Engaging young people in State Schools as a Christian
RICH LANHAM - GILGANDRA
The National Chaplaincy Programme is a magnificent opportunity for Christians to engage in State schools as Christians and not simply helpers or welfare support. Many Christians have built relationships with schools in the past and through those relationships will have had the opportunity to minister to students and staff. Christians have run lunch time and after school programmes and used their school contacts as connection points for after hours youth activities. I was made a Chaplain by the P&C of Cleveland Street High School in inner city Sydney in the early nineties. At a time where there were only a handful of chaplains in State schools the position came about through a mighty move of God and a personal belief in basing school ministry success on prayer and relationships with people.
Anyone who has been successful in school ministry knows the importance of healthy relationships both with the Christian teachers and also with the administration of the school. State School Ministry is generally not possible without the permission of the school administration and executive. On top of this there are strict departmental guidelines around communicating one’s religious and faith perspectives. Though I have never seen these restrictions as any real barrier to creating a Christian ministry in a school, I believe the Chaplaincy Programme opens the door wider to school ministry and comes with permission to share our faith perspectives.
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| Rich Lanham in the classroom |
For the last two years I have helped run a student resilience programme at the local High School. This has been an awesome opportunity to connect with both students and staff, to build rapport and relationships and to be a Christian witness. However during the classes when certain examples of lifestyle or practice are introduced as tools for young people to deal with the pressure of life and study, I cannot give my point of view based on my faith and my experience of a loving God and Saviour. I cannot share my experiences of life where the Lord has lifted me out of what seems to be a very dark place. I cannot tell the students or staff that I believe that there is a God in heaven who loves them and who sent His own son Jesus to die for them so that they could once again have relationship with their Creator. I was not able to point out that one of the biggest challenges we all face is knowing that we are here for a purpose, created for a reason and that young people particularly struggle with who they are and seek sometimes destructive means to find identity. I was not able to point out that we are not here simply by accident, that we can know the purpose for our lives because we can know who created us, a God who loves us and wants what is best for us. Now that I have been appointed chaplain through the National Chaplaincy programme I will have a greater opportunity to share my Christian faith as I stand as a representative of that faith in the School community.
RICHARD LANHAM – Gilgandra.
As a continuation to what Rich is doing at Gilgandra we are seeking to appoint another Chaplain, Mark Doyle, from Gilgandra, to be chaplain at Gulargambone. Ed
The chaplaincy in Gulargambone is a God-given opportunity to
represent the Christian
faith in the school community, to shine as a light for Jesus by building relationships with the young people, teachers and
people of the community.
Through my experience of Gular I have seen that young people have a genuine yearning to know more about God but have never had the opportunity to seek him (lack of youth group). Now God has given us an opportunity to share His love with them. In time, I believe, we will see great things happen in people’s lives in Gular. Praise God!
MARK DOYLE - GULARGAMBONE
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