I’m called to teach – not to make more people think like me.

Teachers need to make a distinction between ‘what I want to say’ and ‘what people need to hear’. It’s not always as obvious as we think.

A few weeks ago, I came across a passage on biblegateway’s verse for the day. It said,

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Eph. 4:32

And my immediate response was, “Yea! Why don’t Christian’s get this! It’s just not OK to be unkind to each other on Social Media! Man, Christians suck!” followed by “I should write a blog post about that!” Which is where I started to air-write a passive aggressive, wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing, sneakily unkind rant against Christians for being unkind to other Christians.

Go figure.

So, I didn’t write it.

Phew.

A blog, like this, is a great chance to put out grumpy, self-righteous thoughts, unfiltered and unaccountable to the world. It’s kinda like ‘pretending’ to have a congregation. The biggest difference, of course, is a blog doesn’t have any true form of pastoral responsibility to those it connects with. A blog is simply not a church, period.

At a deeper level though, this exposes an unsettling battle in the heart of every teacher. That’s the battle between teaching what I care about, and teaching for people that I care about.

Put another way, deep down, am I teaching people ‘to think more like me’ rather than ‘be more like Jesus.’

This is not ok.

Preaching is first and foremost a loving act of service to others. Preaching and teaching is designed to be selfless. It takes in the people in the room; their needs, their struggles, their aspirations, their hopes, their dreams, their anxieties, their histories, and what it is they most deeply need – and seeks to feed them, right there, with Gospel-saturated truth.

Preaching is about Jesus and those we serve. It’s never, ever, ever, ever, ever about us. It should certainly be able to shape and change us too, but it’s not designed to be cognitive therapy, or personal ego scratching.

So, why do you want to be a teacher?

If we were to brutally dig down under the layers, and truly look some of the ugly depths of our heart of hearts in the eye – what would be the reason behind the reason behind the reason that we actually want to instruct others?

Putting this yet another way, what is our body language towards ministry? Is it to minister to a broken and desperate world with the healing message of Jesus – or is it to make more people think more like us?

I believe that I am a teacher. I think that’s my calling and as a gifting it comes with bags of responsibility, and trolley loads of insecurities and fears. It certainly runs a daily gauntlet of my own pride and selfish ego. This is why James 3:1 needs to be taken very seriously.

I’d love more people to have a go at teaching, and I want to encourage people not to be afraid of it. But on the flip side, I also want to take great cares that we as vocational, called, Christian teachers respect the weight of what we do, and make ever effort to keep the heaviness of our egos in check as we grow.

I’ve been preaching and teaching for nearly two decades, but it’s only very recently – like in the last couple of years – that I’ve treated the prayer aspect of my preparation at least as seriously as the study or delivery aspect. And this prayer language has changed from ‘God help me plan a good sermon and deliver it well’ to ‘God please, please, somehow, let my heart and ambitions not get in the way of the clear movement of your gospel to a hungry people.’

I’m still very early on my journey with this, but I want to put a strong admonishment out today to those of you who want to teach because you want to make more people think like you.

This is not ok.

For the time being stop teaching. Look that in the eye, and plead with God on your knees for help.

I’m not saying stop teaching forever, because we can’t hold out for perfection – and then there’s the grace that God sometimes uses us most especially in our weaknesses. But if this is the first time you’ve looked that possibility in the eye, then take a step back.

Teaching and preaching are designed by God to help people fall more in love with Jesus. They’re not designed to make more people think more like you.

Sorry.

Pray for me too! We’re proud people. Let’s push through this together and be finally satisfied only when we wake in His likeness (Ps. 17:15).

Photo by Nycholas Benaia on Unsplash