Bruce Wilkinson, 7 Laws of the Learner: Law 5a Need

The Law of Need
Pages 267-306
Tuesday 9 November 2010

The essence of the Law of
Need is these three words:
“Build the need”
The teacher should build the
need before teaching the
content

To catch a ﬁsh you must use bait.
As a teacher you need to put the bait on the hook -
we cannot expect students to put their on bait on or
simply be motivated by our good looking hooks.
As a teacher I am responsible for making students
chase after the content

We call this
Motivation

Need Mindset
Sinking feeling in the pit of your
stomach
Weakening of the knees
Reddening of the face
Straining for, stammering with,
words
Walls pressing in
Desperate desire to leave quickly
Each day when a teacher thinks:
“What’s the point of this”

Where do you assign the blame -
weather, low student IQ, late in
the day?
Should you resign, change
occupation - or more?
Is it a students fault if they are
apathetic and bored? Surely it
isn’t the teachers fault?!
Wilkinson says it is the teachers
responsibility to bait the hook

Consider the example of
Jesus - he regularly addressed
the needs of his hearers:
1. When the persons needs
were obvious he sought to
meet them.
2. If the people were out of
touch with their needs, Jesus
brought them to the surface.

Consider the example of
Jesus - he regularly addressed
the needs of his hearers:
1. When the persons needs
were obvious he sought to
meet them.
2. If the people were out of
touch with their needs, Jesus
brought them to the surface.
Jesus taught in
response to his
students’ needs - he
started with his
class, not his
content.

Teachers can meets personal needs privately
and common class needs through appropriate
action in class, slanting discussion in a certain
way, making comments etc.
Most teachers teach in response to the assigned
curriculum - the result is that students are
[predictably] bored etc.
Most teachers are distressed and shocked to
ﬁnd that students are lacking motivation and
interest in their class. Should they be? The
majority of classes are out of touch with the felt
needs of the students and produce predictable
results

What do we do - follow
the example of Jesus who
faced the same problem.
Jesus used 5 steps - seen
in John 4:5-30

So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son
Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired
as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.
It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman
came to draw water,...
Woman comes to get water - she is hot, thirsty
and totally uninterested in Jesus.
Students come and are not consciously thirsty -
but a teacher will cause the student to want to
learn, to be interested in seeking the lesson

Need Model
Stimulate
felt need
Consider
“I want
this”
Stir
Curiosity
Curiosity
“Tell me
more”
Seize
Attention
Capture
“what’s
this?”

Stimulate
felt need
Consider
“I want
this”
Surface
real need
Climax
“I need
this”
Satisfy
real need
Content
“I got
what I
wanted”

Step 1: Seize Attention
She is self absorbed - Christ, a
stranger, gets her attention,
“Give me a drink”
The shock is that he spoke with
her at all.
Capture students attention -
joke, one liner, change style -
remember that they are not
focussed on you

Take the attention of your
students away from
whatever is holding it.
Attention is immediately
drawn to the most vivid
stimulus present - so
overpower whatever holds
your students attention
Seize attention, capture
attention - students break
free and ask “what is this?”

Seize
Attention
Capture
“what’s
this?”

Step 2: Stir Curiosity
Attention is ﬂeeting.
Lessen dependence
on external stimuli -
Jesus stirs the
woman’s curiosity
until she desires her
teacher to tell her
more.

The Samaritan woman said to
him, “You are a Jew and I am a
Samaritan woman. How can you
ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do
not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew
the gift of God and who it is that
asks you for a drink, you would
have asked him and he would
have given you living water.”

Imagine the woman thinking,
“What is he talking about?”
Jesus baited her three times:
1. God’s gift
2. His identity
3. Living water
...and he did it quickly...and she
took the bait

Living water - “Sir,” the woman
said, “you have nothing to draw
with and the well is deep. Where
can you get this living water?
Identity - Are you greater than
our father Jacob,
God’s gift - who gave us the well
and drank from it himself, as did
also his sons and his livestock?”
Do you think it all happened by
chance - or did Jesus build her
curiosity and then move in
deeper?

Stir
Curiosity
Curiosity
“Tell me
more”

Step 3: Stimulate felt need
The woman still isn’t quite with
Jesus - so he stimulates her
felt need and led her to
consider the issues more
seriously until she felt, “I want
this”
Steps 1 and 2 have prepared
for this one - curiosity must be
quickly linked to felt needs
Stimulate
felt need
Consider
“I want this”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who
drinks this water will be thirsty
again, but whoever drinks the
water I give them will never thirst.
Indeed, the water I give them will
become in them a spring of
water welling up to eternal life.”
She would not have wanted to
be out in the midday sun - Jesus
picked this up - and teachers
have to ‘pick up’ where their
students are

Effective teachers have threaded
themselves into the fabric of the
students lives and know
intuitively where they are.
Assuming you introduced things
well you now have to involve the
interest you created.
You have uncovered and
cooperated with existing interest.
So how, after all this, do you
lead students to the subject
you have prepared?

Step 4: Surface real need
Jesus had intended to share
the gift of salvation with her -
but she is a long way from
seeing her need for it.
Jesus continues building into
her life

“I have no husband,” she
replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are
right when you say you have
no husband. 18 The fact is,
you have had ﬁve husbands,
and the man you now have is
not your husband. What you
have just said is quite true.”
Jesus again doesn’t answer
her question - he changes the
subject - and she wants to
know more

Indirectly she asks Jesus for
more content about worship - he
had encouraged her questions
and now had surfaced the real
need, this is the climax of
building and leads the student to
feel “I need this”
Surface real
need
Climax
“I need
this”

Step 5: Satisfy real need
Only when the class is in touch
with their real need do you
satisfy it with the content. At
this stage students are happy
to have gotten what they
wanted.
v. 25-26
Jesus withheld the answer until
she had the right question -
teachers should follow this
pattern - start by creating a
hunger for content.

Many teachers view this building
up stage as a waste of class time -
yet Jesus spent more time
building the need than teaching
the lesson.
(In modern preaching this is
considered a disposable add on)
Jesus met her where she was,
then he took responsibility for
getting her attention and
discussing her needs - Jesus
took the responsibility in all of it.

Finally Jesus did not
crush her (no
comments about
husbands etc.) he
dealt with her
graciously and
sensitively.
Real needs do not
surface easily - they
are often tender and
need gentleness.

Satisfy real
need
Content
“I got what
I wanted”

Need Maxims

Maxim 1: Need building is the
responsibility of the teacher
“A great teacher is not
simply one who imparts
knowledge to his students,
but one who awakens their
interest and makes them
eager to pursue
knowledge for themselves.
He is a spark plug, not a
fuel line”

Great teachers realise they have to
awaken interest before teaching
content. They inspire and entice
their students until the are fully
absorbed in the lesson.
Most teachers ignore this and
lecture their content regardless of
the student need or attention.
Do you accept your
responsibility to bait the hook
every time?

Maxim 2: Need meeting is the
teachers primary calling
Maxim 1 dealt with building
need before you teach -
Number 2 deals with meeting
needs which are already there.
Does your pastor preach what
he is interested in, or what he
dreams of preaching, or what
the people need?

Maxim 2: Need meeting is the
teachers primary calling
Maxim 1 dealt with building
need before you teach -
Number 2 deals with meeting
needs which are already there.
Does your pastor preach what
he is interested in, or what he
dreams of preaching, or what
the people need?
“Teachers and preachers feel that their
primary calling is to explain the truth.
The only fallacy is that the truth does
not have any needs! The Bible does not
have a need to be preached or taught.
Only our people have needs. The call of
the shepherd is to meet the needs of his
sheep; the calling of the pastor to meet
the needs of his class”

Imagine a person in tears phoning
and asking you for help regarding
their marriage. You agree. They
come over. You have studied the
tabernacle all week and gladly
start to share this with them. They
look puzzled. Then after making
comments about “how is this
meant to save my marriage” they
walk out.
You are amazed at such stupid
people - they don’t want proper
food only milk

A ridiculous story - but one
repeated in many church classes
each week.
“We have separated the
message from those we are
called to minister to. We think if
we have taught the Bible then
we have fulﬁlled our calling.
But the only time we fulﬁll our
calling is when we teach the
Bible to the needs of our
people”

If our content is to meant to help
our audience, then should not our
focus always be on what the
students need and enable them to
walk in obedience to the Lord?
All the Bible is inspired but some
parts are less important or
relevant, to people we teach.
We do not teach Romans 9-11 to
5 year olds, or Ezekiel 40-48 to
new believers - they are wrong
passages for those audiences.

If our content is to meant to help
our audience, then should not our
focus always be on what the
students need and enable them to
walk in obedience to the Lord?
All the Bible is inspired but some
parts are less important or
relevant, to people we teach.
We do not teach Romans 9-11 to
5 year olds, or Ezekiel 40-48 to
new believers - they are wrong
passages for those audiences.
“Believe it or not the Bible
does not have a need to
be taught. Only our
people have a need to be
taught, and it is their real
need that should
determine our teaching
and preaching calendar”

Jesus told Peter to feed his
sheep - do this and sheep grow
and reproduce.
Paul did not write letters merely
because he had something
interesting to say - he wrote in
response to needs - need then
letter; problem then
proclamation
This pattern is shown through
the NT
Be wise and discerning in
choosing your subject

Maxim 3: Need building is the teachers
main method to motivate students
Motivation is a continual problem in class - what
is the secret?
Provide a need
If it is an appropriate on the students respond.
Is this hard - Jesus took 116 words with the
woman at the well - 100 of them motivating her
to seek her saviour.
Bait the hook.

Maxim 4: Need motivates to the
degree it is felt by the student
How deeply does the student
feel the need?
Touch their feelings - provide
the need in such a way that it is
felt - the deeper the feeling, the
greater the response - light a
ﬁre in the heart of your student

Wilkinson suggests that
there are 7 universal
motivators - listed in the
next section of maximisers.
Don’t think motivation
happens by chance - or that
you don’t have the charisma
to do it. Everyone can learn
it.

Maxim 5: need building always
precedes new units of content
When was the last time your
students wanted the answer
you were giving them?
In witnessing - when did peope
sense their need for christ so
much that they knew they were
going to hell - and you had the
answer.
Unless your class is
dying for the answer,
don’t give it to them.

Maxim 5: need building always
precedes new units of content
When was the last time your
students wanted the answer
you were giving them?
In witnessing - when did peope
sense their need for christ so
much that they knew they were
going to hell - and you had the
answer.

4 Situations where you should
build the need:
1. At the beginning of each new
series - meaningfully explain the
beneﬁts of the classes.
2. At the beginning of each new
lesson - refocus the student, they
don’t remember the last class
anyway!
3. During class for the next class -
anticipation is powerful
4. Resurface the need if interest is
waning, motivation sagging etc.

Maxim 6: need should be built
according to the audience’s
characteristics and circumstances
As a teacher you need to
know your students
characteristics and
circumstances well.
Age, interests etc. determine
appropriate methods for a
group.

Maxim 7: need building may be
hindered by factors beyond the
teachers control
Be sensitive to other factors which affect
students.
External factors - high temp. Baby crying
- keep trying though
Internal factors - such as an
incompatibility between the need you are
suggesting and their lifestyle

Internal factor might be intense or
mild depending upon:
1. How far apart the need you are
building is from their present
conviction
2. How intensely and emotionally
you are building the need
3. How rapidly you transitioned
through the 5 stages of need
building (to be discussed in the
next section)

How do you deal with
this?
Raise the intensity?
Don’t worry about it - it is
their problem.
Stop, meet the pressing
need and return to your
lesson
Stop and acknowledge the
tension - then either go on
or stop and meet their
need.

Conclusion
The teacher should
surface the students’
real need before
teaching the content.
This law is like the role
of advertising in
marketing - adverts
are aimed at making
you buy a product but
they cost a lot of
money to produce.

Conclusion
The teacher should
surface the students’
real need before
teaching the content.
This law is like the role
of advertising in
marketing - adverts
are aimed at making
you buy a product but
they cost a lot of
money to produce.
Will you pay the price
in your class - in order
to meet the needs of
your students?

Bruce Wilkinson, 7 Laws of the Learner: Law 5a Need

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (12)

Ähnlich wie Bruce Wilkinson, 7 Laws of the Learner: Law 5a Need

Ähnlich wie Bruce Wilkinson, 7 Laws of the Learner: Law 5a Need (20)

Mehr von Richard Chamberlain

Mehr von Richard Chamberlain (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Bruce Wilkinson, 7 Laws of the Learner: Law 5a Need