Perilous Times for Churches and Christian Schools

Perilous Times
for Churches and Christian Schools

1. SPIRITUAL DECLINE

Many pastors and Christian school administrators believe that the most critical problem they encounter today is the spiritual and moral decline occurring within the Christian community. Every secondary school administrator in the ACSI Critical Issues Survey listed this as the number one problem. Year by year the world is becoming more worldly, and there is also a corresponding decline in the Christian community.

Charles Colson, in one of his latest books, The Body, also expressed his concern for the Body of Christ - the Church:

Peace with our Culture?

"When compared with previous generations of believers, we seem among the most thoroughly at peace with our culture, the least adept at transforming society, and the most desperate for a meaningful faith."

In Kingdoms in Conflict, Colson indicts comfortable Christianity.

"In post-World-War-II Christianity, Christianity has become a religion of private comfort and blessing that fills up whatever small holes in life that pleasure, money and success have left open."

Administrators have expressed concern that many or most of the families now enrolling students in Christian schools have lower spiritual standards than the families of ten to twenty years ago.

Most of the parents of our children enrolled in Christian schools, have not had a Christian education themselves. Therefore, our teachers in Christian schools today are observing a paradox: They are to represent the values of the Christian home - en loco parentis - in the place of the parent. Yet many believing parents have accepted a secular view of the world, relationships, and goals. It would be safe to say that many, if not most, parents who have enrolled their children in Christian schools today, do not understand, or can not express a Christian philosophy of education. If asked why they choose to send their children to a Christian school, few parents cite any Biblical convictions.

2. Parenting Skills

Another major problem we will have to face in the Christian community is the fact that many of our parents do not know how to parent effectively. Many have not had positive parenting in their own experience, and, consequently, don't know how to deal with their children.

Most of our society, even our Christian society, have assumed the position that it is the school's responsibility to solve all the problems in our world. Education, which at one time was viewed as a cooperative endeavor of the home, the church, and the school, is now seen as the sole responsibility of the school. If the public school can’t help my kid, then I’ll put him in a private school. I don’t care if it is Christian or not.

Our Christian schools today have to deal with children and their parents whose spiritual commitment is not deep. Today we find ourselves ministering to families and their children who have much less of a commitment to Biblical Christianity and ethical, selfless behavior. Dr. James Braley wrote in Critical Issues Facing Christian Schools, "Schools are now populated with students who challenge authority, question Biblical truth, and are convinced that "the lie" is really the truth." "They relate all they experience to what they view around them in the press, on television, in motion pictures, magazines, novels, and music."

What, then, are the implications for our Christian schools?

Bible Curriculum needs to move to personal application and away from academic content.

We need to recruit and retain staff who model Christian family commitment daily in their classrooms. Eph. 5:1,2a "..be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love.."

Increased parenting classes, especially for preschool parents.

Provide ministry outreach opportunities for our students to teach the spiritual rewards of serving others.

3. CHRISTIAN FAMILY DISINTEGRATION. The disintegration of the Christian family is another issue that will affect our schools and churches significantly in the late 1990’s. Our schools are witnessing problems that were minimal just ten years ago.

Parents lack parenting skills

Children lack supervision at home

Growing numbers of children are from single parent homes

"Inaccessible Fathers" - part of the family, but little or no meaningful communication with the family

Many children are "Latch-key Children"

Divorce and custody battles hinder learning

Psychological and sexual abuse by family members is increasing

Parents have not given Christ the pre-eminence in their own personal lives, in their marriage, and in their parenting

Schools are involved in areas that once belonged to the family.

4. Our Society has changed

We are living in times that are very different from when we were children. Schools were safe and generally good. It was expected that most of the people areound you attended church regularly. Gay meant happy. Pot was a pan. The labels have all been switched. "I want to hold your hand," once a popular Beetle song, is extremely mild by today’s musical standards. But for our children, today is all they have experienced!

Two coeds living in a private residence in Wisconsin advertised for a third roommate. One applicant declared to them that she was lesbian. The two roommates, deeply disturbed by this revelation, stated that they were unwilling to have her live with them. The lesbian applicant filed a grievance with the Madison Human Rights Commission. The commission upheld her grievance and required the two coeds to pay the applicant $1,500 for distress, send her a public letter of apology, have their living arrangements monitored by the Commission for two years to make certain they did not commit another such act, and finally, attend a ‘re-education’ class taught by homosexuals.

Bible Studies & Prayer Meetings Illegal!

In Colorado Springs, minister Richard Blanche has been repeatedly cited for holding religious meetings in his home in violation of a city zoning ordinance.

In Fairhaven, Massachusetts, local zoning officials ruled that Bible studies were home occupations and therefore prohibited under the town's property-use ordinances.

Our judicial system has radically changed in the 30 years.

Presiding Judge Mary Morgan of the San Francisco Municipal Court is a radical lesbian activist who lives with the president appointed Roberta Achtenberg, who heads the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Judge Morgan expelled the Boy Scouts of America from public facilities within the Bay area and from the lists of charitable givers. In defending her action, she said, "Do we want children learning the values of an organization that ...provides character building exclusively for straight, God-fearing male children?"

What can our schools do accomplish their mission with limited time and money and still meet the needs of disintegrating Christian families? What can our churches do?

I believe that churches and Christian schools need to come along aside each other and mutually support each other’s ministries. We are living in spiritually perilous times and need each other. The Christian schools need the support and recognition by pastors and their congregations. Our churches need the support and attendance by our school families.

Christian schools are bursting at the seams today. Most have waiting lists. Facilities are difficult to find and finance. Churches that open their doors to provide space for needed classrooms attract parents to attend Sunday services.

In India I met with principals from 83 schools who reach into a hostile, non-Christian community by first starting a Christian school. From that school, there springs forth a Bible study in the school. The Bible studies grow and reach the community for Christ. Soon a church building is constructed on the school site. The Christian school and the church are an integral team in presenting Christ to a non-believing community.

In Mindanao in the Southern part of the Philippines, one pastor told me: In Davao City, when one church or Christian school sponsors something, we all support it. Here we can’t afford our petty differences. We are surrounded by Muslims who watch us. We need to demonstrate our love for each other."

Dr. James Dobson and Gary Bauer have stated that we are in a "Second Great Civil War." It’s a war of values and ideas. It’s a war of "world views." Our children are the most vulnerable. Dobson and Bauer are very concerned.

"A war has been given and only one side appears to know about it...Someday soon, a winner will emerge and the loser will fade from memory....Children are the prize to the winners....Those who control what young people are taught and what they experience--what they see, hear, think, and believe-will set the course for the future of this nation...For now, American children are balanced precariously and the outcome is very much in doubt."

5. The home, the Church, and the Sunday school are not enough to train and influence our children in today's society.

Many forces, values, and messages bombard our children: home, school, church, television, friends, music, magazines. Between the seventh and 12th grades, the average teenager listens to 10,500 hours of rock music, just slightly less than the entire number of hours spent in the classroom from kindergarten through high school.

One study concluded that teenagers spend more than 12 hours each week listening to the radio and another 8 hours weekly listening to records or tapes. According to a recent University of Minnesota study, listening to music is the primary way troubled teens say they cope with problems. (After music, they turn next to friends, drugs and video games, the survey said. Talking with parents came near the bottom of the list. Tying for last place were teachers, clergy, and professional counselors.)

What about the influence of Sunday school programs? The Sunday school is a powerful influence for good, but it represents less than 1% of a child's time. That percentage assumes perfect attendance in Sunday School. It's totally unrealistic for me as a parent to assume that one hour of Sunday school can successfully compete with a 30-hour per week experience where required attendance has the force of the law.

Well then, what about the influence of strong Christian homes? The home is a powerful influence for good, but studies reveal how little actual contact there is between children and their parents, particularly fathers. How much "quality" time do we as Christian parents spend with our children? Some educators are beginning to question just how strong the "Christian homes" are today from which are students come.

I believe that the home and the Sunday School are not enough to train and influence our children. They are essential, however! At one time in history, Roman parents were concerned that they provide their children with the best education possible. In their culture, that meant us ing Greek slave teachers. These Greek teachers did not teach from a value-free vacuum. Teachers today do not teach from a value-free position, either. The Greek slave teachers thought as Greeks and taught as Greeks. Roman parents were shocked when they discovered a Biblical principle we know today. "A child when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher." Lk 6:40. The pupils had Roman bodies, but Greek minds. They could not become Roman soldier/statesmen--their minds would not permit that.

In Is a Christian School Education The Best Choice For Our Children? Dr. Kenneth O. Gangel stated several reasons why Christian schools are good for our churches.

Christian schools affirm and assist a biblically based belief system. Schools support and expand the teaching ministry of the church.

Christian school students provide an environment to help students share their faith effectively.

A Christian school experience can be effective in calling the next generation to recognize and respond to the Great Commission.

Today, our children receive conflicting values-laden messages from school, television, radio stations, music, and friends. My children need to be in an educational environment in which their teachers are deeply committed to Jesus Christ and to a Christian philosophy of education. They need to learn from educational materials that are Biblically-integrated. My children need to know that Jesus Christ does make a difference in their learning. That environment only exists for children in a Christian school and a dynamic church.

Our children need to hear a consistent, unified message coming from parents, churches, and Christian schools. Let’s work together to reach the leaders of the next generation while we have the time.

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