STATEMENT OF
Faith & Education
We believe the life and teaching of Jesus continue to command his followers to be a force for positive and significant social change. And, among the resources of our faith are the ideas and truths offered below:
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Every follower of Christ has a dream, a grand vision, of all things made new under the gracious rule of Jesus Christ and one day, we are told, He Himself will fulfill the Dream; therefore, the teacher may bring hope to the classroom each day, seeing promise in their students and in themselves.
Read more about hope on our blog.
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Jesus’ command to his people is to love God and love their neighbor as they love themselves; therefore, the teacher may believe in and offer Christian (agape) love as their method for good in their classrooms and schools.
Read more about love on our blog.
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God’s purpose for mankind is to live in such a way that honors God and promotes peace (shalom) on earth; therefore, Christians are commanded to seek out places and systems that are not fair or right and work for a justice that both honors God and serves others.
Read more about justice on our blog.
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All people are created by God and are made in his image and likeness; therefore, all students and colleagues have equal and innate worth and potential, and are to be respected and valued accordingly.
Read more about the image of God on our blog.
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The God of the Bible is a sending God who invites his followers to go where the people are; therefore, schools, the wells of today, are places where God’s people may go daily to love and serve our city’s children.
Read more about the wells of today on our blog.
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Equal education is a common good promised by our nation and essential to all children for their well-being; therefore, God’s people will work to provide the same, or better, quality of education, beginning first with the least served.
Read more about beginning with the least of these on our blog.
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Our struggle is not only against natural and social forces, but also against spiritual forces that seek to deny the image-bearing dignity of human beings; therefore, the teacher may rely on the resources and disciplines of faith to provide power to teach and live with effectiveness and joy.
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The promises, love and hope found in Jesus Christ offer the teacher an identity as a child of God and a source of abundance and wholeness which supports effective teaching.
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Public schools are diverse places where children of all religions may attend; therefore, we uphold keeping religious proselytizing out of the public classroom as an essential ingredient to student safety and learning.
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Christian love offers solidarity and comfort to a community of teachers through the transcendent and unifying story of God revealed both in creation and in redemption; therefore, we invite and welcome a diverse group of high-potential individuals to combat a shortage of educators.
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The hard but good news is that a distinctive role of Christians in the world, and therefore also in schools, is to bear suffering and make sacrifices for the benefit of others, and for their own benefit.
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God has sovereignly appointed his people to times and places and blessed them with purpose and power to be a blessing to the world; therefore, teachers may be agents of this blessing through their character and ethics.
IN SUMMARY
We offer to all who dedicate themselves to the profession of teaching the following Christian context for consideration:
The kindness and goodness of God is an invitation to know and love him, and to respond by loving our neighbors and caring for creation. In light of this, the teacher works under the loving concern of God to whom they joyfully account for the students entrusted to their care.
With all of the skill and knowledge God has given, the teacher may devote their work to the glory of God and to the welfare of students, beginning with the least served.
The faithful teacher remembers the value, dignity and potential of every student since we each have been created in the image and likeness of God. This exceptional value is further shown in God’s only Son coming to earth in the form of a human being offering salvation to all people.
The teacher may prayerfully initiate and offer the received loving kindness of God to others in order to promote beloved communities and classrooms of peace for the benefit of students, families, and schools—indeed even for the teacher’s own benefit.
The teacher may care for their students with more skill, diligence and patience by bearing in mind that they themselves are learners and fellow students of God’s created world.
Finally, success for the educator is faithfulness to the character of God in ways that contribute to teacher effectiveness and to student learning.
