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Teachers as Leaders

Ordinary Time (First Section)Secondary Education, SEND and Higher Learning Week 8 · Day 7

Scripture References

Read First

Old Testament

Exodus 18:13-27

¹³ On the next day, Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning to the evening.
¹⁴ When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, “What is this thing that you do for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning to evening?”
¹⁵ Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to enquire of God.

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¹⁶ When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbour, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.”
¹⁷ Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good.
¹⁸ You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it yourself alone.
¹⁹ Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God.
²⁰ You shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and shall show them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do.
²¹ Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
²² Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you.
²³ If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.”
²⁴ So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said.
²⁵ Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
²⁶ They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard cases to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
²⁷ Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way into his own land.

New Testament

1 Timothy 4:11-16

¹¹ Command and teach these things.
¹² Let no man despise your youth; but be an example to those who believe, in word, in your way of life, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity.
¹³ Until I come, pay attention to reading, to exhortation, and to teaching.

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¹⁴ Don’t neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the elders.
¹⁵ Be diligent in these things. Give yourself wholly to them, that your progress may be revealed to all.
¹⁶ Pay attention to yourself and to your teaching. Continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

Thought for the Day

Exodus shows Moses exhausted by constant demand, trying to carry every case alone. Jethro’s counsel is not to care less, but to order care wisely: to share the burden, to appoint trustworthy people, to build a pattern of delegated responsibility that protects both leader and people.

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Paul’s words to Timothy carry the same seriousness: teach these things; set the believers an example; keep a close watch on your life and on your teaching. Teaching is leadership of a particular kind. It forms desires and habits. It shapes what a generation comes to call “normal”.

In secondary schools and universities, leadership often looks like a thousand small decisions: what is rewarded, what is ignored, what is said aloud, what is quietly permitted. What is permitted in the margins is often taught in the centre. As heirs of the King and subjects under his mercy, we pray for teachers to lead without swagger, and for institutions to support them without grinding them down. We also remember the Lord’s Table: teacher and student, professor and apprentice, administrator and caretaker, all are brethren under one Lord. Give us a common life where authority is service, where truth is loved, and where the weary are not left to carry what should have been shared.

Prayer Points

Respond

Lord, strengthen teachers and lecturers; give them courage, patience, and joy that is not swallowed by exhaustion.
Provide wise structures in schools and universities so that responsibility is shared and the vulnerable are protected.
Keep leaders from corruption, partiality, and cynicism; form them in truthfulness, mercy, and accountability.

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Bless students who are struggling to attend, to concentrate, or to believe they belong; give them steady help.
Make your Church faithful in intercession for education, and generous in practical love where local need is near.

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