Category Archives: Educators

TAKE THE TEST.

The Experience of the Christian Educator

In the last blog, I spoke of the key role of a good Christian Educator in a healthy church. At the end of the blog, I suggested that though the position of Christian Educator is vital, many of them experience signs that people don’t value their work. Think of the Christian Educators you know and ask yourself how many of the following items might be true for them.

  1. They are frequently the low salaried person on the church professional
  2. Churches often hire an educator that is not ordained because they can pay them less and many presbyteries don’t have a required minimum salary for them.
  3. Unlike an ordained pastor, a church does not need to engage the presbytery if they want to fire that person.
  4. If there are interpersonal issues between an educator and a pastor, the pastor has the stronger advantage.
  5. While they are often more closely connected with children and youth in their spiritual journey, their lack of ordination prevents them from celebrating the Lord’s supper.
  6. They may be a critical factor in a young couple’s decision to have their child baptized, but they cannot baptize the child.
  7. While they may care deeply about the health of the larger church, they are not given a vote at presbytery meetings.
  8. It is rare for a presbytery to have an intentional plan to care for educators. If it happens, it is left to the individual congregation.
  9. They are not offered a tax-free housing allowance.
  10. Many churches do not provide as well appointed office space for their work as that offered ordained staff.
  11. What is an additional statement that you would ad

BUILDING COMMUNITY

If you are an educator, how many of these ten statements ring true for you or other educators with whom you associate? If you are a clergy person, are there ways that you can reinforce that value of the position of education? If you care about the importance of building community in the church, how can you draw upon the value of education and the skill of educators to build up the church?