A personal philosophy of Christian education based on partnership between home, church, and school
I’ve spent my entire career in Christian ministry— first as a church staff member, then a denominational executive, and lastly as a church planter and pastor before transitioning into Christian school administration. As one who did not attend a Christian school myself and was not trained as an educator, but rather as a businessperson, I did not instinctively understand the perceived value (or return on investment, if you will) of spending multiple thousands of dollars on sending children to a Christian school. Though not originally an educator, I am a Christian and an academic. Therefore, my expectations of a school that charges tens of thousands of dollars a year could be best summarized using words such as rigor, achievement, and excellence. These are all characteristics that are natural to me. In fact, if I had never worked in this industry, I would likely counsel others to evaluate schools through a similar process— by weighing the costs and the benefits of each institution to help arrive at and ultimately justify a decision.
As a school administrator, I often hear parents doing just that. I listen as they discuss factors including the number of Advanced Placement courses offered, the success of the athletic teams, or the ‘safe’ feeling of the environment when comparing schools. No doubt, these are important considerations— and are elements that I push our leadership team toward excellence in every day because I feel personally responsible for ensuring that our school is successfully educating and preparing students for a world that doesn’t yet exist. That’s a monumental task— one that is only achieved with appropriate rigor and obedience to the excellence God requires of us.
Still, quality education is more than just the sum of its parts. While it is true that school prepares students for college and career, it also prepares them for marriage, family, parenthood, and all of life. Therefore, I maintain that the most essential characteristic of Christian education isn’t the rigor or the achievement, but rather the partnership with home and church. Students spend the most significant percentage of their waking hours at school. Shouldn’t, then, the most crucial question in choosing the place a child will spend the majority of his or her time be whether or not the education is Christ-centered? Our Savior said, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”
the most essential characteristic of Christian education isn’t the rigor or the achievement, but rather the partnership with home and church.
During my first years in Christian education, I was heavily involved in leading an academic initiative that was teaching teachers the concept of backward design. Backward design is a method of designing an educational curriculum by setting goals before choosing instructional methods and forms of assessment. While this concept isn’t necessarily new, the intentional focus on the learning outcomes rather than the instructional methods is somewhat pivotal. I believe this same premise can (and should) be applied to the entire philosophy of Christian education. If we begin with the desired ends (or outcomes) in mind, we become more than just the sum of the parts. So, what is the desired end? What is the vision?
Simply, the vision of Christian education is to educate and raise up a generation of leaders who will bring glory to God. If Christian schools, in partnership with parents, are to train children according to the way they should go and expect that when they mature, they will not depart from this way (Proverbs 22:6), it is essential to define what precisely this way is. I would desire that, as a result of this partnership, a biblical worldview would resonate through every area of the student’s life and guide all of his or her decisions. Academic, athletic, and artistic excellence should all be taught and modeled to reflect God’s glory and His excellent image in which we are made.
Discerning, biblically based thinkers should be ready to give sound answers for their faith in every academic discipline, and learning should take place in an atmosphere where denominational distinctiveness is respected while Christ and the beliefs that join His universal church are preeminent (Colossians 1:18).
The students we are teaching today are at the center of intense competition for their hearts and minds— arguably the most intense in American history. The philosophy of postmodernism that has inundated the American culture and education system teaches that all religions and philosophies are equal while subversively persuading our children that truth itself is relative. This teaching is coupled with an indoctrination of tolerance as the antithesis of the Christian concept of loving the sinner while hating the sin. Instead, students must be taught that Christians should be the most tolerant of all people, but we should not tolerate sins that destroy people’s lives and futures. Absent an absolute moral anchor, our nation is lost in shameless violence, drugs, promiscuity, and sexual perversion. To combat this growing reality, the home, church, and school must establish their precepts upon the Bible, asserting that all truth is God’s truth; their communication must speak the truth in love seasoned with grace, and their conduct must speak louder than words. The result will be children of integrity and honesty balanced by God’s Word, and fit for the Lord’s use. “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth” (John 17:17). The truth must come alive in their hearts and be the unifying factor of the partnership between the home, church, and school.
Volumes could be written to illustrate this battle and further underscore the fact that God’s plan for mankind is being assaulted— philosophically, morally, socially, and economically. Simply, our nation has lost its way. We are called to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14), but all too often the families, churches, and schools that still remember the God of our forefathers, sit quietly by. Our forefathers, guided by Christ, fought taxation without representation, defeated the painful internal cancer of slavery, and stood against the Nazis and godless communism. If we are to continue this tradition and stand against the cultural tide, Christian schools must be beacons of light to create a biblical worldview.
We must create a thinking paradigm in tomorrow’s leaders—a paradigm that weighs all ideas in every area of life against biblical truth. Our responsibility to train up a child in the way he should go has never been more critical, and we can overcome by standing with Christ in our hearts, homes, houses of worship, and schools.
The roles of the home and the church in this partnership are more clearly discernable in scripture than that of the school. However, it is undeniable that math, science, languages, literature, and history must all be revealed as parts of His plan. While the secular world teaches our students that there is a conflict between science and faith, we must explain that the same are, instead, natural allies. It is my opinion that the curriculum of the Western education system has been artificially divided into areas of specialization that detract from a crucial understanding of how all truth is God’s truth. The historical approach to education more firmly established skills in language and grammar, logic and reasoning, and rhetoric as the foundation for success in partnership with an educated worldview. For us to realize our vision of seeing a new generation of Christ-centered leaders, Christian schools must lead them back to a unity of thought and view. History is His story, and math points to His perfection. Every piece of literature can be appreciated for its beauty and analyzed for the worldview biases of its author.
More, we should be training the heart and spirit of every student— not just in the chapel service, Bible class, or service projects, but in every area and at all times. God desires to educate the whole person.
He didn’t create just a body, or a mind, or a spirit, but rather the entire person. This whole person will have to stand accountable before God in the next life, function in this life as a Christian, and serve as a citizen of both this nation and a new globalizing world.
My concern is that our students today will be responsible for making moral choices concerning everything from food and drink to sex and marriage. They will make political decisions and economic decisions concerning debt, investments, and more. While our curriculums can cover many of these areas, the development of a Christ-centered worldview is what enables these students to make these decisions without fear.
That’s why God has ordained a partnership with families, churches, and other Christian schools. Only together can we educate the whole person and create a generation of worldview-savvy thinkers that represent God in the marketplace of athletics, arts, academics, and ideas in a way that shines for all to see. Secular schools separate students from their families’ values and usurp parental authority. Christian schools have God-given authority delegated through godly praying and paying parent-partners who voluntarily join in the unity of purpose to see His power and blessing released in their children’s lives. We can also, by virtue of His promise, be sure of this—trained according to His ways, they will be faithful as mature adults.
Sources
Importance of Christian Education, Lee Campbell, Ed.D.
Leading the Small Christian School, L. Jerry Nelson
Turning Purpose into Performance, Bill Simmer
Leading with Vision and Mission Priorities, Robert H. Tennies