For a long time, I thought that being a Christian teacher meant being conscientious, turning up on time, doing a bit extra, going the second mile, investing myself in my pupils. It is hard.  I have colleagues who are like that who aren’t Christians.

Or does being a Christian teacher mean I must find a way to share the gospel with my class? In most situations in which I have taught that is either not allowed or not an honourable use of time.

So, what is a Christian teacher?

I suggest as a definition that a Christian teacher is one who is consciously living every moment in the biblical story. To explain what I mean would take longer than this short article would allow. The story can be summarised in four words: Creation, Fall, Redemption and Renewal.  Learning to live in the story takes a lifetime; it is a life of purpose, security, hope and deep-seated joy and marks the difference between a teacher who says they are a Christian and a Christian teacher.

At the beginning of a lesson, we have a lot on our minds. Perhaps we are anxious about our ability to communicate what we have prepared. Perhaps we are perturbed by the spasmodic attendance of some class members.

When we gather with a group of learners how do we think of each of them, their yesterday, today and tomorrow?

Let’s think about our learners’ past. You may know very little about the story of their past. There are some things you do know, however. You know that God in His providence has brought them to your classroom. And you know that God made each of them in His image. [God makes beautiful things. Megan cut up an onion during the seminar to show us a ‘thing of beauty’ she said]. In your learning space are people that you cannot now “unknow.” As their teacher you can help them move towards God’s vision for them or move further away from it. Is that on your mind as you begin your lesson?

As for their today:  you know that God is holding their breath in His hands as He holds yours. He has kept you and them alive to this moment that you are sitting together in the classroom. Today God loves your learners – just as He loves you. Today He knows them, they are living in the same story that you are living in. They may not acknowledge that, but this story is the real story.

What about the tomorrow of your learners?  Perhaps you have tended to think about their tomorrow in terms of what they will accomplish as a result of having sat in your classroom. As a Christian teacher you have begun to think about your learners as God does. You are conscious every time you meet that one day each of them will kneel before King Jesus, Ruler of the universe. (Philippians 2.9-11) and you are beginning to see yourself as an ambassador of King Jesus in the classroom.

How do the learners see themselves?
How do they view the world?
It takes time to discover someone’s worldview. As a Christian teacher you will want to try to discover the worldview of your learners. A worldview is subconscious and hard to articulate. It is our autopilot, the way we view the world when we are not thinking about it.

In his book The Universe next door, James Sire says:

“I am convinced that for any of us to be fully conscious intellectually we should not only be able to detect the worldviews of others but be aware of our own, why it is ours and why in light of so many options we think it is true.”  

When we think about our learners the way God does, we relate as Christian teachers. We demonstrate this in our care for our learners and in our efforts to get to know them. We slowly discover more about their yesterday, their today and their tomorrow, socially, academically and spiritually. This takes a long investment of ourselves in our learners and marks us as relating as Christian teachers.

In the seminar with this title, we explored this further and also began to think as God does about the place where we teach and the content of our lessons. You can access the audio file of the full seminar here.

Megan Patterson July 2024
Written for 2:19 Teach to Reach from ETOF 2024 seminar ‘Relating as a Christian teacher or as a teacher who is a Christian’