Many years ago God called me to be a “missionary teacher.” I’m very thankful because His call gave me hope and direction when faced with hard circumstances. I trust that as you prepare yourself to be a teacher, you have a clear calling also. There are only a few vocations that the Bible prohibits, but there is one that we’re warned about entering lightly—teaching. It is easy to only focus on the wonderful opportunity teachers have to make a huge positive difference in the lives of individual students, their families, the community and beyond. However, James reminds us that teachers also have a lot of opportunities to say something that could have a huge negative effect. Teachers make a difference whether for good or bad.
When God called me to be a “missionary teacher,” I often wished that He’d more clearly defined what that meant as well as where He wanted me and how He wanted me to teach. Pursuing the meaning of my call has been central to what I’ve been doing for decades. I have wanted to represent Jesus well wherever He gives me the opportunity/responsibility to teach, but I am only slowly, over decades, understanding all that is involved and even more slowly wisely putting into practice what He has been teaching me through His word and the example and writings of His children who have a similar calling.
One of the verses of Scripture that God used to focus my attention was Luke 6:40, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.” My first impulse was to interpret the verse as a promise to teachers. Sometimes it seems like we aren't having any effect on our students—at least not the effect that we'd like to have. But Jesus Himself tells us that students…will be like their teacher. I always opportunity to make a difference in the lives of students. However, this verse also is a warning because it tells me that my students will become like me if I am lazy—they will be lazy like me. If I am uninterested, they'll be uninterested and bored. If I have no enthusiasm and don't prepare well, they won't prepare well. My students when they're trained will become like me and many days that's not something that I would enjoy or evaluate positively.
The key to transformation Is what I allow God to do in my heart and life. If I am growing as a child of God and as a steward of God's world, my students—when they're fully trained by me—will tend to become good stewards who follow Christ also. Students can and will make their own decisions so we can't hold ourselves responsible for every decision that they make. The only people who grew up in a perfect environment with a perfect Father didn't make the right choice. The disciples of Jesus had a perfect teacher but were slow to understand and apply what He taught. We shouldn’t be surprised if our students do not get it or do it either. However, the promise is still true. They will be LIKE their teachers, not clones, not exact duplicates, but definitely shaped by their teachers.
Jesus also specifies “when they're fully trained.” This is unlikely to be by the end of the day, week, year or even earthy life. Students are going to continue to develop after their time with any one teacher and only in eternity will we see the results of what God is doing through our influence in the lives of our students. We also must remember that we are not the only teacher that a student has. Students are exposed to many schoolteachers but some of the most influential teachers are their first teachers—their parents, their peers, and the media. They will also become like those as well. A schoolteacher spends a lot of time with their students so they have a large influence, but students may be more influenced by other teachers and so the direct influence of an individual teacher may not be what the teacher wants. Thankfully, any student who is a child of God also has the indwelling Spirit as a teacher. Becoming like Him has absolutely no downside.
If a teacher is being transformed by God's word and by the study of God's ways and His goodness and greatness revealed in His world, students will also be changed. Their view of God’s world will be different than if they had only teachers who ignored or rejected God. At first, they are likely to be unaware of the changes, but when they choose to accept what Christ has done, submit to His Lordship and receive new life, complete transformation from the inside out can begin. As they actively cooperate with the Holy Spirit, His divine power begins making them like Jesus. This kind of change often becomes obvious to others. When students are transformed, they will change their world as well, starting at home, with their peers, in the community and beyond. In fact, the real success of a teacher is measured not by what happens with his students, but in his students’ students. Paul told Timothy to teach what he’d learned from Paul to faithful people who would teach still others. Success who is measured in the third generation, not the first.
As I have talked to new teachers, I found that many discussions began with questions about WHAT to teach. Some were about HOW to teach, but few had to do with WHO is teaching and being taught which includes WHY they do what they do. I’ve become convinced, however, that those priorities are reversed. Although WHAT we teach is very important and teachers should prepare their content well, that isn’t what makes the most difference in our students lives.
Who was your favorite teacher? Virtually everyone who chooses to be a teacher has one or more favorites. Can you remember what they taught you? Most people can remember the subject they taught, but I know I can remember almost nothing about the content of their classes. I do remember something of how they taught, and I still notice that I do many things like them. However, the real favorites were teachers who encouraged me and were the kind of people I wanted to be like. I also have some “least favorite” teachers whose character, methods and knowledge had a negative influence. I don’t want to be remembered as a negative example, although I’ve found it a lot easier to focus on course content than the students in my classroom and how I could best help them learn.
I’m very glad that God can use a less than perfect teacher like me. Being a “missionary teacher” doesn’t depend on knowing everything and continually being creative and engaging. One of the most memorable classes I taught was a semester of high school biology. Because I was the high school principal, when the biology teacher got sick, I had to take responsibility for the class even though I had never had a biology course in my life. We learned biology together. After all, they had never had a biology course before either and they were expected to learn the material along with all their other classes and activities. I couldn’t depend on my experience but had to grapple with the content just like my students. The students learned something about how I learned something new instead of how I taught something old. I learned to appreciate the perspective of the student because I was a student also. If I gave too much homework, I was very aware of the time that it took to do it all. Having to teach the “wrong course” was definitely good for me and the students.
How we do things may have exactly the opposite effect from what we say in the classroom. We may teach that it is important to love others, but I found that my default classroom behavior was very individualistic. I must be intentional to include activities that have students working together and evaluation that meaningfully addresses their ability to work with and for others. I know that people are to be creative and responsible but find it easier to make “photocopiers” that reproduce what I want than to develop artists, authors and scientists. I have to remember that I don’t have to be talking to be powerfully teaching.
Some teachers try to make their classrooms “neutral” and do not involve God in anything they discuss because they do not want to unduly influence the child. We certainly don’t want students to agree with us so that they will get good marks. However, by never considering God, they don't make their classroom neutral, they actually communicate that God is unimportant, irrelevant. You can’t ignore the Designer, Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of everything and teach about the “real world.” They might never say anything negative about God, but it is hard to ignore the implication if He is excluded day after day, year after year. On the other hand, asking simple questions like, “What can this teach us about God? How has sin affected this and our use of it? What does the Bible say about this? How might God want us to use this?” can transform students’ perspective on any subject.
Most of the time my teaching challenges had little to do with the content and more to do with what was happening in my relationships inside and outside the classroom. In schools it is easy to communicate that the value of students depends on what they do or not do. Tests promote “objective” evaluation of performance of different kinds. Success and failure in schools can seem to be totally detached from character. Transforming this misconception of reality isn’t easy or “natural,” but living life together over the weeks and months will give lots of opportunities to deal with the underlying issues of the heart. My tendency is to try to hide my weakness and failings, but when I confess my sin and struggles, my students may most identify with me. If I want my students to “admit it” when they have done or not done something, I need to model how to do that appropriately in a classroom. Everyone fails so everyone needs God’s grace. I can pretend I am perfect but then I shouldn’t be surprised if they pretend perfection also. As a teacher I have the opportunity to model my need of God’s grace—and grace from my students—as well as demonstrate what His grace looks like in a classroom. If I do nothing to communicate how far I fall short of Christ’s likeness, I may unintentionally convince my students that He is as imperfect as I am. I don’t want to give them an excuse for apathy or hopelessness, but instead, challenge them to grow—the way I am asking the Holy Spirit to help me grow and the way I’m praying that He will help them.
Teachers who are being transformed will transform their students. Students who are being transformed by what they see of God in His word and in His world—including their classroom—will transform the parts of God’s world where He places them. No one has to wait until God’s transforming work is complete, because whatever He is doing today can make a difference today. Your calling and mine to be a “missionary teacher” can and will be fulfilled by the same power that raised Christ from the dead. God will use teachers and students to demonstrate that doing God’s will here on earth is the only way to flourish, but it is possible because He is at work in us.