Your Christian School

You have seen God’s many blessings this past year an experienced his grace through some trials, but have you asked yourself how God views your school? Does every program of your school honor Him? Do you have a truly Christian school? What is a Christian school? Now would be a good day to stop and evaluate your school.

A school is not a Christian school just because it is held in a church facility. Churches typically use their facilities for many types of programs, so just having a school in your church facility does not make it a Christian school. A school is not a Christian school because it has Christian leaders, Christian staff, or Christian supervisors in the Learning Center. There are many schools today that claim to be “Christian,” but simply calling a school “Christian” does not make it Christian. Many schools are like the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3; they are “Christian” in name only.

What is a Christian school? A school is a Christian school because it adheres to the Christian philosophy. If you believe and instruct that God is our Creator, Lord, and Master, and He has given us one rule book, the Bible, by which to live, your school is a Christian school. The Great Commandment in Deuteronomy 6:4–12 reminds us that God’s Word must be imparted to our children. Your school is a Christian school as you instruct and instill into the hearts and minds of your students the principles of God’s Word. The Bible must be your guide for faith and practice. All subjects must be imparted from a Biblical perspective and a Christian worldview if your school is to be a Christian school.

In a Christian school, the Bible is the primary textbook in every subject. When a student studies science, he sees the beauty, order, and laws God created. When he studies history, he must learn about our 1st parents Adam and Eve and about the great men who have walked through world history. He must learn about Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, David, Solomon, and all the great kings and prophets of the Old Testament, but especially Jesus Christ, for history is HIS STORY. In math the child becomes aware of the mind of God as it relates to the numerical structure in the universe He created. Sounds, letters, words, and sentences allow the communication of Biblical principles. Language allows a student to read God’s revelation through His Word. In a Christian school, all life is sacred. Through the years our society has made a distinction between the sacred and secular.

Government education teaches the secular—all of life and subjects apart from moral absolutes and faith in a Holy God. They leave the sacred to the church. However, for the Christian, all of life is sacred. Since God created math, language, history, science, and all other academic subjects, they must be learned from a Biblical perspective and worldview. When the Bible is your textbook and Biblical principles are your guide, you have a Christian school.

In the early days of the modern-day Christian school movement, Pastor Levi Whisner in Ohio fought and won the battle against being licensed by the state to operate a Christian school. He argued that his Christian school was an integral part of his church. The church imparted the Bible on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday—every day of the week. Just as children were there on Sunday to be trained in God’s Word, students were there on Monday through Friday to be instructed in the Word of God—to see all of life from a Biblical perspective. When Pastor Whisner won the court case, his Christian school was defined as an integral and inseparable ministry of the local church. His stand showed that he had a conviction to have a Christian school, not a mere preference.

The United States Supreme Court has defined the church as “beliefs and believers who hold those beliefs.” These “beliefs” have been further defined as either convictions or preferences. Do you have a preference for a Christian school? Or is it a conviction that God has commanded you to do and you can do nothing else?

Why do you have a Christian school? Is your Christian school simply an alternative to government education? If your school is going to be called a “Christian” school but only in name and not adhere to the philosophy that all life is sacred and that all subjects must be instructed from a Biblical perspective, you have your school for the wrong reasons. But if you have a true conviction that God is the Creator of all things—that all life is sacred and you are responsible to the only God, if you believe that God has mandated that we thoroughly ingrain the Scriptures into the hearts and minds of our children and you have no alternative but to do what God says to do, then you are operating your school for the right purpose and you have a Christian school.

May God bless you in the passion He has given you to train a new generation of young people to be productive.

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