Malcolm Cox

Introduction We all wish to be like Paul and Barnabas:  “At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.” (Acts 14:1 NIV11) This series aims to help us in our effectiveness. Today we tackle the first ‘commandment’. Know thy content, backward and forward, for your students’ respect and attention begins here. Before we progress to the practicals, it is important to grasp two points Mastering content is not the same as mastering a topic. The reality is that none of us ever know everything it is possible to know about a subject. But, you can master the content of your lesson.  Your ‘content’ is a combination of what you want your listeners to interact with — the facts and information you feel will be helpful to them and to which you hope they will react — and the material that you hope will aid their interaction with that information (illustrations, stories etc). As an example, in Acts 2 Peter’s speech