The Joy of Teaching Religious Education Classes

The joy of teaching religious education classes can be found by professional or volunteer teachers across a wide spectrum of faiths and ages. While my own experience of teaching is based on 25 years of working within the Catholic faith community, I have witnessed the same joy of teaching religious education classes in other faiths as well. That joy also seems to come with the territory and not with the age group. Whether I was teaching classes of adults, teens or younger members of the faith community, it was hard to leave a session without taking along some joy for the rest of my week.

Some of the joy that one can expect to find in teaching religious education classes comes from the basic well of joy that one dips into whenever they are in a position to share something with another person who wants to learn. Whether you are teaching archery at a day camp, swimming in your backyard pool or knitting at your local Boys and Girls Club, the act of instructing others and giving them the beginning of a new skill just plain feels good. That kind of joy that comes with instruction is also present in teaching religious education classes.

But the joy of teaching religious education classes extends beyond the generic teachers' high because of the nature of the subject matter which you are sharing with your learners. As a teacher of religious education you aren't teaching for a camp or a club, you are working in the name of your God. Sure you can get upset with those in authority over your teaching. You can get annoyed with your priest, minister, administrator or director. But bottom line you are working for God. While you are in that class, no matter what the scheme of your lesson you are the go between for the duration of the class between God and your students. It's a heady responsibility but it comes with an equal portion of joy at being in that spot doing that work.

It can be a heavy load because not everyone will be as excited about learning about God as you are. You may have to do a little tooth pulling or arm twisting in a figurative sense to get your points across. Discipline may have to be a regular part of your religious education setting. You may even have to deal with parents who have issues about what or how you are teaching.

Even more draining at times can be the subject matter that you are sharing. In my own experience I found myself talking about lots of basic things within the Catholic faith like prayer, mass and the sacraments. But I also found in my curriculum the challenge of talking about things like AIDS, sexual morality, death, alcoholism, even Alzheimer's. These are not necessarily "happy" topics.

Still the joy of teaching religious education in your specific faith is the sure knowledge that by teaching your creed you have been blessed with a rare and grace filled opportunity. You can help someone else not just to find your God but more importantly, to think about who God is and how to relate to God in their own lives.

On few occasions will any student thank you after class or come back years later and tell you how much you turned their lives around so don't be disappointed . Your joy will come from the sure knowledge that with God's help your words had meaning and in the larger scale of things worked for good rather than evil. Teaching religious education classes gives you a joy you can live with.