The Significance of Teaching

Christian education is familiar to many Christian circles. However, few are engaging themselves in it especially as a local church ministry. Many are interested in it under a para-church organization. This area is confined only to so called “Sunday school teaching” in the local church. It is viewed as a necessary ministry of baby-sitting the kids to enable the adults to engage in less distracting learning environment. Men especially desire adult teaching rather than children teaching ministry. The latter is seen as a stepping-stone towards the higher adult teaching position. Thus, the children’s teaching ministry is left to the women.

According to Romans 12:7 teaching is a permanent gift given by the Holy Spirit to the church to make her equipped and more complete for the advancement of its ministry goals. So it is right to assume that God has given the local church teachers for all ages. This teaching gift is not only necessary in the spiritual building up of the local body but also in the needs for general education of the local body. This would include the learning for skills for life as well as the educational background of the church people for its society dealings.

Let us consider what Apostle Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Primarily the passage is a direct exhortation on the need of discipleship. Yet, the need and importance of teaching to accomplish discipleship is evident in the text. I desired to emphasize the role of teaching which we call Christian education n this short treatise. Let me share some thoughts with you from this verse that may encourage us to consider Christian education as a life ministry beyond what has been traditionally regarded as occupational choice or part time social outreach.

First, we are commanded to entrust what we have learned to others. This is derived from the word commit thou. The idea behind it is the act of depositing or entrusting some significant truths or lessons. This act of imparting or passing on to others would require the act of teaching. So this is one of the basic elements of the Christian educational process. There can be no education if teaching does not occur. And teaching only happens when the teacher with a ready mind and heart begins to unload what he or she has accumulated through the years. Further, a teacher will not only impart what he or she has already learned but also the skills connected with learning. The act of depositing as a process is not easy. It necessitates ability to absorb information and the determination of how much to give to the learner. It also requires ability to help students avoid information loss or increase retention skills in learning. A teacher must know the content of teaching. In our text, Paul refers to what Timothy has already learned by listening, and by observation as witnessed by others. Also the teachers must know well the students to develop the best strategy in passing on the blessed truths to the student-learners. With this last there are many factors to consider which I do not intend to discuss here.

If we do not engage in teaching there is no way we could effectively preserve what we have believed and learned through the years. We would have no successors carrying on forward what we learned. We would be guilty of greediness as we failed to share with the next generation the blessings we obtained. If professionals do not engage in teaching there would be no future men and women in that same professional category. Imagine if preachers do not establish training schools, would there be more religious teachers? What will happen if Christian doctors got discouraged and stopped teaching, would there be more medical doctors? Who would provide financial advice and direction from our fundamental perspective to the next generation if the present Christians engaged in financial services do not see the need to reproduce themselves?

Second, we must maintain standards in teaching. Paul exhorted young Timothy to raise up some standards in every facet of the teaching task As to the students, Timothy must select the men he will teach who are faithful. This means they must be reliable, loyal, and dependable people. I regard this as entry qualification of learners in the educational process. The apostle was aware of the danger of depositing God’s truth to unfaithful people. Second, Timothy is to preserve the teaching content he is to give to these people. In principle here the body of truth given him by the apostle must be kept intact for impartation to others. Revision in content of any forms is wrong. Our students must imbibe the preservationist conviction. This is the foundation of a true fundamental perspective. However, if you observe the type of education our own people receive from non-fundamental perspective is insinuating a non-preservationist direction. So, we must create our own educational system from various fields if we desire to keep our gains.

Third, our learners must be able upon exit at the educational process to duplicate themselves. I mean the ability to teach the same things he has been taught to reproduce more faithful and capable people. Thus, with this in mind as an end, we must identify people who could initially teach; men and women who are trainable; manpower whom we could deploy at target site to accomplish our educational goals.

Applying these insights, we must start now to identify these people who could teach both religiously and secularly. Then, we need to invest in their lives towards equipping them to become capable and effective teachers of God’s truths in any life area. Further, we must create a system that provides an environment by which giftedness is exercised through Christian education. Thus, a Christian school organization is a necessity to achieve this. Parents, consider encouraging your children to venture on this field of Christian education. Teaching has been undermined much by some teachers as well as by other professions. But, in my understanding of the field and the Scriptures, teaching is a noble and lofty task. But with a worldly mind one would fail to see its great honors and rewards.

When I checked the past, I discovered that our nation has no fundamental Baptist college or university or educational institution that offers different courses to our young people entering college and post graduate studies. Thank the Lord we have seminaries and religious training schools. The school started by Baptist forefathers in the Visayas is now a liberal school. Except for the weekly sound teaching environment at our local churches, our young ones are deprived of the best available collegiate education from the Christian perspective. Once I inquired from a leader of a seminary about the prospect of offering courses on Christian education degree program as future teachers of this nation and I got no hope due to some reasons.

So where do we send our children for general education or professional education? Must we send them to devout Romanist schools which we indirectly help become financially strong by our patronage? Would that approach have some effect upon our children? Are we satisfied in sending them to secular schools that occasionally lead to our youth destruction in morals and influence? Others resorted to sending children to foreign schools. Is there any danger with this? Following this would yield manpower loss. Others failed to return to homeland thus brain drain is experienced.

None of the above could address our nationalist devout religious convictions. They would only reduce our zeal and make us weak and counter productive in life, work, and ministry. CBC people and our allied ministry partners, we must consolidate our resources and raise up an institution of true nationalist zealous religious conviction that will train our young people in various human endeavors to become the great defenders of the faith in this nation and in the world! Amen!