The Church and Education

Imagine a missionary meeting with a group of local pastors. The missionary is fully trained, virtuous, has already been discipling individuals locally, and has a well thought out plan to disciple a hitherto unreached people group. Imagine that he gave a clear presentation of his ideas to his community’s pastors and asked them for their support, but instead of supporting him they said the following. “Look, between us we support what you are doing. But we just can’t take resources from our church and give them to you. Most of the members of our church aren’t missionaries. If we give money to support you, but don’t support accountants or nurses in our church it might appear to some that being a missionary is somehow better than being an accountant or nurse. This really is a good idea, but you have to find a way to make it pay for itself. We simply can’t play favorites by supporting you when we don’t support other members in their vocations.”

I actually can’t imagine this happening with the pastors I know; hopefully none of you can imagine this happening with the pastors you know. But change “missionary” to “Headmaster” or “Principal” and “unreached people group” to “children” and the scenario is all too common. For a variety of reasons many churches are refusing to support Christian education.

Anyone that has spent any amount of time with children knows that children are not born fully formed in Christ. Indeed, every generation is born pagan—every child must be both evangelized and discipled. The question is: whose responsibility is it to disciple these young ones? Is discipleship the responsibility of parents or is it the responsibility of the Church?

Obviously it is both. However, the time that kids spend at home and in church is far less than the time they spend in school. At school they learn how to interact with their peers. Their teachers instruct them on how to discern what is true, good and beautiful. They are taught not just facts about math and history, but if and how they should use and value the things they learn in these fields. In short school inculcates within children a view of the world, as well as habits of thinking and behavior, as it trains them in a mode of life. This is discipleship and it influences students just as much, if not more, as what happens in the home or church. Growth in Christ is no more accidental or passive than growth in physical fitness; if we want our children to grow spiritually they must have a fully immersive discipleship, which includes a Christian education.

And yet our churches are by and large neither advocating for nor supporting this. We are (rightly!) investing in God’s Kingdom all over our world, but we are failing to invest in our young. No missionary is asked to completely fund his work in discipling an unreached people and yet we ask the majority of our Christian schools to fully fund their work in discipling our pagan children.

As our economy becomes increasingly hierarchical and our middle class progressively smaller, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Christian schools to fully fund themselves. Many parents cannot afford to send their own children to a private school, let alone to pay a tuition high enough to support the children of others or to ensure that their children’s teachers receive a livable wage. Do we really want Christian education to be limited to affluent children? Is discipleship only for those that can afford it? Is this a principle of the Kingdom of God?

Of course not. But this will inevitably come about if churches do no change their thinking. Given our economy’s structure parents alone cannot bear the burden of Christian education. If Christian education plays a significant part in discipleship, then the Church must support it. Parents that send their children to public schools may feel upset or judged and may leave churches. But our churches must operate on the conviction of what is true and right and not from a place of fear.