Home "Champions"

Dear teachers,
We pray that God blesses each one of you as you serve Him and minister to children around the world. You are making a difference, and changing lives for eternity!

We have a surprise for you. You may think you signed up to be a Sunday school teacher, but your job description has now changed to COACH! That is right, this year we will be studying the Bible with a boxing theme and we hope to have some fun with sports. Beloved teacher, start right now! Be a coach instead of a teacher, and it will help inspire you to care deeply about each student in your class, and their progress as they strive to become a champion.

We will be studying the fruit of the spirit. However, not only looking at the fruit, but also at the many sins of our flesh that fight against the fruit of the spirit. Your goal is to help your students become champions. To do this, they need to not only memorize the memory verses and learn the Bible stories, but they also need to put the fruit of the spirit into action in their everyday lives. This is a much harder challenge for you as coaches.

Using the boxing theme, when your students are in your Sunday school class, let us imagine that they are in training. They are working out, and learning more about God and learning how to fight against sin. Your church therefore, is the training center.

When your students are out in the world, they are actually "In the ring!" This is where they will actually fight against their own sinful desires. Their homes and schools, therefore, are the actual competitions and boxing matches. This is because at church, we are all good at pretending and giving the right answers. Please do not let any child think he has won a match because of his memorization or learning at church. That is training. The real fight is in their life. They can win matches if they put into practice the lessons during the week.

Your final job as their coach is to reward them and encourage them when they succeed. Prepare some awards to be able to hand out. Give them a hug or a special shout of encouragement for each "punch," round, or match won. The behavior you reward will be the behavior you receive as your students strive to please you, their coach.

We hope you can have a good time dressing as a coach, decorating your class as a sports training center, and having some fun award ceremonies. Success in living the fruit of the spirit will come, just as it does in sports, to those who are willing to work harder than anyone else. You CAN inspire your students to work hard and become champions. Just believe in them when no one else does, and watch God do miracles in their lives!

May our Lord God inspire you, as you take on this challenge of coaching your students in the fruit of the Spirit. We pray you break all limitations put on Sunday school teachers, and become a real coach in the lives of your students.