Those who dream of being effective communicators run into an immediate obstacle: the people they teach are so different. Not everyone learns alike. Each person has different needs, questions, and ways of absorbing information. This challenge is addressed by Roberta Hestenes, who along with Howard Hendricks and Earl Palmer co-authored Mastering Teaching, the latest volume in the Mastering Ministry series, co-published by Multnomah Press and Christianity Today, Inc. This article is an excerpt.

John lays floor tiles for a living. He's not much of a reader, but he's eager to learn, and he's looking for something from the class I'm about to teach.

Peter is a lawyer-driven, compulsive, and a bit of a snob. He is a reader, and a skeptical one at that. In fact, he's vowed that if this class doesn't grab him, he probably won't bother with another.

Joanne's husband left her a few months ago, and now she's trying to support herself and her two children on a clerk's salary at J.C. Penney. This is the ...