Christian education and the future of Christianity

In a previous post, I offered a brief outline of the case for Christian education, and elaborated on the impossibility of neutrality within the educational system.  (As a side note, "neutrality" is not possible in any other area of life, but that is another can of worms.)  I'm sure I'll blog about Christian education again before too long--perhaps a more detailed expository series is in order to reinforce my case that scripture prescribes it--but after this post I'll probably move on to some other topics for a bit.

In this post I ask the question, how should church leaders and/or pastors approach this topic?  The answer, I believe, is actually quite straightforward: they should preach and teach about education just what the Bible says about it.  I have shown earlier in brief that a distinctly Christian education is explicitly prescribed by scripture.

A complication, however, is that many churchgoers still have their kids in the public schools.  Their children are receiving an education that falls short of the scriptural ideal for education.  What do pastors say to them?

Some pastors may have the concern that if they preach that the Bible prescribes Christian education, many parents will move on to another church because they have children in the public schools and thus find this message to be offensive.  They may see this as an affront to their parenting abilities. They might think, how dare you question my choices as a parent?  Aren't I doing my best?

Some pastors may even go as far as to think to themselves, if a lot of folks leave because I'm saying something that bothers them, there goes the tithe money that runs the church, and then I'm out of a job.  I'm certainly not picking on any one specific person, since no pastor or church elder has ever told me they think that, nor said anything explicitly leading me to think that is their line of thought.  Most of those pastors I have spoken with about Christian education who are not fully supportive of it seem either ignorant or confused about the matter.

But just in case you are a pastor who has this fear in the back of his mind, I wish to make a case that you are thinking completely backwards about this.  Why?  Let's take another look at Deuteronomy 6:10-15.  As we do so, we'll remember that, while a lot has changed since God spoke to Moses, God has not changed; and the basic principles which applied to ancient Israel are still valid today.

"So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full— then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you (for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth."

Let's recall what the context of this verse is.  The most important commandment is to love God (v. 4).  An important aspect of this is teaching our children to do the same, all the time (v.7) by obeying God's standards.  And what happens if we don't?  Well, the above excerpt pretty much describes it.

1. We enjoy great material wealth relative to our forefathers.  These become a distraction.  This has already happened.
2. We forget God as a society.  This has already happened to a large extent.
3. We go after other gods, the gods of the people who are all around us.  This has already happened in our society to a great extent.  We don't even need a god in the ancient style; we seem to be able to make gods out of anything dumb.  Sports.  Fashion.  Music.  Sex.  Whatever. 
4. God's wrath is aroused against us.  Most conservative pastors believe God's wrath is now aroused against our nation.  They exposit Romans 1, citing it as evidence, and they get it.  They just haven't connected the dots back to Deuteronomy and Christian education.
5. God destroys his people from the face of the earth.  Are we there yet?  That isn't meant as a goal to aspire to.

So, back to the point.  Does our hypothetical pastor, worried about offending people by teaching what scripture says about education, really have a future career as a pastor if Christians are wiped off the face of the earth?*  By doing all he can to promote Christian education, does he not make the future of the church, and by extension his own future, more viable and not less?

In short, teaching our children to love God is an investment in the future of the church.  Want  more people to come to church?  Want more people to take it seriously?  This is the key.

Sure, God is sovereign.  But he does not work in a vacuum.  What we teach and how we act have consequences in society.  We should do all we can to work for God and not against him.  Let's start by being honest about the case in scripture for explicitly Christian education.

We can even see this principle playing out on a smaller scale, in many of the liberal mainline denominations such as the PCUSA.  Why are their congregations so rapidly shrinking and aging?  Well, they certainly have a number of major problems.  But chief among these must be failure to teach their children to love God as scripture instructs.  A lot of these feel more like social clubs where scripture is interpreted as loosely as necessary to validate the fashionable sins of the day.  One can hardly be surprised when children grow up and realize they don't need to take that kind of hypocrisy seriously.

All right, let's wrap this up.  Do we want the church to grow and become increasingly influential in society over time?  Christian education is the ticket.  Do we want the church to shrink and come under increasing persecution?  Let's keep neglecting this part of scripture and see what happens.  Actually, let's not.  But if we do, let's remember it's our own fault: God warned us way back in Deuteronomy 6.  If we don't teach children to love God and abide by his standards all the time, we're not allowed to be surprised at the consequences of our failure, many of which are upon us now.

*I need a footnote here to state that I hold to an optimistic eschatology that does not expect Christians will be wiped off the face of the earth.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  However, the principle still applies.  God can do without hypocritical American Christians and will raise up Christians from elsewhere if we turn our backs on him.