It's Not about Me: Evaluating Relationships with Students

Why do I try to change my students’ lives?

Drawing on his experience in the classroom, John Mark describes four things that happen when we make our relationships with students about ourselves:

1. We will burn ourselves out. Students do not have what we need. We need to supplied by God himself, the infinite Source.
2. The maturation of our students will be stunted. Paul pressed his converts on to an overcoming life in which they lived as Paul did–in the power of Christ, not of Paul.
3. Some students will be missed. We cannot have a deep personal relationship will all students.
4. A co-dependent relationship will be formed.

Rather than seeking to burnish our own reputations, says John Mark, our relationships with students are meant to channel them to Jesus.

This is an excerpt from John Mark’s talk at Teachers’ Conference 2016, “Loving our Students without Owning Them.”