Retreat . . . to Advance

Pears In Poplar Trees

You can’t stop Christmas!  It happened as an historical event and it continues to happen in our lives each Advent season.  We prepare . . . prepare our homes for visiting, prepare our meals for consuming, prepare our gifts for sharing, prepare our churches for worshiping, and (hopefully) prepare our hearts for reflecting upon “Emmanuel”, God with us.  It’s in the air . . . Christmas is here, you can’t stop it.

Oh, man has tried, for sure, and is still trying.  Herod tried . . . and failed.  We hear it more and more, year after year.  “Happy Holidays”, no manger scenes allowed, no references to the Christ child, winter concerts, not even Christmas trees or lights ~ and that’s in school!  HIGHER LEARNING calls us to be schools of Christmas.  Some would have all references to Christmas (Christ’s Mass) obliterated from our culture.  Thank God for all the consumerism that keeps that from happening!!!

With these thoughts in mind, I would like to share my favorite story of Christmas.  No, it’s not from the Bible, nor from legend or tradition.  It’s a modern day story that my wife and I heard while living and working in Romania.  As some may remember, it was 20 Christmases ago that two dramatic and historical events took place in our world.  In late November, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down.  Those of us that watched it on CNN were mesmerized by what we saw . . . people chiseling away at this monument to Communist isolation and socialism.  President Reagen’s words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”, became reality through a breach in the concrete and a flood of common folk longing for freedom and liberty.  From that time forward the world as we knew it began to change . . . and so did the life of yours truly.

The second event followed closely on the heels of the first, yet the seeds were planted the year before.  In December 1988, in the city of Timisoara, Romania, the air was changing and the people of that country began to stand up against the totalitarian regime of Nicolae Ceausescu and his co-dictator wife.  It started when a representative group went to the capital of Bucharest and requested of their leader that they be allowed to celebrate Christmas this year.  It had been well over 40 years since the last Christmas was recognized in this atheist nation, meaning that a whole generation had grown up not knowing of the traditions, excitement, family gatherings . . . let alone the little town of Bethlehem, the angels from the realms of glory, and the shepherds watching their flocks!  I’m not sure we can fathom that notion, but then again . . .

Well, of course, the answer they received was an emphatic “NO!”.  In fact it was not just a “no”, but Ceausescu followed it with a bold, arrogant, yet prophetic declaration, “You can celebrate Christmas in this country when pears grow in poplar trees!”.  With that the group of Romanians was dismissed (fortunately not jailed!).   The people went home to Timisoara and totalitarianism prevailed . . . for the time being.

One year later, almost to the day, that crumbling occurred in Berlin, symbolic of the crumbling of Communism and atheistic rule in the former Soviet Union and its satellites.  In Romania, the spark that began in Timisoara was now spreading across the nation to the capital in Bucharest.  The wave of protest and revolt throughout Eastern Europe became unstoppable.  The curtain had been thrown back and the “wizard of totalitarianism” was revealed for what he was.  The dictator of fear had no clothes!  Ceausescu and his wife tried to escape through secret tunnels in their palace, boarding a helicopter for escape to neighboring Russia for asylum.   Unfortunately for them, the pilot was one of those protesting.  He landed the craft and the “odd couple” were arrested, tried, convicted, and executed all in one night . . . Christmas Eve, 1989.

The next morning, Christmas Day, the citizenry of Timisoara, Romania awoke to find the poplar trees in the city square decorated with pears!!!!  The prophecy was fulfilled . . . again.

Mans’ efforts to confound the plan and purpose of God will not stand.  We can take heart in that this Christmas.  What happened in Romania was not an old wives’ tale.  It happened, and happened in this generation.  May it never be said of us.  So in the midst of all the preparation for this holy day, let us pause to appreciate the freedom we have to do so.  While we prepare for the day, let us also prepare Him room . . . room in our lives.  It can get pretty crowded in there and Christmas can easily get pushed aside, “celebrating”, yet not.  Pretty soon we won’t recognize it anymore and we will wonder what happened.  The Romanians will tell you it can happen!

While it may not seem a Christmas verse, it certainly is fitting for this story ~ “The Lord  foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples.  But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations”  ~Psalm 33:10

You just can’t stop Christmas.

“Preparing a Highway For Our God”

My wife and I recently had a nostalgic moment while driving to upstate New York to visit our daughter and new granddaughter.  We are from that area and were traveling along the “highways & byways” we had known for over twenty years.  It fostered much discussion about all the memories we had made, traveling these roads.  We waxed philosophical about how these old highways were part of God’s way of preparing us, our family & friends, our ministry, and our own faith as a heritage of His work in our lives.  It was weird how journeying along those roads caused us to recall our personal journey . . .

It brought to mind the words of the prophet Isaiah, “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness . . . it will be for those who walk in that way”. While this speaks of a highway, it is not a literal road traveled.  In fact it may be the “road less traveled” these days!  This road is the way that God laid out before his people all throughout the Old Testament ~ “This is the way, walk in it”. It’s the same highway that John the Baptist had come to travel and prepare the way ahead.  It’s the same road that led to the advent of Christ . . . and leads us still.

Today, we do travel that same highway and, in the perspective of HIGHER LEARNING, are preparing the children of the next generation for Christ’s second advent.  This “Way of Holiness” is the avenue of discipleship which prepares young hearts for learning and living their faith into the next generation.  Fools and the unclean will not walk there, only the redeemed.

I’m convinced that a Christian school education is an integral stretch of that highway of preparation.  We can no longer think that the “rest stops” of youth activities alone is enough to guide our young people along life’s pathway.  They are at best, supplemental and should be.  We also seem preoccupied, even obsessed, with a certain emphasis that scholastic and interscholastic achievement are more important in the preparation for our children’s future(?).   This is not to say that these are not important, they are truly important, and, sad to say in some Christian schools, are found lacking!  But they can also become “voices” calling us to the right and to the left as distractions to God’s real purpose.  It’s the Voice behind us, the voice of the Lord, calling us to keep to the ancient path, the path that leads to understanding, peace, life, and true living (Prov 21:6, Luke 1:79, Psalm 16:11, I Timothy 6:19).

I believe this because I believe God’s Word is true.  I believe this because I’ve experienced it in my own life, and I believe this because I have seen it in my 30 years of walking this same highway.  I know, I know, it all sounds so metaphorical . . . “highway of God”, “walking the life”, “staying on the path”.  But just like Christ’s parables, these are heavenly descriptions of practical living.  I view Christian education is part of the same work as John the Baptist, one of preparation.  We in the Christian school movement are preparing the next generation of the Church and the Christian family to (and I emphasize like Aerosmith) “walk this way”.

So, during this Advent Season, even in our holiday travels, as we reflect upon the celebration of the Word made flesh, may we be reminded of the road we have been called to walk along, reminiscing of God’s direction and provision along the way, and recommitting our efforts and resources to prepare our young people to continue the journey after us.  In so doing, they prepare the next generation with that same biblical perspective that whatever we learn, it is for the Kingdom at the end of the highway . . .

Merry Christmas and Happy Trails,

“Advent Perspective”

OK, last weekend I had my annual bout with converting to atheism.  This consideration is brought on while putting up our Christmas decorations!  Between the tree in the house and the lights outside, I wondered what I really believed in and why?!?!?!  First the tree.  We have a family tradition of joining our oldest daughter and grandson in cutting down our trees.  That is always a delightful time.  That holiday feeling goes right down the drain in getting it in the stand, straight, and secure.  Being a “bit” obsessive compulsive, the slightest degree away from vertical will set me off.  So while I am attempting to screw those three bolts into the tree, I am convinced that my wife, who is holding the top STEADY, moved it off center, I just know it.  The three guide wires finally helped!

Then comes the outdoor lights.  After regretting that I didn’t pack them better last Christmas, I spend an hour untangling 500 yards of lights.  This was followed by several trips to WalMart to purchase new lights because the ones I purchased last year either don’t work or even worse, half work.  After that trek, I go back because the box I just bought doesn’t work!  Four hours later, I plop down in my chair and wonder why decking the halls with boughs of holly wasn’t enough. And all the while nice smooth jazz Christmas music is being played to soothe this savage beast.   Does Clark Griswold’s name ring a bell?  Bring on the wassail, and plenty of it!

All this to say that, through this adventure in decorating, I realized how quickly our circumstances rob us of our joy in Christ.  My sense of the season, my joy in the journey, and my delight in the details were quickly erased by the troubles with “things”.  My advent perspective had been spoiled by the little inconveniences and difficulties that are meant to be visual reminders and representations of that perspective . . . how sad a creature I am!

Thank God the next day was Sunday.  It “just so happened” that the sermon was about “HOPE” and the Old Testament reading was from Deuteronomy 11, where Moses reminds the people of Israel that, “The land you are entering is not like the land you came from . . . it is a land the Lord your God cares for; his eyes are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end”. It was then that it hit me ~ we worship a God of hope, The God Who has gone before us, in His sovereignty, in His purpose, in His eternal plan, and through His Son.  Where we are headed is not like where we came from, we are moving through a lot of “stuff” toward an eternal home that God’s eyes are continually on.  While we may wonder as we wander through this life, and wish for better and easier days,  we can rest assured that our God still has our best interest in His steady gaze upon what lies ahead.  For the joy set before him Christ endured the cross.  I guess I can certainly endure the decorating because of that same joy.   Interesting that Moses states that God’s gaze is “from the beginning of the year to its end”.   That includes all my days, all the days of 2009, and all the days of coming years.  WOW, I can’t think of anything else in this world that offers that kind of guarantee!  That sounds like hope to me.

So for all those reading this, that have identified with my travail in a morbidly humorous way, take heart!  All that time with all those !#*%^$! decorations actually means something far more than we realize in the doing.  Each Advent is a reminder that He once came, came to bring salvation to us through his life, death & resurrection.  The hope that Moses and the prophets foretold, came to pass.  That hope, FOR us, is Christ IN us, the hope of glory, and we live in that hope now.  So each Advent is also a looking forward, forward to the day when Christ comes the second time.  What a day of rejoicing that will be!  Makes all those decorations seem small in comparison, yet they are part of the perspective of hope in a world that desperately needs it, but is looking in the wrong places . . .

Well, I think I’ll go finish my Christmas decorating now that my Advent perspective is right . . . “Falalalala, lala, la, la”

Bill

Objection . . . Overruled

It was November of 1979 that I entered the ministry of Christian education.  I can hardly believe it’s been 30 years!  It seems like “only yesterday”.  In that thirty years, God has taken me on such a wonderful adventure filled with experiences and opportunities not many others can claim.  There have been indescribable blessings and joys ~ working with teachers, sharing with parents, and discipling students.  Along with that, I have also encountered the burdens and sorrows ~ working with teachers, sharing with parents, discipling students!   It has certainly been a journey, and when weighed in the balance, there have been far more blessings than burdens and far greater joys than sorrows.  My life has been so enriched through my pilgrimage in this crucial work of the Kingdom in the hearts and minds of children.

. . . And that’s the point.  My experience being the head of a Christian school transcends salary, advanced degrees, statistical analysis, achievement, boards, policies, and development.  While those are all components of my career, it’s been about the mission, it’s been about the relationships, it’s been about the service to God, to parents, and to children.  It’s hard to explain.  One just has to experience it to experience it!  Yet over those thirty years, I have heard the same objections, arguments and rationalizations for not joining this crucial element of our childrens’ educational development in our time.   I’d like to cite these objections and (lovingly, yet deliberately) overrule each one . . .

• “Our children should be salt & light in the real world” ~ this may be the 2nd biggest objection of all time (the 1st is coming).  It may also be the toughest to overrule since it sounds so theological or biblical.  Yet, I argue (respectfully) that I do not believe Christ was speaking of young children when he made that statement during his Sermon on the Mount.  He was addressing us.  Well, actually he was drawing an analogy to the way we should live as believers no matter where we go or are, not that we seek to expose our children to the “real world” so, what, they’ll be able to stand up against the forces of darkness at age 7?   Another thought . . . what is this real world?  What does it look like?  Is being in a Christian school unreal?  Can one be salt & light here as well?  I would argue that what is experienced in a Christian school is more “real” than you might think, certainly real in terms of the education and environment that God desires for His children.  As I observe the world around me, responding to the culture, I can hardly say it’s real.  This objection takes shape from one verse of one sermon of Jesus taken out of context, while both Old and New Testaments are filled with instruction, admonition, and challenge to “BE CAREFUL” to instruct, teach, pass on, and disciple our children and our children’s children “to fear the Lord, put their trust in Him and remember all His praiseworthy deed, His power, and the wonders He has done”. That’s the image of the educational and environmental setting in which our children develop that saltiness as children of light!
• “Public school was good enough for me . . .” ~ Sadly, it wasn’t!  I too grew up (some say I haven’t!) in the state system.  I received a good education and was accepted into college.  I had friends.  Following college, I taught history and coached in a state school for seven years . . . can’t really say it was “bad”.  For me, the two points I want to make are, knowing what I know now:  1) that I wish I HAD attended a Christian school, and 2) “good enough” isn’t good enough.  My high school was huge, graduating with 650 other seniors.  It was not a godly place and most of my “real world” associations were at church and neighborhood.  Most of my good friends attended a Catholic school.  My participation in high school was limited due to it’s size and politics.  It wasn’t good enough for me in a practical sense, nor good enough in a spiritual/philosophical sense.  Jim Collins, in his classic work, Good To Great, states that “good is the enemy of great”!   Christian education is great because of its focus, its mission, its process, and its product.  Jesus also said in his Sermon on the Mount, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”. Establishing a biblical mindset, belief and behavior in our children is most definitely a facet of the kingdom, one that is woefully overlooked, showing in our culture and society.  Settling for “good enough” is unsettling to the glory of the kingdom God has set before us.
• “Kids from a Christian school are no different” ~ I beg to differ.  They are different.  In thirty years of unofficial, observable research I can conclude that young men and women who have been raised with that cord of three strands ARE different.  100% of them, 100% of the time?  No, certainly not.  Are students attending the state schools inferior?  Of course not.  The point being that my students in my school are different . . . different in their perspective on life, different in their responses to situations, and different in the manner they conduct themselves in the “real world”.  The whole matter for Christian education is that it is OUR responsibility as citizens of the kingdom of God is to see that they get it.  What they do with it is THEIR responsibility.  It may take longer with some, and for some others it  may bear fruit in another season.  Our sacred duty as parents and as a Church is to supply the means, the resources, and the vehicle for it to happen.  When we unite in our effort to establish God’s kingdom in the hearts and minds of the next generation . . . WOW, I can only imagine the impact, the voice, and the influence we will have on the culture for this kingdom!  The hair on my neck is standing up just thinking about it!  They ARE different.
• “Hey, my children go to Sunday School and youth activities” ~ Great.  So did I, and so did mine . . . but it wasn’t enough.  My youth pastor was a big influence on my teen years and it was my Sunday School teacher who “led me to the Lord”.  But I knew nothing of how God related or applied to my learning.  Knowing God’s perspective on Science, History, literature, and Math was foreign to me.  Speaking of foreign, I didn’t learn Bible verses in Spanish either!  There was no Christian aspect to my educational life until I went away to a CHRISTIAN college.    As fun and engaging as it was, SS and youth group was not enough.  As much as I appreciate and respect the work of youth ministries, I wish we could partner more effectively for our teens . . . for their benefit.
• “Many Christian schools are inferior” ~ Sad to say, this can be true.  Because we are a work of the kingdom, we should work to honor the King!  That means doing whatever is right, true, noble, pure, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.  There are those that fall short of that and perhaps do more harm than good.  The Christian school movement needs to “step up” and meet the challenge of moving from good to great.  My frustration is that we need the support of the Church and the Christian community to make it so.  Without the Church, I am afraid this movement will fade away and we will be left with children being educated in the “real world” that is “good enough”.   Our schools should be the biggest and best.  Our programs should be attracting others to “come and see”.  Our staff should be the best around . . . and paid as “worthy of their hire”.  We should be the model, setting the standard for others to follow.
• “I can’t afford it” ~ This is numero uno objection for me.  I understand that it is true and real.  I wish that it were not so.  My heart’s desire is that Christian school tuition were affordable for all, because I believe it is essential for all.  Politically, I believe that parents should not have to pay taxes to support a failing educational system they do not support.  Our tax money should be able to be used for the education we desire for our children.  But that’s politics, and until “the pain of no change becomes greater than the pain of change, there will be no change”.   So where does that leave us?  I believe we do not rely on the government to support or assist us in Kingdom work.  It’s the pearl of great price, it’s the talents given by the boss, it’s what we are to seek first.  I believe that the Church is the voice, the means, and the catalyst for changing the culture and the future for the Kingdom.  If we were truly tithing folks, I believe that churches would be calling me with money they had left over to support us, I believe we would have people lined-up at the door for enrollment, and I believe we’d create that cord of three strands not easily broken!  THAT is what I believe.  Money cannot overrule the Kingdom.  But it can distract us from it.  Jesus was emphatic in his comparison . . . “hating the one and loving the other, or devoted to one and despise the other . . . for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. For me, and what God emphasizes throughout His Word is, it is children and the next generation that is our greatest resource, greatest legacy, and greatest gift for projecting the kingdom forward.  Where folks have sacrificed as much as they can and still need assistance, then the Christian community should rise up to bring that assistance so that “no child is left behind” from establishing their heart and mind in this kingdom perspective.  Talk about endowment!  Our Christian schools should have their barns full and able to supply . . ..

To sum it all up, I recently was sent information concerning the Manhattan Declaration.  A group of Christian leaders from every denomination, persuasion, and organization, met in NYC and drafted a declaration that proclaimed a “call to arms” around three significant issues facing the country and our culture ~ abortion, alternate life-styles, and religious liberty.  After reading this, I shouted, “THANKS BE TO GOD!”  My only thought in addition to this courageous and much needed proclamation was adding the issue of education.  Without the body of Christ seeking first the kingdom in the succeeding generations, I do not see these matters changing.  I apologize for sounding like a prophet of doom for I am not.  I apologize if I have offended any with my overruling (overbearing?) thoughts on the matter.  It’s just that our children are much too important to ignore.  For many we have certainly not ignored them in giving them all their heart’s desire.  But I want to stress that, for me, it’s coming to grips with these objections, overruling them, and focusing on what is the desire of God’s heart.  While I have been at this for thirty years, I do not think I have thirty more.  My heart’s desire is to see this revival of Christian education as an integral part of God’s kingdom in the land of the living . . . in my living.

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” ~ III John 4

Thanks Be to God . . .

. . . for His indescribable gift!”  This tight little phrase is one of my favorites because, while it is only eight words, there are literally thousands of words that I can add to it within invisible parentheses.  I always bring it out for display and meditation at this time of year.  It seems like an appropriate reminder of what God has done for us, for me, through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.  I’d like to describe just how appropriate God’s gift of Jesus is . . . but I can’t.  It’s indescribable.  And this phrase is coming from a man (Paul) who wrote a good number of letters to a good number of churches, using a good number of words to do just that, describe this gift from God.

I guess that’s the mystery of it all.  We can theologically explain Jesus, his birth, his life, his atonement, his resurrection, and his redemptive work for those of us who believe.  But when we try to explain it personally, “giving our testimony”, we are left with the wonder of it all and it becomes indescribable.  You just have to experience it to experience it!  Oh, I can tell you my own story,  how I came to a time and place in my life when I was drawn to  Jesus personally, asking him into my life, and forgiving me of my sins.  I can give you a chronology of events and the who, what and where.  But to tell you what all that means (if you don’t know) is difficult.  It’s an experiential thing  . . . you know it but you also “know it” . . . you know?  Well,  you know if you have experienced a similar encounter.  What is indescribable is shared through the Holy Spirit of God, heart-to-heart, life-to-life, and soul-to-soul.  This is what makes being brothers and sisters in the Lord so very mystical, that what I cannot express or explain to you, you know and agree!  How weird and wonderful is that?

So this is why I return to this special verse each Thanksgiving and Advent season.  It brings to the forefront that I am to be thankful.  Yes, thankful for all the many blessings (health, family, home, friends [one!], experiences of life, eternal perspective now and eternity later) that God has bestowed upon me in my sixty trips around the sun.  But it also reminds me to be thankful to God for Jesus. And to thank Jesus for being willing to be the atoning sacrifice for me.  “Thank you God for the gift of Jesus to Bill Stevens”.

This is HIGHER LEARNING at it’s fullest and finest.  With all else that a Christian education does in the heart and mind of a child, it is the appreciation that it brings to these little ones that “in Christ all things hold together” and that “he has rescued us (me) from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son”.  Have fun describing that!

One final thought . . . This verse ends with an exclamation point (!).  It would be an interesting study of how many verses in the Scriptures end this way. I don’t think there are many.   Must mean that for the apostle Paul, it was a point of real emphasis, emotion, and embracing!

May this Thanksgiving time, and our upcoming season of Advent be for you a special realization, return, or reinforcement of this truth of Scripture in your own life, along with the wonder of it as just indescribable.

THANKS BE TO GOD!!!!!!!

“S.O.S.”

Many outside of the nautical world may not know this universal distress code (“••• ——— •••”) anymore, and perhaps our modern technology has relegated it to “Davy Jones’ locker?  Yet I believe it needs some revitalization and renewed emphasis today.  Traditionally, those nine electronic clicks signaled “Save Our Ship” (S.O.S.), and were telegraphed as a cry for help from a ship in trouble.  I would like to recast it as “SAVE OUR STUDENTS”.

You see, I hear much in the media these days regarding the legacy of debt, bureaucracy, and moral vacuum we are leaving for this next generation . . . and this writer can hardly disagree.  So I have taken to using this traditional means of notification to become a renewed call for help in our need for a revival to HIGHER LEARNING.  I believe that the educational question is THE crucial issue before us as a nation, as a culture, and as a people . . . particularly the people of God.  Throughout the Old Testament, God has been quite clear in His telegraphed message regarding the training and instruction of the next generation.  ” . . . So the next generation will know the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done” (Psalm 78).   “Be careful and watch yourself closely so that you do not forget . . . Teach them to your children and their children after them” (Deuteronomy 4). We have not been very faithful to that challenge and admonition, and now we must call out in distress, “Save Our Students”!

I recently attended a meeting where a state education official shared with the audience the plan to improve education in our time, raising the standard to be one of the top in the country.  The essential ingredients of this vision for excellence was, of course, the “big three” ~ more $, teacher/school accountability, and student achievement through standardized testing.  As I sat and absorbed it all, I was sad that we continue to seek the solution in purely monetary, accountability and achievement terms.  To me, it was like holding back the (oceanic) tide without any real foundational seawall . . . perhaps reminiscent to Jesus’ parable of the two builders in Matthew 7(?).

Let me be perfectly clear at this point.  There will be no significant change in both educational structure and academic achievement until we recognize and return to a Judeo-Christian basis for our student’s growth and development.  This means that since the Bible tells us that the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge”, and that “In him (God) we live and move and have our being”, then it seems to me to naturally follow that a child’s education must have a faith center and integration into all that we can learn.  Those Biblical principles not only give a centrality to learning, but a reference point for living.  After all, education is not just achievement but preparing for life.

While I do not expect the unbelieving world to embrace my conviction, I am quite disappointed and perplexed that, for the most part, the Christian world, evangelical Church, and even the Christian based colleges do not either!  Then again, in my Christian school experience, I have had numerous encounters with folks who did not express faith, yet “saw something” in the Christian school that they wanted or needed in their family life and children’s’ education . . . go figure.

I do not claim to be a prophet . . . and certainly not one of doom, I know that God has laid it upon my heart to sound a prophetic call in this matter.  I sense in my spirit and through my experience that it is time, in the words of Sting, for “sending out an S.O.S. to your heart!”  I believe that in the time and culture in which we live, it will be the link, the bond, and the relationship between the Church, the home, and the Christian school movement that will be a “cord of three strands that will not easily be broken”.  This can no longer be just a slogan, but a living reality in the life of the Church, our homes, and the education of the next generation.  This movement that I have been a part of for the past thirty years may not continue to exist without the other two.  Too many Christian schools are closing, too many administrators are calling it quits, and too many young people have to go or return to an educational environment that is, at best, God neutral.  That is, and should be, unacceptable to those of us that claim the Kingdom of God for our children.

The S.O.S. is to HIGHER LEARNING.  Until we really grasp the true significance of this, we will continue to view Christian education as an option, we will continue to wring our hands in frustration about the state of education in this country, and we will continue to raise succeeding generations that have not been nurtured in a Kingdom perspective of life and learning . . .

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one . . .”

Pass It On . . .

Here I’ve been a believer and Bible reader most of my life and I’m saying this ~ Deuteronomy is a fascinating book.  Here I’ve been in Christian school education for thirty years and I’m just beginning to appreciate this book’s depth, focus, and prelude to the gospel of Christ.  Where have I been?  I’m sure it has something to do with where I am in my life.  Obviously the Scriptures come to us in different ways at different times of life, plus the Holy Spirit enlightens us to more of God’s truth as we grow older and experience more of this life.   It also must have something to do with our assessment of the times in which we live and how God reveals His Word in those times . . . but this writing is not a diatribe about the state of our culture, but rather about me and the culture to come.

I am approaching my sixtieth birthday, and half of those sixty trips around the sun have been in Christian education.  I have earned an advanced degree in the field and have served as a consultant to a number of Christian schools both here in the States and in Eastern Europe and Russia.  I have written numerous articles on the subject and taught seminars promoting its existence and development.  No one has to convince me of the crucial nature of our young folks receiving Christ centered instruction that provides the framework for a biblical view of God and the world.  Scripture is full of reference supporting this, both in our lives and the lives of our children.

And then along comes Deuteronomy . . . not a book one would naturally “study”.  It’s a narrative about the children of Israel, their history and the law restated.  Restating the law . . . how exciting!  The very title means, The Second Law”. Not something I could get real thrilled about, nor anticipating sinking my teeth into.  So when it came time to pick our school’s year verse, the suggestion of Deuteronomy was a stretch.  It was the Shema that did it.  I was having a conversation with one of our school moms this Spring.  She asked me, “Bill, have you selected a year verse as the theme for the coming school year?” I told her “No” and she encouraged me to read Deuteronomy, in particular chapter 6:4, and see what God would show me.  I hate when that happens.  I’m supposed to pick the year verse, not someone else . . . but I reluctantly looked at it anyway.  It has changed my perspective in many ways, too many to recount or retell here.  My summer was chiefly a time of reflecting on that verse and the surrounding thirty-four chapters.  It took me on a trip into the formation of a people of God, by God.  It told me how vital it was that we be sure that we “keep the law”, not legalistically or Pharisaical, but spiritually and generational.

What it DID was secure, confirm, and clarify for me what this ministry of Christian education is all about in the grand scheme of God’s purpose . . . PASS IT ON!  The entire book is an Old Testament prelude to the good news of Christ in the New Testament.  It’s Moses laying out the law a second time, and also stressing the call and responsibility to be sure that the next generation gets it.  “Hear (Shema), O Israel, the Lord our God, He is God alone.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength . . . Impress this on your children”. And from that point forward, the book proceeds to confirm that there is no greater duty and no greater work than to teach God’s children the wonders of God’s work in the lives of God’s people! This work is reemphasized in Psalm 78, where Asaph challenges the people to “tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done . . . so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children . . .”

So why aren’t all our Christian schools filled to capacity and funded abundantly?  Because we do not see it as a priority.  It sounds nice in Scripture and we believe it is true, but relegate it to forty-five minutes on a Sunday morning, or a three day youth retreat, perhaps even a whole week of DVBS . . . all of which is good and right, just not complete.  The wonders of God that Moses and the psalmist speak of is a consistent, daily teaching that demonstrates God at work in the world, not just how we “feel” about God or “where we are in our Christian walk”.  It’s about “seeing” the laws of God, the statutes, principles, and precepts as they relate to learning and the world in which we live.

Moses knew that in quite a realistic sense.  He had been called to lead God’s people out of bondage and slavery and into the Promised Land.  An eleven day trip turned into a forty year journey . . . a journey that would see a whole generation pass, and a journey that Moses himself would not get to complete.  So passing on the “declaration of dependence” was something that, for the Israelites, lay at the very root of parenting and educating the young ones.

I believe there is no other issue, quite as important, that is before us as a Christian nation, as a body of Christ, and as the family of God than this discipling of the next generation in a biblical worldview.  I beg you to look around you . . . study the times in which we live, survey the landscape of our young people, and search inside your own heart and mind as to what God wants for his people that is echoed in Deuteronomy.  There might be a revival brewing in the reading and implications of this amazing book.  It’s worth passing on . . .

“When Will They Ever Learn?”

The news had just announced the passing of Mary Travers, of Peter, Paul & Mary fame.  It made me sad and nostalgic for that time in my life.  I wanted to dust off my 331/3 collection of their songs, hearing once again “Puff the Magic Dragon”, “Leavin’ On A Jet Plane”, and my personal favorite, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”.  In that song they sing these words, “When will they ever learn, when will they eeeeeeever learn?”

While the song is one of the protest ballads of that era, pointing out the consequences of our apparent lack of learning, it is also a phrase we might use today in reference to our students and their preoccupation with most anything . . . except their learning.  We, as parents and teachers cry, “When will these kids ever learn?”  The more I ponder this time-worn phrase (yes, they did say the same of our generation), the more I realized that more often than not, we are to blame.  It’s the system that is failing, not our students.  We, to quote from Jeremiah chapter 2, ” . . . have committed two sins:  (You) have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug (your) own cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water”. while this was Jeremiah’s stern warning to the people of Judah’s concerning their departure from God, it has implications for our discussion and call here to HIGHER LEARNING.

We actually need a call to a different learning . . . not different in form necessarily, but in function.  For years, we in education have operated under quite a pendulum swing, going from one philosophy of education to another.  We move from pole to pole in our attempt to keep up with the latest trends and techniques.  We institute the latest fad or philosophy in our attempt to reach our students, and in the end we echo the preceding age . . . “When will they ever learn?”  Perhaps it is WE that are represented in this question.

First, we have forsaken God.  A prophet in our time, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, used the same phrase in his now famous address to the West following his release from a Soviet gulag . . . “We have forsaken God”.  He had come out from under the socialistic, atheistic, totalitarian regime of Communism, and so warned us who claim to be one nation under God, to safeguard that trust so that the generations of Americans to follow would learn to keep God as their trust.  My wife and I have had the privilege of visiting Russia on a number of occasions.  Following her first visit, as our plane left the Moscow runway headed for home, she commented, “I just experienced what it looks like for a nation to forsake God!”  His Word emphatically states that we will never see the righteous forsaken, and God Himself said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”.  It is we who have done the forsaking, we have left Him, the source from Whom we live and move and have our being.  In Him all things were created and hold together.  In this forsaking, the generations to follow bear the brunt of it.

Secondly, we then created our own devices and containers of knowledge.  Instead of planting students by streams of living water (Psalm 1), our forsaking has caused us to construct our own water vessels . . . vessels that are cracked and flawed, not holding that water.   If we cannot acknowledge the Creator of all things and in all that we can know, then we must come up with other explanations, vehicles, and systems for learning that scream for focus, purpose and meaning.  The apostle Paul, writing to young Timothy, talks of those that are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God ~ having a form of godliness but denying its power . . . always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.  That sounds like a broken cistern to me!

Now taking this thinking from a spiritual/philosophical discussion to an educational one, the question now becomes, “How should they learn?”  I submit to you that this HIGHER LEARNING, to which we’ve been called, must be lived out practically in the manner of our classroom instruction.  Many parents and teachers think that students learn best by acquiring factual knowledge.  This results in a focus upon achievement (who can acquire the most?), and competition (who can remember it better?).  Rather, Christian schooling is based on several critical distinctives that cannot be overlooked in the education of Kingdom children.

• Students are being educated in responsive discipleship.  That is, viewing students as image-bearers who respond actively to God’s will for their lives and learning.  This biblical view of knowledge implies a multi-faceted engagement with creation.  So it is imperative that instruction in the Christian school classroom must be engaging . . . where students are encouraged to consider their responses to God, themselves, others, and the creation as the basis for any given subject matter and lesson.  This response is where knowledge, understanding and wisdom are formulated and come together in the heart, soul, mind, and strength of the child of God.  This is when learning truly takes place.  When will they ever learn?  When we seek to have them respond to instruction as disciples of Christ.

• Students will learn when we provide for diversity.  By diversity here, I mean in uncovering and utilizing different ways of learning.  Treating students as if they are all the same actually contradicts the essence of who we are in God.  He has created each one of us individually in personality, temperament, ability and gifting.  While we cannot instruct each student individually, we can offer varying expressions and methods of instruction that reach the various learning styles in our students.  Cynthia Tobias, in her  acclaimed work, “The Way They Learn”, breaks down learning into four basic modes.  Her pivotal point in the book (should be required reading in our Christian schools!) is that teachers, more often than not, teach from one style . . . theirs.  This means that, more often than not, they are teaching to no more than one quarter (25%) of their class, basically those that learn from that style.  So, variety of style in instruction, may be the most vital aspect of diversity in the Christian classroom.  When will they ever learn can now be rephrased as HOW will they ever learn?

• Instruction must contain diversity of cultures.  We live in an international world that is getting smaller and smaller.  Through technology, travel, and exposure, we are finding that the global society is a reality we must attend to.  Christian schools, because of their gospel emphasis, their mission perspective, and their call to “all the little children of the world”, must incorporate this global perspective in the curriculum and in the daily instruction to the whole class of students represented.  Students will learn when they see their own culture being included and when they see the richness of other cultures and expressions of this world.

• Expression must also be taught as it relates to the richness of the body of Christ.  Our children must see the full expression of worship and faith that is found in the diversity of the Church.  One of my greatest experiences was living in Eastern Europe and sharing with others of like faith in Christ, yet in the context of their language, heritage, and customs of faith.  While all students can get the opportunity to visit other places, that international proximity can be brought right into the classroom.  The draw of missionary endeavors should be a natural part of every Christian school, bringing living, breathing expression of other cultures to our students.  This will provide energy and wholeness to a Christian education.  When we speak of a truly biblical worldview, I cannot see how we can ignore this aspect of how they will learn.

So, in answer to, and in honor of Mary Travers’ eternal question, “When will they ever learn”?  I say they will learn when we learn to how to truly instruct and nurture them with a view to see the whole of life and learning from a biblical perspective.  This perspective must contain the elements spoken of here, as well as some others that you can add to this conversation as we walk toward that HIGHER LEARNING . . .

The Classroom As Holy Ground

Along my personal spiritual journey, I have been blessed to visit a fair number of holy places across Europe and Russia.  I’ve seen many of the Gothic cathedrals and abbeys of England, ate lunch on the grounds of Stonehenge, and participated in a service in York minster, where mass has been “said” every day for over nine hundred years!  I’ve stood in the Pope’s residence at the Vatican, sat where Luther preached in Worms, and knelt in a small Polish chapel that memorialized the lives lost at Auschwitz.  My friend, Alan Brown and I walked underground to look at the glass tomb and body of Lenin in Red Square, and then, even farther underground (with just a candle in hand) to view deceased monks and beautiful icons in an Orthodox monastery in Kiev.

Now this is said, not to boast or to sound like I’m mimicking Rick Steves.  In all these places, I found myself awestruck, silenced, and inspired to prayer and meditation toward God.  If the truth be told, I found myself worshiping unlike I experience much of the time in church these days.  Why?  What’s the difference?  Was it the atmosphere, being in a foreign country, or the fact that I was humbled by the majesty displayed?  Being a student and teacher of history, I guess it could have been that I was caught up in the sheer “ancientness” of it all, something we just do not have in our adolescent America.  But the more I pondered this the more I realized three things that made these experiences of worship:  liturgy, mystery and revelation.  In all these settings I found that there coexisted ritual, wonder and reverence . . . and I could not help but worship.

The other day I had a deja vu moment while walking through our Christian school.  I was strolling around, greeting the students and teachers, absorbing what was going on in the classrooms.  Suddenly, I was overtaken by the same sensation . . . that I was in a sacred place.  That’s right, it felt like I was standing on holy ground.  I was.  You see, we need to view what we are doing in the hearts and minds of young people as an act of worship.  Oh sure, we have our daily devotions, Bible lessons, weekly chapel . . . we might even sing a bit, but a Christian education IS more than that.  It’s a daily worship service, just like in York minster.  And here’s why,

• There is ritual.  Without ritual, education would be a free-for-all.  The classroom teacher establishes a routine, helping students to organize their thoughts and responses.  And in so doing, orders their steps in their faith/learning journey.  School is filled with ritual and liturgy.  We learn math facts, grammatical rules, natural laws, verb conjugation, chronological events, and warm-up exercises.  The distinctive of a Christian education, like in church, is that the teacher points all these to a Creator God and His Beloved Son who holds all things together.  Frederick Buechner says that ritual is rehearsal for the real thing.  We speak of what we do as “educating for eternity” and so it is.  A truly Christian education is ordering life to worship God on a daily basis, preparing students, not only for life here and now, but for the not yet.  The Christian teacher leads worship through the liturgy of life in the classroom.
• There is mystery.  Much of what we study in school is filled with wonder and kept in secret.  Our role as Christian teachers is to assist our students in unlocking some of that mystery, pondering on some, and accepting some as only belonging to God.  The writer of Ecclesiastes says it so well ~ “He has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end”. We wonder about the cosmos, about a leaf, about a novelist’s intention, about a war, a plague, and a formula (see Job 38-41 for a more detailed list of questions).  We also learn about Christ, God’s grandest mystery, and the One who has hidden within himself “all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom” (Colossians 2:2-3).  The Christian teacher leads the search to unlock the mysteries of life in the world of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.
• There is revelation.  God is in the revelation business.  He has spoken to us through His word, and by the Word made flesh.  He has also made Himself known through His creation and also by His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6-13).  The amazing and sobering realization for us is found in these words of Jesus himself ~ “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children . . . for this was your good pleasure”. We as Christian educators become vessels of God’s good pleasure as we point to, explain, open and help them discover the revelation of God.  In the Christian classroom the word of God is spoken, displayed, modeled, discussed, explained, applied, and integrated into all that we can learn and know.  The Christian teacher leads the journey of revealing what God has said to us about life, the life that is truly worth living.

A recent personal experience confirmed these three as distinctive qualities of Christian schooling.   A mom came to see me and asked if she could share about her 5th grade son beginning with us.  They are new to our school and she wanted me to know that after one week, he came and told her, “Mom, I can’t believe how great this school is.  I can’t believe that we can know so much about God in so many ways than just church!” We cried together, prayed together . . . and, I realized afterward, worshiped together.

This is why we must gain a fresh (new?) appreciation of our Christian schools and the individual classrooms as places of worship.  No, the Christian school should never replace the church, but rather is an extension of all our churches.  It should be the educational arm of EVERY church that seeks to worship Christ in spirit and in truth.  Thomas a’ Kempis, a medieval monk, wrote in his classic The Imitation of Christ,  “Without the Way there is no going, without the truth there is no knowing, and without the life there is no living”. It is disconcerting enough that we have lost so much of true worship in church, emphasizing form over function and experience over liturgy, mystery and revelation.  When it comes to education, we have strayed miles away from this in allowing our children to be taught of a foreign culture in the state schools, where none of what I have written here finds any basis.

It’s time for the body of Christ to get a grip . . . to reconnect worship in church with worship at home and worship in the education of the next generation.  The Christian community MUST come to terms with where we are as a people of God in this respect, and where God would have us proceed.  The Christian school stands at a crossroad with the Church in determining the voice we will have in our society in the future.  One significant aspect of that is seeing the classroom of the Christian school as truly sacred ground.

Maybe we should have the students take off their shoes . . . ?

~Bill