A Christian school crisis—and what to do about it (part 1)
For the record, I’m pro–Christian school. I graduated from Arvada Christian School in 1983, and my wife and I sent our kids to Faith Christian Academy from preschool on. My son graduated from Faith in 2020, and my daughter is a senior there this year. We don’t regret sending our kids to a Christian school, even though my wife has been a public school teacher for the last 28 years. We believe Christian schools can be a powerful force for spiritual transformation.
Sadly, that’s often not the case. After speaking at many Christian schools over the last three decades, talking to countless Christian school students and graduates, and witnessing the struggles of our own kids as they went through Christian school, I’ve concluded that the model we use for Christian schools is largely failing to capture the hearts of our kids for Christ over the long haul.
Many Christian school teenagers have a deep spiritual cynicism baked into their hardened hearts. Far too many of these teens graduate and then publicly evacuate their faith, either through outright denunciation or post-high school hedonism. While I don’t have statistics to prove the fallout, I’ve personally connected with many Christian school attendees/graduates who have forsaken their faith and/or the lifestyle that goes with it.
The good news is: I believe this tragic trajectory can change.
But it will require radical action from Christian school teachers and administrators. In the words of Rocky Balboa to Adonis Creed in Creed II: “Listen, you want to change things in a big way, then you gotta make some big changes.” Here are 7 ways Christian schools are falling short — and how they can turn it around.
1. Not enough wrestling
“Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” Colossians 4:12
We have at our disposal the greatest power available, the very power of God. Epaphras knew this. That’s why he prayed for the believers in Colossae to be “mature and fully assured.” The idea of the word “wrestle” here is agonizing prayer. He called out to God in agony, begging God to mature the hearts of these believers he so loved. And he was praying for very specific things: that these believers would stand firmly in God’s will, mature spiritually in God’s Word, and walk confidently in God’s ways.
Isn’t that exactly what we long to see happen in the lives of our Christian teenagers? Whether they go to public school, Christian school, or home school, we yearn to see them grow into full-bloom spiritual maturity — which requires consistent, intense prayer.
What if Christian school teachers wrestled with God every day in prayer for each of their students to become fully surrendered followers of Jesus? I’m sure some do, but what if all did? What if teachers’ meetings were drenched in prayer, led by the principal? What if parents were brought into these wrestling matches with God?
Nothing replaces the power of God to change a life. The best buildings, teachers, curriculum, classrooms, and settings fade when compared with the power of a praying teacher. The best teachers in the world without prayer are simply hollow caves through which biblical truth echoes and fades. But when super-charged by prayer, even average teachers become catalytic forces for lasting change in young lives.
How do I know this? I’ve seen the power of my wife’s prayers for the public school kids who went through her class over the years. When they were taking tests, she would walk the aisles and silently pray for each of them by name. Over the past three decades, so many of them have been transformed, not because she jumped up on a desk and gave the Gospel (she’d get fired), but because she relentlessly prayed for them by name in the sanctuary of her heart.
Never underestimate the power of a praying teacher.
2. Parents who tap out
“Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6:7
How many times have we seen Christian parents just dump their badly behaving kids off at a Christian school with a maybe-you-can-fix-them attitude? Nothing replaces an on-fire-for-God mom and dad who long to see that fire passed along to their kids.
From square one, my wife and I have viewed ourselves as the ones responsible to provide the primary spiritual inputs into our kids’ lives. We look at the Christian school and youth group as supplemental. Our hope and prayer have always been that the Christianity they live out is due, in large part, to them seeing us live out our Christianity, however imperfectly, over the years.
Christian schools must find ways to engage parents as the chief disciplers of their own children. This could come in the form of homework that engages parents in discussions over biblical issues or seminars that equip parents to take the lead discipleship role with their families.
Every parent who enrolls their kids into a Christian school should be reminded that, while Christian schools can help kids grow in their faith, nothing replaces a dad and mom who take their faith seriously in public and private.
3. Failure to Gospelize
“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2
Every time I preach at a Christian school chapel, I share the Gospel. And nearly every time, there are many young people who indicate a first-time decision for Jesus. This should be jarring to most Christian school teachers and administrators.
Attending a Christian school doesn’t make you a Christian, any more than being born in a garage makes you a car. We must give the Gospel clearly and consistently at our Christian schools. Doing so will help unbelieving students understand the Good News and help believing students experience its power to enable them to live a victorious Christian life.
Plunge your hand into the dirt of Scripture and feel around. In every passage, you’ll find a scarlet thread. Pull that thread, and it inevitably ends up at the cross. What’s true of every Scripture, should be true of every chapel service and Bible class. We should end up at the blood-stained cross and empty tomb of Christ.
We must Gospelize our Christian schools!
Part 2 will be published later.
Originally published at GregStier.org
