Teaching Moments

Well, I read somewhere or heard somewhere that the preferred method of teaching by a Rabbi is through daily life experiences. So, they would be with people just doing normal things and then a teaching moment would come up and the Rabbi would point that out. Sounds great to me.

And I've had the pleasure of actually being able to do this a couple times in the past couple weeks.

I've been hanging with two of my students at Borders every other Thursday, with the intention of sharing life with them and helping them become more like our Master Jesus. And the past two times we have been there we've had incredible teaching moments.

1st time when we were on our way into Borders we were caught by a gentleman who appeared to be some type of official person. I actually thought he was an owner of Borders or something of that sort. He greeted us by saying, "Hey gentlemen, you here for coffee or to peruse the books?" We told him we were there for both. He seemed so genuine and interested. And then he bantered on a bit about the joy of the freedom to do such things and then started telling us about a program he is involved with that would provide us with more freedom and more money. As he spoke to us we began to get uncomfortable, but there was no easy escape. We were in the mezzanine trapped between a row of books, a wall and him and his buddy (whose name was too mafia-like for me...Boris). Geez it was uncomfortable...and when we finally got in my friends were so frustrated and felt used. What made it so great was that I was able to capture their feelings and ask them how people who aren't in the Way of Christ might feel when Christians come and push their stuff on them...really able to understand the need to be totally authentic with people and not have any agenda except to love others. If someone wants to join in, the invitation is always there, but it is never pushed on them...

The second teaching moment actually happened at Borders too. I was telling these two guys how important it is to listen to people of other faiths, not to change faiths, but to learn what they know and become friends. And what do you know, a Jewish teen sits on the end of our couch with his friends. He didn't talk to us until I was trying to explain something about the Old Testament/Tanak...then he was like, "um, can I say something here?" And he shared with us his perspectives. And then we chatted for a bit longer. A great teaching moment...for all of us.

This further supports the idea that we need to be with our teens in real life situations, hanging with them in places where we can learn together what God is doing in life and how we can change.