Editor's Note: Our mission at the Center for Rural Ministry (CRM) is to "impassion, prepare and support leaders to promote kingdom flourishing in rural and small towns across America through the church." This mission means that at the CRM we care about the work of Christians in all fields who strive to live out their faith by participating in the local church and working to help others in their communities step further into a flourishing life with God and with others. In coming months we will be highlighting the work of several individuals who live out their faith by working to promote holistic flourishing right where they are.
In rural areas, schools are a central point around which much of the community’s culture and activity is oriented. This means teachers have a deeply influential role not only in their students’ lives, but also within towns they live in. We took the time to sit down with a group of teachers from rural areas who also are invested in a church community to talk about how their faith interacts with their vocation. From these interviews, the CRM put together a series of articles highlighting the roles of several teachers within their schools and their churches.
Amy Boland--Teaching with a Purpose
True faith in Christ is transformative. It’s more than spending an hour in the church sanctuary on Sunday; faith influences every part of person’s life. It changes the way that one carries one's self and how one interacts with other people outside the walls of the church. In the words of Franklin native and preschool teacher Amy Boland, it means “inviting God into how you’re feeling.” Christians are to act as representatives of Christ in whatever vocation they are called by God to do. For Boland, that has meant showing the love of Christ to both the youth at Sandy Lake Wesleyan Church and her preschoolers in the classroom.
Boland has been a teacher for 21 years. She taught Head Start for ten years and then served as the children’s ministry and youth director at Sandy Lake Wesleyan. She ran the church’s preschool program during that time, and now she works for the local school district.
Cultivating a Positive Presence
Boland’s background serving in the church has largely influenced the way that she teaches. She strives to be a light in an environment than can at times be saturated with negativity.
“There are several different places/ways that the negativity and burnout pop up throughout the year. We have staff who have been there for 20 plus years and sometimes at that point people do not like change (and in education there is a lot of it) so this is just one source of negativity. There are other things that just happen throughout the year, in a building with so many staff members, you could have negative interactions between teachers, from the admin to the teachers, from parents to teachers, and even from the kids to teachers. This all affects the environment and how people feel about things,” Boland said.
Teachers also face challenges in the classroom that can add to negative feelings, “Then there are student behaviors... This is a major cause of negativity and burnout. We have teachers that don't just have one or two behaviors in the class but many. The amount of support or rather staff feeling non-supported leads to negativity and teachers are tired from day in and day out of this.”
“Teachers try their best everyday. They want to feel heard and supported. So in all of my interactions I try my best to listen, and look for the positive. To be the one who is encouraging or upbeat. I do not want to add to the negativity or jump on that train. You wouldn't believe how just saying one positive thing instead of the negative can change someone's thought process.”
Faith and Work
One of the ways that Boland has been able to integrate her faith into her work while being a source of positivity has been by praying over meetings and her interactions, “For several years I was a supervisor for an early childhood agency. This agency was known for having many changes year after year and staff turnover was crazy. We dealt with very difficult clients most of the time. So one year right at the beginning of the year I decided that I was fully going to invite God to be present over how I was a supervisor to my team. As you can guess any time you give God the ability to move, of course he does.”
“So we went to have a staff meeting and before we got started as people were coming in I just sat there quietly and prayed for God to be present during the meeting and in the room. I didn't really think anyone noticed but when I was done and went to start the meeting one of the staff asked what I was doing. I explained to them that I was inviting God to be present over the meeting and all of us. It shifted the atmosphere in the room immediately. They went from grumbling about having a meeting to being positive about coming together and it took what could have been a very crummy meeting and turned it into a blessing. Of Course I know God was at work the whole time.”
Cultivating Flourishing in the Classroom and the Church
Boland also strives to be a representative of Christ in the way she interacts with children in the classroom, “I teach the youngest group of children in the building. What they need to learn first is that I love them. If they don’t feel safe, loved and heard, we’re not getting anywhere. That comes from my background knowing that God loves us, and so we love others. That’s my primary goal – to show love, to show grace, to show encouragement and make sure kids feel heard.”
Though she now works for the school district, Boland continues to serve the youth at Sandy Lake Wesleyan as the volunteer youth director, a teacher at vacation Bible school, and by running the children’s moment during Sunday worship services. In this way, she continues to use her gifts to serve the youngest members of God’s kingdom both in the church and in the classroom.
Boland’s experience is a testament to the difference assuming an attitude of Christ-like love can have on the people around you. Others can see Christ within us through our actions and the way we treat other people even when we aren’t explicitly talking about Him. In this way, we are able to be witnesses for Jesus in every environment.
Emily Fox is a senior at Grove City College and a CRM Student Fellow. She grew up in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and is studying English with minors in Writing and Digital Marketing at the college. Post-grad, she hopes to pursue a career in Public Relations.
