Is Christian Education Really 'Ministry'?
TEACH Journal of Christian Education
Is Christian Education Really 'Ministr y '?
Don Roy
Avondale College of Higher Education ResearchOnline@Avondale
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Article 4
TEACHR
Is Christian education really
‘ministry’?
Don Roy
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Avondale College of Higher Education, Cooranbong, NSW
“To think with
a Christian
mind
challenges
one of our
greatest
weaknesses:
our tendency
to live
compartmentalised
lives in
which we
separate the
sacred from
the secular
Christian education is replete with terms
and expressions that purportedly describe
its character—‘Christ-centred education’,
‘teaching from a Christian perspective’,
‘Biblebased curriculum’, ‘redemptive discipline’,
‘servant ministry’, and so on. They are typically
spontaneous expressions. To Christian
educators, it seems a reasonable and proper
way to describe the enterprise in which they are
engaged. While each term or expression has
particular connotations, the ideas they represent
cluster around the notion of what constitutes
‘ministry’. It is not uncommon to hear Christian
education referred to as ‘the ministry of
teaching’. But is it just fanciful jargon and cliché?
Or is Christian education really ‘ministry’?
This question prompts many others: What do we
”In this paper we are endeavouring to identify and
mean by ‘ministry’? How many ministries are there?
Are all ministries the same or share anything in
common? Are different ministries of equal status?
explain the essence of ministry, whether the concept
applies to Christian education, and the ramifications
for its practice and administration. However, when
the discussion is done, a final question is also
pertinent. If, indeed, Christian education can be
described rightly as ‘teaching ministry’, then how
well does current practice in Christian schools
measure up to this ideal?
Primary considerations
It is fundamental to our discussion that we pursue
it with a biblically informed consciousness, or what
Harry Blamires and others call ‘a Christian mind’.1
This is more than a casual label. It is undeniable
that in the West, we live in a secular age and
are impacted by its profound effect.2 The impact
is greater than we realise, and we need to be
ever vigilant to secularism’s subtle inroads and
consciously resist following blindly, practices that
conflict with biblical principles and values.3 To think
with a Christian mind challenges one of our greatest
weaknesses: our tendency to live compartmentalised
lives in which we separate the sacred from
the secular.4 At its worst, spiritual sensitivity is
diminished as secular modernity prevails. Despite
the fact that Christian educators frequently speak of
‘a balance between the spiritual, mental, physical,
social’, the reality is that it is often fragmented and
piecemeal. For example, the ‘spiritual’ activities of
a Christian school frequently stand distinct from the
formal curriculum in which subjects are taught to
criteria dictated by external public authorities.
Can genuine Christian education rightly be
described as ‘ministry’? The Bible provides us with
an orientation and frame of reference to provide
answers to this question, and also to all the ‘big
questions’ relating to what is real, how we know, and
what is good and of value. The answers to all these
questions stem from the historical flow of Scripture.
Together they form a powerful metanarrative,
described variously as ‘The Cosmic Conflict’, or the
‘Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation’ theme.
In the face of postmodernity’s disparaging attitude
to core metanarratives, Christians assert that this
metanarrative is the basis of a distinctive, normative
worldview that is the centre of their personal faith.
The heart of that faith embraces and responds to
an understanding of who God is, what He has done,
the origin of humanity, humanity’s dilemma, God’s
response to that problem, and humanity’s ultimate
destiny.
Appreciating what it means to be human
Fundamental to our discussion is a clear
understanding of what it means to be truly human. Unlike
widely held assumptions of humans evolving from
some primeval state, this discussion endorses the
biblical account of humans being uniquely created
by God himself.5 As creatures, humans are seen
as primarily dependent on him as the source of
life, meaning, understanding and purpose in their
capacity to display intelligence, decision-making,
creativity, emotion, physicality, individuality, sociality
and spirituality. In so doing they are intended to be
image bearers, designed to reflect in some small
measure, aspects of what God is like. But personality
is more than merely the sum of those parts. These
qualities comprise an interrelated whole, the human
soul, which ‘lives, and moves and has its being’ in
the Creator.6
Recognising humanity’s predicament
A fundamental problem confronts every member of
the human race. It (...truncated)