Principles of teaching

As the teacher for this course, you will have many opportunities to strengthen and nurture those you teach. To help you teach more effectively, this manual emphasizes the following principles of teaching:

Love those you teach

Strive to become acquainted with the members of your class and let them know that you genuinely care about them. Create a comfortable environment in your class so that service members feel comfortable participating freely and asking you for help. Answer questions they may have about understanding and applying gospel principles.

If service members bring up problems or needs that you do not feel qualified to discuss, encourage them to meet with a member of the bishopric or branch presidency who may be qualified to help.

You can be a great help to service members in strengthening them spiritually. You can introduce them to Church leaders and other members and help them learn how to live the gospel in ways that may be new to them, such as regular prayer and scripture study.

To learn more about loving those you teach, read and ponder “Love Those You Teach” and “Listen” (Teaching in the Savior’s Way [2016], 6–9, 34).

Teach by the Spirit

Strive to have the Spirit of the Lord in the class as you teach (see D&C 50:13–14, 17–22). The Spirit carries the message of the lesson to the heart of each individual and bears witness of the truth being taught (see 2 Nephi 33:1). Seek the guidance of the Spirit as you prepare every lesson so that you can help meet the specific needs of each individual.

To learn more about teaching by the Spirit, see Teaching in the Savior’s Way, pages 10–18.

Teach the doctrine

The lessons in this course are designed to help service members understand and apply the principles of the gospel that are expressed in the introduction at the beginning of each lesson.

To learn more about teaching the doctrine, see Teaching in the Savior’s Way, pages 20–28.