Teaching for the sake of teaching

One of the guest bloggers at the Blue Fish Project posted the following today:

I heard something very wise today when our church minister told me that the whole way he thought about his work changed when he realised he deeply loved the people in his church.

From that moment on he ceased to be a bible teacher, but a pastor who teaches the bible. A true shepherd, a lover of his flock who wants the best for them. A man who sees people, not projects and whose love drives him to serve them the best he could.

This reminds me of a comment of Graham Beynon, in his great little book God's New Community:

Lot's of churches are known as places of good teaching [...] I'd far prefer it, though, for a church to be known as a place of good learning! Because that's what the teaching is supposed to achieve.

I we focus on the 'teaching' then we can easily think that if we have decent sermons on a Sunday morning and meaty Bible studies in our small groups then we are fulfilling this priority. Well, we may be, but not necessarily. We have to ask, 'Is all of that teaching, all that, input, achieving learning?' If it is not, then we need to make some changes. That may be a change in how we give our sermons, or the way we lead our Bible studies, or how we listen to a sermon or take part part in our Bible studies.

Reading that again now I am really challenged to sort out how I learn from others, listening to sermons, or taking part in Bible studies. As well as be aware of that point in the very small amount of teaching I do. I also think that in some of the circles I move in, where teaching is everything, lots of other people also need to hear that.