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At first glance this may seem a strange question to ask, but it lies at the heart of a major challenge to the churches. It may be helpful also to ask the question the other way round. What prevents a Christian who is a teacher from becoming a Christian teacher?
The challenge here is for people who are living lives in which their faith is dissociated from their work. This is not uncommon. If churches share the vision of vocation developed by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Wales in The Way ahead (read the PDF file, wa-ap5.pdf, 32 KB) they will seek to find ways of helping church members develop their understanding of how their faith relates to their lives outside the church. Churches can achieve this by:
Sadly, too many teachers experience criticism of their work personally and as a profession from the inspection process, from the media and sometimes from the churches. Within the world of education there is often criticism of the churches, some of which is ill-informed prejudice, but some of which is fed by the action of individuals speaking for or on behalf of the churches. Teachers have to find ways of coping with this negative element in their professional lives. Teachers who are also Christians have to deal with this on two fronts. Not surprisingly, this tends to encourage individuals to create barriers and defence mechanisms in order to be able to manage. In extreme cases this can lead to teachers separating their professional lives from their lives in the church community. They become, or remain, teachers who are also Christians. Churches need to work at this area by being supportive, by being very careful about how they express criticisms of what they perceive to be the shortcomings of the education system and by being very sensitive to the pastoral needs of members of their congregations. Work undertaken in line with the suggestions in the previous paragraph should also help in this area.
One of the most powerful ways of helping Christians who are teachers become Christian teachers is through prayer. Merely stating this truism is not sufficient. The statement needs to be broken up so that we are clear what it means and how churches should set about it.
It is important that churches pray for pupils and teachers in general. Teachers should be helped to develop their own prayer life in a way that focuses down on their own work, joys, challenges and worries. Some may find Pocket Prayers for Teachers (Lankshear, NS/CHP, 2002) useful as a stimulus for this.
Where teachers are part of groups within a local church, these groups should ensure that from time to time they pay particular attention to what the teachers wish to share and then offer that to God in prayer. Some teachers and some church members may find extemporary prayer difficult, but this should not excuse them from being explicit and focused in their prayer. Chapter 15 of Churches Serving Schools (Lankshear, NS/CHP, 2002) provides a selection of prayers from liturgical and other sources, which can be used or adapted for these purposes.
The aim of these activities is to support and extend the public, general prayers of the church for schools and for teachers with private specific petition, intercession and thanksgiving.
Everything that has been written above implies that there is time available to do the things that are necessary within each congregation for individual Christians. There needs to be:
This is not a task for public worship alone, although public worship is important. Nor is it a task for the minister or priest alone, although their roles can be vital. Every Christian is involved as far as the Spirit enables them. Every Christian has needs in this area and also something to give.
The vocation to teach
How do Christians become teachers?
Nurturing teachers
Helping Christian teachers grow in
their faith and their profession
The headteacher - a special case?
Support staff
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