Teaching in the Group Meetings by Asking and Answering Questions
Verses:
Hebrews 10:24-25 Let us consider one another so as to incite one another to love and good works, not abandoning our own assembling together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another…
Ministry Portion:
In human society the way to teach people is to gather them together as students with a single teacher. The traditional way of meeting in Christianity is also for a number of people to come together with a Bible teacher. However, Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “Let us consider one another so as to incite one another to love and good works, not abandoning our own assembling together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more as you see the day drawing near.” The phrases consider one another, incite one another to love and good works, and exhorting one another indicate that the meeting spoken of in these verses is not a meeting for one to teach and the others to listen. This is a meeting in which all the attendants are the same, inciting and exhorting each other.
Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.” All four categories of gifted persons perfect the saints. The evangelist may have a burden to perfect the saints in the matter of gospel preaching, to stir them up and teach the truths concerning the gospel. According to the natural way of thinking, he will ask the elders to arrange a meeting for this purpose once a week. Then each category of gifted ones will in turn arrange their own special meetings for perfecting the saints. This is not the way in which the gifted ones should perfect the saints. Rather, in a group meeting, an apostle may be present, and there may also be a prophet, an evangelist, or a shepherd and teacher. Then spontaneously, each one can teach in a mutual way.
In our study and experimentation we have found that the best way to teach is to raise questions in the group meetings. By asking the proper questions and answering the questions of others, we spontaneously teach, instruct, and perfect others…We may have a burden to teach the new ones about dealing with idols. However, we should not do this as a teacher. We should rather ask the saints in the group meeting how to deal with idols. This will stir up all the attendants to say something. There will be different kinds of answers with different points. Each one will say something, and all the speaking will become part of the teaching. Then a brother who knows more than the others can add something, and someone else can add even more. The result will be a very good and complete teaching concerning dealing with idols. This way of teaching by asking questions is not carried out by only one person. Rather, it gives an opportunity to all the attendants in the group meeting to function. Regardless of how much one knows and how good his speaking may be, one person’s speaking can never compare with many answers.
By attending a group meeting like this every week for one or two years, the attendants will learn much… We cannot accomplish anything quickly…[T]o build up the church we need begetting in order to gain persons for the Lord. Then we need to feed those whom we have gained, and we must also teach them and build them up. (The Practice of the Group Meetings, ch. 1, sec. 3)
The church in Zamboanga 