Why I Want to Teach in a Christian School

My motivation to teach in a Christian school comes naturally from my commitment to teaching and serving in Christian education (described above in my Philosophy of Christian Education). Having taught and served in a Christian school for the past four years, my vocational calling has been confirmed and continues with unrelenting passion. My motivation to teach at a Christian school is found in three primary areas.

First, I am motivated not only to be a part of a positive Christian educational community in general, but more specifically, to be a part of biblical education. This can only be done well within the context of a Christian school. Biblical and theological illiteracy is a major issue facing our culture generally, and the Christian church specifically. We are becoming more and more disconnected from our historical and spiritual roots. One of my specific goals and motivations for working in a Christian school is to increase students’ level of biblical and theological competency in order that they, the next generation, might be able to reach the world more effectively for Christ and His Kingdom!

The second motivation that I have for working within a Christian school is the community found there. I have had the privilege to teach and serve in three different Christian schools, all very different from each other. The common thread that I have found in these differing institutions was an unflinching commitment to Christ among the faculty and staff. The community that results from an entire faculty with the same basic Christian worldview is second to none. It is remarkable to be able to pray for students with fellow faculty members, and to pray and support one another as fellow Christian educators. This is the kind of professional environment that I would strive to cultivate, and in which I want to continue serving.

Finally, my ultimate desire is to teach and serve in an educational setting that is distinctively Christian, while remaining faithful to the pursuit of knowledge and academic excellence. Two slogans used frequently at my alma mater, Gordon College, were “freedom within a framework of faith” and “faith seeking understanding.” As an educative community, we sought out the meaning of these two phrases, both as Christians, and as learners. As a teacher in a Christian school, I seek to cultivate that experience with my students; an intellectual curiosity from a distinctively Christian perspective. Having both a “framework of faith” and a “faith which seeks understanding,” affords students the freedom to be challenged by hard truths and deep questions, yet have the foundation and core beliefs, as well as the support of an authentically Christian faculty, to assimilate answers and new knowledge into an already established framework of faith. I am eager to teach at an institution that is intentional about its endeavors; not merely seeking knowledge for the sake of knowledge, but intentionally engaging with various academic fields from a distinctively Christian perspective!

Soli Deo Gloria!
Peter T. Fitzroy
February 26, 2018

Discerning My Calling to Teach

I discerned God’s call on my life to enter the teaching profession (and specifically teaching the Bible and Theology) throughout my undergraduate experiences at Gordon College. After taking my first New Testament survey course, I fell in love with Biblical and Theological Studies as a critical discipline. I decided to make that my major and, throughout the rest of my college career, I continued to grow in my biblical and theological understanding. During my freshman and sophomore years in college, I remember wrestling with my new-found “intellectual faith” and how to assimilate it with my Christian upbringing to that point. This was one aspect that God used to impress upon me the calling of teaching. As I have wrestled with these issues in the past, I can come alongside secondary students in my classroom to help them wrestle with integrating new-found biblical and theological knowledge into a framework of faith. 

In addition to this, my second major, Youth Ministries, impressed upon me the cultural phenomenon of rampant biblical illiteracy. As I was continuing to grow in biblical and theological understanding, I recognized within my own life the level of biblical illiteracy and the lacking catechetical efforts on the part of the evangelical church at large that led me there, even though I was raised in the church and in a Christian home. The fusion of these two concepts (assimilating an intellectual faith and the level of cultural biblical and theological illiteracy) resulted in a passion to deepen the biblical and theological understanding of students through Christian education in a private school.

Having taught and served in a Christian school for the past four years, my vocational calling has been confirmed and continues with unrelenting passion.

Soli Deo Gloria!
Peter T. Fitzroy
February 26, 2018

Evangelicals and Catholics: Post-Catholic Evangelicals

I received a good deal of response from the first post in this series on my personal history with Evangelicalism and Catholicism. One of those responses came in the form of a personal journey from a reader who will remain anonymous. The experience described below represents a large phenomenon that I have witnessed in my experience serving in many churches and ministries over the years. Many Evangelical Christians between the ages of 30-70 are "post-Catholic."

     I grew up Catholic.  I went to Catholic school from grades 1-9, so I was heavily indoctrinated in it.  I became extremely scrupulous even afraid I would go to hell because I ate meat inadvertently on a Friday--the ever present guilt about this and many other issues.

     In college I started to question some of the changes that were being made in the Church--the mass was no longer in Latin, eating meat on Friday was no longer a sin, etc.  I questioned how these tenets could be changed by mere men.

     In a few years, I was teaching third grade and some young students were talking about their church.  I was curious at how excited they were about it, so I asked them.   One of their mothers invited me to Mount Prospect Bible Church.  It was there that I accepted Christ as my personal savior.  It was difficult to let go of some of the indoctrination of the Catholic Church, so I kept what I found edifying about it.

     I feel my spiritual personality was rooted in Catholicism.  I love the mass and what it represents.  It is a contemplative means to worship, and I do like that sometimes.

     I have Catholic friends who are passionate about their faith, even more disciplined about worshiping than many "Protestants" friends.

     Every year I desire to go to the Stations of the Cross, and somehow I don't go.  These depict the crucifixion and the journey Christ made.  I remember even as a little girl weeping through those as I saw the injustice of Christ being tortured. It was not thoroughly explained at that time that He did it for me personally.  Maybe this spring I will go and take part in that ceremony to be reminded of what sin costs.

     I feel I am both Catholic and Protestant--a Christian.  I take from both religions what I need to continue my pilgrimage.

This testimony certainly brings a lot of issues out for discussion: "Catholic guilt," catechesis, authority of the Church, etc. But my question is:

Why do many feel the need to leave the Catholic communion for 20th/21st century Evangelicalism.
And what are the implications?

Lest we start Catholic-bashing, there is an equally intriguing phenomenon of modern Evangelical Christians leaving the ranks of Evangelicalism to seek out more "high church," contemplative traditions including Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox traditions.

I hope that anyone reading this post who has experienced one of the spiritual migrations would critically reflect on these issues comment respectfully.