Christian Teaching: A Spiritual Ministry

by James M. Bramblet

Some Christians view the work of a Christian school teacher, principal or other Christian school worker as somehow less spiritually demanding than that of a pastor, missionary or evangelist. Perhaps this notion comes from comparing Christian school teachers to public school teachers where the work is purely scholastic and secular and does not include a spiritual dimension.

This idea is far from the truth. If there are Christians who want to be in full-time Christian work but do not consider themselves spiritually minded enough to work in a church or on a mission field, they should not think of Christian school work as a less spiritually-demanding field. Satan is attacking Christian schools and Christian school workers as much as or perhaps more than he does churches and church workers.

It is not easy to maintain Christian standards in a Christian school. Because of the proximity of public schools, there is constant pressure to allow unchristian and even antichristian activities that are taking place in public schools to be brought over by students, parents and even former public school teachers into the Christian school. In spite of careful screening, there are always a few students in Christian schools who still think of school as a place to escape their Christian home and church and satisfy their fleshly desires.

This means that Christian school workers need to be men and women of prayer, dedication and Bible knowledge or they will be overwhelmed by the pressure to secularize that is always present in a Christian school situation. The work of teaching is demanding and time consuming in any school, and the spiritual demands in a Christian school are added to that load.

For this reason, teachers who have only secular training or who are of mediocre spiritual caliber are not suited for Christian school work. This is why the training and screening of Christian school teachers is so important. Christian school teachers can no more be trained in a secular college than can pastors or missionaries be trained in such a college. (Emphasis added.)

Christian school teacher candidates not only need to learn what to teach and how to teach it, but as the Apostle Paul said, they also need to, “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:11-13)