The Craft of Christian Teaching

Released in 1998 by Judson Press, Israel Galindo has written mostly from the perspective of teaching in a local church, Galindo writes that at the heart of this book “is the question of what are authentic skills and approaches to Christian instruction in the local church and related settings” (p. 4). The book intends to help teachers by providing a basic orientation to an authentic approach to the craft of Christian teaching. For Galindo, Christian teaching lays a solid base for the uniqueness of Christian education’s sanctifying role in helping people “become” and that learning equals change. It is clear that Galindo is a passionate teacher who clearly articulates the importance of skilled teachers being present at key teaching moments in someone’s life.

Strangely, Galindo seems to suggest that a teacher’s ability to teach is not as important a value in the learning experience compared to the learner’s participation (p. 156) and people who don’t feel they can teach are “just the people we’re looking for.” While I agree with his concern that over-emphasizing teacher performance could produce passive dependent learners I think this is an odd remark that undermines the importance of the spiritual gift of teaching and the individuals who serve with this gift. I think he is getting at the common assumption that education is centered on the teacher who is loaded with content. While I agree that the fruit of Christian teaching is someone who learns, the tree on which that fruit hangs in not any old tree!

Especially meaningful and applicable to me was chapter 2, “What Makes Christian Education Christian?” From this, I constructed the following diagram with only a slight modification from Galindo’s order:

If Galindo  is correct in stating that the goal of the intentional educator is to help persons “become”  and the tremendous power and potential of education is to “help shape and make different persons, hopefully, better persons,” (p, 15) then the most fundamental implication on the Christian teacher is to nurture “becoming.”