Speech to Christian Educator’s Conference – Gateway Primary School
1 September 2010
By Senator David Coltart
I am delighted to be able to address the opening of your Conference for the second year running. I often say to colleagues that I don’t know how long I will be in this particular job, but one has to make use of every opportunity, and so I am pleased that I am still in this position this year.
I’m always amazed by Providence. None of us should be amazed, but I find myself continually amazed. And I was amazed again this morning through John Bell’s address to us, because of course John and I have not collaborated in any way in what we were going to say this morning and yet the Lord has used his words as the perfect foundation for what I’m going to be speaking to you as I open this conference.
The topic that I intend addressing you on is the role of Christian educators in producing sound leadership in our country. And just as John was talking about the role that we play in bringing shalom in many different other spheres, you will see, I hope, as I speak, the role that we have as Christian educators in the realm of leadership in our nation: in the realm of political leadership, in the realm of church leadership, and of course in the realm of educational leadership.
Although Evangelical Christian schools in Zimbabwe constitute a tiny minority of schools, I believe that they are playing a vital role as we seek to stabilise and re-energise the education sector in Zimbabwe, which is in a state, as many of you know, of extreme crisis. And I think that one of the most important roles as we consider the theme of this conference, The Race Marked Out for Us – the race collectively marked out for us as Zimbabweans and specifically as Zimbabwean Christian educators – is the role that Christian educators need to play in producing sound leaders in our nation.
One of my abiding concerns in Zimbabwe is the development of good leaders. Having been in office now for 18 months, I am more convinced than ever that Zimbabwe suffers from a severe leadership deficit – not just at the political level, but I stress also within our churches and within our schools. There’s no doubt that our education system is still, despite the horrors that have befallen our education sector, one of the best in Africa. It is that education system which still produces children with some of the highest literacy rates, it is still the system that produces great scientists. If you speak for example to the deans of South African universities, they will tell you that our education system still to this day consistently generates a much better quality of secondary graduates than South Africa is producing. If you travel the world you will find that Zimbabwe is producing top rate accountants, economists, doctors, lawyers and others.
And yet why is it, we have to ask, that that education system has produced at the same time such a leadership deficit? I think that this question is even more alarming when one considers the major role that Christians have played in the education sector of our country in the last 100 years. How can it be, friends, that these institutions spread throughout the nation, these institutions that have produced such brilliant scientists and economists and the like, have produced a succession of leaders who have taken our country into two civil wars, caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people, and leaders who have all but destroyed what should be Africa’s richest country per capita?
In short, friends, as we look out to this race that is marked out for us – as we look to the future – we have to recognise that it does not matter how well we educate our children in the sciences and in the arts if we do not develop a new generation of God-fearing leaders. If we don’t fulfil this task as Christian educators, then Zimbabwe, friends, is doomed to repeat the mistakes that have been made repeatedly in our nation in the past 100 years. In short, I would argue that the primary role of Christian educators is to produce sound leaders for the future of our nation.
What needs to be done? I recognise that what I’m doing this morning is lobbing a few grenades into your midst, and I will then retreat to the sanctity of my office and leave you with the problem! My purpose today, however, is simply to highlight this concern. I recognise that in a short opening address such as this I cannot hope to adequately address the solutions to this problem besetting our nation. All I want to do, however, is to leave you with a few thoughts regarding what needs to be done within our Christian educational institutions.
The first message that we as educators, I believe, have to convey to this coming generation of children – to this coming generation of future leaders – is the following. We need to convey to them that the highest office in any school, in any church, in any business, in any nation is but the penultimate authority. Allow me to read in depth a quote from a magnificent book that I’ve just read regarding Dietrich Bonheoffer. For those of you who do not know Dietrich Bonheoffer, he was a great man of God, a German Christian, an Evangelical Christian, who stood up to Hitler, and just weeks before the end of the Second World War was assassinated by the Nazi regime. A few weeks after the Nazis came to power in 1933, Dietrich Bonheoffer delivered a sermon in Berlin, and he said these words:
“Only when a man sees that office is a penultimate authority in the face of an ultimate indescribable authority, in the face of the authority of God, has the real situation been reached. And before this authority, the individual knows himself to be completely alone. The individual is responsible before God. And this solitude of man’s position before God, this subjection to an ultimate authority, is destroyed when the authority of the Leader or of the office is seen as ultimate authority… Alone before God, man becomes what he is, free and committed in responsibility at the same time.â€
“The fearful danger of the present time is that above the cry for authority, be it of the Leader or of an office, we forget that man stands alone before the ultimate authority and that anyone who lays violent hands on man here is infringing eternal laws and taking upon himself superhuman authority which will eventually crush him. The eternal law that the individual stands alone before God takes fearful vengeance where it is attacked and distorted. Thus the Leader points to the office, but Leader and office together point to the final authority itself, before which Reich or state are penultimate authorities.â€
“Leaders or offices which set themselves up as gods mock God and the individual who stands alone before him, and must perish.â€
How does that apply to us as Christian educators? I believe that we need to constantly teach about the sovereignty and the omnipotence of God, and, importantly, of God’s judgement. It seems to me that the terrible things that have happened in our nation have happened because a succession of leaders, going back 100 years, have believed that they themselves are supreme and immune, that their office is not a penultimate authority, but a supreme authority answerable to no one. And it is the role of Christian educators to inculcate in our children that this is not the case, that we serve a mighty, fearful, jealous God, who knows everything, sees everything, and importantly who desires justice – and that is a fundamental characteristic of  God’s personality. Tied to this is the need for us to teach our children to fear God more than they fear man. I’m always amazed that in this deeply religious country of Zimbabwe how many people appear to fear man rather than God, and how that interacts with the first problem – how that fear of man exacerbates the delusion experienced by leaders in this country that they are omnipotent.
The second challenge for us, the second mandate given us as Christian leaders, I believe, is the need for us in Christian education to concentrate more on the historical personality of Jesus, and in particular the leadership qualities of the Lord Jesus. So often we concentrate on highfaluting doctrine and forget about the God-man that John was speaking about: A man who was physically present in the world, who lived, who breathed, who led other men and women. Because the Lord Jesus, as we study the historical reality of his life, was quite a remarkable leader, and my fear is that we simply do not devote sufficient time in analysing and then replicating his leadership style and example. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean.
Firstly, the notion – obviously, perhaps – of servant leadership. The Lord Jesus did not see leadership as an opportunity to lord it over others, but as an opportunity to serve. There were some obvious examples of that, such as the washing of  feet, but his entire ministry spoke of someone who constantly thought about the interests of his subordinates, not himself; who disregarded the interests of more powerful people to benefit the interests of the weak and the poor and those subordinate. In Zimbabwe, sadly, most certainly in politics, but tragically often in the church itself – and, let me say, in the way that we govern many of our schools – leadership is seen as an opportunity to advance one’s own position to the detriment of others. We have throughout our nation, throughout our culture, developed a leadership class. We have developed a cult of leadership. Becoming a leader is seen as an opportunity to put oneself ahead of the rest of the people. Certain things then become as of right – aides and fancy vehicles, and the term ‘Honourable’, and a whole array of practices designed to elevate that leadership class into something different to the rest of society. And folk, let me say to the Christian leaders here today, that many of our churches are replicating what we see in politics – where Christian leaders are elevated to a certain status, where Christian leaders are given lifestyle which is way beyond the lifestyle of their followers, where certain perks and privileges are given. And the same applies to schools. If you become a Steward in a school suddenly that is not seen as an opportunity to serve, it is seen as an opportunity to dominate, and it is contrary to the historical leadership example of the Lord Jesus.
Secondly, and it’s tied to the first example, the concept of leadership embracing simple living. The Lord Jesus lived a simple lifestyle. We see it in some obvious examples, such as when he came into Jerusalem on a donkey, not on a stallion. But his entire life was marked by simplicity. Leadership was not, in the Lord Jesus’ example, a ticket to the high life, to wealth. And yet tragically in our nation, in politics, in the church, less so in the schools, leadership is seen as a means to wealth, as a ticket to wealth. Leadership is seen as a turning back on a simple lifestyle. One has to travel elsewhere to see, ironically, just how far we have drifted as a nation. I’ll give you two examples. The first is from Denmark. I have been staggered by the Danish example at the political level. There was a recent Danish prime minister who used to ride on his bicycle to work. Many Danish cabinet ministers ride to work on their bicycles. I’ve just come back from China, and friends don’t get me wrong – I’m not besotted by China – but I have been struck by aspects of their leadership, and whilst I’m fully open to the flaws and faults of the Communist Party, let me explain to you three things that I’ve learnt about the Communist Party’s leadership practices.
Firstly, if you are found guilty of corruption in China and you hold a leadership position in the Chinese Communist Party, you face instant dismissal. Secondly, if you become a minister or hold a senior position in the Chinese Communist Party, you cannot run a private business. Thirdly – and this is quite remarkable – if you are found to be engaged in an adulterous relationship as a leader, you face instant dismissal. Contrast that, friends, to the practices in our own country, where corruption becomes part of leadership, where corrupt acts are simply forgotten about, where coming into political leadership is seen as a means to furthering ones business and enhancing ones business interests, rather than an end to that business interest and a complete focus on the government job at hand. And let’s think about the example of adultery, where the sin of adultery, for all the religiosity of our nation, is simply disregarded in our nation. Friends, my purpose is not to hold up the Communist Party of China as a perfect example to you. My purpose this morning is to state to you as Christian educators, that if the Chinese Communist Party can set these standards of leadership, if countries that are in a post-Christian era such as Denmark, can set examples like that for leadership, how much more can we as Christian educators, how much more can we as a nominally Christian nation – I stress ‘nominally’ Christian nation – be able to set an example in leadership; not only for our own people, but for our region, for Africa, and the world.
But as I see it, friends, and this is the crux of what I have to say, is that that role of developing sound leaders who fear God, who seek at every turn to replicate the Lord Jesus’ example, falls primarily to Christian educators, because it is you who are primarily the Lord’s instruments; it is you who need to see yourselves as the Lord’s salt and light in this nation; it is on your shoulders that this responsibility rests. Not alone – with us.
And so I want to end by leaving you with this challenge: As you deliberate today, as you deliberate in the months that lie ahead – how can we, through our Christian schools, through Christian educators, develop practices within our schools and develop teaching of subjects that recognise this all-important role that we have. I don’t believe that schools have addressed this squarely, and I believe that unless we do so, as I said earlier, many of the problems that have afflicted our country in such a devastating fashion for so long will simply continue.
May the Lord bless you as you deliberate in the next few days, and I look forward to hearing from you the results of your deliberations. Thank you.