Sa-Rang Community Church, located in Anaheim, CA, held a teaching conference for church staff in the education department on April 18, at Sa-Rang's Kingdom Dream Center (KDC). Some 250 staff from both Korean- and English-speaking departments were present, and four speakers were featured: Justin Suh, the CEO of Compassion Korea; Linda Pyun, who formerly taught education at Azusa Pacific University; Sang Nathan Yun, from Yun Law Firm, Inc.; and Alice Lee Choi, who teaches at Fairmont Preparatory Academy. Though sessions were divided into two for Korean and English speakers, the same speakers were featured in both sessions.
Justin Suh, who also has a Ph.D. in Christian Education from Talbot School of Theology, shared four principles teachers can follow to change students' lives.
First, he said, teachers must teach with conviction, and pointed to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
"God wants to touch our hearts first through the Word and the work of the Holy Spirit," Suh said. "And every moment you spend with His people, take it as a divine moment that God wants to use to minister to each individual."
Pastor Justin Suh, who received a Ph.D. in Christian Education at Talbot School of Theology and is currently the CEO of Compassion Korea, was featured as the main speaker at Sa-Rang Community Church's annual teaching conference on April 18.
Second, he said, "teach with passion."
"Did you know it's our passion that motivates our students?" Suh said, and quoted John Wesley, who said, "When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn."
Suh then expanded on the third point--to teach with preparation. He mentioned that there are five aspects of preparation: preparing your heart and mind; preparing the content; preparing the presentation; preparing the meeting place; and preparing the learners.
"When we prepare on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, we don't have enough time to digest the content or apply it into our own lives," Suh said, and encouraged teachers to prepare in advance, even as early as Sunday night or Monday, and to spent the rest of the week asking God to make the lesson real in each teacher's life.
Finally, Suh said, "teach with love."
"It's impossible for us to be able to love them like Christ does," Suh said, "but we can pray each morning, 'I want to be Your little Jesus,' and ask God to help us to love them."
"Do we want our students to be offensive or defensive players?" said Suh. "Let's teach and pray that they would grow to be more radical and actively desire to be used by God. And let us win the world for Jesus Christ by winning one soul at a time, by the ministry and the work of the Holy Spirit."
Sang Nathan Yun, who has had experience leading workplace harassment and bullying training sessions during his time working at Samsung for over ten years, and Alice Lee Choi shared certain policies that employees of workplaces and schools are required to follow as guidelines for church teachers as well. Yun focused primarily on prevention of harassment and bullying, and Choi focused on safe teaching practices and keeping safe boundaries, especially with minors.
Linda Pyun, who also serves in Sa-Rang's family ministry, expanded on how to deal with difficult students. Pyun noted that oftentimes, the difficulties that arise in class might come from the teacher's personal issues, such as a lack of preparation, a lack of teaching skills, or built up stress in the teacher's life from other circumstances. Pyun also cited Dreikurs' theory on children's misbehavior, which, he said, often comes from children's mistaken goals, such as wanting attention, wanting power, wanting revenge, or wanting encouragement.
"One of the effective ways that teachers can respond to these mistaken goals is to give attention to the child when they do something good, rather than when they're misbehaving," Pyun said. "The child will think, 'Oh, I get attention when I do something right.' And avoid fighting with the child or retaliating to win the child over, but instead affirm and encourage the child,'" she said.
Sa-Rang has been hosting teaching conferences for its staff for over 10 years, and out of a total of 370 teachers, this year's conference had the greatest turnout, according to Pastor Jeremy Kwun, the director of the education department at Sa-Rang.
Kwun added that many smaller churches who lack the resources to offer similar workshops for their teachers have been reaching out to Sa-Rang regarding its teaching conferences, and Sa-Rang plans to begin opening up its annual teaching conferences to other churches starting next year.
