OBJECTIONS FROM CHURCH LEADERS TO ENCOURAGING THEIR CONGREGATIONS TO MOVE THEIR CHILDREN FROM A SECULAR SCHOOL TO A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL.
No church leader would ever push back on the idea that Christian parents should raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. However, my experience has been that almost every church leader I have met over the last 30 years has a different view on the “how” Christian parents should fulfill obedience to this noble commandment, particularly as it pertains to education.
Is it possible that many pastors simply unaware of the spiritual danger to the hearts of children that attend secular school? Is it possible that church leaders may not agree that parents cannot give their God given, Ephesians 6:4 responsibility to any other people or institution that does not teach and worship the Lord Jesus (Leviticus 18:21)? Do church leaders not realize that the days of being able to partner (in a limited way) with and trust (that they were not teaching things that God absolutely hates) the local public school ended several decades ago?
It is certainly possible that many church leaders are unaware of the dangers for the hearts of kids, but it is interesting to note that many pastors refuse to send their children to the local secular school. Clearly, they have a strong conviction about the possible effects on their children from an anti-Christian schooling environment. Yet, most pastors refuse to teach and preach those convictions to the flock that they are shepherding. Why?
Below you will find the top objections that I have heard through the years from church leaders who refuse to encourage their congregations toward Christian Homeschooling or a Christian day school.
“I can’t talk about this because I have many public school parents and public school employees that would be offended.”
Answer: This is probably the number one objection that pastors/church leaders give when refusing to talk about Biblical schooling with their church parents and the implications for this objection are a terrible indictment on their ministry. Why? Because they can see that confronting the hearts of their people with this truth will definitely provoke a reaction. And what might be that reaction? As stated elsewhere, the conviction that will likely come by preaching the truth may bring a loss of church members and a subsequent reduction in giving. This is essentially a case of fearing man rather than fearing God (Matthew 10:24-28). Paul had a few words to Timothy about preaching the truth in these last days (2 Timothy 4:1-8).
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
“We believe parents have to make the choice for their children.”
Answer: This objection is a Biblical truth- parents are responsible for the educational choices of their children. But, this only sidesteps the real issue at hand for the church. The church is called to teach parents how to think about the decisions that they make for all of life based on Biblical commands and precepts. This is what the church does faithfully on so many other issues, but has decided to be silent in this foundational matter. This is simply not consistent with teaching and preaching the entire Bible.
“I am afraid that teaching and encouraging parents to remove their children from a secular school may lead to legalism.”
Answer: Many churches have a hypersensitivity about legalism. Legalism has been very destructive to the church over the centuries, but the fear of legalism must never stop the church from teaching critical doctrine. The wise and faithful church will teach all of the truth found in the scriptures while also dealing with the many wiles of the devil who will take any opportunity to twist obedience into legalism. This is a teaching opportunity not only for what God requires from parents, but what is and is not true about earning salvation, sanctification, and earning favor from God. At the end of the day, parents must know what the implications are of obeying Ephesians 6:4 and must be shepherded through the process.
“What about those who cannot financially afford Christian education? Are we not binding their conscience?”
Answer: Clearly, those situations must be examined to see if God has providentially prevented a family from being able to exit a secular school. If that is the case, shepherds must encourage the family to accept God’s good providence while continuing to obey Ephesians 6:4 in other ways. There may also be opportunities here for the church to financially assist a family that desperately wants to exit the secular school system. However, many times it is parent mistakes, materialism, laziness, and selfishness that are the root cause of problems with children, and parents are now reaping what they have sown. The church must help them work through those issues, plan for changes that might make in the days ahead, and trust the Lord that nothing is impossible over the long run.
“We will never encourage parents to do Christian schooling because I have heard that can be divisive in the congregation.”
Answer: it is true that a church that strongly encourages Christian homeschooling or Christian day school can result in various so called “camps” within the church. This has been another way the devil gets into the details and manages to turn Christians against one another. Obviously, is a result of sinful pride and haughtiness within the congregation. Once again, the choice for church leaders is clear-boldly teach what the Bible says about Christian parenting and trust the Lord for the wisdom and grace required for the task or refuse to teach the whole counsel of God out of fear of having to deal with any negative consequences.
“I can’t support any particular Christian school because if I talked about one, I would have to talk about the others.”
Answer: You will notice that several of the objections stated in this article find their root in fear, typically fear of offending someone. However, this is an opportunity for church leaders to shepherd the flock. Church leaders need to learn about faithful Bible centric schooling options in their geographical area. Furthermore, they should look to establish relationships and partnerships with the leadership of those faithful schools. That being done, they owe it to their congregation to talk about and direct their people to the faithful schools and not talk about schools which have unsound theology or are nominally Christian.
“I can see the need for greater emphasis in this area, but our church is already too stretched in other ministries.”
Answer: Churches have the incredibly challenging job of trying to figure out how to allocate their resources to address what they believe are the greatest needs for their congregation. I realize that the process can be very frustrating because church leaders rarely have the resources needed to address all of their concerns. My prayer is that church leaders will recognize the incredible importance of both parents and church teaching children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord and will somehow make this commandment a top priority in their church. Additionally, my hope is that church leaders see that much of their current ministry is spent on challenges/problems that may have been avoided if the church was teaching and encouraging parents to obey Ephesians 6:4 during the past 5 decades. Lord willing, leaders can find a way to make the investment that will bring great fruit in the years to come!
“I completely agree that all of our Christian family children should remove their children from an anti-Christian school, but what about those children who we can’t rescue due to financial challenges, academic deficiencies, or special needs?”
Answer: There is no quick fix to the problem of families who cannot afford Christian schooling, students who are so far behind academically that they cannot be served by Christian homeschooling or a Christian School, or children that have significant special needs that cannot be accommodated in the Christian homeschool or day school setting.
That being said, the objection stated is not a reason to not remove as many Christian family children as possible from a secular school. Should we think about the gospel in the same way as the objection stated above, we would not share the gospel with anyone unless we could share the gospel with everyone. No, there is no Biblical precedent or teaching that tell us that we should do anything other than obey God, no matter the fallen world circumstances that we find ourselves in.
A similar or related objection is, “won’t we be abandoning plenty of good kids in the public schools?” Again, choosing to not act unless we can somehow ensure that the children that remain will not be affected in any adverse way is beyond our shepherd and parent responsibilities and is frankly, challenging our call to be obedient to God’s clear command.
Furthermore, are our ways higher than God’s ways? In other words, are we sovereignly deciding what the future will be for the public schools if we remove our children or is that for God to decide? Think about it- might God do something great and unimaginable to the public schools if we just obey and trust him?
“Rather than preach explicitly about Christian schooling, we just preach through the scriptures and trust God to bring conviction.”
Answer: That is exactly what every pastor or church leader should do. But to be clear, faithful preaching is not only explaining the meaning of the text, but it is also explaining how it applied to the writer and reader at the time it was written, and how it explicitly applies to us today. This is what faithful preaching and teaching is and while church leaders understand that they have no power (only the Spirit can) to bring conviction or change anyone’s mind and heart, they think must deeply about doing all they humanly can to be used by God to feed the flock.
Unfortunately, I have observed for many years in many churches a lack of consistency in preaching, teaching and bringing application for all areas of life and specifically the topic of parenting as it pertains to how they must educate and disciple their children. As stated elsewhere, this cannot be overlooked.
