The Ultimate Reason for a Christian School Education

John Fedele – Discover Christian Schools

In these ever changing times I find it interesting to read the variety of “reasons” given to parents in considering a Christian School education. The fact that Christian schools have weekly chapels, memorize Scripture, study the Bible, or that our schools are safe places for kids, or that there is a positive learning atmosphere, those things are all important, but they are not the essence of a Christian school education. They are good, things, but they do not fully represent in my opinion what a Christian school education is really about.

The first and most important thing that you’re going to find in a Christian school is an education that is presented from an eternal perspective, meaning, students are taught about the reality that there is a God, and His will for each young person is to know him personally as Savior and then, to begin learning how they can become totally devoted disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

• It’s an education about having children understand the need for a personal relationship with the Creator of the Universe, and how that Creator can profoundly impact and interact with their lives right here, right now as well as for the rest of their lives.
• It’s not just about the sweet bye and bye or punching a ticket for heaven, but it’s coming to a deep awareness and a knowledge that a student’s life can make a difference right here, right now and that they are being equipped to impact God’s kingdom and ultimately, to influence the world in which they live.
• It’s not about students learning to adjust or adapt to the culture, but rather having students learn how they can change the culture and ultimately the world wherever they go.
• It is not about getting an education that prepares students to get into the best college, to get the best job, to make lots of money, so they can buy “stuff” and be happy. Getting a good education is important, don’t get me wrong, but if that is the end goal and the only goal, and our children are not equipped or prepared to live lives of meaning and service, to live lives that make a difference in the lives of others, then we have failed in our mission to truly educate them.

James Braley, noted Christian educator said it best, “It’s changed lives, changing lives!” It’s the impact of a teacher’s changed life, changing the individual lives of his or her students. And those students going out and doing the same.
Christian parents, isn’t that what you really want for your son or daughter? To have them grow in relationship with their Creator and live a life of purpose and meaning, having them being able to discern and discover God’s will for their lives and to have access to His blessings, goodness and favor, and not just simply “grab the gusto?” That’s what students will receive at a Christian school, an education that is from an eternal perspective based on a personal relationship with God that will be lived out in some kind of service to the kingdom of God and to others. It is an education not only of the mind, but of the heart as well, to love God, and to love and serve others.
An education for an eternity! The ultimate reason to consider a Christian school education!

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Daily Diligence

Today's Christian Education Commentarywith Harold Naylor

What are you teaching your children daily?

In Deuteronomy 6:7, parents are instructed to teach their children the word of God with diligence. In fact, parents are specifically instructed to teach their children throughout their entire day, from the time they rise in the morning until they go to bed at night.

And yet, most of us have either chosen or find ourselves forced to accept lifestyles that make obedience to God in this area of our lives virtually impossible. 

While God certainly understands the reasons that keep us from spending all day, every day with our children, He has not lessened His requirement of instilling His Word in them consistently and constantly from a very young age. We believe that choosing a Christian school for your child can help you fulfill the directives found in God’s Word.

DiscoverChristianSchools.com - Where Christian education is priceless!

Parenting With Vision

Today's Christian Education Commentary

with Harold Naylor

When was the last time you wrote down some of your parenting goals?

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Raising kids with Christ-centered hearts is the greatest challenge Christian parents will ever face. Not only that, but it is not a challenge that is confronted and won in a day, week, or even a year. Rather, it takes many, many years of diligence, consistency, and prayer on the part of parents, and even then, success is not guaranteed.

This is why writing down your parenting goals or a vision for your family is so important. As the years pass and individual challenges come and go, it is important that we keep our eyes fixed on our ultimate goal.

Choosing a Christian education is a great way to start approaching the job of parenting with new direction, purpose, and a vision that includes God at the center.

From the "Front Lines" of Christian Education

The MidAtlantic Christian Schools Association recently held its 60th anniversary convention. The convention was attended by over 1350 administrators, development officers, board members, teachers and support staff! These are the folks on the FRONT LINES of the Christian schooling movement.

Dr. Crawford Loritts, Jr., Senior Pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, GA was the keynote speaker and spoke at the convention's three general sessions.
Thursday AM: Stewardship of a Generation
Thursday PM: On Assignment from God
Friday AM: The Anatomy of Pressure

John Fedele, Executive Director of http://www.discoverchristianschools.com/ was in attendance at the convention and was encouraged by the messages brought by Dr. Loritts. "I believe each address will not only challenge and encourage you, but minister to you as well - as parents, as teachers, as administrators - as those involved in Kingdom work! I strongly recommend listening to each address and that you pray for the 1350 delegates who attended, that they might be instrumental in transmitting to this generation the convention's theme of a "A Legacy of Faith . . A Future of Hope."

Please click here to download and listen to the three keynote addresses. You will be directed to the MACSA website when you click on the link.

Children of the State

Children of the state
Don’t be surprised at socialized education’s product

Joel Belz - WORLD Magazine
Originally published November 1, 2008
Reprinted with permission

If you want a classic example of how fast a whole culture can be turned on a dime, redirected by 180 degrees, try this: Just when it seemed, through the 1980s, 1990s, and even well into the past decade, that a socialist mindset had been successfully put down in the United States, back it comes—with a vengeance.

"Free markets are better for everybody," Ronald Reagan had taught us. So we deregulated. We reformed welfare. We defeated Hillary's nationalized health care. We popularized tax cuts. We watched the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapse, and we applauded the market economy in Europe. Talk radio exploded.

And, as fallen humans are wont to do, we also abused our freedom.

Which always provides an excuse to those with socialist inclinations to argue that we need to be regulated again, that we need stacks of new rules to curb our excesses, and that government needs to be called in to make everyone behave. And that's why you find a newly muscled Uncle Sam these days shutting down big investment brokers, buying huge equity clout in traditional banks, and rumored to be ready to buy similar shares of Ford, Chrysler, and GM.

All that under a supposed pro-free market Republican administration! So nobody's going to be very surprised if under an Obama presidency there will be a redoubling of Sarbanes-Oxley, re-regulation of the airlines (and just about everyone else), universal health care, a new budget line for carbon and energy, restrictions on talk radio, and increased taxes to pay the staggeringly higher bills.

Much of that has happened, may I suggest, because we also long ago conceded the most critical territory of all. While strenuously wrestling over business and banking and health care and energy and a dozen other issues, we cavalierly handed over to the state a perpetual 90 percent share of the nation's educational interests. America regularly has about 50 million children enrolled in K-12 schools, and about 20 million more in colleges and universities—and while the pattern fluctuates a little, 90 percent of those 70 million young people regularly get a state-flavored view of reality.

Socialized medicine? Most of us recoil at the idea. Socialized airlines? Reminds us of Aeroflot. Socialized banks? When it happened last month, it terrified us.

But socialized schools? Nine out of ten of us patronize them regularly.

And we do so with na'ry a thought or concern about how such an arrangement affects next week's election, or the election after that, or the lifetime of elections to come.

I am blessed to have had parents who did look ahead. Half a century ago, my father said often: "If I fail to feed my children, the government will step in. If I don't house them, the government has programs to help. Of course, I don't intend to turn those duties over to the government. But I would much rather have the government feed and house my children than to have the government shape their minds."

That's why, if I were ever forced to become a one-issue person on the political front, my single issue would be freedom of choice in education. With a nine-to-one edge in value-shaping influence, why shouldn't the government be producing products who think government-sponsored-everything is best?

When I enthusiastically endorse the Christian school and home school alternatives, I don't do so primarily because of their effect on the electoral process. Christian education isn't about filling the registration rolls of the Republican party.

But it is about producing thoughtful and earnest citizens. The bells of freedom on every front traditionally ring more clearly where a biblical value system has been inculcated. No one should expect anything resembling such a result from secularist state-sponsored schools, which will naturally glorify the state. No one should be surprised when that's what happens.

So I say: Go get educated about what Christians are doing these days in education. Go online todiscoverchristianschools.com, a notable effort to help parents discover the good things happening on the school front. Go to hslda.org to learn about the growing impact of home schooling families throughout the nation.

It's too late, to be sure, to have much impact on next week's election. But so long as there are more kids and future generations, and so long as they have minds and hearts to shape with God's great truth, it's not too late at all to make a difference for elections yet to come.

If you have a question or comment for Joel Belz, send it to jbelz@worldmag.com.

Christian Education – an Investment in the Future

By Nancy Huckaby

The Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX)
Published Sunday, November 2, 2008

Christian parents understand well the responsibility they have to not only love their children, but to educate them in an environment that embraces Christ’s fundamental truths.

Many find the answer in home schooling, but for countless others, Christian schools provide the perfect answer. Christian education facilities – both elementary, secondary and higher learning – can help parents make sure their children receive a quality education, taught by dedicated and knowledgeable teachers.

Christian education is not without its critics. Some say it insulates children from the real world, or shelters them from many of the negative influences they’ll have to face in the future. On its Web site, cornerstonekingman.ca, Cornerstone Christian Academy in Kingman, Alberta, Canada, offers this view:

"The Christian school works somewhat like a greenhouse which is designed to provide optimum conditions for growth while a plant is young. Young children are protected and carefully nurtured to help them mature properly. When the time comes for them to be 'transplanted’ into a more hostile environment, they are more likely to endure difficulties and continue to thrive because they have been trained well and have developed a discerning heart."

Christian educators want to help students recognize the hostility and injustice in today’s world while giving them the tools – critical thinking skills, a core value system and a strong foundation of faith – to apply Christ’s truth to solving those problems.

Administrators know that the academic standards at a Christian school must be strong if parents are asked to make what, for many, is a significant sacrifice for the cost of attending a private school. College bound students face their own brand of challenges and for many (and their parents) knowing that the college or university they select is based on Christian principles is paramount.

Gary Ledbetter, communications director for the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention in Grapevine, offered this advice on the CollegeView Web site:

"A final benefit of Christian higher education is perhaps the most significant. The quality of a Christian college experience is higher than any other. Christian educators have an additional motivation to do their work with excellence – the call of Christ on their lives to do just that (I Cor. 10:31). Quality may also be enhanced by the emphasis on subjects and teaching deemed by God to be the first importance. A biblical focus will inform the manner, content, and even the scope of an educational experience, and Christian schools may be less influenced by cultural (or educational) fads."


Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22.6

Risk

Today's Christian Education Commentarywith Harold Naylor

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When was the last time you took a risk? 
Making changes, especially big ones, usually feel risky. The hard part about risk is that success is not guaranteed.

Is it possible that the reason you have been avoiding a Christian school for your child is because it feels like a risk? Maybe you’re afraid that your friends or family will judge you for choosing a private, Christian education. Or, maybe you’re afraid that if you choose a Christian school and your child grows up to make poor life choices, you will look like a failure as a parent. 

If fear is the only thing hold you back from doing something bold for Christ and for your, then maybe it’s time you took the risk.

To learn more about Christian schools or to find a Christian school in your area, please visitwww.DiscoverChristianSchools.com.

Instilling Character in Your Children

Today's Christian Education Commentary

with Harold Naylor

Do you know what type of character qualities you are trying to instill in your children?

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Few of us ever sit down and make a written list of the character qualities we are attempting to teach our children and model for them. If we did, certain aspects of our parenting would certainly change. After all, seeing goals spelled out and defined in black and white can be a powerful took of focus, self-examination, and reprioritizing.

Partnering with a Christian school in your child’s education can be a great way to help you as a parent start to focus on the specific character qualities you want to see develop in your child. It can also help ensure that many of those qualities are being deliberately modeled to your child every day by Christian educators.

To learn more about Christian schools or to find a Christian school in your area, please visit:www.DiscoverChristianSchools.com

Arrows

Today’s Christian Education Commentary

with Harold Naylor

Psalm 127:4 compares children to arrows “in the hand of a mighty man.”
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Of course, this scripture is referring to children of upright and God-fearing parents. However,
the only arrows that are truly effective are arrows that have been carefully and deliberately
designed and prepared.

As we consider Psalm 127 we should carefully consider how God sees them from a spiritual
perspective – they need care and fashioning. Like the arrow, children need a sharp point – a
Christian world view, a strong shaft – the unchangeable Word of God, and the feathers guiding
their flight – this is discipline of parents and teachers.

“Happy is the man who has a quiver of such arrows”. The children with a strong Christian
education can be arrows of truth for God’s Kingdom.

We can help you find a Christian school and fulfill the directive we have been assigned as
Christian parents.

DiscoverChristianSchools.com - Where Christian education is priceless!

Effective Christian Schooling - A Mission to Forge a New Mind

Submitted by Jonathan Ekeland

The Christian Academy (Brookhaven, PA)
www.DiscoverChristianSchools.com Steering Committee

Effective Christian schooling is not simply a process of adding chapel and Bible class to a traditional academic curriculum. Rather, its mission is to forge a new mind – a transformation that begins through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and is then nurtured and developed by deliberate and strategic integration of biblical truth into every curricular area. Christian schooling, then, confronts and challenges the fragmented secular worldview.

But what does that really mean? Many people, adults and teenagers alike, don’t know what “worldview” means, though they hear about it or see it in print. The concept of a worldview is easy and difficult at the same time. For instance, you may have heard the name “Cape Cod” dozens of times, but have you ever stopped to think that a “cape” is a point of land that projects into the sea and a “cod” is a North Atlantic fish? We usually don’t dissect such terms on a regular basis. Well, the term “worldview” may be that simple. It is a set of presuppositions (which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold about the basic makeup of our world. One who holds a Christian worldview would look at everything through the grid of Scripture.
To apply this concept to our basic premise about Christian education, a Christian education does include Bible classes, chapels, Christian faculty, and a host of other “Christian things,” but if students are not learning how to assimilate and put into practice what they are learning, then they are as James describes in chapter 1, verse 22. “But prove to yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”

When students study Shakespeare they should ask themselves, “From what worldview does Shakespeare speak?” Then students should compare their own worldview and Shakespeare’s to see the differences and similarities. Similarly, what worldview is presented in Science class? In World History and American Literature, what views are impressed upon the students? If the students have not begun to formulate in their own minds what worldview they espouse, then most everything they absorb and consider will be acceptable (tolerable).

All Christian schools certainly cannot be lumped together, but I would be willing to state that most value the opportunity to teach their students to develop a Christ-centered worldview. From as early as kindergarten, Christian schools are teaching and modeling a Godly perspective regarding every aspect of their education, from math to physical education class. Incidentally, if Christ is not the center of PE class, what does competition look like? If Christ is not the center of History class, where does God fit into the history of mankind? Does He, or doesn’t He? These are just two of dozens of perspectives that children are taught every day for 30 hours a week. Do the math! 30 hours a week times 36 weeks of school equals 1,080 hours in the classroom in a school year. Now multiply that by 13 years. It equals 14,040 hours that children are absorbing worldviews. The question raised to parents is, “What kind of worldview do you want your child to have when he or she graduates high school?”
A catechism question that some kindergarten students respond to is “Why did God make all things?” The little ones answer correctly, “God made all things for His own glory (Rom 11:36).” Our worldview, even at the age of five, should start with God at the center of our lives with everything revolving around Him. As the initial premise mentions, our society’s secular worldview is fragmented. In other words, it is broken and sinful. We as parents and educators need to have a plan -- a plan to instruct our children to compare everything to God’s Word. His Word is our lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. That path that our children tread upon is full of rocks and holes and other obstacles. They need God’s Word and its perspective to keep from falling. They need a bright and true light.

To learn more about Christian schools and Christian schooling - and to find a local Christian school in your area - please visit www.DiscoverChristianSchools.com.