Planning for Biblical Teaching

It was my ninth year of teaching in a primary classroom, and I was starting at a Christian school. I was confident of my abilities to teach, but I was also expected to integrate the Bible into my classroom. I knew I had a Bible class to teach and devotions to lead daily, but what else did it mean to integrate the Bible? How was I to teach Christianly? At my previous school, I could not plan lessons that included speaking openly of my faith and how it shaped my thinking, values, actions, and beliefs. The idea of teaching biblically was overwhelming in this new school and new country. Perhaps that’s been your experience too.

The writer of Proverbs reminds us of the wisdom of planning but also of entrusting our plans to God for help to carry them out.[1] If we desire to teach biblically, we need to plan to teach biblically. It does not happen (at least not well) without intention. Yet, let’s get this out of the way first: There is not one specific method of planning for teaching biblically. Reading that fact may frustrate you or it may give you great relief. Either way I hope that what follows will give you some practical guidance toward what you can do to engage in planning for biblical teaching on your journey of transformational teaching in both overtly Christian settings and creative access ones.

Planning for the Head, Heart, and Hands
When you think about planning for biblical teaching it is often easy to think of finding Bible verses or passages that may go with a unit or lesson. Or you might dismiss a particular subject area or topic because there are not direct references to it in God’s word. This mindset and approach to planning Christian teaching often misses the point. Planning to teach biblically needs to be holistic and involve planning for engaging the heart, head, and hands of learners.

In Hebrew culture, the heart is the center of our being where our actions, thoughts, words, and all of life flows from.[2] Therefore, we ought to plan thoughtfully about how to shape and orient students’ hearts towards seeing and loving the truth, beauty, and goodness that is found in God’s world and in God’s ways.

The head, or the mind, is the place of knowledge, rational thinking, and understanding; thus, we ought also to plan in a way that allows students opportunities to grow in knowledge and truth of God, God’s world, and ourselves in relationship to God and to others through content areas. How will you plan to help your learners think critically about this knowledge as it compares to other worldviews, beliefs, and values they encounter?

Our hands are symbolic of our whole bodies, and it is essential to plan how to practice using them in ways that are honoring to God through action and communication. This practical, hands-on application helps students to show visibly what they are learning in their hearts and minds. It is how they live out what they think in their minds and believe in their hearts.

Planning for Classroom Routines & Learning Habits
Your first interactions with students and parents show what you value and believe in. Take time to thoughtfully and prayerfully engage with these questions about how you want your classroom to operate and why.

• Make a list of your classroom procedures and routines. How do these reflect or not reflect the kingdom of God and a Christian worldview? How can they teach biblical values and truths?

• Make a list of learning habits you desire for learners to embody after being in your class. Why these habits? How do they reflect a Christian worldview?

• How might you communicate the reasons for these routines and habits to your learners if you are in a setting where you can speak openly about your faith?

Planning classroom routines & learning habits that are rooted in a Christian worldview can cultivate an excellent educational environment that the Spirit uses in both Christian settings and where it is not possible to openly speak of your faith.

Practices in Planning Lessons
Below are practices to help you think through how to include biblical teaching in your lesson plans. These practices will be tedious as you begin, but like any new skill, they will get easier as you use them. The process is meant to help you develop your own habit of thinking, to see anew, engage differently, and reshape how you teach.[3] It is not a formula, but rather a practice.

• Begin by asking for God’s guidance. Then choose one unit or topic from your course syllabus or yearlong overview. It is important to start small and not try to do this with everything. Write down the major content knowledge and objectives from that unit. Then ask biblical worldview questions about this topic. The biblical worldview narrative framework of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration can be helpful as we think through how our subject areas and unit topics highlight different aspects of the story. Think about why this topic is important for your learners. How can it help them to know more about God, His world, and their purpose?

• Meditate on the biblical worldview questions you drafted for the unit/topic and ponder the answers. Ask God for help. It might feel uncomfortable or unimportant. After all, you have many other responsibilities to attend to like that stack of papers to grade. But do not let the uncomfortableness turn you away. You may want to ponder this with a colleague or mentor. There is likely a treasure waiting for you to uncover that you can share with your learners. Even if you are in a creative access setting, developing this practice of asking questions like these will build your own understanding of a biblical worldview.

• After answering a few of these questions on your topic think through an age-appropriate way to teach one or two of the biblical worldview perspectives or truths with your students. If you are in a creative access context, think of ways you can still point towards these truths. How can you highlight truth, beauty, and goodness? What learning experiences can you provide for your students to actively engage with the academic content and a biblical worldview perspective on it? How will you have them process that learning experience? How will you help them to think critically? How will you plan for head, heart, and hands? Build this into your unit plan and lesson plans.

Note: The Center for Biblical Worldview Formation recently published the Standards for Biblical Worldview Formation.[4] The 20 anchor outcomes and the standards may guide in your planning as you aim to teach biblically in a way that goes beyond biblical truths and knowledge.

• Finally, pray, then teach your unit and reflect.

In planning, the challenge is not to see how you can teach the whole of the gospel message in every lesson or unit but to point to who God is and to make connections with the academic subjects in meaningful ways. The goal is to teach biblically in a way that points hearts, minds, and hands to see the truth, beauty, and goodness of all things. That points to the One who created it all and made a way for us to be in relationship with Him through Jesus.

Amanda F.
Amanda serves in Global School Services with TeachBeyond. She has over 20 years of educational experience as a primary school teacher, curriculum coordinator, and teacher educator. She’s worked in a start-up school, a program for struggling learners, and an international Christian school. Amanda enjoys the challenges of learning to teach teachers about how curriculum is related to God’s world and design. She’s lived in four countries and visited many more. Outside of teaching, Amanda enjoys drinking Earl Gray tea, learning, traveling, and having long, deep conversations with friends.

Recommended Resources

• Erdvig, R. C. S. (2020). Beyond biblical integration: Immersing you and your students in a biblical worldview. Summit Ministries. 
• Dow, P. E. (2013). Virtuous minds: Intellectual character development. IVP Academic.
• Smith, D. I. (2025). Everyday Christian teaching: A guide to practicing faith in the classroom. Eerdmans Publishing.
• BiblicalIntegration.com. (n.d.). https://biblicalintegration.com/.
• What If Learning. (n.d.). https://whatiflearning.com/.
• Summit Ministries. (n.d.). Summit’s Standards for Biblical Worldview Formation. https://www.summit.org/educators/center-for-biblical-worldview-formation/worldview-standards/.