Aug 31, 2022 | Uncategorized
Sunsets and Choices
I recently took the time to watch a stunning sunset from my beach chair, coffee in hand, sensing God’s peace and strength and wanting the moment to last so much longer. As I took many photos, trying to capture the experience, I reflected on my choices and responses to recent challenging situations, realising that sometimes I choose to cling to God’s wisdom, sovereignty and strength and at other times it was ‘doing it on my own’. When I focused on who God is, He gave me hope, whereas the times of leaving Him out of my choices decreased my hope. My choice to believe in Christ directly impacted my hope in God as my sustainer, provider and refresher.
How do my choices encourage or diminish my faith, my hope?
Is my worldview influenced by my faith? Is my faith the foundation of my/our worldview? Do my choices reflect what I know to be true about God? In what do I trust?
Who and what are influencing your worldview, inevitably influencing the state of your faith and hope?
Every day we tune into social media platforms for information and encouragement. Our social media choices of who we follow, which tags we use, which entertainment provider we subscribe to and binge (eg Stan, Netflix), all subtly influence our worldview, and inevitably our faith and hope.
As Stetzer notes in his book, Christians in the Age of Outrage, “our worldview shapes us, and we shape our worldview.” (2018, p. 155)
How often do we take the time to take stock of ourselves, our thoughts, attitudes and our worldview? Are we reflecting the Christian worldview that we ascribe to or are our responses, actions and reactions indicating a worldview which has been shaped by secular influences?
The question arises: how diligently are we applying Paul’s encouragement in Colossians 3:2?
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
and Philippians 4:8
“8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Do we see the reality of life through God’s eyes?
As teachers, we have the opportunity to be the models, or influencers of our classes. Our speech, attitudes and behaviour model our faith and influence our students in their faith journey. Whether our students are in Junior, Middle or Senior School, at each stage of development, we play an important role in how they see Jesus and how they grow in their faith. Our ability to translate the hope we have in Jesus into our speech and behaviour directly impacts how our students interpret their faith relationship with Jesus and the hope that this engenders.
As teachers, we aim to equip each student with ‘Expansive Learning’, developing each students’ capacity to understand and learn, helping them to apply these skills in more than one context. (Pietsch, 2018) In the same way, teachers have the opportunity to expand the skills of expansive learning to their faith, building their capacity to apply their faith in the different situations and contexts of their lives. Christian education by Christian teachers offers students the opportunity to grow in their faith in relation to the many life/social situations that they encounter during their years at school. Difficult and challenging family and social situations give the students opportunities to wrestle with their thoughts, actions and attitudes for themselves in a loving community, before they branch out into the wider world of higher education and employment. Time to grow in their faith and reflect on their relationship with Jesus is precious, and to have these opportunities during their formative years, with teachers who desire to model the life of Jesus, is priceless.
May we as teachers, to both our students and colleagues, take up these precious opportunities to teach from a Christian worldview and model and live out our faith and our hope in every context of school life. May our justice, compassion, grace and humility be evident in our classrooms, relationships, interactions and assessments. As we think on what is true, noble, right, pure and lovely, may our sure hope be evident to all and inspirational to our students.
Blessings
Tina
Aug 31, 2022 | Care Conversations
Student Leadership 6
Last week we sought to show that a Biblical Christian perspective of Leadership is generally plural by noting firstly the Triune nature of God and secondly the plan of God to create people who would live and work together.
As we proceed through the Biblical narrative we see more and more of this plurality of leadership. We tend to think of Old Testament characters as strong individual leaders, but closer readings (that are not tainted by the surrounding contemporary culture of individualism) show us how others were often involved.
Moses was a key leader and we picture him as individually standing up to Pharaoh on behalf of the Israelite people. However, we read:
“Go and gather the elders of Israel together… you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt”[1]
Could King David have operated effectively without the encouragement, critique and conscience of the prophet Nathan?
Daniel had three very important supportive friends.
Yes, God called Abraham, Moses, Daniel, David and others to lead, and they were given the gifts and abilities to do so – but not alone.
As we move to the New Testament, we see that Jesus operates with a team – of course He is the recognized leader – but He consciously engages others.
Elders are appointed to every church. [2]
The Biblical principle of interdependence and the diversity of gifts in the Body is a major theme of Paul’s letters.[3]
Gifts are given to “The Body” – thus no single person has all the gifts necessary to function or lead by themselves.
It seems to be God’s intention to make us inter-dependent – He uses gifts AND weaknesses.
Then, there is the family – the basis of community life.[4]
The Biblical case seems quite strong in relation to community and interdependence; it is reasonable to conclude that this also applies to leadership.
What does this mean as we seek to develop leadership amongst our students?
Blessings
Brian
[1] Exodus 3:16,18
[2] Acts 14:21-23
[3] Romans 12:4–6; 1 Corinthians 12.
[4] Ephesians 3:14-19
Aug 31, 2022 | Wens Pen
Free to Teach
Does your teaching feel like a chore, or an opportunity?
Do you think that you are not working well unless you are very busy?
Are the weekends the highlight of your week?
Perhaps we all go through seasons when we answer ‘yes’ to one or all of these questions. Yet, if we believe we are part of a Christian community that is committed to Christian education, then we are do not have to work to avoid any of these dynamics. Instead, we can simply not experience these patterns because the alternative is so much better – that is:
- When we teach because of the mercies of God in our lives, it is a privilege, and not a chore (even though at times it can be hard)
- When we trust that God is sovereign, we will discern clearly the time He gives us and how to use it well
- When we are using our God-given gifts to serve others through teaching, then it will feed our souls (even if we are physically tired sometimes) – and weekends become a celebration of the week as well as re-creation for the following week
The Apostle Paul was trying to highlight this to the Christians in Galatia, who were getting themselves tied in all kinds of knots over how to administer who were the ‘real’ members, and therefore who could do what in their congregation. He started to explain the danger of working to a ‘rule-keeping system’ designed to capture who we are, instead of seeing the release we have in the grace of Christ:
[Galatians 5] Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
2-3 I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.
Alan Noble, in his book, You are Not Your Own, sees that we tie ourselves up in two ways when we do not understand that we are free when through Christ we accept that God is God, and we are in His image, but not Him. The first ‘informal rule keeping’ way we tie ourselves up is by trying to do everything in our own strength to show how fulfilled we are, or how much we are flourishing. The second way we become stuck is that we decide the first way is too hard, and so we self-medicate ourselves with distractions, delusions and drugs.
And that is not freedom! Instead, let’s continue to meet with each other in the fellowship of Christ and invite God to be with us, so that we can teach freely in Him.
Blessings,
Stephen Fyson
Aug 23, 2022 | Teachers Talking
Talk 3: Re-Imagining a New World
In the Middle Ages, Kings and noblemen had the privilege to be amused by people who performed comedic acts. They were called Court Jesters. They knew how to bring a smile to the king’s face, but one function they carried out was vital to the well-being of the Kingdom. There were few people who could speak or criticise any act of the court, especially if directed to the king. However, the jester was one such person who could speak freely without worrying about the consequences. Jesters were not afraid of causing offence by telling what they thought, particularly in a humorous way. Often when the king was made to laugh, he could see himself as he really was.
As an attendant in King David’s court, Nathan the prophet was well-placed to reframe the thinking of a king who was losing touch with the convictions of his faith. Jesus was the master teacher in reframing the thinking of those He met. He brought such transformation in the minds and hearts of individuals by opening them up to think about things differently and to see the world in a new way. Jesus was truly like the court jester who taught the foolishness of God to reframe the so-called wisdom of the culture and reveal a different way forward. He spoke in paradoxes about the mysteries of the new way “the least among you all shall be the greatest … “(Luke 9:48)[1] and “whoever wants to save their lives will lose it, but whoever loses their life will save it” (Luke 9: 24)[2]. Jesus presented truth with such a new and honest realism that the Gospel writers could not have made Him up! He redefined the nature of the Kingdom in profound and liberating new ways.
Frederick Buechner in his book “Telling the Truth: The Gospel, Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy-tale” sums up the Biblical narrative as tragedy, comedy and fairy-tale. He states that the Gospel is “bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner … that he is evil … that is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding … that is the comedy … the news of the Gospel is that extraordinary things happen to him just as in fairy tales extraordinary things happen.”[3]
In our post-truth culture, we, like Jesus, are to be those who reframe learning for our students, for learning is to make sense of life and the meaning of experience. To do this effectively we need to see that every student approaches learning from their own worldview or habitus. Habitus refers to the physical embodiment of culture, the deeply ingrained dispositions, habits and life skills which they have due to their life experiences. As teachers, we need to possess a rigorous knowledge of our students and the subjects being taught and the alternative narratives that shape them. The design of the teaching and learning is to open new ways for students to look at things, rather than just information to be remembered. The intention is that they will flourish as they learn a language to articulate faith and to think critically, respect dialogue and build a spiritual and moral framework. It is important that students who do not have a Christian worldview feel supported to express their viewpoints in class and to be part of discussions about the consequences of ideas and actions.
In history week at our school, a history teacher told the story of Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, who was a Japanese commander in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and is best known for leading the first wave of bomber attacks on Pearl Harbour. This directly led to the USA’s entry into World War II. From immense pride at this destruction, he was called to inspect Hiroshima after the atomic bomb, which he would later recall that life had no meaning. He hated the Americans for what he believed was their treatment of Japanese POWs, but as providence had it, he heard the story from a prisoner of a young American woman, Peggy Covell, who treated him and his fellow prisoners with compassion, though her missionary parents had been killed by the Japanese. Unlike his code that demanded revenge, Peggy embodied the forgiving love of Jesus. He also encountered the testimony of Jacob DeShazer, an American POW, who found Christ in the camp. In 1949, Fuchida became a Christian. He realised that he could be forgiven, and that the redemption of Jesus alone could change the human heart. For redeeming love defeats the power of evil and death in the history of the world. There is hope in the new creation brought about through the resurrection of King Jesus. It is truly a story of Tragedy, Comedy and Fairytale understood through the lens of Scripture. It’s the new world restored to its creational goodness.
The jester’s eye sees that the faith will endure, because of the nature of faith itself. Even if a hostile culture is our greatest challenge today, or if rival gospel alternatives are powerful, our faith will endure. “Its currency is truth; its source is an unconquerable kingdom … Like an eternal jack-in-the-box, Christian truth will always spring back. No power on earth can finally keep it down …”[4]
“… the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Romans 8:21
Grace and Peace
TEC Team
[1] NIV
[2] NIV
[3] Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale, (USA: Harper Collins Religious US, 1997), 7.
[4] Os Guinness, The Gravedigger File-Secret Papers on the Subversion of the Modern Church,( Great Britain: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1983), 243.
Aug 23, 2022 | Care Conversations
Student Leadership 5
So far, we’ve suggested that we need to critique carefully the examples of leadership that we see around us. We need to seek to understand Leader-SHIP before we begin to encourage the development of leaders. Our development of leaders will marry together an understanding of leadership with the personality and giftings of each person. Then we suggested that leadership has many names and faces – but the common factor is that it arises from, and engages with, community.
We opened this series by pointing out that most leadership understanding focuses on strong individuals. Again, we have to realise that this model is drawn from places other than the Scriptures.
There is a clear pattern in the Scriptures pointing towards understanding leadership in the context of teams.
Let’s briefly look at that pattern.
We have a Triune God: There is one God in three persons. Father, Son and Holy Spirit who are inseparable. They are different Persons, not three different ways of looking at God. While the three members of the Trinity are distinct, this does not mean that any is inferior to the other. Instead, they are all identical in attributes. They are equal in power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge and all other qualities. The Trinity is actually indispensable, not just to our understanding of leadership, but to our understanding of Christian Education; indeed, the whole of life!
After the creation of Adam, God says: “It is not good (beneficial) for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper [one who balances him—a counterpart who is] suitable and complementary for him.”[1]
We need to note that this is God’s idea and plan not Adam’s. Some people think that Adam was lonely and yearned for a partner. (Some even suggest that God was lonely and created people to satisfy His aloneness!). We cannot read that into the Scriptures. It is likely that Adam was fully satisfied in his relationship with God. It is God who plans that humanity will be plural, that His created humans will reflect the communal nature of the Triune God.
These are deep things that we must seek to understand – they provide the basis of our thinking, relating and actions in life.[2]
Blessings
Brian
[1] Genesis 2:18 Amplified Bible
[2] Read Michael Reeves (2012): Delighting in the Trinity IVP and/or Sam Allberry (2012) Connected IVP
