Dec 6, 2022 | Teachers Talking
Talk 4: Looking back to go forward….
Peter Pan is a fictional character, created by Scottish novelist J.M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood on the mythical island of Neverland, as the Leader of the Lost Boys. He is an exaggerated stereotype of a free-spirit, self-centred child, being too young to be burdened with the effects of education or to have an appreciation of moral responsibility. Time makes little difference to him. When you never grow up, life is nothing but fun, whimsy and adventure. Walt Disney said of him, “He is twelve years old because he refuses to grow up beyond that comfortable age.” [1]
With the loss of authority in human institutions and the rise of the autonomous individual, we have seen the disregard for wisdom passed on from one generation to the next. Marcus Tullius Cicero, the great Roman philosopher and orator wrote, “Not to know what happened before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of life unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?” [2]
Moses, the leader of God’s people, spoke to inspire and remind the Israelites of their covenant relationship with Yahweh and their calling to worship and love him with their whole being. In the future, when they entered the Promise Land and the children asked, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” (Deuteronomy 6: 20) [3] which is code for why do we live this way?, the adults were to respond by telling them the Exodus story. This story is of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt and the gift of the promised land where they could flourish in their new life. In this way, children were instructed to live according to their identity which God had graciously bestowed upon them. Wisdom was about loving God and learning to live God’s way through the practice of truth embodied in the life of the community. (Deuteronomy 6: 7- 9). It was about being faithful to God expressed in obedience to His commandments in the midst of the challenges of sin and idolatry (Deuteronomy 6: 13–16) that surrounded them. They were to live genuine human lives that would be a light to the nations and reflect the reality of the living God. This was to be in stark contrast to the idolatrous nations surrounding them.
Christ is our Exodus, but in western culture Christians sometimes have lost an appreciation of the whole Biblical story, whose climax and meaning is found in Christ as well as the past two thousand years of church history. Os Guinness reminds us that this means we and our children are “condemned to live Peter Pan lives in a never-never land of the present, with little knowledge of the past (or much care for the future) to inspire their heroism, to season their wisdom and to protect their steps from the pitfalls into which previous generations have fallen.” [4]
But the fast life, of instant information about everything as it happens, has shifted our thinking to the ‘up-to-date’, and the rapid pace of change leaps us into the future so the wisdom of the past now seems out-dated. History is often seen as irrelevant.
On the other hand, paradoxically, people are yearning to know their past, where they come from and where they belong. Ancestry.com is one of the most frequented sites on the internet. The Scriptures and history demonstrate that “the church always goes forward best by going back first.” [5]
As Christian teachers, we are called to serve God’s purpose in our generation – knowing our heritage that we may understand our present and move courageously into the future. We go back to an historical person who is alive and has been at work in the lives of those both past and present, to bring new life to His creation. Our faith and our personal lives – all that we are, think and do, are to reflect the way of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour and the truth and wisdom of God’s Kingdom, as revealed in His Word.
God the Son came, the ultimate human being, who in His person, was the embodiment of the Creator’s love. For He fulfilled God’s promise that He would come and live with those He created. The self-giving love that Jesus demonstrated and lavished on the poor, the sick, the sinful and the dying is what it looks like when the Creator “pitches His tent” in our midst. The Cross demonstrates that love is the most powerful thing, for it takes the worst that humans can do, absorbs it and defeats it. Christ’s resurrection says yes to new creation and “with it, to the love that all humans know in their bones is central to what it means to be human.” [6] As we approach this Christmas season with our students, may we tell them the greatest love story of all time and stories of those who through time, have demonstrated such love. We can involve our students in acts of service that reflect the self-giving love of Jesus to others, demonstrating what it means to live out a better story,
The desire to reveal Jesus is deep in the heart of many Christian teachers around the globe. May our hearts be deeply committed towards nurturing our students to live genuine human lives of meaning, purpose and love, now and into the future. For they will only know what it means to truly flourish when they draw near to the One whose image they are to bear. At the end of the school year, may we be inspired to continue to go deeper with Christ and continue to share this profound purpose into the future.
“Here we stand. Unashamed and assured in our own faith, we reach out to people of all other faiths with love, hope, and humility. With God’s help, we stand ready with you to face the challenges of our time and to work together for a greater human flourishing.”[7]
“Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 1: 3
Grace and Peace
The TEC Team
[1] https: Disney.fandom.com/wiki/Peter_Pan_
[2] https:quotepark.com/quotes/1286666-marcus-tullius-cicero
[3] NIV
[4] OS Guinness, Renaissance – The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times, (Downers Grove: InterVasity Press, 2014), 121.
[5] Ibid 133
[6] Nicholas Tom Wright, Broken Signposts – How Christianity makes sense of the World, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2020), 55.
[7] Os Guinness, Renaissance-The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times, (Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 179
Nov 23, 2022 | Teachers Talking
“Let my people go” was the Lord’s response to the Israelites heart cry as they groaned in their slavery in Egypt. Throughout history, the cry for freedom has gone out. Levi Coffin (1798 – 1877) was born into a Quaker family who were farmers in North Carolina. Quakers were people who belonged to the Religious Society of Friends, a movement within Christianity that began in England in the 1650’s. Their beliefs led them to respond to human suffering with compassion, regardless of race or religion. Both Levi’s parents and grandparents were opposed to slavery. As a young fifteen-year-old, he would talk to slaves to see if he could help them. In 1821 with his cousin, he opened a Sunday School for slaves, using God’s Word to teach them to read. As the oppression of slavery became greater, he and his wife Catherine moved to Indiana where African Americans could live in freedom. His home became the centre for coordination of the Underground Railway, which took runaway slaves in the darkness of night north to Canada. Levi’s courage had an impact on their neighbours, who began to provide active assistance in forwarding slaves on their way to freedom. During the day, families would hide them. These ‘stops’ to freedom became known as the Secret Underground Railroad Stations and Levi became known as its president. It is estimated that Levi and his wife helped more than 2000 slaves to freedom. One of these slaves was Eliza Harris, whose story is told in the book ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’.
Most people share the belief that freedom is key to human flourishing but have different ideas about what it is and how to realise it. In our culture, the most prevalent understanding is that freedom means doing what I want, and this autonomy means freedom from others, independence with no accountability and “a self-chosen rupture from creation, from the past … from earlier generations … and obligations of all kinds.” [1] In this way, we can be free to discover our inner self. Living in this current script deforms our lives in profoundly destructive ways. Big government, big Tech, big business and pornography’s ability to shape our inner worlds, is unlike any other time in history. The anxiety of choice and the overload of information has led to lostness and confusion.
Every day in the world of virtual reality, social media platforms enable our children to create an image, to project it and then try to live up to it. This is very different to the real messy world where the self is muddled, and life is difficult. Research shows that rather than finding freedom ‘to be yourself’, it is leading to enslavement. Having disconnected love from God’s relational design and the substitution of electronic devices for human contact, the result is consuming obsessions and erosion of moral character. These habits of the heart then flow out and impact our society. The person and society that cuts themselves off from God’s presence, experience the forces of chaos and coercion. For freedom without order leads to chaos and imposed order without freedom leads to control and enslavement, as in Egypt and in cancel-culture.
True freedom is a matter of the heart. Moses reminded the Israelites that the strength of their freedom from slavery to the Promised Land had to be passed onto the hearts and minds of each succeeding generation. Therefore, schooling in freedom is essential to sustaining freedom because education is a matter of character formation, as well as passing on our story across the generations.
Freedom is central to what God wants for His people – freedom from sin and idolatry and the freedom to love and be loved. “The true human identity comes from the True Human Himself: if the Son makes you free, you will be truly free …. (for) God’s love becoming human in Jesus and dying on the cross brings about new creation and invites each of us to inhabit it … Free people in a free world”. [2] Our story needs to engage in conscious tension with our cultural diagnosis.
As Christian teachers, we are to train our students to navigate life with each other. The heart of freedom is bound up in our whole-hearted love for the Lord and our love of neighbour, the stranger and our enemies. The Word of God speaks about loving relationships, commitments and trust. In our class and school culture, we are forming patterns that demonstrate that true freedom is not a licence to do as you like, but the freedom to love as you ought. This creates the moral responsibility of mutual obligation that in turn, creates ordered freedom in which all can flourish. It needs to be clearly demonstrated that they are individuals in community who can’t hope to live graciously with others while inventing their own moral framework. Trust based on shared beliefs is the glue that holds us together.
In our teaching and learning, we can assist our students to explore the nature of true freedom. Do our children know the story of the Western nations? Do they know the basis and meaning of the Australian constitution? Down through history, men and women who loved Christ above all else, were convinced that only the truth and power of the Gospel could set people free. This inspired their response to God’s call to set the captives free. We need to tell the stories of these men and women, such as William Wilberforce, Levi & Catherine Coffin, Amy Carmichael and Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration of Anzac Day, a war whose goal was to achieve freedom points to Christ, the ultimate sacrifice for true freedom. Throughout history, students can explore the consequences of the murderous tyrannies, such as Mao and Stalin, where God’s sovereignty and presence were rejected. Their power exercised in the arrogant belief they could change human nature and society, led to the enslavement and death of millions of people.
On a personal level, moral and sexual licence abuses humans, particularly women and children who are used as a means to an end. Power, not love, becomes the heart of human relationships. Every opportunity must be taken to affirm the humanity of each student in the school, of which they are a part; for true freedom is the freedom to love and nurture a community where dignity and respect characterise all relationships. Students must be aware of the Biblical beliefs and values and laws a nation needs to be built upon so that humans may flourish according to God’s design.
Celebration of what is good, confession, forgiveness and repentance are important practices that lead to restoration in our individual and communal lives, both personally and for the past. This transforms hearts and so forgiveness and freedom to choose the right path mean the future need not repeat the sins of the past for the chain of cause and effect can be broken. For only the redemptive work of Christ in human hearts can bring about true reconciliation and freedom. “Freedom begins and ends in the human heart, in the hearts of citizens and children, and all other attempts to find and fulfil it elsewhere are doomed to fail.”[3]
May we rejoice in our calling to unfold the Scriptures that give a transformational vision of human life, where every person has dignity, life is sacred and the notions of love, freedom, conscience and community are incomparable to any other story. As Irenaeus, the church father said, “A human being fully alive is the glory of God.” [4]
“So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
John 8: 36
Grace and Peace
The TEC Team
[1] Os Guinness, The Magna Carta of Humanity – Sinai’s Revolutionary Faith and the Future of Freedom, (Illinois: Inter Varsity Press, 2021), 191.
[2] Nicholas Tom Wright, Broken Signposts – How Christianity Makes Sense of the World, (New York: HarperOne, 2020), 87-88.
[3] Os Guinness, The Magna Carta of Humanity – Sinai’s Revolutionary Faith and the Future of Freedom, 179.
[4] https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com
Nov 8, 2022 | Teachers Talking
Remember Pinocchio? A fictional character created by Italian writer Carlo Collodi in his 1883 children’s book ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’, which Walt Disney adapted into an animated film ‘Pinocchio’ in 1940. In his pursuit of life, Pinocchio the wooden puppet, is given a special gift by the fairy – a little singing cricket with a top-hat and an umbrella called Jiminy Cricket. A comical and wise-cracking partner, he accompanies Pinocchio on his adventures to serve as Pinocchio’s conscience. He sang, “Give a little whistle … and always let your conscience be your guide. “
Jiminy’s role develops the heart of the story as he helps Pinocchio on his journey to become a real boy who is truthful, brave and unselfish. He shows wisdom and courage in facing the enemies that would seek to harm Pinocchio. When Pinocchio constantly lies, Jiminy helps him to tell right from wrong, avoid great temptations and guide him along the right path.
The conscience, a person’s moral sense of right and wrong that impacts their conduct, is a universal gift that God has gifted to every person, no matter what their ethnicity.
(Romans 2: 12 – 16) As a child grows, their conscience becomes consistent with the beliefs and values that they are enculturated into. The way of autonomy means that our conscience is under the control of the evil one and becomes seared.
Prior to his conversion to Christ, the conscience of Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) the great Christian Reformer, was dictated to by the established church system. But when he came to know Christ, his life was transformed. Now his conscience was formed by the love of Christ and His Word. When he refused to recant concerning his beliefs on the nature of salvation and the church, he responded with these now famous words,
“My conscience is captive to the Word of God, thus I cannot and will
not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor
sound. (Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me).”[1]
The most important audience for Luther was the audience of One – God Himself. In a culture where children and young people are encouraged to create themselves as they desire with no obligation to conform to moral standards, the Christian school is a place to reframe and reenergize the individual conscience as an essential part of discipleship. This means that the life of the learning community is to be infused by the Scripture, as the mind of Christ must shape the conscience.
As teachers, the ways of God must be embedded in us, that we might demonstrate what it means to live according to our moral nature as God designed. Our teaching and learning will assist students to discern the spirit of their age and apply critical thinking to the existential questions they face in the context of the Biblical narrative.
Our students’ consciences will be fed by the truth of a different story and a different set of influences, practices and relationships.
We want our students to be influential without being influenced by those who would lead them astray. Besides, our Christian disciplines and practices, such as prayer, devotions and worship, our class and wider school culture needs to form patterns that align with what it means to live with the reality of being human together.
Author Mark Sayers in speaking of the hope for renewal in a post-Christian culture says,
“Forming patterns align us with the reality of how humans and God’s
world work, integrating into our lives patterns of functionality and
wisdom, which enable us to live flourishing lives. The biblical wisdom
books offer a vast resource of patterns and direction with which to
construct helpful patterns. Forming patterns involve learning the
importance of diligence, of matching our words and actions, of
integrating into our lives the values of delaying gratification for greater
goals and being responsible for the consequences of our actions. All
these forming patterns occur as we interact with reality, as we enact
daily godly and wise choices, which creates a pattern of formation
in our lives, shaping us into healthy and well-functioning humans.” [2]
Let us nurture a culture aligned to the Kingdom of God, where love for God and love of neighbour, informed by God’s Word, is feeding the consciences of our students. When we, as teachers, bring our lives under the Lordship of Jesus, His Holy Spirit enables us to live as genuine human beings who bear the image of Christ. As we demonstrate a life of discipleship, we are inviting our students to live faithfully before the most important audience – the audience of One.
“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.”
Hebrews 9: 14
Grace and Peace
The TEC Team
[1] Here I Stand: Martin Luther’s Reformation at 500 | Abilene Christian University Special Collections (acu.edu)
[2] Mark Sayers, Reappearing Church – The Hope of Renewal in the rise of our Post-Christian Culture, (Chicago; Moody Publishers, 2019), 157 – 158
Oct 24, 2022 | Teachers Talking
Remember Pinocchio? A fictional character created by Italian writer Carlo Collodi in his 1883 children’s book ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’, which Walt Disney adapted into an animated film ‘Pinocchio’ in 1940. In his pursuit of life, Pinocchio the wooden puppet, is given a special gift by the fairy – a little singing cricket with a top-hat and an umbrella called Jiminy Cricket. A comical and wise-cracking partner, he accompanies Pinocchio on his adventures to serve as Pinocchio’s conscience. He sang, “Give a little whistle … and always let your conscience be your guide. “
Jiminy’s role develops the heart of the story as he helps Pinocchio on his journey to become a real boy who is truthful, brave and unselfish. He shows wisdom and courage in facing the enemies that would seek to harm Pinocchio. When Pinocchio constantly lies, Jiminy helps him to tell right from wrong, avoid great temptations and guide him along the right path.
The conscience, a person’s moral sense of right and wrong that impacts their conduct, is a universal gift that God has gifted to every person, no matter what their ethnicity.
(Romans 2: 12 – 16) As a child grows, their conscience becomes consistent with the beliefs and values that they are enculturated into. The way of autonomy means that our conscience is under the control of the evil one and becomes seared.
Prior to his conversion to Christ, the conscience of Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) the great Christian Reformer, was dictated to by the established church system. But when he came to know Christ, his life was transformed. Now his conscience was formed by the love of Christ and His Word. When he refused to recant concerning his beliefs on the nature of salvation and the church, he responded with these now famous words,
“My conscience is captive to the Word of God, thus I cannot and will
not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor
sound. (Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me).”[1]
The most important audience for Luther was the audience of One – God Himself. In a culture where children and young people are encouraged to create themselves as they desire with no obligation to conform to moral standards, the Christian school is a place to reframe and reenergize the individual conscience as an essential part of discipleship. This means that the life of the learning community is to be infused by the Scripture, as the mind of Christ must shape the conscience.
As teachers, the ways of God must be embedded in us, that we might demonstrate what it means to live according to our moral nature as God designed. Our teaching
and learning will assist students to discern the spirit of their age and apply critical thinking to the existential questions they face in the context of the Biblical narrative.
Our students’ consciences will be fed by the truth of a different story and a different set of influences, practices and relationships.
We want our students to be influential without being influenced by those who would lead them astray. Besides, our Christian disciplines and practices, such as prayer, devotions and worship, our class and wider school culture needs to form patterns that align with what it means to live with the reality of being human together.
Author Mark Sayers in speaking of the hope for renewal in a post-Christian culture says,
“Forming patterns align us with the reality of how humans and God’s
world work, integrating into our lives patterns of functionality and
wisdom, which enable us to live flourishing lives. The biblical wisdom
books offer a vast resource of patterns and direction with which to
construct helpful patterns. Forming patterns involve learning the
importance of diligence, of matching our words and actions, of
integrating into our lives the values of delaying gratification for greater
goals and being responsible for the consequences of our actions. All
these forming patterns occur as we interact with reality, as we enact
daily godly and wise choices, which creates a pattern of formation in
our lives, shaping us into healthy and well-functioning humans.” [2]
Let us nurture a culture aligned to the Kingdom of God, where love for God and love of neighbour, informed by God’s Word, is feeding the consciences of our students. When we, as teachers, bring our lives under the Lordship of Jesus, His Holy Spirit enables us to live as genuine human beings who bear the image of Christ. As we demonstrate a life of discipleship, we are inviting our students to live faithfully before the most important audience – the audience of One.
“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.”
Hebrews 9: 14
Grace and Peace
The TEC Team
[1] Here I Stand: Martin Luther’s Reformation at 500 | Abilene Christian University Special Collections (acu.edu)
[2] Mark Sayers, Reappearing Church – The Hope of Renewal in the rise of our Post-Christian Culture, (Chicago; Moody Publishers, 2019), 157 – 158
Oct 11, 2022 | Teachers Talking
There is a parable written by Hans Christian Anderson (1837) called the “Emperor Has No Clothes”. The Emperor loved fine new clothes and spent all his money on being well dressed. He neglected all his responsibilities for ruling the great city in which he lived. One day, two swindlers came to town, who claimed to be weavers and could weave the most magnificent fabrics with uncommonly fine colours and patterns. Their outrageous claim was that these clothes became invisible to anyone who was unfit for office.
Ah! thought the Emperor. These clothes are just for me and if I wear them, I could discover which men are unfit for their posts. He fell for the lie. He paid them a large amount of money to start weaving. The swindlers set up two looms and pretended to weave. All the finest silk threads the swindlers demanded, they pocketed. Though the Emperor wanted to see the cloth, he was convinced of their power and knew that if he could not see the cloth, he would be seen as unfit for his role. So, he sent an honest old minister to look, for he thought he’s a sensible man and can tell me how it looks. This man went into the room where the two swindlers worked on their empty looms and was shocked that he couldn’t see anything, but he did not say so. Afraid he was unfit to be a minister, he cried “Oh, it’s beautiful – it’s enchanting.” The swindlers agreed and named all the colours and the intricate patterns which the minister eloquently relayed to the Emperor. The Emperor presently sent another loyal official to see how long before the clothes would be ready and the same story was repeated. To the Emperor, the second man said that the material was so exquisite that it held him spellbound. The whole town was buzzing about the splendid cloth. Finally, the Emperor came and the swindlers pretended to hold up his new clothes, naming each garment and commenting that they were as light as a spider’s web. The Emperor undressed and the swindlers pretended to put on his new clothes. He then went to a procession out in public where everyone cried out how marvellous he looked, as nobody was willing to confess that they couldn’t see anything, for they could be seen as either unfit for their position, or a fool.
“But he hasn’t got anything on”, a little child said.
The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he insisted the procession went on and walked more proudly than ever.
Like the Emperor who chose to believe a lie and live in a fantasy of his own making, our culture is experiencing the deep embedding of the narrative of expressive individualism that claims one is born free and able to create your own identity. “The modern self assumes the authority of inner feelings and sees authenticity as ability to give social expression to the same…. (and) also assumes that society at large will recognise and affirm this behaviour.” [1]
A person is no longer seen as who they are at birth, for there is no core reality to what it means to be a human person. The end result is a topsy-turvy world of absurdity and irrationality reflected in a statement like ‘gender is assigned to you at birth’. Language is detached from meaning, truth is detached from reality and thinking is shaped by desires and appetites. In this world, ‘education enables me to express outwardly that which I feel inwardly’. Growing up is about maximising personal opportunity to perform. Therefore, the question that we face is how to raise students to live genuine human lives. For, like the Emperor with no clothes, the post-Christian identity framework is flimsy as it can never bestow the inherent dignity of human life, adequately explain the nature of good or evil or produce a stable society.
The statement, “Let us make man in our image, …… so God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1: 26, 27), is a wonderful affirmation of the inherent worth of every person and that their identity is a gift, not an achievement. Every student is fearfully and wonderfully made, knit together in their mother’s womb (Psalm 139: 13) to reflect the personal and relational nature of God and our physical body is part of our structure as human beings.
Not only does this define what it means to be truly human, it gives meaning and direction to life, for God defines what real life looks like and it looks like Jesus. It points us back to the pathway of life that our first ancestors were designed to walk on and which they left. Created to live in God’s presence, they cut themselves off from Him and as a result, the whole of humanity was separated from God, but we are still alive as human beings who reflect a shattered image. Christ brought new creation through His life, death and resurrection, that His image may be restored in us. “The True Image-Bearer, Jesus Himself, enables others to become genuine humans at last.” [2] We are called to honour God in our bodies, our whole self, (1 Corinthians 6: 20) and offer our bodies to God as living sacrifices (Romans 12: 1-2). Knowing Him, the risen Lord, leads to a new capacity for genuine human relationships of love. Authenticity, we discover, is other-focused.
The questions for us become: –
- How do I assist students to embrace their identity as a God-given gift?
- In what ways do we lead students to see Christ as the human face of divine love and the answers to the longings of their hearts?
- How can I assist students in the context of my class and school culture, to learn to control their feelings, to act with restraint and sacrifice their desires, in order to bless others?
- How can I train my students, through every aspect of their school life, to understand their identity in terms of their relationship to God, their obligations and interdependence with others?
- How can I shape and equip them to love and serve others- their neighbours, strangers, their enemies and the wider community?
In the end, our education is to raise our students to be genuine human beings who fulfil their God-given purpose. Let us be inspired by our noble task.
“Just as God created order in the universe, so we are called to create order in our personal lives and in society as a whole. We are God’s image; we are God’s children; we are God’s partners. Within us is the breath of God. Around us is the presence of God. Near us is the home we build for God. Ahead of the task set by God: to be His agents of justice and compassion. Never has a nobler account been given of the human condition, and it challenges us still.”[3]
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth”.
Ephesians 5: 8, 9
Grace and Peace
The TEC Team
[1] Carl R Trueman, Strange New World – How Thinkers and Activists Re-defined Identity & Sparked the Sexual Revolution, (Illinois: Crossway, 2022), 22
[2] Nicholas Tom Wright, Broken Signposts – How Christianity Makes Sense of the World, (New York: HarperOne, 2020), 130.
[3] Os Guinness, The Magna Carta of Humanity – Sinai’s Revolutionary Faith and the Future of Freedom, (Illinois: Inter Varsity Press, 2021), 250.
Oct 11, 2022 | Teachers Talking
Welcome to Teacher’s Talking for Term 4. Last term we explored how we can lead our students to live as disciples of Christ in the strange new world in which they find themselves. This term we will continue this journey. Who would have imagined that in the 21st Century modern world, where there have been giant leaps in scientific and technological advancements, that people would be asking one of the most fundamental questions of life, ‘What does it mean to be human?’. The way we, as Christian educators, answer this question is key to the effectiveness of how we educate our students. For our answer to this question defines our view of the purpose of education, how we design teaching and learning and the kind of school culture that we nurture, both in our class and the wider school community.
In our current culture, having rejected the God of the Bible, where the individual self, its desires and feelings are seen as authoritative, there is a rejection of the notion that human nature has an intrinsic value, significance or moral structure. Religious institutions, family and nations have been fixed anchor points for identity and stability. In answer to the question, ‘Who am I’, my response would be Helen Blanch, a Christian, who is the daughter of Percy and Diana and an Australian by birth. But, if my family, my church and my nation lose their God-given authority or become sources of shame, what replaces them as anchor points? Yuval Levin says, “We have moved ……. from thinking of institutions as moulds that shape people’s character and habits toward seeing them as platforms that allow people to be themselves and so display themselves before a wider world.”[1] This creates a vacuum filled with lots of competing voices about what constitutes being human and each seen as legitimate, for it is claimed that there is no objective way to say otherwise.
During Term 4, the Teacher’s Talking offerings will focus on “Being Human Really Matters.” We trust these talks will assist you to explore with the children and the young people you teach, the wonder of their creation and the joy of living in accord with the God-given order that defines what is good for their lives to flourish. We have the privilege of sharing in raising our students to embrace their purpose and dignity as the person God created them to be. As one teacher commented, “I would love for my kids to somehow have a little time capsule of their picture of God and start there and hope their picture is a bigger more beautiful picture at the end.”[2]
“For you created my inmost being: you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful, I know full well.”
Psalm 139: 13 – 14
Grace and Peace
The TEC Team
Please note: All Biblical references used throughout Teachers Talking use the New International Version.
[1] Carl R. Trueman, Strange New World – How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution, (Illinois: Crossway, 2022), 100.
[2] Edited by Peter W. Kilgour & Beverly J. Christian, Revealing Jesus in the Learning Environment- Making a World of Difference, (Cooranbong: Avondale Academic Press, 2020), 88.
