4.INCORRECT PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES IN EVANGELIZATION

(Translated from Portuguese to English by Fabricio Marques)

Jesus, the greatest of teachers, taught us how to deal with all the situations in life.

“Go and teach to all nations”. With this message, Jesus incited his disciples to preach and teach.

And when He said: - “For no man lights a lamp and sets it under a bushel”, Jesus alerted everybody to their responsibilities to disseminate knowledge.

We refer to these teachings so as to plead evangelists to reflect upon the responsibility of those who offer to take Jesus’ Gospel to the hearts of children and the youth.
In the Spiritist Evangelization, the practice of love is the fundamental condition to accomplish this task and self-evaluation will ensure evangelists do not commit mistakes, which could compromise the great scope of this work.
We registered some of these incorrect practices in evangelization:

a) With the pretext of being up-to-date, one studies various works, whilst leaving aside those of Spiritist teachings
b) Analyse themes that are interesting to the youth, exploring its biological, psychological and social aspects, but not the Spiritual one.
c) Always believe that the Spiritual help will provide the adequate planning and preparation required from the evangelist.
d) Present the Spiritual Doctrine in a sophisticated way, with scientific theories that require a high rationale, thus pushing away those with less knowledge.
e) Forget to relate the content of the Spiritual teachings with the student’s own experiences in life.
f) Stop attending study groups about the Spiritual Doctrine because one thinks he/she already knows enough.
g) Undervalue concrete pedagogical experiences, without proper evaluation, due to prejudice, or believing one to be good enough already.


Let us remember that “nothing can be taken from nothing”. “All that germinates, germinates from a seed”. We cannot expect noble and elevated qualities to simply emerge from youngsters, without us first planting the seed.
The seed of good and truth, of love and justice are never lost. Even though its germination may be immediate, or remote, it will never fail.

“The salvation of humanity is a work of education”.
   
FEB – Federação Espirita Brasileira (Brazilian Spiritist Federation)
Thanks Claudia Werdine