Author: Christopher Seals

Christopher Seals has been teaching Bible in a Christian School setting for  5 years, and has worked in youth and young adult ministry for 16 years. He has lived through Christian Junior High through grad school. Chris is fascinated with new ideas, difficult theological conversations, scientific discovery, and the mystical facets of Christianity. He loves good food, reading novels, friendly games of soccer, and dance parties with his family. He holds a B.A. from Azusa Pacific University in Biblical Studies and Spanish and an M.A. from Fresno Pacific in Curriculum and Teaching.
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Professional Christian Struggles

I am a professional Christian.

Note, that I’m not saying I’m a superior Christian, or even a good one.

Just professional.

Meaning: as my primary and secondary sources of income, I do stuff that normal Christians are supposed to do (talk about Jesus, pray for people, study theology, etc). Considering the fact that most other Christians do this stuff for free, it’s a pretty sweet gig. Anyone that teaches at a Christian school is at least semi-pro, and anyone who works as a Bible teacher or in any church role called “ministry” is probably a professional Christian as well. And while there are a lot of cool benefits to being a professional Christian, there is a unique set of challenges that comes with being a professional Christian.

Opinions can change… unless you’re a pro.

When students spend 5 hours a week in your Bible class, or parishioners spend 1-2 hours a week listening to your sermons, they begin to expect a certain line of thinking that points to the underlying beliefs of any given professional Christian. Continue reading “Professional Christian Struggles”

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[Un]holy Ghosts

One of my students swears that doors open and close in her house because of paranormal activity… she brought this up on a spiritual leadership retreat last summer.

I spend half of my time as a teacher trying to convince students that there is a supernatural (dare I say paranormal?) being called God. But when I hear stories like this, my knee-jerk reaction is to try to explain why air conditioners, open windows, and soffit vents cause weird stuff to happen. Even things like Ouija boards Continue reading “[Un]holy Ghosts”

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Pinkies, Mountains, and Unanswered Prayers

I have a friend named Bob who does miraculous baby prayers.

A sophomore asked me a question about prayer from Mark 11 and it reminded me of Bob.

When asked if we wanted kids, for the first 5 years of marriage, Katie and I would answer “cuss no!” So, when Bob offered to pray for us in a field in Mexico, we said, “No, we’re good.”

And he simply said, “Whenever you’re ready.”

Around year 5 or 6 we slowly shifted from “Cuss no!” to “maybe…” to “yeah, we want to have a kid!” Nevertheless, after a few years of trying to procreate (ßthat’s a weird sentence to write and publish) we were still childless. We read books, visited doctors, and charted hormones. Nothin.

Then we remembered Bob, and we were going to see him in Mexico that April, so we thought, “Why not?”

We caught him in a dirt parking lot and asked for prayer.
He had Katie and I hold each other’s one hand, while holding out our pinkies on our free hand. He grabbed each of our pinkies and said “Lord, however, whenever, Amen.”

2 months later Katie was pregnant.

Drop the mic. Play the walkout music. Release the balloons. God gets the glory.

We are deeply grateful for what happened in that period of time… and our daughter is unreasonably awesome… so we feel immeasurably blessed.

But a strange side-effect is that it has really messed with our prayer life.

Here’s why: Continue reading “Pinkies, Mountains, and Unanswered Prayers”

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Is it a sin…?

Whenever a sentence starts with those four words, I’ve learned to prepare myself for at least a few of the following background conditions:

  1. The student has already had an argument or disagreement with a peer or their parent about the sinfulness of the act or behavior in discussion.
  2. The student is bored and wants to talk about something else.
  3. The student is hoping I’ll agree with them and validate their position, or condone their behavior.
  4. Moralism is in the student’s mental background radiation, so if it IS a sin… someone’s going to Hell.
  5. A simple yes or no will probably ignore the underlying issue.
  6. This is probably not going to be a question that the Christian community has agreed upon a unanimous answer.

With these things in mind, and with lesson plans to push through, my answer is often, “Depends,” or “Maybe,” followed by “and we can talk about that when we have an open discussion/question day.”

“But Mr. Seals… it is question day.”

“Oh yeah.”

What is Sin?

If we are going to condemn something as sin, then we need to be on the same page about what exactly IS a sin.

Continue reading “Is it a sin…?”

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So… Who Goes to Hell?

Jimmy: “Hey Mr. Seals. Jews go to Hell, right?”

Me: “What? Dude, you’re supposed to be working on your divorce statistics project.”

Jimmy: “But they don’t, like, accept Jesus… so they go to Hell, right?”

Sam: “I mean they believe in God though, don’t they?”

Me: “Yes… they do. And…”

Alice: “Yeah, so even if someone never, like, knows about God and Jesus and stuff, they just go to Hell?

Jimmy: “Yeah, ‘cuz they didn’t accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.”

Me thinking: …

So, either A) I crack down on this group and tell them to refocus on their statistics group project or B) I surrender myself to this moment and the honest curiosity of the students about a serious topic even though they are supposed to be honing their PowerPoint and information literacy skills.

Continue reading “So… Who Goes to Hell?”

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Baccalaureate Speech 2017 – Chris

Below is the full text of Chris’ Baccalaureate Speech. (Once Wayne gets back from Guatemala, we hope to post his as well)

 

In some form or another, you have probably heard someone tell you to follow your dreams. If you count all of the times such a message has been subliminally or explicitly directed at you in film, television, social media, literature, or a motivational speech in one of your classes here at our school, I’m sure that it would total roughly around 18,000 times.

“Follow your dreams.”

“You can do anything you put your mind to.”

“One of you may be the future President of the USA.”

The American dream and many successful people in our country have verified this notion that hard work, sweat, desire, and passion can help you achieve anything. You can do all things… through Christ… right? Even the way that Philippians 4:13 is Continue reading “Baccalaureate Speech 2017 – Chris”

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Ep3 Denominations and Mixed Messages?

In Episode 3: Church and Competition, Wayne and I tossed around a few numbers as we estimated and hypothesized how many Christian denominations there are. Depending on how you are counting, the number can span anywhere from 300-30,000. This helpful article from National Catholic helps explain the conflicting data.

The World Christian Encyclopedia says “World Chris­tian­ity con­sists of 6 major ecclesiastico-​cultural blocs, divided into 300 major eccle­si­as­ti­cal tra­di­tions, com­posed [sic] of over 33,000 dis­tinct denom­i­na­tions in 238 coun­tries (Vol. I, p. 16).”

Also, as some of you picked up in podcast episode 3, there were probably some mixed signals sent. One listener pointed out that we were sort of sounding anti-institution toward the beginning, but then seemed to advocate for the benefits of “church life” in Christian schools (an institution with potentially more oversight and bureaucracy than local churches). As we wrestle with some of these topics, one of our main motives is to get thoughts brewing, and to open cans of worms that perhaps have remained sealed on the shelf too long. So please, help us continue the conversation and keep sending us your thoughts and feedback (commenting on the website, tweeting, or Facebook). We need your brains to sort out this muddled can of worms!

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Who should listen to CHSBT?

After piloting a few episodes and officially releasing some of our podcasts, one of the most frequent questions we received has been “Who is the intended audience of this podcast?”

The short and unhelpful answer is: whoever finds these conversations helpful or interesting.

If that’s good enough for you, then great! Keep listening if you like them! But for those who would like a list and a bit more explanation, here’s a better answer. Wayne has written more extensively on why we started CHSBT, to give space for conversations for those in the Christian school Bible classroom, help frame meaningful interactions with students, etc. That being said, Christian School Bible teachers are not the only people affected by or interacting with the unique cocktail of Christian culture, growing up, theology, and life. While our experience, context, vantage point, and interpretive lens will drive us toward choosing topics that are particularly relevant to High School Bible Teachers, Confessions of a High School Bible Teacher may also be helpful and edifying to other people as well. So here is a narrower list:

  • Christian school teachers.
  • Moms and Dads with teenagers (current, future, or former).
  • Youth ministry volunteers, employees, or workers.
  • Students who attend or attended Christian school.
  • Closet theologians.
  • Seekers who are interested in Christianity (many of our students are non-Christians).
  • Mentors with young protégés.
  • Those who find themselves swimming in the sometimes confusing sea of Christian culture.
  • Anyone thinking dialogue within Christianity needs to be healthier.

If you don’t fit into any of these categories but you still find these conversations helpful or interesting, then praise God! Keep listening!

Grace & Peace,

Chris

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Why We Confess

My friend Jen asked me, “So, what’s the deal with this podcast? What are you doing?” She is definitely not the only person who has asked me this question. In fact, when we started, Chris and I had to ask ourselves why would producing such a podcast even be worthwhile? The original impetus was to produce something for people like us, people who find themselves in the interesting world of Christian education with teenagers. Essentially what we realized is that Christian school teachers and students needed a space where they could explore their own theology, grow in the way they frame their discussions with students, and have a couple of voices out there talking about the things they encounter in their world.

In the United States alone, there are about 14,000 Christian Schools (Catholic or Protestant) connected to different private school associations. These schools account for over 3 million students and about 250,000 teachers. We wanted to make space at the theological discussion table for those who grow up, teach, and raise children in this unique educational faith context. While the topics we discuss will definitely apply to those who never attended or taught at a Christian school, our primary lens through which we choose and approach topics will be through the Christian school lens.

Shalom,

Wayne