The list below is from an educational perspective. Each of us has these faculties; they are like muscles because the more we use them, the stronger they become. We use these faculties to learn and process information. The students will get more out of services when we encourage them to use their God-given abilities listed below. The more intellectual faculties we have them use, the greater the learning. Today, I’m discussing the first one.

  1. Reason
  2. Intuition (spirit)
  3. Perception
  4. Will
  5. Memory
  6. Imagination

Reason is our ability to think. Our job as teachers is to get the class to think. Don’t confuse thinking with mere brain activity. If you ask most people what they are thinking, they would be speechless. People can tell you what others think, but to use their own brain power is much more difficult. Some people would rather die than think. Some  would like to have others do our thinking for them. Thinking is becoming a lost art.

How do we get the class to think? This is the life application of the lesson. We have taught the spiritual truth. Now, let the class develop ideas on how to use it in life, in a prayer, or to solve a problem for a puppet or character that has come to class. The process of getting the students to think, called reasoning, is simple. Take the truth that is taught and use it to develop a plan that will create the desired results. This process is what separates doers of the Word from hearers only. If the class is not able to internalize and apply the truth that is taught, they will not become doers of the Word.

For example, let’s use the Bible story of Israelites marching around the walls of Jericho and the truth is that if we obey God, we will overcome difficult situations. To encourage the students to tap into their reasoning faculties, we could ask the following questions to get them to think:

  • What if the army hadn’t kept quiet?
  • Why did God tell them to walk around the city 7 times?
  • The people in the city did not overcome their difficult situation, why?
  • How would the story have ended if the city had repented?

Do you have a “Jericho” in your life?

The simplest way is to ask the class these questions; however, there is a long journey from the story taught and its Bible truth to answers of these questions. There is likely to be a long silence after asking a thought-provoking question. If you tell the class the answer, the students haven’t used their reasoning.

Try this,

1.  Ask the questions at the beginning of the class time and tell the class you want the answer at the end of class. This will give them time to reason. You will need to remind them of the question(s) throughout class time.

2. Ask the boys one question and the girls another.

3. Propose these questions in a skit or a story that is open ended and have the students supply the ending.

4. Use pictures to tell the story and let the students put the story into words using their reasoning.

In The Kids on the Move curriculum, the Master Mechanic videos illustrate this process, only the Master Mechanic does all the reasoning, not the kids. Get your class to become doers of the Word by helping them to use their reasoning.