Prep

There are lots of book on preaching. There are lots of books on giving presentations. Somewhere between preaching and giving a presentation is teaching an adult Sunday School. "Adult" is a big category. More specifically, I'm interested in the area of teaching Sunday School to college students and young adults.

If anyone has tips on that or knows of a book/article/blog, that'd be great.

As I've taught through different books & subjects my approach to prep has varied. I won't talk about all of those but here's a summary of how I've prepped for the most recent series of classes on "Knowledge of the Holy" by AW Tozer. (By the way, this definitely is NOT how I suggest one ought to prepare for teaching Sunday School.)

• Before teaching the class I read through the book once. I read the first couple chapters carefully, then skimmed the rest.
• Monday: I usually start prepping one week in advance. And by that, I mean I'll try to read the chapter I'm teaching around Monday. I'll also read through related material in Systematic Theology. I won't start outlining or thinking of main points till Saturday.
• Tuesday-Friday: I may or may not look at the book again. Instead I'll be reading a bunch of other stuff and listening to other sermons. But I'll be reading and listening with the particular "lens" that I'm going to be teaching on. So for example, I'll try to link 'The Sovereignty of God' with the sermons I listen to even if the sermon series is on something seemingly unrelated. If something I come across really strikes me, I'll email myself to remind me to include that passage/anecdote/etc. in my class
• Saturday: This is when I crank - I have to. But I work in a very ADD way. When I work I'll be listening to a sermon, listening to music, eating, drinking, talking out loud, and praying. I tend to have multiple books open - mainly KOTH, Systematic Theology, and the Bible. I mark up the books: writing numbers & letters, drawing arrows, underlining, boxing and trying to figure out what are the main points I want to teach. Then I lay the outline into slides with the title headlines. After that, I start to fill in each slide as I think about what key points I want to make and how to best present them visually.
• Sunday: I usually don't look at the slides again until I teach. And I only teach from the content on the slides - usually bullet points. No manuscript or extra notes. Teaching is the fun part - you say stuff you never intended or expected to say. It's an adventure. Sometimes you just get really animated about something that you didn't anticipate. And as I teach I'm praying that something sticks to the hearts and minds of whoever listens.

Shalom.