Christian views on education, technology and life
This is a work that I submitted to Artcon, which was an art show during AnCon. I thought that I would upload it for your enjoyment if you haven’t seen it yet (or want to see it again).
This piece is made almost entirely from a 3 second sample. Most of the sounds are derived from that sample. The video was then put together around the audio track.
(The video didn’t perfectly make it to youtube, it’s missing some silhouettes)
Teaching is hard. Being a Christian is hard.
Therefore, being a Christian teacher is very hard.
At a public school, a Christian teacher is likely to be in the minority, with very few other Christian teachers if any at all.
There will be older teachers who will be able to support your teaching, they may even mentor you and give you excellent advice, but whatever they tell you, it will not be directly influencing your walk with God.
However, at a private school, there are likely to be many other Christian teachers, many of whom will have been teaching for a long period of time.
These Christian teachers will be able to support you not only in teaching, but in being a Christian teacher. This support would be very useful in the early years of teaching especially, as the teacher tries to understand how to best serve God in their field. The fact that the teachers can work together in glorifying God means that they can share experiences of discussions with students or parents, and also particular struggles that they may have.
Of course if every Christian teacher went to a private school, then there wouldn’t be a single Christian teacher in a public school. But it is something to consider in this debate. If you have an opinion on this, let me know in the comments.
As part of my continuing evaluation of blogging, I have come to see it’s benefits in sharing ideas and discussion (See discussion on Mafia: Game of Sin?), as well as a being a good method of personal reflection.
I would really like to see some of my friends with great minds (and some with average minds…) blog and share ideas.
The Uni semester is over for me now. Looking forward to great things such as AnCon and Study Camp leading! But I do have some spare time, so, I would like to set up a blog for anyone (I know) who wants one.
They are really easy to use and maintain, so please contact me, and I’ll get one going for you! You don’t have to blog every day, but you can use it at your own pace. I’ll even help you through ideas on what to talk about, as well as general blogging theory (I’ve thought through it a bit…). If you’re wondering why bother, see the reasons I used here. If they don’t work, then maybe listen to Steve Kryger and his 4 reasons bible college students should blog, or perhaps listen to Dave Miers and his 5 reasons why he blogs.
Do it!
As Christians, we need to build using gold, silver and costly stones on a Jesus foundations.
Last night in Bible study, we were looking at 1 Corinthians 3, this chapter includes Paul’s spiel on divisions in the church. This passage also includes words that I had not paid close attention to before.
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.
This is spoken about in the context of divisions within the church, saying that each person needs to be careful about how he builds his life.
We need to build our Christian lives on a foundation of Jesus. This means that whatever we do, we base it on him. In ever part of our lives we need to live for him, whether it is at school, or work, or home, or uni, or church or wherever we are. We need to live with our foundation set on Jesus.
To become mature Christians, we must build on our Jesus foundation, and how we build will be shown. If we have a strong building made of gold, then it will be shown by a reward in heaven (probably seeing the fruits of our work), and if we build weakly using straw, then that will be shown as well.
The most encouraging aspect of this passage however, is in these 2 verses
If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
No matter what, we are saved through what Jesus has already done for us, not through any works that we can do.
In thinking about this it reminded me of 2 blogs I thought I would share
Continue reading ‘From the Bible this week: Gold, Silver and Costly Stones’
Free stuff is awesome, so here is another list of free things that I have found around the web. Hope you enjoy this list as much as the first one. (All of these links are completely legal)
Videos
PDF books
Album
Fonts
Programs for Mac’s
Hope you enjoy some of them (If you did, check out the first list of free stuff), and if you have any suggestions to add to the next one, let me know. (Please continue reading to see additions from the last set of comments)
NSW is one of the few places in the world (I do not know of any others) that allows scripture to be taught in public schools.
This is an incredible opportunity.
(If you have not read the first post in this series, please read it here now, it is a basis for all thought)
Scripture (or SRE, Special Religious Education) is mandated to be part of NSW government schools.
“In every government school, time is to be allowed for the religious education of children of any religious persuasion, but the total number of hours so allowed in a year is not to exceed, for each child, the number of school weeks in the year.”
Education Act 1990 No 8, Part 6 – 32 Special religious education
So SRE has a definite space in public schools,. SRE in NSW is also mandated to be based on an opt-out system, rather than an opt-in system (Education Act 1990 No 8, Part 6 - 33 Objection to religious education).
Scripture is the norm, and the public support it as well! 65% of the broad population in NSW support SRE (From here).
So scripture is in schools, and it is important, but what does that mean for teachers?
Teachers can have an impact on the number of hours of scripture that is taught, and also on when it is taught. This can be done through a few main avenues.
If you are a teacher in a public school, then you can actively support the teaching of scripture at your school. You cannot do this at a private school.
I found this diagram in my internet driftings. I like it.
I think it could be also applicable to put “What we can do to serve God” instead of “What we can be paid to do”, and instead of “Learn to monetize”, “Learn to serve God”. Although in saying that, we can serve God through whatever we do.
I got this from Constructive Grumpiness.
Recently I have been talking up blogging, and I do think it’s great. But there are some reasons not to blog. As with anything, there are two sides of the coin, and here is the other side. 3 Reasons NOT to blog…
1. It takes time
Updating and maintaining a blog takes time, the initial time to set it up, as well as the time to write posts, as well as the time to respond to comments. It all takes time.
2. It can become a master
Abraham Piper says
“For good or ill, most committed bloggers live with the constant question in their mind: Is this bloggable?”
If your mind is thinking about what to blog, then you may not actually be thinking about what you are hearing. So in a sermon, focus could be taken away from the message to something like “What would be a catchy title?”. The same thing can happen with Twitter
3. Who cares?
About 50 million words are written each day on wordpress.com sites. Who actually reads this? A friend of mine (Gav Crossley) recently gave me this quote.
“Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few.”
Blogging is not always the greatest thing… but if you would like to know why I do it, read “4 Reasons to Blog“
Recently in my quiet times I have been reading James. James is such an awesomely practical book with some great teaching. I thought that I would share one thing that I was reminded of lately.
In chapter 2, James talks about a weird concept
“faith without deeds is dead”
I remember when I first heard this in Yr 11, I had a mini freak out. My whole life I had been taught that I am saved by grace and not by anything that I had done (Ephesians 2), but here is the Bible saying that deeds are nessessary.
Thankfully I now understand this concept a lot better. We are only saved through grace alone by faith, but our faith is shown through our deeds. James says
“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”
Believing is not enough, our faith is shown through what we do and how we live.
A useful analogy that I have found is the wind. The is there, but we only known it is there through what we see it do. We cant see the wind, we can only see the effects of the wind, we can see leaves moving and trees swaying, but we cannot see the wind.
It is the same with faith, we can only show our faith through what we do. And how we live represents our faith. Anyone who has true faith in Christ will be living a life that aims to please God.
In keeping with the theme of this week, here’s a funny little song by Julian Smith. He’s the guy that did “25 things I hate about Facebook“.
