Get Smart! (BFM #20)
Text: Proverbs 3:13
By: Ken McKinley
(Read Text)
Well we are continuing on this morning with our study of the BFM, and today we are looking at article 12 on Education so take your copy of the BFM and turn with me to article 12 on page 16 (Read).
I think that one of the greatest ironies among Christian parents is that so many of them seem to have higher standards for their children’s babysitters than they do for their children’s teachers. It goes something like this: “We need a baby sitter. Whoever we hire should be a Christian, and we should know them, and their family, and they should probably have some pretty good references, or else.”
But then 5 or 6 years later Jr. comes home from his first day of school and the first question parents usually ask him is, “So whose your teacher son?” The parents don’t even know the teachers name. They don’t know if he or she is an atheist or a Southern Baptist. They don’t know if he or she is a socialist or a conservative capitalist. They don’t know if they’re homosexual or not. And what is the job of this teacher? Well nothing much, just to shape how their child thinks, to shape their child’s world view. To teach our kids how we got here, what our nature is, what our purpose is, what we should strive for, how we should conduct ourselves… just to name a few.
Now granted, in a small town like Fort Supply this isn’t such an issue, parents know their children’s teachers fairly well. And let me just say this quickly, the Christian teacher in a secular school is just like a front line missionary in a hostile country. But sometimes, even in small towns, even when the parent does know the teacher, they still aren’t sure where the teacher stands on religious issues, or social issues, or political issues. They don’t know because those things are “taboo” they are off limits. And I think there are 2 main reasons why this has happened; first of all, we have bought into the idea that the Federal Government is the one who guarantees “quality” in education. In-other-words; if something is “licensed” or “accredited,” then we just assume that the quality is good. The SBC has 6 Seminaries; but there are many, many unaccredited Bible Colleges out there, some of them are really, really good, some aren’t so good. But being accredited by the Federal Government is by no means a guarantee of quality. And the second reason has to do with our unwillingness to engage in any type of conflict. Now this opens up into a broad array of things; we want to seem tolerant so we don’t pry, we don’t want to pry because we might not like what we find out, which means that we will have to either push our conscience down or make some changes in our lives to accommodate the necessary changes in education our children might require.
But the reality is that neutrality is impossible. Jesus made neutrality impossible when He said in Matthew 12:30, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me, scatters abroad.” But you see, secularism isn’t neutral either. Ask a teacher sometime if they can explain the origin of man without using either the Bible or Darwin’s theory. Ask a teacher if they can explain why the pilgrims came to America without teaching about their desire for religious freedom? I’m sure they could, but that would be a lie wouldn’t it? Ask a teacher sometime to explain the cold war without siding with capitalism or communism. There is no neutrality. And if we think there is, we are fooling ourselves.
Why is all this important? Because there is a consequence for ideas, and ideas come from a worldview, and our education formulates our worldview. Are our children learning a Christian worldview or a secular humanistic worldview? Why is our country in the shape its in? Why is it that things like abortion, and same sex marriage are even issues today? I would say it’s because our country and our culture is incapable of thinking with a Biblical, or Christian worldview.
Now here’s the thing. Often times we will tell ourselves, “Well it’s the church’s job to give my children a religious education, and it’s the schools job to educate my children in other matters. And the Church will balance out the secular.
But let me show you something that maybe you’ve never considered before.
There are 52 Sundays in one year. Your children; or grandchildren, if they come to church every Sunday, will get to spend roughly one hour every Sunday in Sunday School, and if they come to Team Kids on Sunday evening then they get roughly another hour. That is 104 hours a year that the Church is able to teach them. The last statistics I’ve seen say that the average 8 year old spends about 20 hours a week watching TV – that’s 1040 hours per year watching TV, the average 12 year old spends anywhere from 30 – 50 hours a week in front of his or her computer. That’s 1560 – 2600 hours a year, and these numbers are even worse when the TV or computer is in their bed room. Kids spend roughly 7 hours a day, 5 days a week in school, for about 180 days in Oklahoma. That’s 1260 hours of secular education. Compare any of those with the 104 hours of education a year they get from church. It isn’t primarily the church’s job to educate our children, and it definitely isn’t the government’s job, it’s the parent’s job.
All of this stems out of a rejection of knowledge.
Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” but it wasn’t because the knowledge wasn’t available. Let me quote the whole verse to you. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
It wasn’t that the knowledge wasn’t available; it’s that people rejected it. They didn’t understand the importance of it, or quite simply, they didn’t want to burden themselves with it. I don’t think it’s any different today. We have more educational opportunities than any other generation of Christians at any time in history. Ours isn’t a problem of not having access to knowledge, our problem is that we reject it.
And I’m speaking specifically of a Christian education or a Christian knowledge base. Again that’s probably because we separate our religious life from our secular life (that’s a sermon in and of itself).
Now the Bible is pretty clear that God wants His people to learn. We may not take this seriously today, but Christians have historically understood this. There is a great book titled, “How the Irish Saved Civilization.” Now that title might seem a bit funny to you, but it’s actually a historical account of how when the Roman Empire fell, Irish Christians preserved not only the Bible, but also many books of history, philosophy, legal theory, science and literature. And because they did this, it lead to an eventual revival of education. When the Protestant Reformation began; John Calvin promoted an elementary education for all children, and then later on established secondary schools as well, using what we call the classical method of education. Christians actually began Sunday Schools to help poor, non-Christian children who had little access to a good education. Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were all founded by Christians and were all originally Christian institutions for higher learning.
So we see that historically; Christians have believed that knowledge and education were important; and we need to get back to this. The question we have to ask ourselves is, how do we go about doing it? Well I’ve already touched on this. Primarily; Christian education is something that should begin at the home. Moms and dads are responsible for their children’s education. Deuteronomy 4:9 says, “Take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren.”
Proverbs 4:1-4 clearly teaches that children are to be taught by their parents, lets turn there and read that (Read).
And so it’s up to us as parents and grandparents to be the front line in our children’s and grandchildren’s education; and believe me, I understand it’s not that easy. I’m not saying that you have to home school, or even take your kids or grandkids out of public school, even though the SBC did call for that a few years back; but I don’t know that this is necessary. What I am saying is that we as Christians had better be looking into what our kids are learning. We had better be supplementing their education and correcting things that the secular education gets wrong. And though I just said it’s not that the Church is to be the primary educator of children, we are to be a part of it. The Church is called to make disciples, and that word “disciples” is from the same word where we get “discipline.” Now the discipline I’m talking about isn’t necessarily getting a whippen’ when you behave badly; that’s included, but more specifically, it means a way of behaving that is influenced by a well trained lifestyle. This is the command given to us in the Great Commission. We are to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, TEACHING THEM to observe all the things that Jesus has commanded us.
If our church had the money and the man-power I would push that we open a Christian School here; we’ve got the building space, but that’s another matter entirely.
The point is that the Church is to come along-side the parents and help in any way that we can, in training up children in the way they should go.
So how do we as Christian parents and grandparents make this applicable to our lives today, short of opening our own Christian school? Or maybe not short of, but beyond that… Well if I can I would like to make a couple of suggestions that we should consider. #1. Get into a routine of personal and then familial discipleship at home. Get together with your wives and kids and read the Bible. I remember as a kid; visiting my grandpa and shortly before bed time he would read the Bible. I hated it as a kid, I really did. The last minutes before bed I wanted to get in as much playing as I could before I had to go to bed. We’ve done this in our own home and I see the same thing from my own kids, and I’m not going to tell you that its an easy thing to do, because it can be frustrating for both the kids and the parents. But the point is to share with your family the life giving, life changing Word of God. It’s sowing seed.
#2. Secondly; we should get intentional about your children or grandchildren’s spiritual formation. That involves praying for them, but also being an active part in their education, both spiritual and otherwise. But it also involves what I call modeling. There is a saying that goes, “Be the kind of parent you want your kids to grow up to be.”
Don’t leave this up to someone else, because they aren’t the ones God is holding accountable for it.
#3. And thirdly; get involved in passing on your own knowledge. Vacation Bible School is just around the corner and we will be needing teachers for the classes, or you could help out with Team Kids, or maybe you have an idea for ministry or education… please let us know, we have business meetings once a month.
Psalm 145:4 tells us that it is the Biblical duty of every Christian generation to educate the next generation about the majesty and power, and wonderful works of God.
So let’s review and then we’ll close.
#1. Parents educate your children as best you can. #2. The Church will partner with parents in educating their children, and #3. The Church should be equipping the parents and others to educate the children.
PRAYER AND CLOSING
