Head of Education Steve Beegoo gives encouragement and advice to Christians teaching in state schools
If you are a teacher in a state school, you have undertaken a noble calling.
The life of a Christian teacher is one filled with opportunity and challenge, but you have taken up the call to serve and care for children: precious ones whom Jesus Christ values highly.
“Let the children come to me and do not hinder them” (Luke 18:16).
“If any one of you gives the least of these a cup of water, you will not lose your reward” (Matt 10:42).
He promises to be with you, close by, as you serve children by teaching them. Not only are you in an important position for every child that you interact with, but you are serving a Kingdom not of this world, bringing influence over the future of a nation.
At Christian Concern, you will find a community of people engaged in serving the children of our nation, as we seek to put Jesus Christ first in Education, arresting the slide towards a state dominated, secularised and sexualised education where children will be hindered from coming to him.
We need salt in the system; teachers in the soil, being the salt of the earth, to preserve and cause flourishing and health in individual children’s lives and in the nation. The salt must not lose its saltiness to play the kingdom role Christ has called it to. You are that salt.
Remaining salty?
It can be so easy to be conformed to the patterns of this world, and for the transformative Spirit and Word of God to stop renewing our minds as teachers. To remain salty, we need to prioritise communing with Christ, so that his flavour saturates us in our attitudes, in our thinking and in our practice.
To continue to have patience with the unruly child or the abrasive line manager requires the presence of God. To resolve not to compromise on your faith, and yet have the wisdom to communicate about the Lord through actions sometimes more than words, can be exhausting. It can be easy to lose the passion for Christ which took us into teaching, but as we prioritise his presence and seek the wisdom and resourcing of the greatest teacher who ever lived, so we maintain the distinctive saltiness which the children and our colleagues need to experience.
Prioritising daily ongoing prayer and rhythms of Bible reading, using devotional apps and worshiping or receiving energising teaching while travelling to and from school, all help us set the pattern of our lives so that the flavour of the Kingdom is continually marinading our inner being. Staying a part of a local church, where you can communicate about your life in school and be prayed for stops you from becoming isolated and conformed.
To use a different analogy, be the coal that remains in the fire of the church, and so remains burning hot for the kingdom. Losing these vital relationships is a huge driver towards poor mental and spiritual health, as well as loss of saltiness. Letting these disciplines and connections slip under pressure is a false economy – it only leads to more pressure. Commit to being a part of his people, your spiritual family.
Whose yoke?
Many teachers are overcome by the workload. The planning. The marking. The safeguarding documentation. The forthcoming inspection. The… and so it continues.
The Lord promises that he will supply all our needs according to his riches in glory (Phil 4:19). He promises to strengthen the weary and to sustain us. Where the pressure seems to become too great, we need to take stock, recognising the need to persevere and even suffer in service of Christ.
But we also need to know where the limits are. “Your boundary lines for me have fallen in pleasant places” (Psalm 16:6), says the Psalmist. Too often we labour under expectations and beliefs which are not from the Lord. He says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 11:30). Really? Have you found this?
There is a burden to carry, there is a yoke. But it fits comfortably when we wear the yoke he has for us. This is what he means by ‘easy’. And we are yoked to another. To him. This means that even though the work can be tough, the Lord is yoked to us, to teach us, lead us, and be the strength alongside needed to get to the end of this particular term.
Check your yoke. Are you wearing a belief that says, “I must get everything right and never fail”? This is an underlying and common wrong belief for a teacher, given their work of regularly correcting others. It leads to exhaustion. Are you wearing a workload that wasn’t given to you by the Lord? As good-hearted servants, we often say ‘Yes’, when it wasn’t the Lord giving us that responsibility or request. Are you in the wrong place? Sometimes the strain is too strong because the Lord is calling us to leave and calling someone else to have the grace for the role. Check your yoke.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13), says Paul.
“I can do nothing without the Father” (John 5:19), says Christ.
Connect with other Christians in education
Christian Concern has a network of young men and women trained through our Wilberforce Academy and part of the Wilberforce Collective, and we have many who are working in the education world. Joining together with us, and with our Education department, through connecting with our resources and people can be an important place for you to associate and network.
Why not join us at our next education conference, Education Revolution 2025? – it’s an ideal opportunity to meet likeminded teachers from around the country.
You can also join networks of teachers in your school, your area or nationally, who are seeking to serve the Lord in the state school system. The Association of Christian Teachers draws many such teachers together.
Connect with Christian organisations who are able to come in to your school and serve you and your children with wholesome resources and provision. There are many!
Start something
As you’ve been reading this, it may be that the Lord has reminded you of his purposes for you in being a teacher in the state system.
Why did he call you? What were your inspirations? Is it time for you to start something fresh in your school? A prayer group for staff? A Christian Union? Perhaps you need to start an email conversation with a Christian provider of RSE, Religious Education or sport?
There will be challenges, and it may seem like one more thing when you are just trying to survive, but if it is his call, it could energise and bring life in ways which will impact yours and others’ futures, even eternally.
We need faithful Christian teachers in the state system, faithfully serving Jesus Christ over years, even decades. You have the futures of children and young people to shape by your words, actions and attitudes. Teach them well. Remain salty. Wear his yoke. Start something…
Join the movement.
