Reflections on Philippians Class

The Philippians block class lasts two weeks, and now it is ending soon. Philippians is a short book, but quite a unique one in that Paul displays a close relationship with the members of the Philippi church, and urges them to follow His example as a fellow worker in the gospel – more than in other letters he has written. His impressive life of striving for the gospel is shown forth in his perspective during his imprisonment – his constant encouragement for his listeners to rejoice, his desire to see the gospel continue to be preached, and his concern over the affairs of the church he has planted despite being away from them.  He must have thought through the possible outcome of his imprisonment, as his letter suggested it (Phil 1:21-26), but he is single-mindedly focused on furthering the gospel, and not really concerned about his fate at the hands of the Roman authorities.

            Having been a Christian for over 17 years, I do see myself being more mature than when I first started (and I believe we all grow the same way as we know Christ more) – in terms of my priorities in what I dedicate my time to, in how I spend my money, etc; in terms of how I relate, being more willing to give up my rights and less concerned about having my say, being less critical of people, etc.; in my perspective, in seeing the experience I go through, the skills I learn at work and the lessons I learn in life as being beneficial for my own growth, so that I could serve God better, etc. However, Paul’s example shows to me there is still a lot of areas of my life I hold on to, my comfort zones which God has not touched, and a relatively lack of passion for the gospel (compared with Paul!). If Paul then considers himself as not having yet attained what he pursue, then how much more room there is for me to grow in God.

It seems that Paul is addressing arguments among the believers in Philippi in his letter, and his perspective is clear in how the church as a whole should deal with it – with regard to those who jeopardise the gospel, the church is be wary and avoid them (Phil 3:18-19), but for matters which are disputable, Paul sees the unity of the believers as much more important than the individual rights and ambitions each of them has. God is the one who unites us, and Christ is the example to follow, and we are all transformed by the Holy Spirit towards the gospel.

            Having been in church for a number of years, I am often encouraged by my brothers and sisters in church through the fellowship we share, and there is a lot of ways which fellowship can spur ourselves on in character transformation and diligence in ministry which we cannot learn on our own. At the same time, disagreements and quarrels can also be very damaging in a Christian community, sometimes even leading to divisions and people leaving the community. It is perhaps very much due to the tension between the expectation of an ideal community transformed by Christ, and the very human selfishness and pride that still exists within imperfect human beings like us. The closer we are in our fellowship, the easier it is for us to be hurt on occasions when we see out individual rights and ambitions as being more important than the other person. The emphasis of Paul on unity in the church is thus sometimes we all ought to keep in mind always – that the unity of the community of believers takes priority over our disagreements. Of course, beyond the exhortation towards unity, Paul still needs to deal with the specific issue in the Philippian church, and I believe that in the heart of every disagreement there is a way of deal with the issue without leading to quarrels, and it is often pride in us, not the issue at the heart of the disagreement, that will divide the community.

In Paul letter to the Philippians, Paul emphasises following examples in his appeal to right Christian conduct, first by appealing to the ultimate example of Christ, then by elaborating on his own example. Paul is deeply convicted in what he preaches and has lived it for over twenty years since he believed in the gospel, and his passion and conviction comes forth from his letter of appeal to the Philippian believers. Paul’s success in ministry is not just due to God’s calling and anointing in his ministry, but more his giving of and living out his life for the gospel, as a powerful example for us to follow.

            I remember that I my early years as a believer, many of the attitudes and spirit I learned are not just from the teaching of the Word, but very often by the unspoken examples of my leaders and mentors in the church (I am not sure which had a greater impact on me, but I believe both have shaped my faith as a young believer). Even now, I look out for other believers and mentors whom I can emulate in my faith. At the same time, Paul’s letter is a good reminder I ought to live out what I preach, especially when I often have much opportunities to “preach”, so that I live up to what I say, and I only say what I truly live up to.

The sharing of our faith journey on Monday’s lesson is both a deeply encouraging time and a stirring time (to reflect) for me. It is really encouraging to see how God is present in the lives of every one of us and led us in our walk in Him, and God’s faithfulness to every believer gives me the assurance that He is involved in my life, and I can trust in Him in every step – if I would follow His leading. At the same time, it is deeply stirring for me to reflect on my own spiritual journey – how much have I trusted in Him, and how much have I truly sought Him out in my decisions and priorities? My church brought-up emphases on the Word of God, diligence and making plans to further the gospel – which are all good. However, it also inevitably leads to a suspicion of “God speaking” with regard to disputable matters sometimes as being impractical and not Word-centred. I believe they are not mutually exclusive, and my years of studies in the college and applying them in my walk with God shows me that we can trust in God’s voice together with being obedient to the Word of God. Hence, I believe as I continue to grow in my relationship with God, I will see God in much more of my life as He has been before – as I grow in know Him better and allow Him into more of my life. 

Reflections on Teaching

It has been a pretty quick two weeks, starting with a short presentation on educational topics and (almost) ending with microteaching. As someone who is vocationally engaged in education, though many of the concepts and theories are not new to me, it is good to be refreshed in them and rethink my teaching routines and practices through the lessons and class discussions.

Self-Regulation

From the start, the concept of self-regulation, which my team was assigned to present, is a concept relevant to both my vocation and personal life. Many of my considerations on my teaching approaches as a teacher (which need to be continuously evolving due to the unique context of each classroom) can be reduced to choosing between a teacher-directed, transmission-based method which efficiently deliver the subject content, and a facilitation of self-regulated learning practices on the part of the students. Much of my struggle with the students is between letting students indulge in a teacher-dependent learning environment where I am the one initiating learning, and expecting more self-regulation in the students (for their own benefit). Having a clearer conceptualisation of self-regulation – especially the three phases of pre-, during and post-learning – is certainly useful in my planning for future lessons. This is definitely relevant for Christian education, where we encourage believers to regulate their own biblical and practical learning.

            On a personal level, the concept of self-regulation is certainly good reflection and evaluation for my own life. Regulating my own motivation to learn used to be something I readily do in my younger days – by framing my reasons for attending training, taking up courses, or even self-learning; but in recent years (or decade!), I have become lazy (despite still maintaining an eagerness to learn), and had let myself be readily satisfied by following a routine workflow in both ministry and work, and by letting the structured programme in AGBC (more recently ACTS College J) carry me along. Furthermore, there is much room which I could work on concerning monitoring and evaluating my own learning progress. Though not all personal learning processes need to be passed through a stringent monitoring and evaluation (that would be real’ tiring!), but certain major personal goals could do with more deliberate supervision.

Models of Teaching

            Without delving into the nature vs nurture debate, I believe we all agree that we are very much influenced by our nurture. Of this, one very significant element is the educational process we went through. The contrast between “violent” and redemptive models of teaching lends to me a clearer perspective on the connection between education and my Christian faith. While I had previously been conscious of the effect of the fallenness of man in the structures and processes of education, the lesson on the models of teaching highlight specifics in our educational practices which reinforce our alienation from each other. Grading students through ranking necessarily dictates a competitive view on education, and on a macro level this promotes an inequality in knowledge and success. I believe this plays a role by extension in contributing to the competitive culture in work culture. Of course, all alienation is ultimately rooted in our human fallenness and not any external structure, but societal structures serve to reinforce on a macro level what already exist at an individual level.

            Alienation does not occur just between students as fostered by a competitive attitude, but also between the students and the world they live in as education is viewed mainly as a tool to better life for oneself instead of understanding one’s relationship to the environment of the world (as pointed out and extensively elaborated by Palmer in his To Know as We Are Known).

Considering the significance of education in impacting students’ thinking and orientation to life, a clear view of the effects of educational practices would be highly beneficial for selecting those who inclines towards a redemptive model. This is especially true of Christian education, which is supposed to be transformative in nature.

Contextual Challenges to Teaching

The lesson on contextual challenges to teaching is a practical reflection on approaches to education. The world has certainly changed tremendously in the past century, and it will definitely continue to do so, perhaps even at a faster pace. One challenge for educators is to engage younger generations through the culture and language native to them. As much as I try to speak in the language of my students, I need to guard myself against inner resistance to certain changes which might hinder connection with young students. In the church, experienced believers are often guides and mentors to the younger church members, but they could only exert impactful influence to the extent which they could connect relevantly with them.

            The use of technology is certainly a challenge, especially with the fast pace of development. This challenge is particularly acute for the older generation where information technology is a recent phenomenon which they have not engaged with for a large part of their student and work life.  I could certainly expect similar development in my life time, and the challenge is for me to continuously keep in touch with new innovations which are relevant to educational approaches.