20180215 Transaction or Transformation?

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” Matthew 5:14-15

p class=”p”>’Transaction or transformation?’, for me, this question is the great daily dilemma.  I am a Jesus follower, saved by God’s grace, living in a fallen world, surrounded by attitudes, behaviours and circumstances I am convinced would make God, all-powerful and all-knowing, very disappointed.

He has called me, and all his people, to be transforming influences where he has placed us.  He asks us to invest, selflessly, into relationships and circumstances, to be his representative there, to be a “light” for Him, to be “a slice of heaven” where it is needed.

I am struck by the way Jesus gave us an example of what this looked like during his time on earth.  He rebutted the attitude and actions of people who approached life with a “transactional” mindset – with an approach which effectively said “what can I get out of this, and how can you benefit me in this relationship?”

The other day, I was reading the very simple narrative of Jesus interaction with Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10).  Zaccheus was a man steeped in transactional behaviour – the chief tax collector – his life screamed of transactions, of all shapes and sizes.  And yet, he wanted to see Jesus, and as a short man, he had to climb a tree to catch a glimpse.  Jesus’ transformational response was not to judge Zaccheus for the huge number of things Jesus could have identified as inglorious, but instead to invite himself to dinner with Zaccheus – to invest time, to do life with Zaccheus for a short period, breaking bread together, no doubt talking about whatever was actually on Zaccheus’ mind.  The transformation in Zaccheus was plain for all to see – where he was greedy, he became overflowingly generous; where he was unloving, he sought to correct this many times over.

Our human condition draws us into a transactional mode of relating, operating, “doing life”.  “We want the best for others” very subtly becomes “we want the best for others and ourselves” very subtly becomes “we want the best for ourselves”; and, incorrect decisions, poor relating, and unhelpful community dynamics develop.

Our educational approach at Donvale Christian College is called “Transformation By Design”.  It is an intentionally Christian world-view approach, based in its structure on well utilised and widely adopted curriculum development approach, “Understanding By Design”.  In short, it starts with the end-result desired, seeks to understand what the cohort already knows in coming to the unit of work as it commences, and devises a sequence of lessons in between to meet the desired outcomes.  (It is sometimes called backwards design, as the teacher often works backwards from the endpoint in their planning).

As a Christian school for Christian families, we will always seek to provide an experience here which is transformative in nature, bathed in the light of the Gospel’s message, each day, each lesson, in the classroom, beyond the classroom, in support of all 750+ families, as we do life together in support of your wider involvements.

This is our hope and prayer for all that we do together.

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An invitation to the community

At our Association Update meeting last Tuesday night, I made mention of an initiative we are launching this year, called “Come To The Table”.

We will hold 8 dinners, for 16 people each time, intentionally to build community, by gathering together Board, Staff, Parents, and School Leadership, for dinner on selected evenings.  We make only one request – if you are interested, you be prepared to meet with people from our community you don’t know!

The hope is that these dinners will enable new relationships to begin and grow, by providing a place for people to meet and chat, over some good food, for a couple of hours.  There will be members of each group listed above present at all the meals; our agenda is simple – to strengthen the building of a healthy and better linked community here at DCC, by providing an opportunity for people who love the place to come and hang out together around food and conversation; actually, with a desire to find another way to be Biblical in our engagement as community.  If the demand is high, we’ll find other ways, venues and times to do more of this kind of community building – that’s a promise!

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I hope you can join me at one of these fun times.