot so have you got any guidance any tips about how we should study the sabbath school lesson on zoom anything that we should watch out for and be careful of or yeah sure one of the big thank you beulah one of the big challenges on zoom is that when you unmute the entire group you get a lot of feedback so if you conduct the zoom meeting similar to what brother sam nevis has done today where you have the speaker speaking teaching people who want to t want to comment they can send a little notification to the chat box and you can see it there um or they can raise their hand you will then be able to unmute that particular person that's one thing the second thing on zoom is i think if you know your class well suppose your class has 15 people on zoom that you are doing then you will be able to um you'll be able to call on people by name i think so trying to personalize your zoom view i think it's really important mentioning the names of your people so it doesn't become impersonal carl how did your week go john what about your week uh mary how did your week go so a little sharing time at the beginning of the sabbath school class we like to do that at the beginning of every class anyway you have this little sharing time at the beginning of class and it makes people feel um more involved but i think those few points having people share at the beginning of class what's going on in their life being sure that everybody is muted and then unmuting them individually and then calling people by name i think that's that's critically important okay next question we'll just take a couple more because in seven minutes i have another zoom thank you ashley and dr finley thank you good morning my question is uh one of the greatest challenge that leaders cyber school leaders and teachers are facing today is that after they have spent quite a lot of time preparing that is the leaders preparing the teachers preparing many of our members come late and some even turn up just for the divine service what suggestions would you give for us to get our members more of our members to come on time to sabbath school it's a serious problem we have in today it is a serious problem ashton um it's a very serious problem and you've put your finger on it i think some of the things that i have said earlier are incredibly important that fcc principal focus on the lesson study in depth to inspire them to want to be there on time secondly connect with them during the week if you connect with them during the week by connecting them during the week by email by phone call and if you are able to text them during the week i think these are really important to keep them connected if there's no contact during the week with your sabbath school they're going to tend not to not to come on time so i think that's really important to be have that connection and thirdly this community this bonding plans have the teacher plan social events with the class have them plan activities with the class the class has projects so the more that class is involved with community the more they're going to want to be there on time um i think all of the if we simply try to what i would call pressure them to be there on time you can talk to people and say be there on time you've got to be there on time they're still not going to come but if they're made to feel part of a group if they're if you bond with them if you're constantly giving them reminders so we we move things along inch by inch by inch and um i think that's where it's the most important okay thank you so much last question okay brother noel brother noel yes dr finley nice to hear you nice to see you good to see you noelle my wife has a question she wants to ask and she's going to ask you now okay yes good morning thanks for the excellent presentation dr finley now how does a teacher tactfully manage a student who dominates the discussion and sometimes goes off on a tangent thank you for asking that i have had that experience my dear sister more than once and this is what i learned whoever that person is they are going to have to take a deep breath and i listen to them thoughtfully carefully and when they take a deep breath i say oh my brother thank you so much for your comments now sister smith over here do you have a comment sister jones do you have a comment and so what you do is you respectfully listen to them that's the first strategy you respectfully listen to them and when they pause interrupt them halfway through because it's gonna some time and then you shift the conversation to somebody else and you i say you know brother smith i really appreciate your comments but you know something meant and so could you maybe make one or two comments shorten them up a little bit and then um we can move on to somebody else so everybody gets a chance to participate now there are times that publicly i will say to a person brother smith thank you for your comment could you be so kind to shorten it a little bit because there's many other people that want to make a comment uh other times i'll say now look i appreciate your comment but did you have a question so try these three things one shift the conversation when a person pauses and always thank them two if you have to speak to them after class three during class itself um say to the person could you be so kind to shorten your comment because there are others that want to speak so those three things i'd suggest and thank you for being with you um we have another major meeting right now and so we're looking forward to that one as well if i could ask dale to have a word of prayer to dismiss us please thank you so much for all being a part here and thank you pastor finley let's bow our heads for prayer father in heaven thank you so much for the gift that you have given your church in the theme of sabbath school we ask that you will be with each director each teacher each person that's involved may we grow our sabbath schools and may they truly come alive and be the beacons that you have anticipated them to be go with us now we pray in jesus name amen amen thank you all god bless you as you teach the lessons this quarter

Channel: Seventh-day Adventist Church

Views: 98,860

Keywords: MarkFinley, SabbathSchool, SharingtheGospel, mark finley, seventh day adventist, seventh-day adventist, hope lives 365, seventh day adventist church, mark finley sermons, bible study, seventh-day adventist church, sabbath school lesson, bible study lessons, sabbath school, mark finley 2020

Id: hbmnCQOXkhg

Length: 85min 44sec (5144 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 29 2020