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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 (17)

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

One of the pastors at the SG church in Gilbert raised four children. I remember at one point speaking with his wife, who told me one went to public school, one to Christian school, and two were homeschooled. I was amazed that one family could actually use multiple choices. If you were to try to guess today which were which, you really couldn't. All were raised with the Gospel at the center, and all continue to live that out in their lives. This family inspires me.

Posted by A. Dittmeier | May 15, 2008 1:52 AM

How parents chose to educate their kids is tough. I know that I would have a hard time home schooling my kids. I would want them to go to school for a few years then to home school them when they can "teach themselves".

Posted by Vicki | May 19, 2008 12:21 AM

My pastor shared this link with me after I recently shared with him how a friend of mine had posted a note on her facebook page that Public school education only brings about children who are Marxist and Hitler's. She is a soon to be homeschooling parent and is a huge advocate to homeschooling. But seems to be in your face about how homeschooling is the ONLY way that Christians should educate their children. Needless to say my comments back to her only caused her and more of her homeschooling friends to tear me down because of my choice to have my son in public school. Thanks for sharing this video, I wonder if I could have permission to post this on my facebook page.

In Christ
April

Posted by April | March 30, 2009 1:08 PM

Pastor Harris,

I must respectfully disagree. I attended public school myself and I now homeschool my children. There is an enormous difference in the spiritual atmosphere of our home versus the spiritual atmosphere in a public school. People make their choices for many different reasons, but to imply that all forms of education provide children with the same spiritual foundation is naive.

Posted by Erica | June 27, 2009 7:51 AM

I am a homeschool mother who just finished her 15th year of homeschooling. I heard Josh speak as a 20-year-old at a homeschool convention and believed that the homeschool movement was going to produce a generation of Christians who would "turn the world upside down." I am disappointed in Josh's message which comes across to me as very compromising.

Of course, as Christians, we do not "judge" others, but the precarious state of our country demands drastic action. The time for sitting on the fence and compromising with the world is over.

You cannot continue to send your kids into an environment which has expelled God and not expect them to be harmed by it, it's as simple as that.

Add to the godlessness, the problems of drugs, immorality, violence, and the dumbing down of education and the choice should become obvious.

http://takeyourkidsoutofpublicschool.com/


Posted by Christian Cowgirl | June 27, 2009 2:49 PM

Sir,

While I find your statements to be moving and positive sounding, I must respectfully disagree with you. I was government schooled until 5th grade, and home educated after that. I can tell you from experience that there is a profound difference between the two. My science (and home-room) teachers at the government schools openly, publicly, ridiculed my belief in God. They told me I was wrong, that my parents lied, and that church was for people who didn't know the "truth". Does this sound like a good educational choice for bible-believing parents to subject their children to? How does a 7 year old defend Christianity to her derisive teacher and a classroom full of laughing children?

As much as you want people to "feel good" about their choices; as much as you want to believe that everyone will make the right choice because they love their children and want the best for them; the truth is: not all decisions are good ones, and everyone on the planet, even Christians, at some point, love THEMSELVES more than anything else (the entire reason humans sin), and so they make their choices based on what makes them happy, and makes them "feel good". Government schools are run by secular-humanist God haters who insist on teaching our children to think like them. By and large, they are succeeding. A massive percentage (83%-88%) of children drop out of their churches when they reach 18. This is because they are inculcated with the unbiblical worldview of their schools.

Aside from all of that, the quality of education in government schools is deliberately poor. I suggest reading "Dumbing Us Down", by John Taylor Gatto.

While it may not "feel good" to hear that you can, and should, be doing better, you still need to hear it so that you can change.

Posted by EyesWideOpen | June 28, 2009 3:26 PM

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