Sep 21, 2022 | Uncategorized
Take Heart – He feels for us more deeply than we know
In recent days, we, the Commonwealth and the world have lost one of the most influential and resilient figureheads to have graced our time. Throughout her reign, Queen Elizabeth II encouraged us all to live out our faith, saying “to many of us, our beliefs are of fundamental importance. For me, the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ’s words and example.”
From Christmas and Easter messages to National and Commonwealth statements in euphoric but also extremely difficult times, we were reminded that God is our strength and hope. Her messages were of hope and faith. Her calm, steadfast nature embodied her hope which came from her belief. In one Christmas message she said “At the heart of our faith stands not a preoccupation with our own welfare and comfort but the concepts of service and of sacrifice as shown in the life and teachings of the One who made Himself nothing, taking the very form of a servant.” In another: “We know the reward is peace on earth, goodwill toward men, but we cannot win it without determination and concerted effort.”
Resilient, steadfast figureheads and world leaders can positively influence us. People such as Rosa Parkes, Martin Luther King Jnr and Nelson Mandela cause us to reflect. They inspire.
We, in turn, can also influence those around us, our families, and our communities.
As we seek to inspire our students and their families in our Schools, whether it be as a teacher or in another capacity, our speech and our lives are integral to our message of hope. Living out our faith in daily school life is our most effective means of encouraging our students to take Jesus as their life-long Lord and Saviour, in a personal relationship which will grow at school and beyond, throughout their lives.
From our greetings to parents and students at ‘Kiss and Drop’, our classroom management, playground duty, through to disciplinary practices, all these encounters are opportunities to live out our relationship with Jesus and our trust in our Father God. Mackesy (2019), in his book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, suggests “The greatest illusion is that life should be perfect.” Many of our families are under that illusion, trying to live that ‘perfect’ easy life, hoping times of trouble and struggle will not visit them.
But we know that there will be times of frustration, bewilderment and despair, in both school and personal life. We may be thrust into situations that we didn’t cause, which we cannot control and which we cannot fix. Ortlund (2022), in his book Gentle and Lowly, describes them as “that sore trial, that bewildering perplexity” and, as a result, feeling “intuitively that the more difficult life gets, the more alone we are” (p. 48). He reminds us that as the pain of these experiences increases, our sense of isolation also grows, but to remember that God’s word says that we are not alone and that Jesus has shared in all that pain. The best part is that as Jesus experienced the same pain as ours, we can know that “our pain never outstrips what He Himself shares in”. (p. 48)
Let’s stop a moment and take that in – how comforting and uplifting it is to realise that whatever we may be going through, whatever our students and school families are going through, it can all be shared and carried by Christ, and that He feels for us and our situation much more deeply than we know.
In the midst of these situations, it is heartening to realise that we have a choice even though it doesn’t feel that way. CS Lewis, in Mere Christianity, (1996) illustrates this with a story about a man who is walking against the wind. When he feels that the wind becomes too strong for him, he gives in and lies down, not knowing how the situation could change ten minutes later. Lewis then shares that Jesus walked against the wind, enduring all our situations (temptations and testings) but never gave in. He didn’t ever lay down against that wind.
In the face of situations which look and feel impossible, Jesus is our key, our hope. We have the power to choose who we turn to. Hebrews 4: 14-16 encourages us to ask Jesus for what He is always ready and wanting to give, His mercy and His help. As we choose to ask Him to help us in these situations, our students and their families will see us standing in faith, strengthened by Jesus and guided by His Holy Spirit.
May we share our hope with our colleagues, school families and students as we live out our understanding and experience of life with Jesus’ help, in every situation. Our experience, resilience and steadfast faith, just like Queen Elizabeth II, will minister to our spheres of influence and beyond, just as Christ encouraged us to do.
References
- Christmas Broadcast 2000, Royal Household, 25 December 2000, retrieved 18 April 2016 Shawcross, pp. 236–237
- Mackesy, C. (2019) The Boy, the mole, the fox and the horse. Ebury Press.
- Lewis, C.S. (1996). Mere Christianity. Touchstone.
Sep 21, 2022 | Care Conversations
Leadership 9
We’re considering Student Leadership and how that might be developed in our schools.
Biblical Christian worldview is much more than an intellectual philosophy. We want to develop Biblically shaped thinking, understanding, formation, relating and engaging.
The culture of a school is very important in shaping this.
Culture is determined by faith; who we worship, what is important to us, what we care about, how we spend our time, what we celebrate, how we value people, how we serve one another and so on. Culture is an accumulation of so many of these things. It can be tangibly felt and be quickly recognised by visitors.
The culture of a community is strengthened when reinforced by all of its constituents. As our students grow and develop, they become more significant shapers and enhancers of our culture.
Given that we have said that one of the major aims of leadership is enabling, student leadership should support:
- growth and change
- development and improvement
- gratitude and celebration
- courage, discipline and correction
- lament, compassion, justice and mercy.
All of these things will enhance the culture of the school community.
When we are developing student leadership, our key discussions will include helping them to understand the school culture, what they might expect from the community and what they can contribute to it.
Leadership is founded on faith and brings hope. I know of a school that has a concise statement that sums this up well: “Our student leadership will be founded on Christian faith, bring hope, speak in love and act with kindness and compassion.”
Another school has the simple motto ““Leading, Learning, Serving Jesus…”
It is really important that students see their crucial responsibility to enhance the school culture for all.
Blessings
Brian
Sep 21, 2022 | Wens Pen
Teaching Freely is Love in Action
Our last TEC Thought for the Week is:
Love others as you love yourself!
Why is this our last TEC Thought for the Week? We have had much joy in bringing you our weekly TEC Thoughts over the years. And as we have grown in our TEC communications, we have kept adding to what we are sharing weekly with you.
However, we realise that you, like many of us, receive a lot of email communication each week. Our response to this potential overload is that we are going to focus on fewer areas in our TEC Connects newsletter. We trust that this helps you.
We also thought it appropriate to round out this part of our tradition with the next extract from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, which continues from those in earlier weeks:
Galatians 5:13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are contrary to each other, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
Peterson’s paraphrase can help us focus our teaching and working community in dramatic ways, if we are prepared to ask ourselves questions such as:
- As Teachers, do my students see our class-times as opportunities to learn to serve others as we learn together? And
- For all of us working in Christian Education, whether teaching or not, do I invite the Holy Spirit to protect me, and all our students, from selfishness as we learn together?
May we inspire each other as we listen to and invite the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us, working together for our student’s future faith.
Blessings,
Stephen J Fyson
Sep 13, 2022 | Uncategorized
Student Leadership 8
Last week we attempted to outline a generic understanding of leadership that we might consider as we set out to develop leadership among our students.
Let us now suggest another potential definition of leadership that is more weighted toward our distinctive faith perspective:
Leadership is discerning how God wants people to grow, serve one another and achieve God-honouring outcomes, developing the initiative to use God’s methods to get them there in reliance on God’s enabling.[1]
Which helps us to clarify how we might see Biblical Leaders:
A Biblical Leader is a person of character and competence who influences a community of people to achieve a God-honouring calling by means of the enabling of Christ.[2]
In our Biblical Christian understanding, we see that leadership is a responsiveness to God. In fact, the first criteria of a Biblical leader is for them to know that they are led; they are called to Godly obedience. This leadership involves discernment of calling, purpose and people. It involves initiative, God-honouring ways and dependence upon the enabling of God. God calls and God equips.
It is instructive to look at the implied verbs in these definitions: discerning, growing, serving, relating, achieving, developing, influencing, enabling. We need to interpret those actions through the two most important responsibilities for Christians – to love God and to love people. This gives us a wonderful context for leadership.
Some people suggest that, because many of our students will take up vocations in situations or communities that do not hold a Biblical Christian worldview, that maybe these definitions are too “spiritual”.
I think we can hold to our definitions wherever we may be; our public articulation may be a little different. Wherever we operate, I think this definition should be informative:
“Leadership is for the common good of the communities in which we live and serve; engaging respectfully, relationally and redemptively.”
Are these attempted definitions helpful in determining how we approach Leadership development with our young people?
Blessings
Brian
[1] Based upon John Piper (2014): “The Marks of a Spiritual Leader Desiring God” Minneapolis p3
[2] Based upon Mike Ayers (2015): “Power to Lead” RBK Texas p40
Sep 13, 2022 | Wens Pen
Infecting the Whole Batch
Do you ever hear people talk about education as if it were ‘neutral’ – that is, that teaching is independent of our beliefs? What do you think about that? Does it matter who teaches ‘2 + 2 = 4’?
We can turn to an ‘ancient friend’ to help us with this question: Aurelius Augustine outlined in 427 AD (in his wonderful little book, On Christian Teaching) what he believed was the most important purpose of teaching as a Christian: “So anyone who thinks that he has understood the divine scriptures or any part of them, but cannot by his understanding build up this double love of God and neighbour, has not yet succeeded in understanding them.” (p.27)
It is not difficult to see where Augustine might go to in the Bible to reach such a conclusion. Both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark describe the incident when Jesus was ‘tested’ with the question about what was most important across Hebraic law1. His response captured two summary statements from the Old Testament – love God with your all (Deuteronomy 6:5), and love others as you love yourself (Leviticus 19:18). Augustine summarised this as the “double love”.
What Augustine understood, is that the Bible is the lens through which we are to understand, or see, all aspects of reality. If that is true, then the purpose of Scripture applies to all we study – i.e. to all our teaching and learning. Thus, all we teach invites us to love God and others more, or it does not. For Augustine, that is the deepest question to ask as Christian educators. As such, it is a celebration of the heart when we acknowledge the gift of teaching. For to have the opportunity to invite others to a safe place where they are accepted and cared for, so that they can receive God-honouring, Christ-focussed and Holy Spirit led instruction, delight, and challenge, is pure privilege.
The Apostle Paul reflected this in many ways – but one of his most direct moments is in his letter to the Christians in Galatia:
Galatians 5:7-10 You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn’t come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don’t toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment.
Did you notice this phrase?
“It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread.”
Every time we step into a classroom, we become that yeast. Or, as Augustine described it, we are the message as well as the messenger. Do our students discern this? Yes, they do. That is why teaching is such a privilege, but not for those with divided hearts. Let’s ask God to help us be purer of heart today.
Stephen J Fyson
Matthew 22:34-40 & Mark 12:38-33
