by Ralph Petersen, March 2008
Most Christian schools were originally established on the scriptural principle that Christians are responsible to educate their children consistent with and based on God’s Word.
Therefore, Christian schools were never intended to be in competition with public education. They were not designed to provide a nicer or safer environment for Christian children to receive a comparable education. The difference between Christian and secular education is foundational. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Proverbs 1:7)
Nor should Christian schools be perceived as places where children are sheltered from the real world. In fact, as a friend of mine has articulated so many times, “The real world is the world that includes God rather than legislating Him out of existence. A student given an education that does not include God has no idea what the “’real world’ is” (Ron Livesay, Christian school administrator). Consequently, that student cannot be adequately equipped to survive in the real world.
Christian schools start with God because He exists, He has spoken, and His Word cannot be ignored. He created us, He is the center of life, and He will accomplish His sovereign purpose.
By contrast, secular schools start with the premise that there is no God, that the Bible was written by man, and that there is no moral authority higher than ourselves. The universe and life as we know it came about over billions of years by chance, and we are masters of our own destiny.
So then it seems incumbent on us that we should not look to the world for the qualifications of school administrators and teachers; we must look to the Word of God for the qualifications of appropriate steward for this kind of ministry.
They must hold biblical convictions that a God-centered education is an absolute necessity. They should be full of godly wisdom, scripturally qualified, spiritually gifted, called of God, and adequately experienced for the important ministry of guarding against the influences of an ungodly world and training children according to a Christ-centered world view.
Therefore, Christian schools were never intended to be in competition with public education. They were not designed to provide a nicer or safer environment for Christian children to receive a comparable education. The difference between Christian and secular education is foundational. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Proverbs 1:7)
Nor should Christian schools be perceived as places where children are sheltered from the real world. In fact, as a friend of mine has articulated so many times, “The real world is the world that includes God rather than legislating Him out of existence. A student given an education that does not include God has no idea what the “’real world’ is” (Ron Livesay, Christian school administrator). Consequently, that student cannot be adequately equipped to survive in the real world.
Christian schools start with God because He exists, He has spoken, and His Word cannot be ignored. He created us, He is the center of life, and He will accomplish His sovereign purpose.
By contrast, secular schools start with the premise that there is no God, that the Bible was written by man, and that there is no moral authority higher than ourselves. The universe and life as we know it came about over billions of years by chance, and we are masters of our own destiny.
So then it seems incumbent on us that we should not look to the world for the qualifications of school administrators and teachers; we must look to the Word of God for the qualifications of appropriate steward for this kind of ministry.
They must hold biblical convictions that a God-centered education is an absolute necessity. They should be full of godly wisdom, scripturally qualified, spiritually gifted, called of God, and adequately experienced for the important ministry of guarding against the influences of an ungodly world and training children according to a Christ-centered world view.
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Visit Ralph Petersen's Blog, “Well-Meaning Gentlemen with Different Ideas."
I see the problem as our churches want to use their schools to reach the lost, instead of the churches real role, training the believer to go out and reach the lost.
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