Jan 27, 2021 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
Harvest from hardship. In the fields of life, it seems we have unconscious expectations that we will always reap ‘premium crops’ and ‘abundant produce’ when it comes to harvesting our best lives. Deep down we aren’t necessarily anticipating many of the difficulties that come our way in life. We traverse our fields being somewhat sensitized to the small noxious weeds of hardship that pop their heads up, seeking to choke the nutrients of quality out of our lives. We hit a pothole here and there and keep moving forward with our blinkers on and forget that Jesus says, we will have trouble in this world and some of those potholes will turn into deep furrows of heartache (John 16:33). What we expected to reap from life does not eventuate. Yet in God’s economy there is an expectation that we can always harvest from hardship and those crops can turn out to be our best harvests ever Why is that? Because what precedes the statement that Jesus makes about trouble is that He gives us His peace and what follows it is He declares He has overcome the world. There’s a harvest right there.
As we continue in this season of the pandemic and the everyday troubles of our lives, we must embrace a different understanding of harvest. God’s intention is always abundance. That was His intention in original creation and His desire for us to flourish has not changed. Yet we live in a world that experienced a catastrophic impact on the abundant life God first created, when sin spoiled the harvest. So, when Jesus reminds us that we will have troubles in this world, the idea of abundance does not preclude hardship, because Jesus is always restoring us to His original creative purpose as He harvests the good and the difficult experiences in our journey. With the hope set before us in Jesus, it is possible to harvest from hardship.
So, before we all go throwing out the sheaves that include sadness, heartache, or suffering, we can co-labour with our Master, Jesus, who harvests all things and turns them into abundance. As we remain planted in our fields, no matter whether we are experiencing growth from a sun-kissed season or we encounter the elements of difficulty, we can always harvest from hardship when we allow Jesus to gather every fruit of our lives and bring a harvest that is miraculously and always abundant.
So, friends get your “harvest” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Jan 23, 2021 | Care Conversations
Multiple investigation projects, carried out by reputable research groups indicate that 60% of young people are disengaging from faith/Church community by the age of 15; up t0 80% by the age of 20.[1]
This disconnection seems to become apparent when leaving school and entering tertiary education or workplace, but the withdrawal and emotional disconnection has begun well before this transition.
Traditionally (up until about 20 years ago) 70% were assumed to return to faith/Church community at some time in the future. Studies since the early 2000’s show that this return percentage has dropped below 30%.
Some of us are tempted to dispute the research or to provide anecdotal experiences that do not follow this trend.
We may be wary that most of the research is based upon surveys in the USA. A nation that has a high proportion of nominal or cultural Christian people; so maybe they are rejecting a cultural expectation.
Maybe in more secular countries, the data looks different? Research carried out in other countries provides similar data. In Canada it is a similar tale[2] and Australian data seems to confirm the same story.[3]
The majority of research points to ages 14-17 being decisive for faith development decisions.
I am sure that we can all provide anecdotal stories about young people who have developed strong and active faith in their adult years – but this does not give us licence to ignore the realities of worrying research data.
However, the acknowledgement of this saddening picture should not lead us to despair. Instead, it should lead us to critique and review the ways that we disciple our young people.
A number of reasons for disengagement commonly appear in the research; we will look at some of them over the next few weeks. Then we’ll investigate some positive ways forward.
Blessings
Brian
[1] Much of this research is consolidated at https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/are-young-people-really-leaving-christianity/
[2] Haemorrhaging Faith – The Evangelical fellowship of Canada
[3] https://repository.divinity.edu.au/2093/1/Hemorrhaging_Faith_Cronshaw_Lewis_and_Wilson.pdf
Jan 23, 2021 | Care Conversations
Developing Unshakable Faith
Welcome to 2021.
For some of you it’s the beginning of a new academic year; for others it is a half-way point in the school year journey. I trust that you all enjoyed a time of celebration and reflection over the Christmas period.
Families and communities around the majority of the world stop everything to celebrate Christmas. Sure, for some people, it may just be tradition, or a welcome break from work; but the truth is that the birth of Christ changed the world and its people forever. The coming of the incarnate Christ reset history and reset the world clock. Santa did not reset the calendar; Jesus did!
The birth of Christ was the visual beginning of the most hope-filled event that has occurred in history. It had always been the Father’s eternal plan to redeem and restore His people; at Christmas we celebrate Christ’s earthly journey to activate that redemption of His people and restore them to a glorious relationship with the Father.
The coming of Christ brought Grace, Truth, Mercy, Meaning, Purpose, Identity and Hope.
How do we continually represent the truth of redemption to our young people through all that we do in the vocation of education? How do we live out the truth that the Triune God is engaged with every moment of our lives, every thought, and every action?
We want to look at some of the research about the faith journeys of young people; we want to critique ways that we might nurture and guide young people into meaningful and life changing faith.
So, this semester we will pose many questions, consider possibilities so that we can exercise our discipling responsibilities faithfully.
“I wish, my brothers and sisters, that during this year you may live nearer to Christ than you have ever done before.
Depend upon it, it is when we think much of Christ that we think little of ourselves, little of our troubles, and little of the doubts and fears that surround us.” (Charles Spurgeon)
To set the context for this semester we plan to develop some ideas and some conversations that relate to the reasons why some of our young people have their faith shaken and what we can do about it.
We will look at some research, some anecdotal situations, some suggestions as to how we might address the issue. We will discuss these areas, not with despair, but with great hope.
Blessings for the year ahead
Brian
Jan 23, 2021 | Teachers Talking
Talk 1: A Room with a View
“A Room with a View” is a 1985 movie about an English woman living in the Victorian era who is given a room with a view during her holiday in Florence. It artistically tells the tale of how Lucy comes to view her world differently whilst there due to her romance with a character called George. The title of this movie comes to symbolise the change in the way she sees her life and this impacts the decisions she now makes about how she will live. Her worldview has changed.
All people hold a worldview regardless of whether they are aware of it, able to explain how it was formed in them or have the ability to articulate it to others.
Translated from the German word ‘Weltanschaung’, the term worldview was first used by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) who believed that human ability to reason could help bring “understanding of the meaning of the world and our place within it… without reference to religion or tradition” (Goheen & Bartholomew, 2008, p. 12).
The Idealist philosopher Schelling (1775-1854) saw ‘worldview’ as speaking into humanity’s longing for meaning in their existence and Weltanschaung defined it “to denote a set of beliefs that underlie and shape all human thought and action”(Heslam, 1998, p. 89).
Walsh & Middleton assert “a worldview provides a model of the world which guides its adherents in the world” (1984, p.32). Worldviews provide answers to the deep questions of life such as
‘Who am I? (identity),
‘Where did I come from? (origins),
‘Why am I here? (purpose),
‘What happens when I die?’ (destiny) and
‘How shall I live?’ (morality).
Worldviews are always rooted in faith whether that be in the living God (Theism) or the material world, human ability and idols shaped by humans (Naturalism) or an impersonal spirit/force that pervades the universe (Pantheism).
These worldviews permeate the atmosphere of our culture and are like the air we breathe. These stories are embodied in our personal and communal lives and practices within a nation. Our beliefs and the habits of our hearts are given expression through our cultural institutions (such as government, media and education).
Children are not born with a worldview. Their families, culture and school play a significant role in forming a child’s emerging worldview. So as teachers we must ask the questions:
- What does it look like for a person to embrace a Christian worldview?
- How does our worldview impact on the culture and educational task in the Christian school?
These are critical questions for us in a time when Christianity has become a marginalised faith not a mainstream belief in our wider society. Followers of Christ are seen as being out of step with modern life. Therefore, the articulation and the embodiment of a Christian worldview are foundational to effective education. We as teachers are in a unique role being carriers of culture as education does not occur in a vacuum. For education “is simply the soul of society as it passes from one generation to another” (Chesterton, 2020).
Christian teachers need to be aware and critique their own worldview, to ensure they can unfold God’s story to their students. As children grow and develop, teachers can either explicitly or implicitly engage them in new knowledge, insights and experiences that can modify or alter their worldview.
May our classes be rooms with a view where students are able to see the reality of their lives and the world they inhabit in the light of the life and mission of the Lord Jesus.
“The happy life consists simply in the possession with understanding of what is eternal” (Augustine & Howie, 1969, p. 8).
Grace and Peace
The Team
The Excellence Centre
References
- Goheen, M.W. & Bartholomew, C.G. (2008). Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview. Baker Academic
- Heslam, P.S. (1998). Creating a Christian Worldview: Abraham Kuyper’s lectures on Calvinism. Eerdmans Publishing
- Walsh, B.J. & Middleton, J.R. (1984). The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview. IVP Academic
- Chesterton, G.K. Quotes. (2020). BrainyQuote.com https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/gilbert_k_chesterton_104904
Jan 23, 2021 | Teachers Talking
Introduction:
Welcome to Teachers Talking for 2021. As the new year opens up to us, let us begin with gratitude to the Lord for His goodness throughout the past year and for the work of His Spirit in our lives, our colleagues and students as we faced the many struggles and challenges that jolted us in 2020.
The reality of COVID-19 and its impact in our schools revealed the dedication of teachers to their calling and their deep care for the well-being of their students.
With the demands of teaching in this context, Christian teachers can struggle with what it means to unfold God’s story in their educational practice. In the midst of the confusion and chaos of last year, our culture revealed the crisis of the human spirit. Many children and young people suffered anxiety as they were faced with a different way of seeing their world. They asked questions such as ‘Why does God let this happen?’ and ‘Why can’t we go to school?’
The way we make sense of the world and explore the meaning of reality is the stuff of worldviews. Christian schools are engaging in education in the shadow of a dominant culture that has rejected the God of the Bible from the western imagination. To live in this age of secularism is to inhabit the tension that belief in God is difficult for our children where they are confronted by the story of exclusive humanism and religious pluralism.
A key aim of the Excellence Centre is to bless, inform and encourage teachers in their task. To this end, during Term 1, the Teachers Talking offerings will focus on the theme: A Room with a View: Making sense of the World. We trust these talks will assist you to explore with your students an understanding of worldview with the goal that students will grow to see the world and their purpose in it through God’s eyes.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)
Grace and Peace,
The Team
The Excellence Centre
