Consecrated Diversity

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     An address delivered at The School of the Ministry, Milligan College, August 20, 1969, by James M. Swiney, Educational Director of Mountain Mission School, Grundy, Virginia.

     We all know that as Jesus tied the towel around His waist and washed the disciples' feet. He gave us an example that instructed us to serve, to be ministers--each and every one of us. In effect, Jesus tells us that Christians not only should, but must incorporate some ministry into their personal lives. Just as the salt in Jesus' parable flavors food, so Christians must flavor the life around them as they minister through their own personal service.

     I'd like to consider with you some of the diversity found within the teaching ministry--not only as we express it in mission work such as that at Mountain Mission School--but also the areas of public and private school classrooms, the home and also the non-teaching job. For while opportunity exists for a teaching ministry in parochial type schools, greater opportunities for greater numbers exist in the public sector.

     It is interesting to note that Jesus, the incarnation of God, came to men not primarily as a preacher as John the Baptist had done, nor principally as a worker of wonders and miracles (though he accomplished much along these lines), but rather Christ came to us primarily as our teacher.

     As God chose to present Himself to mankind as our teacher rather than as our judge, though He does judge us; or as our mediator, though He mediates for us; or as our healer, though He heals our infirmities; His example tells us something of the real importance, character and diversity within the teaching ministry.

     We tend to think of the priest as someone special in our society and so we should, though we should not necessarily treat the priest as a hands-off, sub-or super-human, the way some people do. Christ, our eternal priest, gave us the example of true, effective priesthood when He came as one of the people. He further loved His pupils and prepared Himself for almost three decades before He began to teach them.

     To reach people, to successfully minister to their intellects, their bodies and their life force, God chose to present

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Himself to mankind in a secular light, rather than a sacred one. God presented us with a divine paradox--He revealed the sublimely sacred as being truly secular. In this act God revealed the misnomer of our system that places the priest on an imprisoned pedestal that often totally prevents him from doing the type of job he most wants and needs to do.

     God tells us to mingle with people and make them know that the secular and the sacred are one and the same experience. Rather than to fragment our lives while we divorce science from religion or the arts from spirituality, God indicates that as we live we will both minister and live more successfully and effectively it we recognize that everything comes from God and therefore points back to Him, one way or another.

     God was a teacher-priest. So also the professional teacher can minister most successfully as a priest in our world. If he acts responsibly, his teaching position carries respect and honor with it. The populace looks to the teacher to help it solve problems with its children. That populace sometimes blames the teacher for the child's failures or for failures of discipline within the home environment. Still, the opportunity exists to help the children and their parents.

     While the teacher sometimes faces problems that are prevailingly academic in nature, he most often deals with problems directly related to the human personality or a developing child's social habits. And the teacher deals intimately with these problems.

     The teacher gets down to the "nitty-gritty" of human life at a most important time--the time of home and childhood. The teacher deals with the human person as that person develops his personality and outlook toward life.

     The teacher-priest deals with these problems not one day a week but five, six or even seven days a week. Thus, the opportunity to serve, to minister to a human person, remains constant within the world of that teacher who follows God's example of the teacher-priest.

     Few people realize the tremendous impact the teacher can make, not only upon children and their parents, but also upon a community at large. A teacher finds he has a reputation. It may be good, bad or indifferent. However, the teacher who studies his teaching art and brings high excellence into his classroom causes talk that opens up opportunities of service to him as a teacher-priest.

     People want to know about the teacher of excellence. Students strive to get into classes taught by the teacher of excellence. Administrators exult over the teacher of excellence. Colleagues want to imitate the teacher of excellence. Communities honor and mightily strive to retain the services of their teachers of excellence.

     In short, the more the teacher extends himself to grow as a teacher, the more opportunity he has to minister to others as their teacher-priest. This principle prevails within the entire scope of the teaching ministry. The more we grow, the more we can grow.

     Working with the young also offers the teacher a concrete opportunity to actually affect the course of society. The teacher also finds opportunity to retain the fresh, idealistic--even altruistic--outlook of youth, tempered with the wisdom found through experience that helps him communicate with the young and their elders as he serves them as a teacher-priest. And they need never fully know he serves them as a priest.

     The teacher-priest also finds ample opportunity to help those who cannot help themselves. The student from an economically deprived background can receive a direct ministry from the teacher-priest. The child who needs a substitute parent can find solace and instruction at the feet of a teacher-priest. The child who bears strong emotional scars, a psychological neurosis of the more worrisome type, or even a mild psychosis can receive aid and instruction from the teacher-priest.

     Teacher-priests often find that people, whether young or old, come to and inquire of the teacher before they consult

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their preacher. Whether or not these people are right or even wise to do this is beside the point. The teacher who wishes to serve as priest finds a vast array of opportunity to serve, that's the point!

     The Scriptures tell us we all have a contribution to make to the church. Just as a woven blanket needs every thread of its warp and woof in place to be complete and warm, so also the church needs each person within its membership to act as ministers, as a holy priesthood for God.

     The attitude that says, "let the preacher do it" slows down the effective ministry of Christ's church. It is at this point that the idea of a "fulltime Christian service" often comes back to haunt us. There's enough work for everyone in God's service. Every Christian has a duty, an obligation to God and the grand privilege to engage in fulltime Christian service.

     Christ ministered as a carpenter. Peter ministered as a fisherman and Paul ministered as a tentmaker. Each was a teacher-priest. There do exist only two kinds of people in this world--practicing Christians and non-Christians.

     Let us not neglect the man in the pew when this is where our numbers and our potential strength lie. If we do neglect this source of strength then we will find ourselves wasting our opportunities to develop a truly diversified teacher-priesthood and will further add to the woes caused by the "let the preacher do it" syndrome. We will then find our people coupling that syndrome with the natural human tendency to avoid strangers. And finally, we will find that the strong commitment of an effective personal teaching ministry escapes the great majority of our people almost entirely. We thus weaken the church, young people reject an organized and yet uninvolved Christianity and we should know better. It would seem that those of us who now hold positions within the teaching priesthood have the solemn duty to train as many recruits to this service as we possibly can.

     Let us go to this man in the pew and get him to roll up his sleeves and get on to a personal teaching ministry. Let us realize that few men are really good at nightly visitation. Also, in today's urbanized society, doors get slammed in the visitor's face for the occupant within considers the visitor without to be an encyclopedia salesman in disguise. Even if the average working man can make it out to the evening sessions after fighting the evening rush hour and a hurried evening meal, he usually finds such slamming doors and late evening calling discouraging.

     Why not encourage a home teaching ministry? We can develop a church program that vitally encourages such a ministry with all the necessary instruction sprinkled with plenty of "how to" examples. Then the man in the pew can competently conduct an in-depth teaching-priesthood within his own home.

     Doesn't it seem reasonable that such a man who teaches in his own home and sees his own growing proficiency there will then look for and subsequently find more opportunity and courage to teach on the job? Won't this same reaction occur with mothers as well? Do we encourage the teaching ministry in all its true diversity or do we think only people with a professional license can teach?

     Let us encourage all our number to act as teacher-priests whether our vocation lies in the area of preaching, professional teaching, machine operation, secretarial services or the too-often neglected energetic and intellectual powerhouse called the housewife. The opportunity exists to develop a truly diversified teaching-priesthood that will have continuing impact wherever Christians live or work.

     At Mountain Mission School, our teaching ministry deals with rejected, orphaned children and children from homes in crisis. Our teachers come from all over the country and they have graduated from Bible colleges and major universities. We have a specialized teaching ministry at Mountain Mission School that deals mostly with the scared and the scarred. We find the more we learn the more

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we can apply our knowledge. The challenges to our minds, our emotions and our physical stamina are enormous. Our teaching program is diversified itself as it covers the sciences, humanities, the fine arts, physical development, sex education, plus Sunday school and church. This keeps us busy.