Encouragement and Perseverance in SRE
We’re in the cold, long months of SRE teaching, and now is the time we need encouragement. We started strongly, but Term 1’s new class excitement and bright sunny days are long gone. Term 4, with spring’s arrival and the final sprint to the Christmas assembly is a long way off. Right now, we’re in the middle of the longer, colder terms 2 and 3. At this time, it’s not uncommon for us to need extra mental energy to face our classes. Enthusiasm can wane. We pray for strength and for grace. We are in the middle of the long race. Are you feeling the need for encouragement?
It’s not just long terms and grey skies which can dampen our enthusiasm for teaching. Since SRE classes don’t run on Sundays, nor on church property, and are for many who don’t attend our churches, SRE can be considered to be a peripheral ministry. This can be discouraging.
Yet, for many teachers, perseverance and running the long SRE race are played out on an entirely different scale. I’ve met faithful saints who have been teaching SRE longer than the Israelites wandered in the wilderness. What keeps people teaching for so long? Where does their encouragement come from?
Encouragement comes from God’s word
In 2 Thessalonians 3:1, Paul asks for people to pray “that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honoured, just as it was with you.” Paul’s description of his ministry – that God’s word would spread and be honoured – also describes the ministry of SRE. What’s intriguing here is what comes immediately before Paul’s request …
“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
God is so good to us. In Christ, God has been unbelievably gracious to us. Through what Christ has achieved we have sure hope of eternal life. In this we have been given eternal encouragement. And it is precisely because we have that eternal encouragement that we look to God each day to “encourage [y]our hearts”. When we do not feel strong, we look to him to strengthen us in every good word and deed.
God has given us eternal encouragement, so we look to him for fresh encouragement every day. And this encouragement leads to a desire for ministry, and a prayerful dependency on God that our ministry will result in his word spreading and being honoured.
Encouragement comes from other words
I once received an email from a grateful SRE student which gave me encouragement for the next 10 years. It was from Jack[1], a boy whom I had taught years ago. He tracked me down and wrote to thank me for teaching him simple yet profound gospel truths which stayed with him throughout his high school years. These were dark times for him. He suffered mental illness and had even attempted suicide. But God kept bringing these truths which he had absorbed during SRE to his mind: “Jesus loves you”, “He will accept you”, “He will forgive you”. He gave his life to Christ and became a pastoral intern with a local Baptist church. At the time that Jack wrote his email, he was involved in running a lunchtime group at a high school with 35 students. He concluded the email with a verse to encourage me:
"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. " (Hebrews 12:1, 2 NKJV)
I thank God for Jack. Yet I imagine that in God’s economy, there must be many more students whom God has helped respond in faith to the gospel truths which I have had the privilege to teach them. I may never know who they are. But praise God that He uses people like you and me to bring a message of eternal encouragement to people like Jack.
There’s no question that teaching SRE requires endurance. We are in a marathon race, and sometimes we will feel like giving up. Can I encourage you to keep reading God’s word? There you will find strength and renewed encouragement from the one who has given you eternal encouragement through Jesus who has loved you and saved you.
And share other words of encouragement. Emails like Jack’s are rare. But you might receive a smile, or a wide-eyed expression of joy when someone in your class finally understands how much God loves them. You may hear encouraging stories from other teachers. Collect the stories of the precious moments with your students. Write them down and ask your teachers to send them to you. Share them with your team and pastor. Include them in conversations at church. Encourage your pastor to include them in his sermons. These are stories of how God’s word is spreading and being honoured today, just as it was with you, through the ministry of SRE.
[1] Name deliberately changed