Bible Reading: Colossians 3:23

“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.”

Part 1 – For the Christian School Leader: The Heart Behind the Work

Leadership in a Christian school isn’t just a position. It’s a calling. The verse from Colossians reminds us that the way we do our work matters just as much as what we do. In a world where educational leadership can easily become a cycle of compliance, pressure, and public expectation, Paul’s challenge to the Colossians reorients our focus: our true audience is Christ.

When your work begins with that mindset, that your daily leadership is an offering to the Lord, your decisions, tone, and priorities take on a different weight. You’re no longer striving for human approval or recognition, but living in obedience to the One who called you to lead.

This doesn’t mean perfection or unrelenting performance. It means wholeheartedness, leading with sincerity, integrity, and deep dependence on God. Every meeting chaired, every conversation with a parent, every data review, every chapel address are acts of worship when done unto the Lord.

For the Christian School Principal or Middle Leader, this truth becomes both freeing and grounding:

• Freeing, because your worth and success aren’t defined by others’ expectations but by God’s pleasure in your faithfulness.

• Grounding, because it reminds you that even the unseen parts of leadership, the hard calls, the prayers over staff lists, the quiet perseverance through challenge, are seen and valued by Him.

Ask yourself this week: Am I leading as though Christ Himself is the recipient of my service? If so, even the most ordinary tasks are transformed into sacred opportunities.

Part 2 – For the Team: Inspiring Staff to Serve with the Same Heart

Once this truth has taken root in you as a leader, your next role is to model and multiply it. The most powerful way to inspire staff toward wholehearted, Christ-centred service isn’t through more meetings or motivational slogans. It’s through authentic example and consistent reminders of why we do what we do.

Here are three ways you might guide your team in this spirit:

1. Reframe the “Why” of Their Work
   Remind teachers that their classroom isn’t merely a workplace - it’s a ministry space. The lesson plan, the marking, the pastoral check-in, even the yard duty all of it becomes sacred when done for the Lord. A short reflection at a staff devotion or briefing on Colossians 3:23 can reignite this awareness.

2. Celebrate Faithful Effort, Not Just Outcomes
   In education, it’s easy to measure success in grades and growth data. But in the Kingdom of God, effort and attitude count too. Honour staff who serve quietly, who invest deeply in students, who show Christ’s love in unseen ways. Affirm that their labour in the Lord is never in vain.

3. Keep Christ Central in Culture
   Culture follows what the leader values. When staff see you praying over decisions, giving thanks in success, and showing grace under pressure, they will naturally lift their own vision. Build rhythms that keep Christ in focus. Things like devotionals, prayer at the start of meetings, or end-of-term reflections that point back to His faithfulness.

In time, a culture develops where “doing it heartily as to the Lord” isn’t just a verse on a wall — it’s a lived reality in every classroom, staffroom, and playground.

Final Thought

As a Christian School Leader, you carry both privilege and responsibility. When you lead with a heart that’s fixed on Christ, your work becomes more than management — it becomes ministry.

And when you inspire your staff to do the same, the collective heartbeat of your school begins to echo heaven’s purpose: to honour God in all things.

Standard 1b (Proficient): Exercise courage in a set of situations, which are judged as low risk and central to own responsibilities. Exercise leadership in such situations by respectfully and clearly communicating their concerns.

Christian middle leaders are called to lead not just with skill, but with conviction grounded in truth. At the Proficient level, “interpersonal courage” means having the strength to speak up — kindly, clearly, and with integrity — especially when it involves matters that fall within our sphere of responsibility.

In practice, this looks like addressing a colleague’s lapse in professionalism, questioning an approach that undermines student wellbeing, or standing firm on ethical decisions when it might be easier to stay silent. These are often low-risk moments — but they are defining ones. They form the habits of character that shape how we respond when the stakes grow higher.

As Christian educators, our courage is not sourced in self-confidence but in faith. Paul reminds Timothy,

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
2 Timothy 1:7

This verse reframes courage not as confrontation, but as faithful stewardship. We speak truth because love requires it. We act with courage because obedience demands it. We engage respectfully because grace defines us.

In your leadership this week, consider:

• Where might God be calling you to exercise interpersonal courage?

• What small but significant conversations could demonstrate both truth and grace?

True courage for the Christian leader is never loud or reckless. It’s faithful, grounded, and loving — and it points others to Christ through quiet conviction lived out in everyday leadership.