If you teach the Bible regularly, you know the experience of wishing you had done better — sometimes much better — immediately after you finished. I have been there. I once spoke at a men’s retreat of a church different than my own. About halfway through my message, I could feel in my soul that things were going poorly. The men seemed unenthused. Two guys were whispering to each other and laughing. I pressed on, but it never improved. Afterwards, to make matters worse, I do not recall a single man thanking me for the teaching, not even the obligatory, “Thanks, bro, for making the drive.”
So you are sitting on your couch on Sunday night at 10 pm, feeling pretty crummy about your sermon from earlier in the day. Or you are just home from the Tuesday afternoon Bible study you led that was as flat as the terrain along I-70 in Illinois. You feel like you failed. What can you do in order to get over it?
1. Rest in God’s love. Your poor effort has not changed your status in Christ. God does not love you less even if you did a below average job of communicating his word to others. This is no excuse for laziness in future preparation. If anything, it is a motivation to keep going, knowing that God loves you and is for you.
2. Remember God’s power. Was the truth taught? Then you have cooperated with the Holy Spirit who delights to open people’s eyes to the truth sometimes even through what “felt bad” to the communicator. Though occasionally Bible teachers experience zero encouraging responses, those of us who have taught at least multiple years can say, “There have been times when I thought, ‘Wow, that went terribly,’ but then multiple people came up to me and shared how God spoke to them specifically.” This is the power of God.
3. Repent of pride. Sometimes, I have been more concerned about people telling me I did a good job than I am how the truth worked in their hearts. Pathetic. In those moments, it’s no wonder I’m dejected, because I’m basing my effectiveness on people’s compliments. However, we do not teach to be popular or liked, but to serve (1 Peter 4:10-11). Pride must be killed.
4. Review your preparation. Sometimes, we teach poorly because we did not prepare the way we should have. We were lazy. Or we procrastinated. Or we prayed little. Or we spent too little time meditating on the passage and instead were overly dependent on commentaries and other resources. On that last possibility, J.W. Alexander writes:
If an hour is to be spent, either in reading and collating more of the text, or in reading human comments, surely the former is the way which gives more light. What is acquired in this way also makes a peculiar impression, and is more truly one’s own. It also carries with it a savor of divine authority.[1]
5. Recall the graciousness of your hearers. Believers, when thinking correctly, are not expecting communication at the level of well-known Bible teachers, but are simply grateful if the truth is taught. No one should have to endure consistently bad teaching, but most believers have the attitude, even when the communication skills were lacking, “I’m so thankful he cares so much and made such an effort to teach us.”
6. Recognize the weakness of your hearers. Sometimes, you were not the problem. Not only do you have the responsibility to prepare and teach, but the listeners have responsibilities and they sometimes fail for numerous reasons like staying up to late the previous night, or not walking with Christ throughout the week, or hiding secret sin. I was once asked to speak multiple times over a period of days in the evenings at a church. My whole family was with me. Every gathering began with a meal, but it wasn’t what you might have expected. The people were very cold toward us, and in some ways, toward one another. No one engaged us. We tried to interact with others, but everything was frigid. And then, night after night, my teaching seemed to evaporate in the air before it ever reached anyone. What was going on? I eventually found out that this was a church made up of a number of people who had come from various churches that were characterized by internal division or they had had gone through ugly splits. Instead of dealing with the problems biblically, the majority of the people “left” for this larger church in which they could just attend but not really engage. It’s no wonder, then, what I was feeling and observing while teaching.
7. Relax, pray, and teach again. If the Holy Spirt has gifted you to teach, then keep at it for the good of the church (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:7). But you probably first need to do something relaxing to get your mind off of the previous experience. At least get a good night’s sleep. I am often amazed at how much better I feel the day after my weak effort. And then, when it’s time, get ready to teach again. Ask God to help you, to give you insight, to stir your own affections, and to empower you by his Spirit when the next teaching opportunity commences.
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[1] J.W. Alexander, Thoughts on Preaching (1865; repr., Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1988), 38.