Dear Bellefield Family,

Around 400 A.D., a deacon from Carthage named Degrotius sent St. Augustine of Hippo of letter asking for his advice on how to teach the faith to new converts to Christianity. Degrotius had a reputation for being a good teacher, but he struggled with a sense of ineffectiveness that is common to many teachers: “In the course of lengthened and languid address you have become profitless and distasteful even to yourself, not to speak of the learner who you have been endeavoring to instruct.” In response, Augustine sent Degrotius a pamphlet-length treatment on the subject, called De Catechizandis Rudibus (Concerning the Instruction of the Unlearned).

Good teaching, Augustine says, is not just a set of technical skills. It is characterized by love and joy. All the great movies and stories about teaching emphasize this: think Robin Williams’ character from Dead Poets Society. And yet, as anyone who has ever tried to teach anything knows, teaching with love and joy is difficult to put into practice. Our speech often falls short of the beauty and importance of the subject. Teaching things we have already mastered and taught can feel boring. We can be distracted by sins and struggles in our own lives that feel more urgent than what we are teaching. We can become frustrated with the response (or lack thereof) of those we are teaching.

The difficulty of good instruction is part of the reason why we honor teachers. It is also part of the reason why Augustine writes such a long letter in response to Degrotius. The challenges and temptations of being a good instructor are manifold. Being a good teacher is not so much a destination as a lifelong process, just as love and joy are not virtues that one simply possesses, but ones that moment-by-moment must be cultivated. That is why anyone who truly and purely desires to be an overseer desires “a noble task” (1 Timothy 3:1), with those who teach are worthy of “double honor” (1 Timothy 5:17).

This Sunday during Breakfast Connect (9:45am-10:45am in Fellowship Hall), we’ll spend a few moments thanking our teachers from this past year in Sunday school. It will be a small gesture of thanks for taking up a significant task. I encourage you to join us for the time, both for the fellowship that we’ll share, and for the encouragement of our teachers, that they might press further into the task.

In Christ,

Greg Burdette