A lesson plan is a promise about what you will teach, week by week, for sixteen weeks, until you cover the material and students have time to learn it.

Most teachers fail in the same place: too much for week one, out of time by week six, rushing the rest, or too little, repeating at the end. Divide first. Then teach in order, at a pace a real student can follow.

Divide the Material First

Take the material you plan to cover in the semester, and divide it by fourteen or fifteen.

Fourteen or fifteen, not sixteen. You need time for discussion and testing: midterm, final, weeks when questions run long. Plan new teaching for fourteen or fifteen weeks, leave the rest for discussion, review, and testing.

Count the segments. Daytime courses are sixteen weeks at one, two, or three hours, so divide the material by sixteen, thirty-two, or forty-eight segments. One segment is one hour of class. Name what each will cover before the term begins, on one page if you can. At a glance, you see too much, too little, or just right.

Decide each segment before the first lesson. Put hard parts, review, and tests where they belong. A plan made in advance is a kindness. One made up week by week burdens both.

Heavy Homework Earns the Extra Hour

Plan heavy homework so students earn the extra hour you give them for doing it, if it is a nighttime institute.

A night institute meets fewer hours in the room. Working men and women come after work, then go home. Credit must still rest on real work. Homework carries the rest.

Plan homework as carefully as lessons: reading that takes time, writing that makes them think, investigating that sends them into the Book, papers forcing them to say what they believe. Heavy, honest, checked. Not busy work never read. Work you will grade.

Heavy homework done earns the extra hour. Light, skipped, or uncollected homework does not, and the credit will not stand. Count homework hours like class hours, name the total credit earned, and hold students to it with patience and grace.

Divide the Reading by the Day

If you are teaching a book, or a series of books, divide the reading by the number of days that are in sixteen weeks, and have them read a certain number of chapters each day.

Count the days, count the chapters, divide one by the other. Each day carries its share until the book is finished. Do it daily, if it is a daytime Bible college. A steady plan carries a student through without crushing him on any one day.

Write the plan on day one: Monday, so many chapters; Tuesday, so many; and so on to the end. A student who knows the portion reads in the morning and comes ready. One told to read a whole book by term's end reads none until the last week, then panics and remembers nothing.

Check the reading as you go. Ask, test, and let daily reading feed the daily lesson, day by day, for sixteen weeks.

Teachers Commit to Sixteen Weeks

All teachers need to know they are committing to sixteen weeks of classes, minimum.

Say it before they agree. Sixteen weeks, minimum. Not ten and then a holiday. A teacher who knows the commitment can count the cost and say yes wholeheartedly. One surprised by it resents it by week eight, and students feel it.

If a teacher must miss, he can get an administration-approved substitute. That is you. Approval comes before he teaches, not after. An unapproved substitute may mean well and still teach something the school doesn't stand behind. Approval protects all. It is care, not red tape.

Keep a short list of approved substitutes you trust, who know the material and love students. When a teacher must miss class, the plan goes on, and students lose nothing.

You Are Looking for the Few

Realize you are not really concerned about what others think, or how many quit.

That sounds hard, and it is freeing. You are not building to impress people, or counting heads to feel successful. You seek students who really want to give their lives, and have God use them. A school pleasing everyone soon teaches nothing worth learning. One serving the hungry few feeds them well, and they feed others.

Some will quit, some will fade, and some will decide the work is too much. Let them go with kindness. Don't chase them with guilt or lower the standard to keep them. Keep the standard, keep the door open, teach those who stay. They are the ones you sought.

If you spend three and a half years and train only eleven decent men, you will have done a world-changing ministry. Eleven men, trained well, can change a county, a country, a generation. Jesus spent about three and a half years with twelve; one betrayed Him, eleven remained, and the world has never been the same. "And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach." Mark 3:14: With Him first, then sent.

Measure not by how many started, but how many finished, faithful, ready to serve. Eleven decent men outlive the teacher, as those trained train others, who train others.

Make the plan. Divide by fourteen or fifteen, and by sixteen, thirty-two, or forty-eight. Plan heavy homework, divide reading by the day, hold teachers to sixteen weeks with approved substitutes. Then teach week by week for the few who want to give their lives, and trust God to use them.