Of Course, Those Who Can’t, Teach. 3

This is one of the most wonderful statements among our colloquialisms.  Though it is often used by smart alecks who cut down others for their lack of experience, the statement reveals the true and right nature of the teacher.

Who can be an expert in all things?  The teacher is called to prepare a disparate group for disparate contexts.  The same is true for pastors (Eph 4:11-12).

Last year marked my 20th anniversary in vocational ministry.  During this time, I have served as a pastor for 15 years, and 14 years as a professor in the Bible college/seminary classroom.

I have had the incredible honor of shepherding and training men and women to serve in a multitude of local church and missionary roles. Upon commissioning from our church or graduating from school, they scattered across North America and the world to rural, urban, and suburban communities. They went to the wealthy, middle-class, and poor.  While most of them spoke English as their first language, many did not.  They departed to serve in Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, atheistic, and animistic contexts representing numerous countries and scores of people groups.

When it comes to equipping such people, no human being has enough experience to speak from personal experience.  No one can share with all of these brothers and sisters what the future holds.

No one can teach Armstong to walk on the moon.

The practitioner of all things does not exist.

Of course, I had one or two people over the years tell me, “You can’t do this. You can’t do that. You don’t have enough experience.”

What did I do?

I did it anyway. Which was exactly what I believed God wanted me to do and what other believers confirmed in my life.  I taught. I served.

I equipped others with what I had to become more than what I was.  This is a purpose of the pastor.  This is a purpose of the teacher.  This is the only way to train others to reach the 4 billion.

I’ve found that those who make it their habit of telling others “you can’t because you don’t have” are often those set on cloning themselves.  Such people only know one way of doing things–and expect everyone and every context to get in line with themselves.  It’s their way or the highway.  We only need to look at the last 200 years of Protestant missionary history to see where such colonialistic and paternalistic actions got us.

Don’t misunderstand.  There is a place for experience. Experience is extremely important. As a professor, my philosophy was always to walk with a foot in the field and a foot in the classroom. There is no substitute for experience.

When it comes to experience, I’ve learned at least three things after 20 years:

1. I need more experience.
2. You need more experience.
3. We will die before we have enough experience.

Experience can only take the teacher so far. The lack of experience drives one to sellout to the Spirit.  The great pastor/teacher recognizes that no human could ever have enough experience to equip a disparate group of Kingdom citizens for the multiplicity of contexts in which they are called to serve.

One of the most liberating, multiplication-oriented, Kingdom expressions:  Those who can’t, teach!