The document discusses the role of Christian teachers in cross-cultural education, emphasizing an incarnational approach modeled on Jesus that engages with different cultures while maintaining Christian values. It outlines six qualifications for spirit-filled teachers, highlighting the importance of love for students, commitment to truth, and reliance on the Holy Spirit for guidance and spiritual growth. Additionally, it stresses the significance of developing positive relationships and creating a supportive learning environment to foster both intellectual and spiritual development in students.

1. Christian Teachers and Christian
Education in Cross Cultural
Teaching
MCCA GUYANA DISTRICT
TEACHERS RETREAT
Presenter: Ardith Conway

2. Cross Cultural Ministry
Many people think secular education is no longer
significantly influenced by Christian beliefs and
values.
How can Christian teachers, contribute to this
culturally complex situation?
Commentators suggest three approaches:
I. We can retreat into our Christian enclave and
see the rest of the world as the enemy to be
resisted. We regard all other cultures as a threat
and try not to be contaminated by them.

3. 2. We can emphasize what is shared by
people of all cultures and faiths. We
ignore the differences between us and
focus on our shared humanity. This
approach treats culture and faith as
irrelevant outside people's private
lives

4. 3. We can seek to understand and interact with
the different cultures we encounter, including
the majority secular culture. In this way we
will discover what people share in common,
we will learn from other people's ways of life
and we will be able to offer our own insights
as Christians.
This approach treats interaction with other
cultures as an opportunity both to learn and
to have influence. It is based on a theology of
respect for other people.
It is this third approach which offers the way
forward.

5. An Incarnational Approach
An incarnational approach is modeled on Jesus who
came to live amongst humans as 'one of us'. There are
two notable characteristics of this approach:
1. Loving Identification
Jesus identified fully with those around him. He shared
their experiences and lived their life. He became part of
the present-day culture
2. A Costly Counter Cultural Stance.
Jesus had very different values and faith from many of
those around him. People knew he was different
although he was rarely abrasive or confrontational. In the
way he lived he modeled a different quality of life, which
others found immensely attractive, although some
opposed him. His life transformed many around him.

6. This incarnational approach also means that
we will work hard to understand and
appreciate the educational culture in which
we are working. This is our professional
responsibility.
Whatever we are teaching, we will strive for
the highest standards and keep up to date
with current educational thinking, but at the
same time we won't simply follow the crowd.
We will seek to offer better ways of
teaching that are Christian at depth and can
transform the way everyone teaches.

7. Six Qualifications for a Spirit-filled
Teacher are:
 The teacher is the communicator of
truth, he/she must be openly and
boldly a Christian.
 Every teacher must know the bible.
Because the Word of God is relevant
to all subjects.
 The Christian teacher must be
committed in every aspect of his/her
life and work, in all his/her being, to
the truth.

8.  The teacher must seek excellence. This is a seeking
after intellectual excellence to the glory of God, and a
Christian teacher should be content with nothing less
than superiority in this area.
 The Christian teacher must truly love his/her
students, seeking their highest good even when at
times the way may be hard. Not only should he love
his students, he/she should genuinely like and
understand them.
 Finally, the Christian teacher should exercise
complete submission to the one great teacher. Every
teacher must listen to the Lord, and the Holy Spirit,
for his/her lessons and never should he think that
he/she does not need to be taught of Him.

9. TEACHER–STUDENT
RELATIONSHIP ISSUES
I. student motivation –
II. intellectual and spiritual development
III. supportive, safe class-room
environment that encourages learning
IV. developing positive personal
relationships with their students
V. cultivate engaging
pedagogical(academic, instructional)
conversations that ‘‘hold the interest
and imagination of young people’’ and
serve to enhance your students’ lives

10. STUDENT TO STUDENT
RELATIONSHIP ISSUES
 Communication
 Expectations
 Conflict –avoidance and
resolution
 Boundaries
 Tolerance /Recognition of
diversity
 Trends & fashion

11. Dr. Roy Zuck’s Summary of a
Teacher’s Role
 Remember that Christian education is a supernatural
task.-The presence of God's Holy Spirit in teaching takes
Christian education beyond mere programming,
methodology, and techniques.
 A teacher is to rely on the Holy Spirit -Seen in light of the
Spirit's teaching ministry, Christian education demands
you be submissive to the guidance and direction of the
Spirit. Teachers must work with God, not against Him.
 Teachers are to relate God's Word to the pupil's
experiences.-A proper understanding of the work of the
Holy Spirit provides Christian teachers with a balanced,
blended approach to the question of content and
experience.

12. Teachers are to rest satisfied with nothing
less than spiritual results.-A teacher must
constantly test his teaching to see if it's
resulting in spiritual growth on the part of
his pupils.
 Teachers must recognize that, in the final
sense, God, the Holy Spirit, is the
teacher.-It is God who does the teaching,
a teacher is merely a channel of His
grace, an instrument doing the planting
and watering. The spiritual effectiveness of
any teacher's work rests ultimately with
the Holy Spirit

13. The Role of the
Student/Learner
The student/learner represents the challenge
and purpose to the Christian educational
process. Each believer brings to class a
personal set of needs, wants, and goals. Each
is looking for fulfillment and growth in his own
personal and spiritual life.
Every student/learner starts with his own basic
needs, thus, an educator must seek to
motivate the student/learner to discover and
apply God's provisions to his life. In Christian
education, true learning comes as the learner
comes to an awareness and experiences the
wonder of God's truth applied to his life.

14. The pupil is to be considered as an
individual, a person of worth, as God sees
us as individuals. Each (child or youth)
personal experiences and knowledge
have value. He/she is a responsible
member of a learning group, having
something to contribute and something to
learn.
(Zuck, Roy B. The Holy Spirit in Your Teaching, 1963, pp.
167-168)