Passion for Teaching and Worship - Editorial

Dan Beerens | February 2009

It is the month dedicated to expressing love! As Christian educators, our first love is for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. One of the greatest things about being Christian educators is to be able to teach about Him whom we are most passionate about and love the most. As Richard T. Hughes comments in How Christian Faith Can Sustain the Life of the Mind:

"... those of us who believe in this God-Who-Acts must celebrate this God with passionate expectation. This is why it makes no sense for teachers in Christian institutions to teach as if we have no hope, to teach in uncreative ways, or to teach in ways that never evoke imagination on the part of our students... the fact that we serve a God who creates and redeems, who liberates and transforms—the fact that we serve this God is precisely why we must teach with hope. And when we teach with hope, we will inescapably teach with imagination, creativity, with passion."

Let's consider this month's articles around this theme of passion and motivation in teaching and in worship.

In recent years, we have learned much about how to better engage students and help them to feel ownership in worship. Back when I was in school, chapel was an adult run thing and we got to watch. Happily this has changed! We share some collected best practices via Intentional, Student Led, High School Worship Experiences: Best Practice Ideas. Susan Cooper reflects on her school's positive experience with student leadership at the upper elementary level in Reinventing Elementary Chapel. Incidentally, CSI has just published a five session worship unit that is suitable for grades 4-6 and would be excellent for classroom or student worship team use.

Passion in teaching is a two way street. In her article, Her Unadulterated Smile, Ali Nooner helps us see in a new way what it is about her teacher that inspires her to enter the teaching field. Other times, student comment may not be so complimentary or loving - Remy Low wonders in his article Rate My Teacher and the Seductions of Neo-liberalism if student freedom of expression has gone too far. Kim Essenburg shares in What Energizes You? her strategy for increasing her own passion for the work.

How can we speak love into the lives of those who perhaps find themselves most "out of their element?" In the first of a two-part article entitled Embracing Our International Students, Shannon Marcus helps us consider how we can most lovingly communicate Christ's love in very practical ways.

In our continuing instructional series on implementing tech in the classroom, David Mulder once again provides clear and practical help in his article Dealing with Digital Photos.

Be passionate in sharing His love!

Dan Beerens
Editor, Christian School Teacher
Vice President of Learning Services