The Real “Real” World

While speaking with a parent who was considering enrolling in our school, he expressed that he was struggling with the thought that a Christian school shelters kids, wanting his children “exposed to the real world”.  I responded, “Really?”  Do you truly believe that what is going on in secular education today is the real world?  If so, do you truly believe that you want your greatest treasure exposed to that reality?  With all that I’ve seen and read of the atmosphere, values, and politics existing in our state schools, I find it difficult to comprehend why anyone would desire that as the standard of excellence for our children’s academic foundation.

Having said that, I am not writing as an indictment on our public educational system, nationally or locally.  There are many fine teachers and administrators in our public schools.  There are many good things going on in them to prepare students for college & career.  I am both a product of public education and taught there for eight years.  Some of my best friends teach there because they have been called there, Christian-wise and otherwise.  But that is not the point.  To call it the real world does not make sense.  Most folks, given the choice, would vacate in an instant.  Why do you think that charter schools are so popular?  It’s a public school, with a private school feel.  It’s our attempt to improve our schools . . . by providing an alternative.  It makes us feel better.

My “indictment” (with all due respect!) is more upon a Christian community that should know better.   With all that I experience, on any given Sabbath, regarding our place and progress in the Kingdom of God, how can we not claim those things in the lives of our children?  We say “Amen” to sermons preached on “growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”, we lift holy hands to choruses sung about “surrendering it all to Jesus”, and we idolize TV evangelists who call us to “position ourselves for God’s blessing and prosperity”.  Yet, when it pertains to our young people, we are satisfied with a part-time, hit or miss spiritual, educational formation.  If the truth be told, Sunday School, youth group, and VBS are not sufficient in the view of this world for our children . . . but we continue to look the other way and pretend it is.  Unreal.

Theologically speaking, and this is where we must go first, Christian education is where children will receive a biblical view of the real, real world.  Since the Fall, the world God created has not been “real”.  Jesus’ death and resurrection redeemed the world and ushered in a new order.  Throughout the Scriptures, God has given us the mandate to pass on this view of “the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done” (Psalm 78:4).  Paul echoes this, encouraging Timothy to “continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know from whom you have learned it” (2 Timothy 3:14).  It is in this challenge, and our commitment to it as a people of God, that the future of our churches, our families, and our heritage of faith will be forged.

Secondly, it is that spiritual dynamic that actually enhances and completes the academic side.  If we honestly believe what Paul said to the Athenian intellectuals that, “For in Him (God) we live and move and have our being”,  then how can we deny what  that says about the education our kids should receive?  If we honestly agree with what Paul wrote to the Colossians that, “For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in Christ all things hold together”, then how can we not desire that kind of academic preparation . . . in order for them to impact the culture of that real world?

The commitment to providing our youth with a real view of the real world will no doubt cost us.  I believe if we could offer a Christian school education for free our schools would be overflowing!  Yet part of the real world is that there is a cost to discipleship.  Perhaps, instead of paying for all the things we do to heighten our own spirituality, we should sacrifice all we can (I’m speaking to churches, not just parents) to see that kingdom kids get a kingdom education.  What greater place to place our economic resources than to invest in the spiritual growth, academic grounding, and social gathering that takes place in Christian education.  Oh sure, it’s not perfect, it’s not heaven . . . but it’s real.

Keeping it real,

Bill Stevens