Teaching Lessons from Alma

Today, I was reading in Alma 33 and 34. In particular, I was looking at 33:2-14. I wrote down the following thoughts about how to teach well in my scripture journal and for some reason felt like I should share them on this blog. Hopefully they will be helpful to someone:

The way that Alma uses the words of Zenos is a great example of how revelation works as we teach. He starts out with the intention of answering these people's question about where they should worship. He does so using the scriptures (it is such a good thing to answer questions with the scriptures). He picks a set of verses that describe someone praying in a variety of places and praying for relief from an earthly enemy. That is perfect for his audience! These people are humbled because their enemies are keeping them from worshipping in the "proper place". They want an answer as to what to do about it! These verses would seem to say that they don't need to worship in that place and that they can pray for relief from the wealthy proud folk who persecute them.

But then that is not the point that Alma ends up making from these verses. Perhaps it was the point he intended to make when he started sharing them but instead he ends up making the point that we need Jesus Christ to be saved and he goes off on that trail instead (which is the weightier thing).

One way to think of this is that it doesn't matter what building they worship in as long as they worship in the name of Jesus Christ (which their society wasn't doing).

I can glean the following teaching principles from this:

• It is good to share the scriptures when teaching.
• Let God guide teaching. Who knows where God will take it.
• Be aware of the audience's needs and teach to them while being aware that the Spirit might make apparent an even more important need.
• Use what the audience is concerned with to get their interest (motivation and investment) but also be willing to use that investment to help them learn about something they need to know even more than the thing they want to know.
• Tie all teaching back to Jesus Christ and how He is the Source of redemption.

Teaching the Great Fundamental

As a Latter-day Saint, I believe that the Lord has revealed some wonderful things in the last two centuries. Through Joseph Smith and follow through by other prophets, the Lord has given the world the Book of Mormon, the Word of Wisdom, temples, eternal families, knowledge of how to preserve those families, and a gamut of other doctrines that not only enrich my life but are the basis of everything that matters to me.

With all of these wonderful doctrines at our disposal, we might fall into the trap of forgetting what Joseph Smith taught gave life to them all. He famously said:

“The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it” (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, 49).

Just as Christ taught that He is the Vine and the disciples the branches (see John 15:1-7), so are all doctrines of the Gospel branches or appendages of the Vine that is Jesus Christ. If we try to understand or live any principle of the Gospel without seeing it in the context of Christ and His Atonement then "there will be no life nor substance nor redemption in them” (Boyd K. Packer, “The Mediator”).

Jamie and I have noted this principle in action frequently of late. We’ve sat in lessons where, for some reason, the Spirit just didn’t reach that peak you want when you give three hours of your Sunday to marching kids off to church. But then, just recently, we’ve participated in fantastic lessons where the Spirit was so strong and we’ve commented that what those lessons had in common was being centered on Christ and His Atonement.

For example, earlier this month, there was a Gospel Doctrine lesson on Joseph Smith’s time in Liberty Jail. The teacher and the class members testified of how Jesus Christ understood Joseph’s trials and all of our trials because He has been through them and thus has the moral authority to advise us in them. The Spirit was so strong as we testified and learned about Christ and connected all principles back to Him. The “look what I know” or “look how right I am” sort of comments that sometimes usurp Gospel Doctrine class were gone as we all unified in meekness before the Son of God.

Then, just last Sunday, while visiting family in Idaho, a sacrament meeting speaker gave a talk on the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel. As she talked about faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, she connected each one back to Christ, both His example of the principle and how the principle gives us access to His Atonement. The Spirit was so strong as she spoke and I wondered to myself how more of us could do a better job of connecting whatever principle we’re assigned to teach to the Atonement of the Savior.

And then, revelation hit me like lightning. I wrote it down as quickly and accurately as I could. The revelation consisted of questions I can ask myself as I prepare a lesson or sermon:

• How does Christ’s Atonement make this principle possible?
• How does this principle help us use Christ’s Atonement?
• How is this principle symbolic of Christ’s Atonement?
• How did/does Christ exemplify this principle?

For example, I will be teaching an upcoming Elders quorum lesson called “Continue in the Great Process of Learning”. I need to ask myself questions like “How does Christ’s Atonement make learning possible?”, “How does learning help us use Christ’s Atonement?”, or “How did/does Christ exemplify learning”. I can find answers to those questions in scriptures such as Doctrine & Covenants 88:5-11, Matthew 11:29, Luke 2:52, and the words of President Hinckley in the lesson itself.

As I begin my lesson with a testimony of how learning is connected to the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the answers to the questions above throughout the lesson (which should be easy to do with any true principle) then the Spirit will come in abundance and we elders will understand the principles taught in their proper and Living context.

All of this goes back to the sacrament prayers. Every sacrament meeting, Latter-day Saints consume the emblems of the Savior’s Atonement and promise twice to “always remember him [the Son of God]” and, as a result, are promised in return that “they may always have his Spirit to be with them” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:77, 79). One important way to keep that covenant is to ensure that every lesson, talk, and testimony we give ties back to the atoning sacrifice of the Savior and, as we do so, the Lord will keep His side of the covenant and the Spirit will abound in our meetings.