The 2025-2026 school year is here! If you follow this blog you have already noticed my preparations for the year in regard to the use of artificial intelligence (AI). There are plenty of other curricular and practical preparations that have been made as well.

As a teacher in a Lutheran school, our campus ministry leaders identify a theme Scripture verse for the year. This year our school theme verse is Hebrews 12:1-2:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us runwith perseverance the race marked out for us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneerand perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

At my school, the teaching year begins with a faculty and staff worship service before we even meet as a group to plan for the year. In his message during this service, our campus pastor broke down this verse for us and applied it to the teaching ministry. But there we one comment he made that I had never thought about. He asserted that we have the privilege to prepare students not only for their earthly futures, but especially for their death. By teaching in a Christian school, I have the awesome responsibility, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to not only assist students in the path for their life on this earth, but also proclaim Jesus Christ so that they might be prepared for entry into an eternity with Christ upon their death. That phrasing really struck me as profound as I begin a new year of teaching.

I thank God for my vocation as a Lutheran school teacher. God’s blessings to all teachers as we start a new academic year.