Even the most boring conversion is remarkable

Over the last term I’ve been teaching my senior class, amongst other things, about the significance of the personality Martin Luther to Christianity and, for my junior class, I’m wrapping up an overview of Christianity. 

As a result, I’ve been teaching quite a bit about the idea of salvation by grace, or as Luther would call it, Sola Gratia.

In short, humanity is saved by a gift of grace, undeserved, which is solely an action of God.

As a result, my thinking about conversion stories has softened.

Many conversion stories are, frankly, kinda boring.

Mine is.

There’s no Damascus moment.

There’s no vision.

There’s no audible voice.

There’s no Prodigal repentance.

There no turning away from sex, drugs or rock’n’roll.

Instead, there’s a slow realisation.

And, this story is remarkable.

Why?

Because what God has done, through Jesus, is remarkable.

This makes every conversion story remarkable.

For, if we are truely saved by grace, then the entirety of our salvation story is based only upon what God has done, not what part - small, large, conservative or dramatic - we may play.

What preaching taught me about teaching

During parent/teacher interviews, I’ll readily admit that I’m the loudest, most energetic, teacher in the school.

I’m sure it’s the residual enthusiasm I had from my time in youth ministry.

I was also the loudest, most energetic, scripture teacher.

I was also fairly boisterous in the pulpit (but not over the top).

When it comes to the classroom, I subscribe to what John Wesley (supposedly) said about his preaching.

Allegedly (but probably not) Wesley stated that God, through His Spirit, would set his preaching on fire, and people - if nothing else - would come to watch him burn.

I teach in the same way.

My classes are entertaining.

They are loud.

They are often odd.

They are smattered with quirkiness.

And, hopefully, students can’t - if anything else - look away.

This is why, in some of my senior classes, I’ll pick up the odd orphaned student.

It turns out, if nothing else, that I put on a good show…

The prayer you don’t have to pray but hear often

There is a prayer which I’m sure, if you’ve spent any significant amount of time around churches, that you’ve heard uttered before.

And, while it is said with the best of intentions, it is completely needless.

The prayer is for God to be present.

These words are not required.

Why?

Because God is present everywhere.

It goes along with the omniscience of God…

God, by His nature, is present. Everywhere. All the time.

What we should pray, and what I think is usually intended to be prayed, is the following… that we should be aware of the presence of God.

This is a POWERFUL prayer.

This is a TRANSFORMATIVE prayer.

This is a prayer which we NEED.

We need to be aware of God’s presence, allowing it to shape our actions, words, thoughts and worship.

Be it at the start of a church service, bible study, meeting, confrontation or any other occasion when we tend to invite Gods presence, praying for mindfulness of the reality of God’s presence will be far more useful.

Education analogies

Pitcher/catcher.

Doctor/patient.

The pitcher wants to do his best.

The catcher needs to receive the pitch by focussing on what the pitcher is delivering.

The doctor wants what’s best for the patient.

The patient needs to follow the direction of the teacher.

This is how teaching works best.

We are the pitcher.

We are the doctor.

Our students are the catchers.

Our students are the patients.

The central point is that both teacher and student need to work in partnership.

Without both teacher and student working together, education falls apart.

Your ministry in the pews on a Sunday

Tomorrow, like most Sundays, I’ll be listening to a sermon.

While I’ve stood in the pulpit and delivered sermons plenty of times before, I’ve been the recipient of a sermon far more than I’ve been the deliverer.

Every so often I’ll gaze out at my fellow congregants during the sermon.

Some are listening. 

Some are zoned out.

I am, honestly, usually bouncing between the two.

Of course, to the one up the front, the attentiveness of those in the pews is not a mystery.

For, you listen with your body, not just your ears.

You listen with your eyes.

You listen with your arms.

You listen with your hands.

Your eyes drift.

Your arms cross.

Your hands either fidget or cease taking notes.

Your body testifies to your attentiveness.

And, your body can perform a ministry to the preacher.

You can be an encouragement.

The manner you listen on a Sunday morning speaks loudly to the one up the front.

Perhaps, I’m not the only one who needs to consider the message I’m sending to the messenger on a Sunday…

Pushing beyond the comfortable response

We all have our comfortable answers.

It happens in the classroom.

It happens within churches.

Sometimes, the challenge required is to take someone beyond their comfort response.

To drag someone away from their area of expertise.

To invite someone to empathise with another whom they may not otherwise.

To draw someone to go beyond their pat answer.

One place where this can raise its head is prayer.

When we pray we can fall into common cliques.

We can drift into our comfortable areas.

The challenge of a leader/teacher, at times, is to ask for more.

To push for more.

To want more.

To be prepared to wait for more.

Otherwise, people will be content to remian in their comfort zone.

If your the leader, then you must be prepared to do this for every question you ask

A good leader won’t ask his/her followers to do anything that they themselves aren’t prepared to do.

With this being said, whenever a leader asks a question, they should be prepared to respond to the question themselves.

This can apply for introductory sharing questions - What do you do? How old are you?

Or deeper exploratory questions - What is your favourite childhood memory? Where do you see yourself in five years?

Or probing biblical enquires- What jumps out at you about this passage? How do you think you can apply this passage to your week ahead?

If a leader poses a question to the group, they should provide the first or the last answer.

This, first, provides safety for other people to share.

Second, if the leader answers first, then it can provide a launching board for others to follow.

Finally, it’s unfair that a leader should ask for others to be vulnerable if others (or more dishonestly, the leader secretly) are aware that the leader themselves won’t be prepared to share.

How every ministry event should end

This event will end at (insert time here) and you are then free to leave. No questions asked.

But, you don’t have to leave at the allotted time. You can stick around for some unstructured time a while (usually until the leader is departing).

This is how every ministry event should end.

A firm finish so time so people can know when the event will definitely conclude.

A flexible finish time so ministry or fellowship can casually continue.

To advertise both is essential and a healthy ministry - be it a church service, small group, youth/young adults activity - will have both.

The two questions which put student’s opinions into perspective

I’ve previously written about the best piece of teaching advice I’ve received. To sum up, it is the remember… your students are just teenagers. No random fifteen year old should be able to seriously affect your worldview or sense of self worth.

Over the last few years in the classroom, I’ve developed a series of mental tests which remind me of the truth that my original supervising teacher imparted to me.

Do your student choose their own bedsheets?

Two years ago (or even currently) does the student before you buy their own underwear?

Frankly, if the answer to these two questions is a negative, allow this to place their opinion into an appropriate perspective.

If someone doesn’t have the agency, ability or maturity to choose what they sleep on or the patterns on their undergarments, then their words should hold little weight.

Why?

Because they are being said by children.

And no one who’s mum makes their bed or purchases their undies should be able to genuinely rock your emotional regulatory gyroscope.

The prayer you never need to pray

“God, I pray that you will with us.”

You just wasted your breath.

By His very nature, God is everywhere.

Including your bible study.

Including your church service.

Including your “community building” activity.

God doesn’t require a formal invitation.

Instead, we should pray that we BE AWARE of Gods presence.

We should pray that we act like we are in Gods presence.

We should pray that our conversations are seasoned by an awareness of Gods presence.

We should pray that we worship in light of Gods presence.

But, we don’t need to invite God in. He is not a vampire.

When are we satisfied with spiritual literacy?

I’ve just started reading a book about reading.

To quote my youngest, when she spotted the book next to my bed, “that sounds boring.”

Honestly, it may well end up being a dull slog.

Hopefully, the book will, at least, help me be able to teach advanced literacy somewhat better to my senior classes.

Currently, the book is making the good point about the way we teach literacy in schools.

In general, we’re satisfied by year 6. Maybe year 8.

When our students are younger, we heavily focus on literacy. We have to, they are still learning language.

But, our focus on literacy quickly drops away in high school. Due to the sheer amount of content that our subjects need to plough through, literacy becomes incidental.

Really, the only time high schools are forced to focus on literacy in the upper grades is to have their students meet the minimum standards required in order to complete year 12.

Minimum. Standards.

This is around the literacy level of a decent year 8 or 9.

The book I’m reading makes the point that this is around the age/level that we cease teaching intentional literacy.

How to read. 

How to skim. 

How to note-take. 

How to form an argument.

Grammar.

All of these tend to stagnate in junior high.

I wonder if a similar thing happens in our churches.

We intentionally teach them about the faith while they are children and teens.

Then, we start to drop this focus.

We start to settle for the minimum standard (like the ones I posted about in my last post).

We don’t really hold our congregations to an adult level of understanding.

Because we are saved by grace, not by our ability to pass a theological exam, we allow our adults to stagnate in their understanding.

No one is expected to genuinely wrestle with the concept of the trinity or the early heresies of the church.

No one is expected to be aware of the spread of the faith and the obstacles the early church had to overcome.

No one is expected to wrestle with the difficult passages of the bible unless they are touched on via the pulpit.

Are our churches, like it could be argued that our schools, only producing underdeveloped “products” because we don’t expect them to reach beyond the minimum standard?

What is the minimal amount you should know?

Within Islam, the minimal amount that you need to know is the Shahada - Allah is God and Muhammad is His Prophet.

Within Buddhism, the minimal amount you should know are the Three Jewels - the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha - an example to follow, a way to live and a community to belong to.

What is the minimal message of Christianity?

John 3:16?

Jesus loves you?

I think it should be a little deeper than these.

I think, if someone can understand the following points, then they have a good grasp on the basics of following Jesus.

God made everything.

God knows and loves what He has made.

This includes humanity, including you.

God desires a relationship with people, including you.

Jesus is God in the flesh/incarnate.

Jesus reveals what God is like.

Through His actions on the cross, Jesus made a relationship of friendship possible between God and humanity, including you.

We are, ultimately, saved by grace - based only on what God has done - through faith - trusting in God alone.

The overflow stays with them

In all my subjects I teach a lot of details.

Far too many for any student to be able to remember.

Fortunately, the majority of things I want my students to be able to recall are the concepts of my subjects. 

This is what really matters.

I’d they understand the overarching principals behind the facts, then they will be in a better position to be able to accurately explain what my subject is about and be able to apply these concepts to other subjects and areas in their life.

But, in reality, over time most of what I teach will be lost.

I don’t expect my students to be able to recall the seven ways which you’ll die in trench warfare, the seven reasons for World War 2 or the six deviations on the understanding of the humanity of Jesus.

The same is true in a church setting.

No one remembers the details of every sermon they hear. 

No one is expected to be able to recount every aspect of a bible study.

The things you remember - in both the classroom and church - are the extras.

The overflows of who you are as a teacher or a minister are the things which travel with people far beyond the months/years they physically spend with you.

Your character.

Your enthusiasm.

Your care.

These are the things which really matter.

This is what makes someone look back at you fondly.

These will be the traits of every one of your favourite teachers and ministers.

These will make an impact on the rest of their lives.

The details within a lesson or sermon will fade quickly, but the overflow of you - the way they were welcomed, or included, or supported, or inspired - this can last decades after you have gone.

Overloading the start

Tomorrow, for the first time this year, I’ll actually stand before students and teach.

Needless to say, I’ve had a lot to prepare.

Now, as usual, I over-prepare and bog myself down in details which could easily be overlooked.

While my to-do list has been substantial, I’ve been given ample time to get ready.

But, this is not how our academic year began.

Like every year, it kicked off with a meeting.

A lengthy meeting.

A meeting with A LOT of details.

Sure, some (maybe even many) of them were vital to hear in person.

But, if I were a new teacher - be it straight out of university or just at a new school - it would feeling overwhelming.

Names.

Dates.

Acronyms.

Procedures.

Students.

Curriculums.

Assessments.

Concerns.

Day one would have been an mass of information overload.

Frankly, I’m glad that the start of my teaching journey didn’t include a full-time teaching load.

A massive workload, underlined with a flood of fresh information, would have made me feel even more uncertain about day one than I was otherwise.

Why it’s good that I’d never run a creative ministry

I have a lot of talents.

Arguably, humility isn’t one of them.

But, I’m far from a jack-of-all-trades.

This is why you need others.

They have talents you don’t posses.

They have passions you don’t have.

They have visions you don’t share.

Every so often, one of the churches I used to be the youth minister of will pop back into my eyesight, usually on social media.

One of my old patches is now running a creative space for teens.

I would never have run such an event, nevertheless one which runs weekly during school term.

I can’t imagine being associated with an event which “encourages young people to explore their creativity and share their talents with others.”

This sounds like a very noble cause. 

This could be a very God-honouring ministry.

It’s just not one that I would share a passion for.

And that’s perfectly fine.

In fact, it’s a strong reminder of the diversity within the Kingdom of God.

It’s a good thing that, not only I wouldn’t run such a ministry, but that others would.

And I hope it’s a wild success.

For, people would be drawn into this ministry which mine may never have reached.

This is why we don’t have one homogeneous church.

This is why the body of Christ is not a millipede.

This why it is a positive thing that one ministry agent doesn’t stick around for decades.

If that were the case for me, there would not be (in all likelihood) a creative ministry for teens in this church.

Should parents fell bad about skipping church during the school holidays?

I’ve usually skipped church with my kids during the school holidays.

When I worked for a church, I usually expected the same.

So, should a parent feel guilty about their school-holiday endured absence?

Not according to the Tiny Bible Bit which I just wrote…

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 - These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

If you have a family with younger children, then there’s a decent chance that it’s been a few weeks since you’ve attended church.

It’s understandable.

Many churches shut down their Sunday morning children’s ministry activities while the school holidays are on (as they are in Australia, and will be for the rest of the month).

So, should churches fell like they are spiritually neglecting the youngest members of their flock?

Deuteronomy 6 doesn’t think so.

Why? 

Because the primary spiritual direction a child should receive (ideally) is within the home.

The parents should be living out their faith in front of their children.

The parents should be sharing the stories of faith with their children.

The parents, just through the regular processes of the day, should be intersecting life and spirituality often.

Of course, the children’s ministry of a church should play a significant role in helping nurture the fledgling spirituality of a child, but Deuteronomy 6 stresses that this should stretch far beyond a few hours on a Sunday.

Am I a better theologian as a teacher or as a youth minister?

You would think that the answer was simple… I was a better theologian while in vocational ministry.

I’m not completely convinced.

Sure, while I gave plenty of talks and sermons while in ministry, there was only a certain depth or detail which these could effectively delve into.

Very few people wish to hear a sermon on the six alternative theories on the humanity/divinity of Christ.

Even fewer teenagers want to hear that talk.

Yet, in my studies of religion course, I teach a lesson on this exact point.

I’m fact, for the year 11’s they do a Christianity unit which includes the deep theological issues such as the incarnation, God’s revelation and the trinity.

Over the course of the year, I touch on suffering, creation, death, judgement, salvation, church leadership, denominational formations and a whole lot more.

For my year 12’s, I’ll be delving into the subject of the Reformation, baptism and sexual ethics.

Of course, this neglects the numerous non-Christian topics which I’ll be covering!

I would never cover this much ground in a congregational setting.

It would be unreasonable to ask as much.

While, pastorally, my load in the school context is minimal (which must be taken into account), the sheer amount of theology I need to digest and ask for my students to interact with - year after year - surely results in me needing to be a sharper theologian in the secular context.

Interesting is not the aim of the pulpit

Hopefully, when I come away from hearing a sermon, I don’t have either of the following reactions…

That was interesting.

That was clever.

Neither of these should be my lingering reaction.

Why?

Because I shouldn’t, primarily, be academically impressed by what was shared from the pulpit on a Sunday.

Of course, everything should hold up to academic scrutiny, but I shouldn’t feel like I’ve just heard an impressive university lecture.

A sermon should encourage.

A sermon should convict.

A sermon should be faithful to the biblical text.

Most of all, a sermon should point someone towards Jesus.

What it need not be is an intellectual spectacle or an intriguing thought experiment.

Education & Faith share the same analogy

Both are like fire.

Both need a spark to be ignited.

Both light up the world around you.

Both need to remain fed to keep going.

Both can provide comfort.

Both can spread.

Both can be abused.

Both can transform.

Both can be snuffed out.

As either a teacher or a minister, it is your role to ignite, illuminate, stoke, and protect the flame of the young person in front of you.

2024 Best of…

2024 was a fairly significant year for me as I taught Studies of Religion in senior school for the first time, developing the course from scratch, having a means to professionally wrestle with theology with teenagers in almost a decade.

My most read blog post of the year was You only get a small dancing window, followed by Teaching Losers.

Aside from these, the other blogging highlights were…

Transferring Skills from the Old Gig

Your Feelings about being a Theologian don’t change the Truth

Am I a more Successful Teacher or a Youth Minister?

Am I a Bigger Failure as a Teacher or a Youth Minister?

Do I look like a Flat-Earther to my Workmates?

The Growth Progression

Should we want to Double-Speed our faith?

Who are the Secret Heroes of your Profession?

Do I Miss Youth Ministry?

Teaching isn’t meant to be a Secret

The Cost of having a Parent-less Ministry to Kids on a Sunday Morning

The Difference between being Interested, Involved and Invested in a Ministry

The Matrix of Volunteering Obligations 

Why we Deal with the Symptoms and not the Root Cause

The Best way to AI your Content

According to ChatGPT, my blog is about: 

“Ramblings on the Way" is a blog authored by Graham Baldock, where he shares reflections on faith, ministry, education, and personal growth. The blog often features articles, theological musings, and commentary on contemporary issues through a Christian lens. Topics include Bible teachings, youth ministry insights, church activities, and practical discussions on balancing spiritual and professional life.

The blog also includes projects such as "Tiny Bible Bits," which are concise video reflections on Bible passages aimed at making scripture more approachable. It serves as a platform for exploring everyday challenges and spiritual questions, appealing to a niche audience interested in deepening their faith and understanding.

And may be found useful:

The usefulness of the blog "Ramblings on the Way" by Graham Baldock depends on the interests and needs of its readers. It is particularly helpful for individuals seeking:

1. Faith-based Reflections: The blog provides theological insights and practical applications of biblical teachings, which can be valuable for those looking to deepen their understanding of Christianity.

2. Youth Ministry Guidance: Baldock shares his experiences and advice from his work in youth ministry, making it a resource for others in similar roles.

3. Educational Perspectives: His reflections on teaching and education provide relatable content for educators, especially those balancing faith with professional responsibilities.

4. Bite-sized Bible Teachings: Projects like "Tiny Bible Bits" make scripture accessible and engaging for readers looking for quick, thought-provoking spiritual content.

While it may not appeal to everyone, "Ramblings on the Way" is a thoughtful and focused resource for its niche audience.

You can read the posts above and work out if AI knows what it’s talking about…