The Important Place of Memorization for Children

Teaching Sunday School by Brian Freer (Evangelical Press, 1984)

If this little book were required reading for all Sunday School teachers in every church, our children would be the better for it. Freer writes out of the conviction that our Sunday School time must be used to its fullest potential, and he has taken the time to show us how that potential can best be reached. In the first three chapters, he very encouragingly expounds and illustrates the hope that we may have in teaching our children the Bible -- it is an exciting prospect indeed! In the remaining chapters he very carefully and clearly lays out principles and practical procedures for teachers to follow in order to achieve highest success in their work. He deals with everything from the church to the teacher to the lesson preparation to the delivery to the classroom experience. A very, very useful tool for the improvement of our Sunday School and the evangelization and edification of our children. Every church should by a copy this book for each of its teachers to read, re-read, and refer to regularly until its counsel is completely absorbed.

“There is great value in memorizing lessons and especially Scripture, even when the meaning is not fully comprehended at the time. Many children have learnt by rote passages of the Bible, or the questions, answers and proof texts of a catechism, without really understanding them. The truths learned have remained dormant for years. Unconsciously such knowledge has moulded their habits and attitudes, but, even more importantly, it has represented a golden store which has been tremendous benefit in later years, after they have been born again. Memorization is not the be-all and end-all of teaching, but it should have it place. If we cannot hide God’s Word in a child’s heart, at least we can attempt to hide it in his memory. To do this is like laying the paper and sticks for a coal fire and then placing on the dark coals. The fuel is ready and when it is eventually ignited what a blaze there will be! Men of previous generations were able to use Scriptures and preach sermons of great maturity within weeks or months of their conversion. How did they acquire such a facility? The answer is that they had the Scriptures already in store!” pp. 48-49

Retired reformed Baptist minister, Brian Freer underscores the work of parenting and teaching in our children’s nurture and evangelism; and specifically he addresses how kids are sponges. They soak up facts—the who, what, when and where—of Bible knowledge. They glory in facts. God has made them this way. We ought to take advantage of this. Facts guide. Facts inform. Facts are fuel. I read earlier today of the old Puritan William Gurnall, who said: “Knowledge may make thee a scholar, but not a saint; orthodox, but not gracious.” I disagree. Children—along with adults—learn the facts of Scripture, the scholarly stores of facts. They do so for saintly reasons. How? Jesus, for example, tells us before going to a brother to remove the offensive tooth-pick out his eye, we must first remove the offensive pile of lumber out of our own. That’s a fact; it’s a specific truth we’re to memorize, know, grasp—and be able to recall. Being grounded in the plain, surface points of Matthew 7:4-5 can preserve many from hardship in interpersonal squabbles. Facts of Scripture, such knowledge, guide in saintly ways.

As to more on children from Freer, I appreciate that he sees the role between the learning stages of Grammar and Rhetoric. He writes of young children storing away Scripture and catechetical doctrine—as fuel—and when the fire starts at later stages in life, they are ready. Did you catch that? He writes, “Men of precious generations were able to use Scriptures and preach sermons of great maturity within weeks or months of their conversion. How did they acquire such a facility? The answer is that they had the Scriptures already in store!” Students well prepared are those who have been grounded in the first level of learning—the grammar of knowledge; then, later they act on that knowledge—for understanding and wisdom.

G. Mark Sumpter

Classroom Teachers Who Home-carnate the Truth

Are we making gains in what Adams addresses? Are we getting the Home back into the School Classroom?

“…But today, there is no close affinity between the home and the school. We must, therefore, learn how to close the gap (1) through the development of new communication opportunities and methods, (2) in discipline, (3) in teaching and (4) even in the sort of personnel who are selected to function as teachers. Essentially, we must answer in the most practical terms, ‘How can we get the home back into the school and the school back into the home?’”

Adams goes on: “Among the many considerations that will have to be faced is the selection of teaching staff on a widely different basis than most of the present teaching qualifications require. Teachers must be appointed not simply because they are competent in a particular subject area, but because, in addition to that, and in addition to their competence in theology, they show promise as parent-teachers. If the familial father/son discipling method, rather than the Greek, head-packing academic model of teaching be accepted as the biblical method (which it is), then we must also consider the ability of the teacher to exemplify (or model) that which he teaches, along with his academic credits. It is, moreover, crucial for him to incarnate the truth he teaches in life as a parent would for his child. He will be, for the first time, genuinely en loco parentis.”

Back to the Black Board, p. 72, by Jay E. Adams, his emphasis, (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1982).

Adams goes on to speak of ways to reduce or eliminate the professionalization of teachers, and as well, the institutionalization of the traditional day-school classroom setting. He aims at getting rid of: homework, report cards, parent-alone parent-teacher consultations, and other forms of professional and institutional expressions. He also, positively, stresses that parents must: support the authority of the classroom teacher, make plans to step into the class and assist in the teaching and learning process, and take on an active role of listening to students read, and to help with writing, as examples. Adams dreams too—“ The world is the classroom for teaching by discipleship. Students will be in contact with adults and with many sectors of life in the process, not merely with their peers in cloistered halls.” I am committed to his dream.


We can imprint the classroom with a home-like climate even more: teachers telling stories relative to academic content and illustrating points with slices of everyday life, taking students outside for lectures and lessons, making use of communication forms with purposeful informality through dialogue, rhyme, rhythmic lines of feedback, chants, poems and quips, presenting comparisons and offering contrasts using common place matters, setting up interaction about a day’s lesson with a DVD clip or news article and other visuals, and starting a written or oral dialogue—and expecting students to finish them employing pertinent facts and applicatory features.

Community in the classrooms—the involvement of a variety of adults, with a mixture of age and life-experience—needs our attention as well.

Helping the class to be home-like takes work, but it is the method of education that reflects Deuteronomy 6.


Do our classrooms show a commitment to putting in place such teachers? Do you know teachers who teach to incarnate truth, who home-carnate truth?


G. Mark Sumpter

Teachers, Not Missional Pace-Setters

Biblical Authority, Strong Conviction for Repentance and Revival

“If there is going to be a renaissance of religion, its bearers will not be people who have been falling all over each other to be ‘relevant to modern man’…Strong eruptions of religious faith have always been marked by the appearance of people with firm, unapologetic, often uncompromising convictions—that is, by types that are the very opposite from those presently engaged in the various ‘relevance’ operations. Put simply: Ages of faith are not marked by ‘dialogue’ but by proclamation…I would affirm that the concern for the institutional structures of the Church will be vain unless there is also a new conviction and a new authority in the Christian community.”

From Peter L. Berger. Quoted in The Presbyterian Journal, 1971—as cited in J.M. Boice’s systematic theology called, Foundations of the Christian Faith IVP, p. 673.

The crowds were astonished with Jesus because He taught with authority. That reference to His authority meant, no doubt, the method of teaching without having to quote the accepted rabbinic traditions of His time. So true.

But I wonder about something more. Wasn’t there a manifestation of His authority seen in additional attention-getting, pressing and forceful ways?

His loyalty to be the learner of God—His sinless life matched His words. Holiness.

He quoted and exposited the Old Testament. He rooted His claims about His own person and work fulfilling God's promises in the provision of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. Using the Scriptures.

He cried out at times in a loud voice to teach, to proclaim; and at times, He refused to answer a question. Conviction.

He taught in informal occasions—on mountainsides, at the waterfront, privately, at night, while walking, with crowds about their hubbub. In routines, known as Teacher.

He harnessed a range of methods—parables, illustrations, a refusal to answer questions, metaphor, lecture, handling objects, discussion, reviewing a lesson, preaching, scratching in the dirt, reading, citing quotes, referring to songs, comparisons, spoken and direct confrontation. Brought the truth in relationship to others and their capacities.

He was known as Teacher. 45 times, at least, He was addressed with that title.

Our times are ones where we note quality leadership and authority stem from plans, goal-setting and contagious-infectious modeling. We’re told about influential, missional pace-setting pastors. These same folk tell us of the importance to rally around the man, or more, to rally around the vision of the man.

Also, what compounds the short-change of the practice of faithful authority in the local church springs from the ready acknowledgment that the REAL teaching gifts and their application reside in the seminary or Bible college. The academy gets the first-priority nod about authority.  

So how can we get started on Berger's renewal?

Without teaching a people perish, we’re told in Proverbs (Proverbs 29:18). It has to be exposition of the Bible where the Scriptures are providing both the diagnosis of circumstances and people, and then as well, giving that same kind of attention to Jesus Christ, His glory, and our union in Him—His life, death, resurrection and ascension. Biblical exposition must be working at such authority that provides for sound church health and growth.

Pastors must hunger for correction and improvement about their teaching. Ruling elders should have an open door to the pastor for his needful, fruitful correction.

Where can we go to access helpful resources that aim at improving the teaching gifts of our men?

Should pastors try to be more collegial in some of their endeavors in the practice of teaching? There should be times of pastor to pastor modeling and evaluation.

When pastors write, they get the chance to work at clarity, expression and fluidity. Giving pastoral interns writing assignments might be a start.

Teaching in large groups and in small groups, with the ebb and flow of diverse settings, can help with adjustments and improvements.

The growing churches—Berger’s renaissance churches—are well-grounded with Biblically expositional feeding and care for God’s flock; such an endeavor speaks of faithful, penetrating Biblical authority.

Unapologetic, convicting teachers of the Word, not missional pace-setters are what we’re talking about.

G. Mark Sumpter

Ready to Hit a Blocking Sled

Norman DeJong, an OPC Man, has a Super Book on Education

“Knowledge is unified by nature. Knowledge is an organic oneness, but because of the ingenuously labeled “knowledge explosion,” its unity is obscured by fragmentation. We fail to see its unified arrangement and we get lost in the shrapnel of detail without ever recognizing knowledge’s essential character. In order to grasp and control knowledge, we fragment it, dissect it, and re-structure it into inanimate classifications called subjects or disciplines. We think “in clusters” partially because we are not big enough to grasp the magnitude of knowledge, but primarily because we were taught to think that way…

…The greatest challenge facing Christian education today is that of discovering the unity of all that is known, of formulating for our children a single mental vision, of bringing every tidbit of interpreted fact and every theory of explanation into subjection of Christ…

…Knowledge is not divided by nature; it is not made up disciplines or subjects or studies. The dividing of knowledge into disciplines and subjects and studies is purely a human invention, a human construct. God’s knowledge is one, and is characterized by no divisions…


…What do we mean when we talk about the oneness of knowledge? In the first place, it means that in every instance or portion of knowledge, all of the so-called disciplines are represented. There are no distinctly historical facts or distinctly religious facts or distinctly biological facts or distinctly musical facts. Second, it means that every portion of knowledge is at one and the same time:


[My commentary with his order]

1. religious [moral, devotional, community with symbols]


2. economic [related to man and his work and dominion]


3. historical [persons, events and ideas in a context]


4. aesthetic [concerns goodness and beauty]


5. philosophic [relationship between men and things, and the eternal]


6. mathematical [order, predictability]


7. educational [facts, questions and uses]


…[and] on to the end of our abstracted analytic categories.”


Education in the Truth (revised edition), from Redeemer Books, Lansing, MI, pp. 46-48.

G. Mark Sumpter

The One and The Many—in Creation

Why are we given to isolate and fragment the subjects of day-school education?

“Secular philosophy moves from one extreme to the other, because it does not have the resources to define a position between the two extremes, and because it seeks an absolute at one extreme or another—as if there must be an absolute oneness (with no plurality) or else a universe of absolutely unique, unconnected elements, creating an absolute pluralism and destroying any universal oneness. To find such an absolute in either direction is important if the philosopher is to find an adequate standard apart from the God of Scripture. Thus is revealed philosophy’s religious quest—to find an absolute, a god, in the world. But the Christian knows there is no absolute unity (devoid of plurality) or absolute plurality (devoid of unity). These exist neither in the world nor in the world’s Creator.” p. 49-50 Apologetics to the Glory of God by John Frame.

As I prepare a talk on approaching Christian learning and studies of the various subjects and disciplines across the landscape of a standard day-school curriculum, I am mediating on man’s inclination to sever the subjects from one another with the hopes of exercising his dominion, albeit in a way that invites him to be his own self-governing interpreter. How? In what way? Our age is the scientific age. Break down the parts to the finest, granular minutiae for study. This age tempts us to fragment for our pretense of intellectual mastery. There’s something attractive about that—it fits like a glove over a hand: man’s pride and boasting, etc.

To use Frame’s reasoning above, severing Biology from History, and Language Study from Economics, and the like, suggests that there’s an absolute oneness, almost a self-contained set of rules and applications within the said discipline, that governs our approach to learning, study and behavior. For example, for some Physics can take on absolute oneness: it’s held so high that it’s thought to contain the basis for fundamental truths for answers to life. Can Physics really and truly carry that much weight? It’s believed—YES, on the basis of it being an adequate standard by which to think and live. In this view, Physics has become a god, an adequate standard.

But what’s the answer to this idolatry?

The Christian’s answer is the doctrine of the Trinity. Just as God is both One and Many, so His creation is One and Many. The doctrine of the Trinity stages us for an invitation to remain the student in our studies. God is His own interpreter of all subjects, and since He is Lord holding all subjects together, we must study them in concert, in an interrelated way. This doesn’t mean, however, that the Christian approach moves into a field of study in an irresponsible way, in a way that refuses to pursue the minutiae of the bits and particles of a discipline. But as it approaches a matter for learning, it’s always approached as something in a context of diversity, plurality and variety in the creation. The pursuit of learning includes interests about the package or interrelatedness of the creation. This means keeping absolute unity and absolutely plurality in a give and take relationship. Such a give and take approach leads to a holy contentment about the resultant mysteries, humility, faith and dependency in our study of the creation, the handiwork of our Lord and God.

G. Mark Sumpter

Hearing and Seeing Truth

Life on Life Discipleship Opens the Eye-Gate and Ear-Gate

Our teaching ministries need more and more of the organic climate of the home--everyday life with illustrations, stories and well-lived examples and models. Windows on the blessings in life, and windows on the warts. We need the real-to-life learning perspective of seeing and hearing. This is hard for us who are institutionally-anchored people. Classrooms make it an uphill climb if we're aiming for an organic climate.

A.B. Bruce wrote of the disciples and their day to day living classroom with Jesus, when they would walk together by the way, when they would lie down and rise up.

In the training of the twelve for the work of the apostleship, hearing and seeing the words and works of Christ necessarily occupied an important place. Eye and ear witnessing of the facts of an unparalleled life was indispensable preparation for future witness-bearing. The apostles could secure credence for their wondrous tale only by being able to preface it with the protestation, 'That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you.' None would believe their report, save those who, at the very least, were satisfied that it emanated from men who had been with Jesus.

….In the early period of their discipleship hearing and seeing seem to have been the main occupation of the twelve. They were then like children born into a new world, whose first and by no means least important course of lessons consists in their use of their senses in observing the wonderful objects which they were surrounded…

The Training of the Twelve by A.B. Bruce, p. 41.

So what can we do? As teachers, plan ahead for organic slices of life. In what way? Panel discussions, interview parents, tell stories, read stories, object lessons, question and answer sessions, lap boards, story boards, wall-boards, pictures, power point, response sheets, and more.

The life on life work of discipleship teaching showcases a slow-growth methodology that invites the multi-sensory approach to learning. We're often uncomfortable with it, because there's less control in the learning process. But over time with some practice teachers and students can make some positive strides that benefit learning.

G. Mark Sumpter

When You Walk By the Way

In Luke 24, the Risen Lord Jesus walks the road to Emmaus with two of His followers, one is named Cleopas. There had been the discussion of the things that had just happened in Jerusalem (vss. 18-19). It is an educational context, He’s teaching. Note three aspects of His teaching method.

First, in helping these men to understand matters at hand and to be revived from their discouragement, He opens the Scriptures to them, “O foolish ones, and slow to believe in all that the prophets have spoken” (vs. 25). He does the same thing in vs. 44 with others, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was with you…” Here is the teaching point: we're to give ourselves to the Word of God revealed, the written texts of the Scriptures. This means giving attention to words, phrases, paragraphs and chapters of the Bible with their plain, on-the-surface, facts. We must learn to be observant readers. The men to whom Jesus speaks were being instructed to be well-versed in what had been written. Teachers, are you spelling out the plain facts of the Word?

Then next, another teaching method was employed by our Lord. He “explained or expounded...all the Scriptures” (vs. 27). Notice that His expounding moved through the pages of the Old Testament. With explanation linked with page-turning, we have to assume that Jesus was using the teaching technique of comparing one story with another, one part of law with another and one part of character plot with another. Verse 44 confirms that He moved in and out of the “Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms.” What's the teaching principle here? It's reading the Bible thematically, with a trained eye to see repetition, rehearsal and duplication. I suggest that reading the Scriptures this way shows us the acts of God, and here we begin to construct themes like: creation, law, fall into sin, renewal with promise, renewal with oaths, signs and seals, judgment, representative deliverer, and hope, blessing, advance and peace. This aspect of Bible reading and teaching emphasizes the area of interpretation; it's seeing rightly systematic and biblical threads of God's work with His people. In seeing such biblical threads, the Holy Spirit escorts us into the New Testament to see Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior as the New Creation, New Law-Giver, Righteous Servant, Judge, Deliverer and more.

Therefore, last, His aim was to persuade them to draw righteous conclusions for a faithful, correct response to know who He is, in order to follow Him, and this is especially in spite of the surrounding circumstances (vss. 17-24). The two disciples knew that “Jesus of Nazareth...was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,” but their thoughts about His life and purpose, and the circumstances relative to things at hand brought about doubt, discouragement and loss of hope. He helped them with understanding the “things concerning Himself” (vs. 27, 44 at the end of these verses). Since the Lord Jesus Christ is the end goal of God’s revelation, the final revelation (Heb 1); and since He is the fulfillment of God’s promises, man is to respond to Him in faith and repentance. The things concerning Jesus Christ persuade us to put the spotlight where God wants it. It's a focus on Christ's Person and Work in salvation. Here is the teaching principle and practice that urges students to trust Christ, give Him devotion, and show repentance and newness of obedience.

Man has his own words, subjects of discussion and conclusions by which he lives, as pictured in miniature with these two men talking together on the road to Emmaus. Our Lord catches up to them on the seven-mile walk to teach them, and thus, to make them His disciples. He's the Master Teacher who states the facts of the written Word, rehearses the Scriptures going over the acts of God, and last, summons His students to repent, to turn to Him in faith and follow Him.

G. Mark Sumpter

Friday Catechism

At the Sumpter home in Grants Pass on Friday mornings, we draw Westminster Shorter Catechism questions out of the basket and quiz one another. Below is an outline that I've used here at Faith OPC. I've seen these kinds of outlines and teaching helps on the web and in books, and what not.

An Outline of the Westminster Shorter Catechism

Catechism=orderly, sounding-over, sounding-through instruction “…to write to you an orderly account…” Luke 1:3 “Apollos…had been instructed in the way of the Lord…” Acts 18:24

I. Introduction to the Catechism: God's Summum Bonum (highest good) for Man
What is man’s purpose? Where is this purpose taught? (Questions 1-3)

II. What Man is To Believe: The Triune God, Creation and Providence (Questions 4-38)
The Doctrine of God (Questions 4-6)
The Doctrine of God's Works (Questions 7-11)
The Doctrine of God's Covenant of Life or Works (Questions 12-19)
Man's test or probation (Question 12)
Man's fall into sin, his misery (Questions 13-19)
The Doctrine of God's Covenant of Grace (Questions 20-38)
Jesus: The Redeemer and His Work (Questions 21-28)
Holy Spirit: His Work of Applying Redemption (Questions 29-38)

III. What Man is To Do: Obey the revealed will of God (Questions 39-107)
The Rule of Man's Obedience Summarized: 10 Commandments (Quest. 39-42)
The Rule Prefaced with God's Gracious Work (Questions 43-44)
The Rule of Man's Duty to God—Commandments 1-4 (Questions 45-62)
The Rule of Man's Duty to Man—Commandments 5-10 (Questions 63-81)
Man's Need for Faith and Repentance (Questions 82-87)
God's Gifts of the Means of Grace (Questions 88-97)
God's Gift of Prayer (Questions 98-107)

G. Mark Sumpter