Are you a teacher or a facilitator? What’s the difference?

Released Friday, 5th August 2022

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Are you a teacher or a facilitator? What’s the difference?

Friday, 5th August 2022

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Why?: Are you a teacher or a facilitator? What's the difference?
What?: In many churches, for more than a generation, we've called everyone who leads a class a teacher. But that's only technically right in that every Christian teaches as the church carries out the Great Commission through the individual believers in the church. So, parents teach children. Believers teach the lost. Mature believers teach less mature believers. All those opportunities tend to be private encounters.
For public teaching, or teaching in groups, Jesus has given the church teachers. In Ephesians 4, when Paul talks about the unity of the church, he says that Jesus gave, among other things, shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry and for building up the body of Christ to unity.
Teachers, in this sense, are extensions of the pastor's role. In fact, many scholars argue that when Paul writes "shepherds and teachers" he means two aspects of the same office. That is, pastors are to shepherd and to teach. Even if you argue that these are two separate offices, pastor and teacher, it's hard to argue that they are not closely related.
Teachers are gifted to the church by Jesus, equipped by the Holy Spirit, and recognized by the church as gifted to teach.
Between these private and public ministries, for decades we've recognized another role for willing, mature believers. Although we've often labeled them teachers, they are, more properly, facilitators. When you look at most commercially available Bible lessons, traditionally called quarterlies, their content is written by teachers for facilitators to use in the local church. So, they've developed entire lessons that can be used with minimal modification to effectively teach the Bible. Any mature believer should be able to take the prepared lesson and lead a class. If, instead of using quarterlies, the church uses sermon-based questions, almost any mature believer can be taught to facilitate discussion of those questions. Whatever choice the church makes in content, mature believers can fill a real need in the church by serving as facilitators.
In contrast to facilitating fixed content, teachers tend to develop new content or modify existing lessons for the local church. Thankfully, the commercial publishers use teachers to write the lessons that get sent to facilitators. Also, thankfully, God places teachers in the church to extend the pastor's ministry. Since teachers are so closely tied to the pastor's role it's reasonable to hold them to the qualifications for elders or pastors that Paul describes in 1 Tim chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1. Their public speaking ministry risks leading others astray, which is why James 3:1 talks about the strict judgment for teachers.
So What?: The church needs teachers and mature believers who serve as facilitators. Some fill both of those roles depending on the circumstance. Others serve in only one of those roles.
So What Now?: So, which are you? Teacher or facilitator? If you're a facilitator, facilitate well. If you're a teacher, teach well.