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I’ve been trying to teach math to a young man I met at the Soifer Math Olympiad back in 2018. He didn’t do well this year despite staying for the whole four hours. Until Saturday, we’ve been exchanging emails, and the results haven’t been that great. Even when he would finally stumble into an answer or insight I was looking for, I had a sense that he didn’t really understand.

So we met by phone, and what a difference! I could see what he didn’t understand and explain as many times as necessary until he did understand. Proving once again that telling is not teaching and listening is not learning.

The same is true in disciple-making. I strongly believe in the power of a good sermon, and when I speak, I want to do the best job of communicating that I can. However, until I sit down one-to-one with someone, I don’t know what they’re picking up. And I certainly don’t know what they’re putting into practice until they tell me. And the good news is that anyone can teach this way: you don’t have to be a public speaker!

Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?” (Mark 8.14 – 21, ESV)

And every day, in the temple and from house to house, [the apostles] did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. (Acts 5.42, ESV, emphasis mine)

[Paul] withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus…for two years. (Acts 19.9, 10, ESV)