“I can start things because I’m a teacher.”
Last year when I was taking a class at a small Bible college I kept a list of quotes from my Pentateuch teacher. This is another quote of his, and though it was meant to be sort of snarky, there’s a lot of truth to it.
One of the best sermon series I have heard was on “Gift Mixes” by Dr. Daniel Brown. Gift mixes is a term he uses to describe spiritual gifts/ministries, the innate kind that we often aren’t aware of because it’s so deeply ingrained in who we are. He talks about how learning our (and others’) gift mixes frees us to act fully ourselves and let others be themselves. He also unpacks each gift so that we can understand them the way Paul’s original audience would.
I’ve started listening to these sermons again this year with my high school class, and it has been good. My primary gifts are ‘prophet’ and ‘teacher’. According to these sermons, the teacher is less like our modern definition, and more like a pathfinder or trailblazer. They pave the way and then encourage others to “Follow me as I follow God!” I find this interesting because I’ve noticed the pattern of trailblazing in my life, though not always by my own choice. In college, I was the first to complete the new music education degree in four years. That meant being the guinea pig that got to discover and work out class conflicts and other speed bumps. The discipleship program I did last school year was in its first year as well, and there were a few things that we figured out via trail and error.
And now, this year, I’m heading up the high school program at Open Bible Christian School (though my program is referred to as Lifepoint Charter). Lifepoint came into being last summer. As the school year was ended, OBCS made the decision to discontinue their high school (10-12) program because they did not have enough staff for the amount of students. The leadership at the school did not feel at peace with that decision, so they called me (I had spent 4 months volunteering in their high school class) to be in charge of the high school.
It’s a homeschool extension program using the Monarch curriculum. The students complete their school work online, where I can grade and program assignments. I have them in my classroom two days a week for tutoring, teaching, and supplementary material.
I really love what I’m doing there, especially that I am essentially building a program from the ground up, and creating a fair amount of my own curriculum. Again, I find myself trailblazing, and I’m excited to see where God takes this program.
PS: If any of my readers are in the Willamette Valley area and have high school (10-12 grade) kids who are looking for an alternative to public school, let me know! :)
