Jon DenHouter
High School English Teacher
I love helping students make connections to literature! Although cultures and settings change, we learn volumes about our common human experience by studying the writing of those who have gone before and beside us. Studying the world God made, and the experiences of people who are made in God’s image, is an act of worship. I also love helping students gain skill in speaking and writing, which further equips students to communicate their faith with the world.
Faith & Life
Bio
Mr. Den Houter every day seeks to make the Lord the center of his life and teaching. Before coming to NorthPointe in 2021-2022, Mr. Den Houter taught English for one year at Portland High School in Portland, MI, and for two years at Western Michigan Christian High School in Muskegon. He loves writing, playing board games, reading, filmmaking, and Bible study.
Statement of Faith
God has called me first to be a Christian, and secondly to serve Him as a Christian teacher. To me, “teacher” means to be the head learner of my students. Not only do I teach my students skills and knowledge, I also learn from them and with them. “Christian” means to follow Christ. I’ve answered His call to repent and believe, and every day I seek to make Him the center of my life. Before coming to NorthPointe in 2021-2022, I taught for one year at Portland High School in Portland, MI, and for two years at Western Michigan Christian High School in Muskegon. Before that, I was a pastor for five years at First Christian Church of Dowagiac, MI. As a pastor I learned how to serve my congregation and the community in Jesus’ name.
Now as a Christian teacher, I have learned and continue to learn better how to serve students in Jesus’ name. One way I serve students is by equipping them to fulfill the missionary mandate. At its heart, teaching English is teaching students to read, write, speak, and listen. As a Christian English teacher, my goal is to help students hone their abilities to read, write, speak, and listen so that they might become better agents of Christ in the world, able to articulate the gospel to others with clarity and power. Let me give you one example of what this looks like in my classroom. During our speech unit in English 10, we look at what the book of Proverbs says not only about speaking, but also about listening. We learn that “fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others” (Proverbs 12:15, NLT). Students learn how to craft speeches, but even more, they learn how to listen carefully to the speeches of others.
Another way I serve students is by loving God in front of them, to model for them—imperfect as I am—what a Christ-oriented life looks like. I also seek to love my students as myself. If they were the teacher and I were the student, how would I want to be treated? That’s the question I ask as I seek to fulfill the love mandate in my classroom.
