Four Models of Schools Work: Responsible, Purposeful Approaches for Christians Working

Four Models of Schools Work: Responsible, Purposeful Approaches for Christians Working in Education

The place of faith based youth workers in schools has long been a subject of debate. There have been articles written, reports published and conferences held that have attempted to ascertain what part, if any, Christian visitors can play in the educational process.[i]

There are many contributors to the debate. There are those within the Christian church who see schools and colleges as very clear mission fields [ii]. There are those within education who see a Christian perspective in the curriculum as valuable and worth encouraging[iii]; and there are those who feel that there is something inherently wrong in allowing Christians access to young people in school.[iv]

Alongside this debate is the related question surrounding the establishment of faith schools. Much has been written on the subject and as the number of faith based schools increases, much more will be said.[v] That Christians have had something to say about education for years is in no doubt. It is unlikely that we would have the system we now know if it hadn’t been for the hard work and vision of the Christian church. Education mattered to the Celts as they brought the faith to these shores and it mattered to the church throughout its history.

But the world has changed. The United Kingdom is no longer a mono cultural society. It is argued that it is no longer a Christian country, a fact disputed recently by the Prime Minister[vi]. Is there a place for Christian schools work in education? In this brief paper I want to suggest that there is and that the Bible provides us with foundations for many different ways of working that are both appropriate and educationally valuable. I will look at four models based upon scripture that I have labeled :

The evangelism model

The servant model

The teacher model

The accompanying model

I will look at each in turn examining their acceptability to both the Christian agency providing the worker and the educational establishment receiving them. It is my hope that this brief piece will stimulate further discussion and prompt more thinking around this important issue.

The Evangelism Model

Matthew 28:19 reads ‘ Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them to do everything I have told you’[vii] The great commission is a clear call, even command, to the church to make disciples. It is the fundamental validation for countless missions. As someone who has worked with Youth for Christ (YFC) for over thirty years this is both familiar and central to the work of that organization. The strap line for YFC is ‘bringing the good news of Jesus, relevantly, to every young person in Britain’ and as most young people are in schools then that is where YFC workers are expected to be. YFC have placed their mission within the context of 4D evangelism. This encompasses workers, declaring and demonstrating the Good News before seeking a decision that leads to discipleship, thus fulfilling the great commission.

This is a model of schools work that is not unique to YFC. There are many Christian organisations and churches that adopt this approach. It is this approach that drew particular attention from the National Secular Society

‘In addition to RE and Collective Worship, evangelical groups have also identified opportunities to spread their particular Christian message in other subject areas, such as PSHE, SRE and even PE, school sports, IT, singing, and creative arts, sometimes described evasively as “workshops”. Each raises additional concerns, particularly SRE.’[viii]

But whilst this approach may be missionally acceptable to churches how appropriate is it in an educational context?

Curriculum guidance on RE suggests that having visits from members of a faith community is a good thing. Allowing students to hear how faith affects someone in their day to day living can build understanding, even promote social and community cohesion [ix] If it is the case that the government still values the concept of Spiritual Development[x] then such visits could contribute to a students awareness of the spiritual and give them opportunities to explore for themselves what faith might mean. Similar arguments could be advanced for collective worship. [xi]I think that there is an honesty and integrity to this. This confessional approach becomes problematic when the sharing of personal faith becomes coercive and the motivation to share loses sight of the educational goals of the opportunities being permitted to the visitor. That said, within the context of those parts of a school’s day specifically recognized as contributing to a student’s spiritual development I can see ways in which an evangelism model could have a place within a school.

Another way in which the model is applied is through the support of existing Christians within a school. There is a view, supported by some evidence,[xii] that the most effective means of bringing young people to faith is not through leading collective worship or RE lessons, but through the witness of friends. The authenticity of a friend sharing their own beliefs is the biggest and most influential spur to someone asking questions and making decisions concerning their own spirituality. If this is the case then the evangelism model as outlined in Matthew’s gospel is best served through supporting existing young Christians and building their confidence, knowledge and experience of their faith, through work in church and Christian Unions.

Adopting this approach alongside the other models listed here helps build a more rounded approach to schools work in the 21st century and one that may be less likely to attract criticism whilst at the same time retaining a clear correlation to the Great Commission.

The Servant Model

There is a model for all forms of Christian ministry that is seen in the life of Jesus and articulated by the words of Paul in Philippians 2 : 6 -8 ‘ Christ was truly God. But he did not try to remain equal with God. Instead he gave up everything and became a slave, when he became like one of us. Christ was humble. He obeyed God and even died on a cross.’ The servant ministry was one ordained by God and fulfilled by Jesus. A glimpse at the passages in Isaiah (52:13 -15; 53:1-12) reveals how ‘the nobody’ and the unnoticed’ are able to effect change by the very nature of their service (52:15)

The servant model of ministry has a natural outlet in Christian schools work. It is impossible to define what Christian schools work would look like if this model were adopted. It would vary from school to school and reflect the individual and particular needs of each establishment. So a school that needs someone qualified to drive a mini bus for school teams attending away fixtures may ask the local church worker to help. A school may need pastoral support in their mentoring programme, classroom support with one of their more demanding groups, additional bodies on school trips, someone to run an after school gardening club. There are many possibilities. This approach to schools work is not glamorous, high profile or necessarily what the worker was trained in but it is what is needed. We see the approach of meeting needs first in many of the stories of Jesus, most significantly in the story of Bartimaus. In Luke 18:41 Jesus asks –‘what do you want me to do for you?’ Having identified the need he goes on to meet it and soon after that the once blind beggar is following Jesus into Jericho.

Service without conditions is sometimes hard to sell. An educational organization may want to know ‘what’s the catch’ and a church may want to know how this communicates the gospel. But the wonderful truth at the heart of this model is that there is no catch. A schools worker offers this approach because it is precisely the manner of working adopted by Jesus. If mission is the continuation on earth of the life of Jesus, then by serving our schools, being sacrificial in our time and energy, by being humble then we are doing just that. Whether conversations flow from this attitude, whether students opt to come to church events or a Christian Union, doesn’t matter. They are not the motivating factors for adopting this approach. The motivating factor is to be like Jesus thus fulfilling Paul’s call in Philippians 2: 3-4 ‘Don’t be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves and think the same way that Jesus thought.’[xiii]

The Teacher Model

Whilst I have called this approach the Teacher model, it may be a misnomer. It could just as easily be called the Gifting Model or The Expert model.

Romans 12:6ff contains an imperative regarding the gifts we inherit or are given. ‘ God has given to each of us different gifts to use. If we can prophesy, we should do it according to the amount of faith we have. If we can serve others, we should serve. If we can teach, we should teach. If we can encourage others, we should encourage them..’

If we have… then we should. Working within this model of ministry the schools worker should be offering to work in areas in which they have gifts and which may be of use or interest to a school. These may or may not have a Christian emphasis. So someone who is good at sport and has obtained a level 2 coaching certificate should try and make use of that gift in their ministry. Someone who is a gifted listener/counselor should offer that and so on. The main difference between this and the Servant model is that here the agenda for the schools work is set by the worker whereas in the servant model the agenda is clearly set by the school itself.

This model is, by its very nature, more fluid, almost transient in nature, especially bearing in mind that many schools workers today are on gap years and so are available to schools for a finite period. The schools work organisation would need to invest time in developing and discovering the gifts of its volunteers to maximise their impact within schools. It would also mean that the offer to schools would vary from year to year insofar as the workers would change over the period. This raises questions of continuity and commitment, but it may also lead to a discovery of vocation. Many people undertaking this approach in a school go on to find full time careers in education as teachers or members of a pastoral team.

The Transforming Lives project[xiv] and other initiatives suggested by Trevor Cooling fall, to some extent, within this model in which it is the very presence of the Christian working within the structures of the school that fulfill the call to Christian mission.

This ministry of presence brought about by exercising the gifts that a person has is often the hall mark of chaplaincy – itself a model of schools work which encompasses many of the thoughts proposed in this paper. John Caperon summarises it as follows – ‘It is about being present for others, being there with others, being known to and knowing others, all the time being conscious of being the one seen as the ‘God Person’; the one whose presence in some sense incarnates God; makes, that is, the reality of God and the love of God visibly and actually present in the community.’[xv]

The Accompanying Model

The final model is based on the Emmaus road story in Luke 24[xvi]. Accompanying is a well-known youth work concept. The idea of journeying with young people through their life and faith journeys has attracted a number of writers[xvii]. Its application in an educational context is seen in initiatives relating to mentoring, pastoral care, pre exclusion work, classroom support and counseling. In my experience it is in this area that schools often have the greatest need. The complexities of modern life leave many young people in need of support from a significant peer or adult for part of their life journey.

The story in Luke 24 illustrates this well. Disciples, suffering from emotional and mental trauma following the events of Good Friday are on a walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Jesus walks with them and listening to them, talking with them he enables them to come to a different perspective on how they are feeling, until at their invitation in the breaking of bread they see him for who he is.

For Christians accompanying is one of those traits shared by each member of the Trinity. In Genesis chapter 2 we read of God ‘accompanying’ Adam in the garden. The clear implication in the scriptures is that he was present with Adam and later Eve in Eden. Similar passages hint at that throughout the OT[xviii]. Jesus we see accompanying his disciples in the Luke passage and throughout his time on earth and the Holy Spirit in John 16 is described as the friend, the comforter. The word Paraclete could be translated - the one who comes alongside. This Trinitarian ministry is the basis of this schools model.

That it is educationally valuable cannot be denied. Mentoring is an important tool in transforming lives[xix] I believe that it too fulfills the ministry of presence in a very special way and so in that way fulfills the call to mission.

Other Models

I have deliberately avoided spending too much time considering Chaplaincy. That is a model of schools work that possibly carries elements of all four approaches that I have outlined. Chaplaincy is moreover often a ministry that is linked to a clear vocation. There have been some very interesting and challenging studies of its purpose and effectiveness published in the last few years[xx]What I have begun to do is to try and articulate four recognized ways of working as a Christian in an educational setting that can be both educationally relevant and missionally fulfilling. They offer a chance for schools and Christians to work together in ways that prevent either side from compromising their integrity.