We need more than just trained leaders. We also need a bigger kingdom vision which would lead to greater cooperation. It would help if churches and schools formed cooperative partnerships for the sake of the kingdom. I don’t mean more church-run schools, which are generally in decline and may not be the best model for the future. I mean non-sectarian schools which nonetheless have robust theological commitments and which partner with sound churches to provide theological education, faithful critical thinking and effective apologetics training for all of God’s people. 

I am a pastor-educator. My full-time job is serving as the Upper School Principal at Whitefield Academy in Mableton (Smyrna), Georgia. I am also an ordained pastor in the PCA, a member of the Northwest Georgia Presbytery. I know there are several other guys like me, Reformed pastors serving the Lord in Christian school positions, but I feel like we’re viewed as an oddity, like we can’t decide what we’re supposed to be doing with our lives.

As I survey the landscape of the evangelical world in the midst of an increasingly hostile culture, I see two glaring problems: Many Christian schools are lacking either in the highest and best academic standards or else in a thoroughly biblical, theologically sound approach to education. Meanwhile, our churches are increasingly “dumbed-down” and the average evangelical Christian is more biblically illiterate than at almost any other time in church history. Educationally and theologically, we have many thriving institutions but few truly thriving minds prepared to think, reason and engage a hostile culture with the claims of Christ. We have some pockets of brilliance and hope, of course, but overall the intellectual landscape of evangelicalism is bleak. Others have noted this; it’s not news to many who are reading this post.

What do we do? What if we esteemed highly the role of the pastor-educator- men who are trained in theology, apologetics, Christian philosophy, educational philosophy, pedagogy, curriculum development and school leadership? If more seminaries took a stronger interest in Christian educational leadership and more Christian college Master of Education programs included robust theological training for those preparing for educational leadership, we could see a generation of educational leaders trained in theology and sound biblical worldview thinking.

This might seem like a strange, self-serving post: a declaration that the church really needs more men like me. That’s far from the truth! But let’s consider the case for more pastor-educators in the church. First, we need to define the term –

Here’s a basic reality: All good pastors educate their people, as teaching is a primary means of feeding the flock.

Here’s another one: All good Christian school leaders shepherd the flock under their care- praying for, discipling, counseling, exhorting, teaching and correcting- on an ongoing, daily basis.

If these two realities are true, then all pastors educate and all Christian educational leaders shepherd. So what makes someone a pastor-educator, as I’m using the term?

I have served for 10 years as an administrator in Christian schools. Before that, I served as a classroom teacher in various settings for 6 years. I am also a seminary-educated, trained, called, ordained and installed pastor. I do not say that I was a pastor, though I pastored a church in South Carolina for 2 1/2 years. I say that I am a pastor; officially, I am “laboring out of bounds” as a teaching elder in my presbytery. I am not “without call,” though I do not hold the title of pastor or associate pastor in any particular church.

The Lord may one day lead me back to a church pastorate, but I do not consider myself to be out of the pastorate now. I am simply serving in a different field, where my focus is on curriculum, instruction, school culture, testing and college admissions, along with discipleship, spiritual growth and community outreach.

God has blessed me with a great education for my calling as a pastor-educator. I have a Master of Education in Educational Leadership from Covenant College along with my degree from Reformed Theological Seminary, Washington DC. I did my pastoral internship at New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Abingdon, Maryland, where I was a ruling elder and was also the Head of School for New Covenant Christian School. In my calling, I regularly draw on all of my educational background. My personal reading reflects my calling, too. I am usually reading books on education, organizational leadership and theology simultaneously. Here’s a sampling of some of the books I’ve read in the past few months:

• Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath
• Playing God by Andy Crouch
• Ephesians by Harold Hoehner
• The Letter to the Ephesians by Peter O’Brien (Pillar Commentary)
• The Universe Next Door (5th Edition) by James Sire (again – our school staff is reading this)
• The Treasury of David by Charles Spurgeon (I’m always reading this book.)
• Learning in the Fast Lane by Suzy Pepper Rollins
• Causes and Cures in the Classroom by Margaret Searle
• Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works

So am I just a strangely divided person? I don’t think so. I value God’s truth in it’s various forms and I value the development of God’s people into thinking, learning, discerning, growing disciples for the sake of the kingdom.

I know I am not alone, but I think it speaks poorly of the state of the kingdom that we have so few pastor-educators. Too few Christian school leaders have in-depth theological and pastoral training and too few pastors have formal training in effective pedagogy.

Perhaps this is due, in part, to the rise of the modern secularized public school system, which has convinced pastors and church leaders that pedagogy is something worldly. I don’t know for sure; that might just be speculation, but here’s what I know: This was not always the case.

Consider this:

1. In the Reformed tradition, many school Headmasters were traditionally ordained clergy. This is still the case for many Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran schools, but it is not as strong in the Reformed and evangelical tradition. Yet some of the most esteemed and long-established schools in the English-speaking world have had a large number of clergy among their Headmasters.

2. Many notable pastors throughout church history have been instrumental in establishing schools. The New England Puritans established the finest system of public education the world had ever seen, but the schools were by no means secular or even generically “Judeo-Christian.” The oldest public school in America, the Boston Latin School, was founded by Rev. John Cotton in 1635. The oldest public secondary school in Geneva, College Calvin, wasfounded by John Calvin in 1559 and led by Theodore Beza.

3. One of the best and most influential books on pedagogy ever written is The Seven Laws of Teachingby John Milton Gregory. Gregory wrote this book in 1886. He had served as Superintendent of Public Instruction in Michigan and as President of Kalamzoo College and the University of Illinois. His book was based on hundreds of classroom observations of effective teaching. Gregory was also a committed Christian leader who wrote his book as much to help improve Sunday School instruction in the church as to help with classroom instruction in schools.

4. One of the most successful and lasting impacts missionaries traditionally had on the cultures they were trying to reach for Christ came through the establishment of schools. Missionary schools offered a superior education in a Christ-centered school and engaged culture intellectually and theologically.

We need more than just trained leaders. We also need a bigger kingdom vision which would lead to greater cooperation. It would help if churches and schools formed cooperative partnerships for the sake of the kingdom. I don’t mean more church-run schools, which are generally in decline and may not be the best model for the future. I mean non-sectarian schools which nonetheless have robust theological commitments and which partner with sound churches to provide theological education, faithful critical thinking and effective apologetics training for all of God’s people.

Of course, we’d have to stop seeing each other as the competition and we’d also have to stop judging each other for the educational choices we make: home school or Christian school or even (gasp!) public school. We would instead have to commit to loving each other and seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness for all His people.

Maybe, in the end, our problem is not a lack of resources or even a lack of properly trained leaders but rather a lack of willingness to put the Kingdom ahead of our kingdoms, to pursue righteousness ahead of market share and to care more for Christ’s reputation in the world than the reputation of our local church or school within our community.

Jason A. Van Bemmel is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. This article appeared on his blog Ponderings of a Pilgrim Pastor and is used with permission.