Christian Schools: God’s Work Around the World

It is a wonderful thing to discover just how big the world is! I have known people who have never moved from their birthplace, and some who have never traveled very far from that place. One can live that way and still get a great grasp of the magnitude of the world. Books and television can provide great exposure to places and cultures. Some of us have had the privilege of seeing many places around the world firsthand, and yet there is still that fascination that comes from reading about, seeing, and experiencing a new place.

Christian schools do fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Those of us who have invested some or most of our lives in Christian schools stand in amazement when most of our believer friends do not see Christian schools this way.

Many see Christian schooling as an alternative, an out-of-the-ordinary experience. Very few if any believers I know would hand the leadership of their worship experience off to some nameless, generic pastor, but most believing parents hand their children off for a total of more than 10,000 hours of Grade R–12 instruction to government schools that wall out God from the ideas, the concepts, and the worldviews in the classroom. Lest you think that I am on a rant against public schools, let me assure you that this is not the case. Most teachers I know give their best every day to train their students well in the academic arena, and—to the extent they can—they try to influence the students toward good character and values.

In most of the world, Christian schools are the choice of believers for their children. In fact, many nonbelievers want their children in the Christian school if one is available. These people come out of historical traditions in which character development, as well as moral and religious teaching, is clearly integral to the educational systems, both public and private. Not only that, but these parents are looking for schools that emphasize these aspects of education. The Christian school movement around the world is rapidly growing and developing. Although some people resist the idea, the global connectedness of the world is upon us.

This work we do in ACSI member schools in South Africa and world wide is the work of God, and we are, in that sense, fellow ministers in that work. I do not use the term ministers lightly. I am absolutely clear that all of us Christian school teachers and administrators have the ordinance of God over our lives and our work. The students in our schools are not there by accident but by divine appointment. In essence, they are a divine, learning congregation. As educators, we need to look at each student with a divine expectation—a hopeful expectation about what that child can be. As schools, we must pray for a divine realization—a passionate realization of God’s sovereign path for each student’s life.

Around the world, every Christian teacher and principal thinks in that way. Oh, perhaps the thinking is not in those specific terms, but those are the ideas that undergird every Christian school: the realisation of God’s work in our world, in our school, and in the lives of staff, students, and parents. These are the anchor points of Christian schools and schooling. God speaks, and He is not silent about matters of education. Where He is given voice in the classroom, Christian education is taking place. And every classroom where His voice is heard contains a part of the great worldwide community of Christian school educators serving the Lord Christ.

Derek J. Keenan, EdD
Vice President, Academic Affairs, ACSI