Are you listening?

Nancy R. DeHaan
MACSA Executive Director

If I had a dime (or even a nickel) for every time I uttered (or even muttered) "Are you listening?"  to the students in my classroom (especially the preschoolers . . . OK, and the middle school math kids . . . OK, and the junior high Bible class) . . . I could have retired years ago as a rich (young) woman!

As teachers we spend the majority of our day talking . . . and hope that our students spend the majority of their day listening ~ to US!  The question is ~ are WE good listeners?

Here is an interesting review of three books designed to help adults become better listeners. They are written in the context of how to listen to a sermon and benefit from the ministry of the Word ~ making them applicable to ALL of us . . . teachers, administrators, parents . . . Christians!

The three books are:

• Helping Johnny Listen by Thadeus Bergmeier
• Expository Listening: A Handbook for Hearing and Doing God’s Word by Ken Ramey
• Listen Up by Christopher Ash

They are reviewed by Tim Challies ~ Challies.com
As Christians we sit through a lot of sermons. The preaching ministry is one of God’s greatest means of grace to us, the means by which he teaches us truth, by which he calls us to pursue truth and to live out of it. And yet many of us are passive listeners, people who expect great preaching skill from the pastor but demand no listening skill from ourselves.

Lately I have come across a few resources dedicated to helping Christians be better listeners, to help them emphasize active listening. Here are three of them, each with a few words of description and an overview of the contents. If you have never read a book on how to listen to a sermon, I’d encourage you to do that. Take full advantage of the privilege you have of sitting under the ministry of the Word!

Click HERE to read the reviews.

Looking forward to your comments!