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Gospel Unity Among Educational "Camps"

Last Sunday our church had a Members Meeting. We do these twice a year. They're a chance for the pastors to update the church on new initiatives, welcome new members and in some cases bring issues of church discipline before the congregation.

They're also a chance to address areas in which our church family needs to grow. For us, one of those areas is being united in the gospel even when we choose different forms of education for our kids. The following video clip is the portion from the meeting where I talked about the pastoral team's concern about division that can exist between public school, private school and home school families.

The members of our church were very responsive and I think glad for this issue to be addressed. I feature it here for the sake of Covenant Life members who couldn't make the meeting as well as for the encouragement of other churches who might identify with the challenges we're seeking to address.


Posted by on May 3, 2008

Comments (11)

josh, what an awesome way to approach a sensitive area of parenting - education. i especially enjoy "the one camp" part.

Posted by Joe Lee | May 3, 2008 3:44 PM

Good stuff!!! Phew..this is a huge issue in the body of Christ!

Posted by Heather (Paulsen) Patenaude | May 3, 2008 4:11 PM

Great post, Josh. This is an issue that probably doesn't get as much attention as it deserves, and I appreciate your thoughts on it.

Posted by Ryan Winger | May 4, 2008 12:07 AM

grrrrrr... crazy home schoolers...

just jokes!


seriously - that is a fantastic word!

hoping that cov life keep growing in their saved-by-grace-one-campness

Posted by Dave Miers | May 4, 2008 7:30 AM

thank you, josh. thank you! thank you!

Posted by jean | May 5, 2008 7:25 AM

Amen.

This can be such a divisive issue in churches, with quite an "us" vs. "them" mentality.

Posted by GUNNY HARTMAN | May 5, 2008 2:03 PM

speaking of the members meeting...do you have an exact date that the new church website comes out?

Posted by jecholia | May 5, 2008 3:23 PM

Excellent!!!

Posted by Lisa Nunley | May 6, 2008 8:10 AM

Yes and Amen. Thank you, Josh.

Posted by Timothy Bridges | May 7, 2008 5:00 PM

josh,
thank you for your firm and gracious pastoral exhortation. thank you for bearing this burden so faithfully for the glory of God. and thank you for keeping the GOSPEL central. my wife and i both attended public schools, and have no children yet. we've been attending a sovereign grace church just shy of two years and were quick to observe that most, if not all, of the families home school their children. naturally this led to several ongoing discussions regarding homeschooling. in light of the fact that we are still pursuing the question of home schooling, in a church that largely home schools, your words have once again served us in a necessary and wonderful way! mahalo!=)

Posted by a.uchida | May 10, 2008 12:10 PM

Hey Josh,

Thank you for a gentle, non-judgmental message encouraging unity within the body over educational choices. You are correct when you say these choices are decidedly personal ones that should be made by parents for their particular children.

May I encourage you to continue down this path, though? While the choice certainly is personal, as the shepherd of this flock, you would do them all great service by exegeting Scripture for the principles by which a parents' educational choice for their children should be made. I have to seriously wonder how often cultural pressures or cultural norms come into play instead of solid Biblical research followed by obedience, regardless of the culture....

Does the Scripture say, "Thou shalt homeschool!"...of course not. But does God give principles throughout Scripture on parental responsibility during childrearing? Absolutely! Does Scripture give principles on discipling/educating of one's children? Absolutely!

These are the sorts of things that you would do well to bring to the pulpit, and then let the "chips fall where they may," so to speak. You might even consider addressing in light of Scripture some of the common reasons parents use for their different choices. Might there be some ruffled feathers? Probably...but God's truth tends to do that when we aren't walking fully in it.

Christos Kurios!

Charley
(and yes, you can see by the name of my blog that I do have a particular point-of-view here....)
HomeDiscipling Dad Blog

Posted by Charley | May 12, 2008 9:17 PM

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