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5. Affirm publicly. I attended First Baptist in Dallas one day when Pastor Criswell called a woman from the congregation to the pulpit. "I'd like you people to know," he said, "that Mary has been teaching in our junior department for seven years. And I just got a report that in the last month three girls have come to know Jesus Christ in her class." The whole congregation broke into applause.

This not only gave the teacher a boost, I could just see people thinking. Where do I sign up?

6. Get excited about their discoveries. We express confidence in learners by treating them with respect. For the teacher, that means taking seriously the ideas and discoveries of students. If we speak enthusiastically about what we know but indifferently about the student's insight, we make them feel like dummies. We undermine their confidence in what they can understand about the Bible, sucking the wind out of their sails.

Instead, I treat students as though they are incredibly smart. I work up a heavier lather over what the learners are discovering than over what I have discovered. I write all over their papers, hold them up, and tell others, "You've got to read this!"

7. Highlight potential. Not only competence, but potential competence motivates. If I know there are skills in me that lay like an undrilled oilfield, I will be stirred to start some wells and get pumping. Recognized potential enables learners to say, "Yes, I'm stumbling around now, but someday I will be a good parent," or "Someday I will win others to Christ," or "Someday I will be able to counsel others."

Equip People with Skills

We conducted studies at Dallas Seminary and elsewhere, and found that the number one problem among students is a lack of confidence. They are hindered, paralyzed, and discouraged by insecurity. Yet these are high caliber people, serious students with a B minus average and above, graduates of quality schools.

I think they are a product of our culture. Confidence comes not from easy living but from overcoming adversity. Most of our students have known the good life; they haven't endured a major economic depression or overcome a significant personal adversity. Few have faced anything that tested them to the core of their being, that stretched them to the maximum, to the point where they had to rely totally on God.

Motivation comes from the confidence that "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Paul said those words in Philippians after describing in the preceding verses all the adverse circumstances he had overcome with God's help. Paul had proven to himself that God could work through him.

Speak to Needs

What spurs a teacher to teach and what motivates a student to learn are usually two very different things. Teachers often find inspiration in a body of knowledge or experiences, significant truths that they want others to know about. Learners, on the other hand, are generally motivated by their felt needs; that's usually the grid through which they see the world. As a result, teachers are often answering questions that learners aren't asking.

However, teachers never lack motivated learners when they speak to needs. But felt needs—for a new job, for a less hectic life, for a harmonious family—are frequently only symptoms of ultimate needs—for meaning, for security, for companionship. The Bible specializes in ultimate needs. The motivating teacher surfaces those ultimate needs and ties them to felt needs.