When WELS teachers have attended Lutheran elementary school, Lutheran high school, and Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota (the WELS College of Ministry), they have often internalized a set of biblical assumptions that they may or may not be able to articulate.

When WELS teachers have been educated or have themselves taught in other school systems, they are likely to have internalized a set of assumptions that they may or may not be able to articulate. Some of those assumptions may not be biblical. Recently, I developed a Bible study designed to expose unbiblical assumptions in teaching and replace them with something biblical.

The study is in twenty sections. The format of each study is approximately ten minutes of discussion based on an educational text and approximately ten minutes of discussion based on a Bible text. The educational text is The Content of Their Character: Inquiries into the Varieties of Moral Formation edited by James Davison Hunter and Ryan S. Olson (Finstock & Tew Publishers: 2018). Dr. Ryan S. Olson is a WELS member who spoke at the last Leadership Conference. His text is a comprehensive study of how different school systems in the United States develop character in their students.

The final section of the study, number 20, has something for pastors to consider whether or not they have a Lutheran elementary school connected to their congregation.

20. “Lessons from the broader evangelical orientation to faith formation are also embedded in the structure of the school, particularly in the adults’ roles. Teachers and administrators are motivated to sacrificial efforts by the high bar for evangelical faith formation and its potentially eternal significance. Teachers feel a responsibility to reach out to students by intentionally incorporating religious and spiritual discussions in class. The principal’s role is less that of an authoritarian task master and more that of a warm pastor expected to pursue warm relations with students and relatively egalitarian relations with teachers… Another building block for moral coherence in the school is discussion among teachers—sometimes including prayer—about a student’s well-being, whether academic, social, or spiritual” (pages 99-101). Is this true at our school? Read Jeremiah 23:4. How does this verse describe a Christian teacher?

Note the overlapping role of pastor and teacher, something also implied by the grammar of Ephesians 4:11.

Whenever pastors are in a teaching role, they are also in a shepherding role. The delivery of content is causing students to lie down in green pastures. The classroom management is leading them beside quiet waters. The attempt to have the gospel at the center of every lesson is restoration for the soul. The applications of every lesson are guides in the path of righteousness.

God bless all your parish educational efforts this fall.