Empowering Christian Educators
By David Schmus
As the faculty adviser to my high school’s Christian club years ago, I received a call from a parent who wanted to meet to pray. Like many Christian teachers in public schools, I felt isolated and alone, trying to shine my light the best I could. So I immediately agreed.
That simple after-school prayer time birthed an intercession team and a friendship that still bears fruit today.
Major Battleground
I believe the key battleground in the spiritual war for our nation is our schools. Given the extent to which our current cultural and spiritual confusion is echoed in these schools, we are seeing significant fallout:
• According to a report published in Education Week, between the years of 2005 and 2017, the percentage of 12- to 17-year-olds reporting a “major depressive episode” in the past year has increased from 8.7 to 13.2 percent. However, adults’ rates have remained constant.1
• Of youth ages 12–14, three times as many girls and twice as many boys committed suicide in 2015, compared with only eight years earlier.2
• At least 15 states are enabling gender confusion by allowing students to use whatever bathroom or locker room they identify with, generally without parental knowledge.
Are we losing a generation of youth to depression, suicide, and myriad other spiritual and emotional brokenness? Christian educators in our schools can be a powerful force in God’s hands. However, so many educators, especially in our public schools, are fearful and isolated.
Wake Them Up
After 15 years as a public high school educator, I moved from the classroom into leadership of Christian Educators Association International. When I did so, I sensed the Lord whisper to my spirit, “My army is already in the schools. Yourjob is to wake them up.”
But how do we help often fearful, isolated, and overworked educators to step out in faith to partner with God in bringing transformation to their classrooms and schools? You already know the answer: prayer.
As a prayer leader, you can mobilize your church to join the battle and pray in these ways:
- Intercede for educators.
• Your local school likely has a list of faculty members on their website. Pray through the list. Send an email or note to eacheducator as you pray.
• Go to everyschool.com and sign up to pray for a specific school. Make sure your church adopts every school in your area.
• Encourage your congregation to join Moms in Prayer groups at their local schools (momsinprayer.org).
• Call your local schools and ask if they have a Christian club that meets there. Ask for the name of the faculty adviser. Prayfor and reach out to that person.
• Don’t be afraid to visit your local school, meet the principal, and ask how you can pray.
Regardless of how you target your prayers, pray that Christians in our schools will have eyes to see what God is doing on their campuses and how to partner with Him.
Pray that they will not be captive to fear, but will be bold in their faith. For those in public schools, pray that they will understand what they can do legally to live out their faith. (CEAI can help with this: ceai.org/whatwecando.)
2. Christian educators themselves need to pray. Administrators and teachers have a greater degree of authority to pray over their classrooms and schools. One high school principal faithfully prayerwalked his campus every morning. But when a fight broke out at his school one day, he later realized that was the only day all semester he had failed to prayerwalk.
I also know of a Christian teacher who faithfully prayed over his classroom. One of his students had been aware of a darkness that constantly followed her around at school. When she finally told this teacher and described the darknessto him, he asked, “Where is it now?”
“Oh, it’s outside,” she replied. “It can’t come in your room.”
Most Strategic
If you know Christian educators in public schools, encourage them to connect with our organization. We can protect them legally should they face opposition as they carry out their calling in their schools.
As prayer leaders, embrace these Christian educators for who they really are: possibly the most strategic missionaries in our nation.
1Footnotes available on request from editor.
DAVID SCHMUS is the executive director of Christian Educators Association International, which seeks to encourage, equip, and empower Christian educators to transform our public, charter, and private schools with God’s love and truth.