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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.
Please enter the letter "f" in the field below:
Comments (23)
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
To the "disagreers",
Perhaps you can watch the video again, and see that he was talking about the body of Christ showing love for one another.
Take the admonishment, and ask yourself, Am I responding in Love or self-righteousness?
It's a slippery slope we all can fall on.
To Josh,
may you continue to struggle to align yourself with the gospel of Christ and may your compassion be contagious to us all.
Posted by M.Underwood | July 14, 2009 10:45 AM
(oops, apparently there's another link with the same title,
sorry Josh, this link should be better.)
Posted by M.Underwood | July 14, 2009 10:52 AM
This was disappointing to me. You made three statements that stood out to me.
1. "Education is not a moral issue."
Education definitely IS a moral issue. We are not to sit in the seat of scoffers. We are to choose those we spend time with wisely. We are to seek knowledge, but not just any knowledge....God's knowledge. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. A public school IS a moral place - it imparts the ungodly morals of humanism.
2. "All methods of education are glorifying to God."
No....not all methods of education are glorifying to God. Sitting in the seat of a scoffer is not glorifying to God. Filling our minds with untruth that is masqueraded as truth is definitely not glorifying to God.
3. "We are all in the same camp. The saved by grace camp."
This, on the surface, I agree with. We ARE all in the saved by grace camp, as that is God's camp. However, one that is saved by grace will want to, seek to and sacrifice in order to obey God's Word, to seek out what pleases Him and then do it. God speaks volumes on the subject of education/discipleship in Scripture!
Now, I agree that a home educator should not gossip about or be rude to or act unloving toward someone that educates their children in a different way. And vice-versa. A Christian school or public school family should not treat home educators that way either. And, I know it happens in all camps. However, much of what is "perceived" is not real. Many times it is our own selves putting words or actions into someone else's mouth or heart because they do things differently than we, so they *must* think such and so about me and my choice.
What you didn't do, and something that I think you should have done, was to come at this subject with Scripture, not a talk on let's just all be united and make everybody feel good about their choices talk.
Teach from the Scripture about education and what kind of education pleases God. But to make it a "choice", to make it an amoral issue, to say that all methods of education are glorifying to God.....Scripture says otherwise.
Israel took on the task of moving the Ark of the Covenant. They didn't ask God *how* HE wanted it transported. They made up their own method.
But, all methods of transporting the Ark were not glorifying to God. Even though Uzzah's heart was to protect God's Ark from falling and touching the ground, he was still condemned and died for his ignorance of God's instruction and ways and what glorified Him.
Uzzah was not properly instructed either by his religious leaders, his father or his own studies on the proper, God honoring way in which to carry the Ark. This cost him his life. May we learn from the unintentional but real sin of Uzzah.
Thus, the subject of education needs to be exposited from Scripture so your congregation can seek to obey and glorify God as God reveals His will and ways to them via the Scripture.
Not, let's just all love one another here so no one feels left out or hurt. Yes we need to speak the truth in love. Yet even spoken in love, sometimes the truth hurts. The Scriptures say that doctrine divides. Yet, because we love, the truth of Scripture still needs to be spoken.
And when the truth is spoken, there will be those who will cry legalist or judgmental, or unloving or intolerant. We can only pray that when the truth is spoken in love that the Holy Spirit will use that truth to open the heart, mind, eyes and ears of the hearer to His truth.
But, we MUST speak the truth even when it's not popular, and speak the truth in love. You cannot divorce truth from love. They are hand in glove.
Posted by Fatherof10 | July 16, 2009 2:07 PM
Have you seen this article? There is a lot to think about.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=102269
Posted by julie | July 16, 2009 2:54 PM
Dear Josh,
Thank you for addressing an issue that can oftentimes be very unnecessarily and detrimentally divisive in the church. Thank you for your display of God's grace.
To "Eyes Wide Open" and to other disagree-ers:
I was homeschooled myself until high school, then attended a Christian high school and a secular university. I now am a public school educator. I was quite appalled by your blanket statement about public schools: "Government schools are run by secular-humanist God haters who insist on teaching our children to think like them." I consider myself to be neither a secular humanist, nor a God hater, but rather a disciple of Jesus Christ who wants to share His love with my students and hopefully to impact them for His glory through my words and actions. I cannot count the number of friends/colleagues that I have in public education who are seeking to do the same.
Another note, while I do feel like I was given a wonderful education by my parents and in my home (and am myself considering homeschooling our children when the time comes), I do feel that there was one very large disadvantage. Namely, I do not remember having the opportunity to befriend or witness to non-believers as a child. I remember being asked in Sunday School to write down the names of three people who didn't know Jesus that we can pray for...I found this to be a very difficult task. I believe that if done properly, and still discipled in the home and in a community of faith, children can be a powerful testimony of the grace of God in their lives to their teachers and classmates in the public schools. We must never completely isolate ourselves from the world to the point that we cannot be the ambassadors that Christ has called us to be.
Finally, I do agree with Josh that choosing a method of education is not in and of itself a moral issue. How you "train up your child in the way he should go" in whatever method of education you choose is a moral issue. If one educational method is inherently immoral, what would you say to the recently saved single mother who is working 2 jobs to support her children? Are you going to tell her that she is sinning by sending her children to public school? No, I would tell her that she needs to glorify God in the raising of her children.
Posted by Patty | August 1, 2009 1:33 PM
Certainly agree with you on the grace and latitude issue. We are saved by grace through faith.
Not a moral issue? Strongly disagree. Fatherof10 wrote it well.
When it comes to public school, I hope that you are unaware of what is happening in our school systems.
It is hard to not think there is a conflict of interest with your church running a private school. You are forced to promote and condone private schooling. The logical next step is that you must ensure tolerance of public schooling. Compromise will bring capitulation.
Your message is compassionate and appealing to our hearts, but it is fundamentally dialectic and unsound. As Fatherof10 did, I encourage you to study eduction in God's terms and not those of your congregation. "Safely Home" is a decent book that can help with a historical view.
Posted by Kevin | November 12, 2009 1:39 PM