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Mission Minded? Try Christian Education

Whether you’re an investment banker, a first home buyer, or on Gumtree trying to break into the second-hand bike market, you are searching for one thing: a high-value proposition. You want your dollar to work for you. You want ‘bang-for-buck.’

No one wants to spend a lot and get little in return. Yet, as many Christian workers look at their career, it can be discouraging. Opportunities to witness come infrequently; workplace cultures can be bleakly secular (even hostile). Even when gospel seed is diligently scattered, it seems to be landing on the path—a concrete path.

Christian education should be part of the equation for those seeking more fertile soil.

For some Christians, the ready-made answer to this state of affairs is vocational ministry or long-term mission work. All glory to God for this, the world needs more missionaries and ministers.

Yet there are other high-return options closer to home in Christian education; a field rich with gospel fertility. While there are many I could list beyond these, let me give you three reasons why Christian education should be part of the equation for those seeking more fertile soil.

Unbelievers aplenty

It is a common mistake to think that Christian educators only educate Christian students. While there are Christian schools that only accept enrolments from Christian families, these represent a minority. Most Christian schools have between 30-80% Christian families; a large percentage of the school population are unbelieving children from unbelieving families.

To put this in perspective, as a Christian educator I get to engage with, pray for, and witness to more unbelieving youth in a day than I did in a year as a youth group coordinator. There are more non-Christian families at the average school assembly than most of the evangelistic church services I have been to.

As a Christian educator, you will have more gospel opportunities than you have time to take them; a truly blessed problem to have.

Striking hot iron

Striking while the iron is hot is crucial because it’s hot iron that is most malleable. A cooling iron and an aging person have this in common; they grow resistant to change. While not on the level of a Newtonian law, it’s still true that most of the time most people are most impressionable when they are young. The student is a hot iron.

Schools are in the business of forming people, and a Christian school is where the fire of the Holy Spirit and the hammer of the gospel are used to form students daily. The school student is in arguably the most formative stage of their life. An out-loud Christian life and clear Christian thinking are powerful gospel influences amongst a cohort of young people who are still figuring out who they want to be.

There is a need

In one of his recent sermons at Tasmania’s Challenge conference, Pastor Des Smith argued that the way Christians decide where to spend their vocational time and energy is not necessarily passion or interest. The Christian asks themselves where the need is. He argued that just as Christ himself came not to be served but to serve, so the Christian considers the needs of those around them when considering where to work.

We need more Christian teachers.

There is a need for Christian teachers. A big need.

While stakeholders are working to preserve a Christian school’s right to require Christian faith in their staff, it is dangerously close to becoming a moot point as principals and school boards find it increasingly difficult to fill vacant positions.

We need more Christian teachers.

Conclusion

This essay is not a call for Christians to shut up shop and enter education en masse. We want and need Christian plumbers, lawyers, and government employees continuing to witness in their workplaces. However, if you think you are in the throes of some divinely delivered discontent, if you are yearning for a higher-value gospel proposition then I urge you to consider Christian education.

I’m not saying it is always the answer.

I am saying it should be part of the question.

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