The doctrine of creation is foundational to our understanding of the world. It’s one of the reasons why the main account of creation is found on the first couple of pages of the Bible – it’s not just a chronological statement.
And it’s foundational to our understanding of the world we live, work and lead in.
Recently as an SLT we have begun reading through Simon Jackson’s Leave a light on – Why your leadership really matters. For every chapter he adds an epilogue, reflecting on leadership within the context of a Christian school. The epilogue to chapter 2 reflects on the place of creation in understanding leadership. This is something I’ve touched on before when leading sessions with staff, so I thought I’d put some of my thoughts on this area into one post.
N.B. You may be someone in education who has stumbled across this post and would instivinctly assume that something in the Bible written thousands of years ago would have no relevance to teaching or leading in a school in 2021. Why not have a read and see what you think by the end? It will take you 4-5mins.
You can read Genesis 1-3 here.
Made in God’s image #1 – Reflecting the character and actions of God in leadership
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. (Genesis 1)
What exactly it means to be ‘made in God’s image’ has been notoriously difficult for theologians to define. It probably involves a number of aspects. One of them is that we are called to reflect God’s character and God’s role. As God is king of his creation he sets human beings as mini-rulers under him, to rule over creation. It also means doing some of the things he does, albeit in a far more limited, inferior way. These include relating (God is Trinity, three persons in perfect loving relationship for eternity), upholding justice and showing compassion.
One example of this from Genesis 1 is creating itself. We cannot create in the way God creates. God creates ex nihilo (out of nothing), speaks things into creation just through his word, creates mountains, stars and oceans, etc. But the fact that we are creative comes from the fact we are made in the image of a creative God. More on this below.
Everything good that we do as school leaders is in some sense a weak reflection of the God in whose image we are made. That’s worth remembering on a Monday morning.
Made in God’s image #2 – Having respect for every person
Every single human being on Planet Earth is an image-bearer of God. That means that they have intrinsic value. It means that as leaders we cannot treat some pupils or parents with more value than others. It obviously flies in the face of racism, sexism, etc.
As leaders this is particularly relevant for the way we treat the staff we manage. They each have intrinsic value, and that doesn’t change whether they are good or bad at their job. It doesn’t mean that difficult conversations don’t need to be had, that some applications for jobs don’t need to be rejected or that ultimately there won’t be cases where staff need to face disciplinary or competency action. But it does mean that they deserve to be treated with respect and care, whatever the context and whatever their actions.
Order out of chaos – a title for a school leader’s autobiography?
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light ‘day’, and the darkness he called ‘night’. And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day. (Genesis 1)
Genesis 1 is a description of God bringing order out of chaos. The earth was formless and empty but as the chapter continues God creates an order or framework (day, night, morning, evening, land, sea, sky) and then fills it in a logical pattern (the sun for the day, moon for the night, fish for the sea, birds for the sky).
School leadership is often about bringing order out of chaos. Maybe it’s on the smaller scale; the serious behaviour problem in a lesson that you get called to, or the teacher that is at breaking point and needs advice. Sometimes it’s on the big picture scale; a new headteacher arrives and takes over a school that is struggling in a number of areas and there is no clear ethos or no effective systems in place for attendance or pastoral concerns or staff development. And because schools are a constant swirl of staff (and pupils) joining and leaving, there is a constant need to bring order out of chaos.
God speaks his creation into being – setting out the vision for your school
20 And God said, ‘Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.’ 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. (Genesis 1)
I think Simon Jackson is right to say that school leaders set a vision, and when they do that it is a form of creating (p132). Every time we speak to staff, pupils or parents we are creating a vision for them – we keep painting a great picture of what this school is and what it should be. The first staff INSET of the year, the open evening talk or the whole-school assembly are points at which the vision is held up before the school community’s eyes (which is why these moments are so important – get it wrong and your school will begin to change). That is an act of creation that reflects the fact we are made in the image of God, who is a creative, picture-painting God.
Work: blessed and cursed – the joy and frustration of leadership
28 God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’ (Genesis 1)
17 To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,”
‘Cursed is the ground because of you, through painful toil you will eat food from it, all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food (Genesis 3)
Work can be great and work can be rubbish. This is seen in school leadership as much as anywhere. I have heard countless headteachers say that it is the best job they have ever had and they are immensely privileged to be able to do it. And yet it is clear they can face exhaustion, burn out, anxiety, stress, criticism and a whole host of other things that sound the opposite of a ‘privilege’!
The Genesis creation accounts aren’t at all surprised by this. In Genesis 1, as part of God’s good and brand new creation, human beings are given the role of ruling over it. In Genesis 2 Adam is given the role of looking after the garden. God’s act of creating is described as his ‘work’. (2v2) Work is good. Work has God-given value. Work should be fulfilling.
But then in Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve’s sin, God puts a curse on work, and tells them it will involve ‘toil’.
So you know those days where work goes from brilliant to terrible to brilliant to terrible? Or those weeks where it feels like a real slog but you know what you’ve done is worthwhile and there have been some real highlights? That’s Genesis 1-3 in action. Work is both good and cursed.
God’s ‘very good’ creation – aim high
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
At the end of his work of creating God looks back at it and sees that it is ‘very good’. And that should be the aim of all school leaders. To have high aspirations, to set out an ambitious vision but to also see it through. To do a good job in every area of our roles.
God works and rests – we need a pattern of work and rest
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2)
The creation account sets out a pattern for work and rest. And that is a pattern that is necessary to this day. It may seem obvious, but how often do school leaders end up working all hours? Sometimes it’s an emergency, sometimes it’s a period of pressure, but sometimes it is poor time-management or poor boundaries. Even more subtle (and perhaps more damaging) it is the need to be the ‘messiah’, where everything in the school rests on you, and you need to be first in, last out, and always on call. You need to check school emails on your phone every 5 minutes, even during the holidays. You go to sleep dreaming of school issues.
God (who doesn’t need rest) still sets a pattern of work and rest for us (who do need rest). School leaders need to model having this kind of pattern.
The broken creation – don’t expert perfection
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Genesis 3)
Creation is followed by Fall. In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve sin, reject God’s good command, the world is corrupted, and that means things are broken and they won’t ever be perfect. School leaders must set positive, hopeful, ambitious goals, but it is important that with these visions come realism. Schools will never get 100% attendance for every yeargroup for a whole year. They will never get to the stage of no safeguarding or behaviour issues. They will never have all teachers teaching every lesson perfectly (whatever ‘perfect’ means!). The IT systems won’t hold up every hour of every day for the next 100 years (or the next week…). There won’t be a point where no more difficult conversations or decisions need to happen.
Genesis 3 tells us that we live in a broken world, and that’s important to acknowledge. The ultimate hope of the Bible isn’t in human beings finding the perfect solution but on Jesus coming as the perfect solution, coming to die and rise and then coming again to bring in a perfect new creation.
Mostly Clear Thinking 
Leave a comment