The Church

Over the past few weeks I have been sharing with you the fresh vision God has given me for Kingdom Education Ministries.  With each passing day I become more convinced that God is calling KEM to:

RESTORE individuals, EMPOWER the home, ENGAGE the church and TRANSFORM schools through kingdom education.

One of the burdens on my heart is to see pastors and church leaders ENGAGED through kingdom education.  The truth is that the vast majority of pastors have been disengaged when it comes to how God wants His people to educate future generations.  It is time that we must get them ENGAGED.

Webster defines the term engage as to gain; to win and attache; to draw to; to unite.  It is vital that we ENGAGE the church in the battle that is raging for the hearts and the minds of the next generation.  It is my prayer to see pastors drawn to and united in the cause of providing our children and youth with a biblical worldview education.

Unfortunately, I have witnessed parents and educators ignore the church when it comes to Christian education.  The argument has been that since pastors don’t support and promote our Christian school or our efforts to home school, we will just bypass them completely.  We forget that the church is the bride of Christ and it is ordained as God’s institution to take the gospel into a lost and dying world.

When I have encouraged parents and school leaders to try and get pastors ENGAGED in kingdom education, they usually try to “market” their school to the pastors of the area.  Pastors are asked to support a certain school or allow information about a school to be given out to church members.

This puts pastors in a very challenging position because there are church members who teach in secular schools and there are those who home school their children.  The pastor feels like he is in between a rock and a hard place.  If he supports one type of schooling, will he automatically offend everyone else who wants him to support another type of schooling.

This is why we carefully worded this fresh mission statement.  It is my desire to ENGAGE the church through kingdom education.  Allow me to remind you that kingdom education only takes place when God reigns as king in the entire educational process of young people.  It is not merely about where a child goes to school.  This is because education takes place in the home, church and school.  God wants to reign in the entire process whether it takes place at home or church or school.

This is why I believe that there are two ways that the church can be ENGAGED.  The first way is to encourage pastors and church leaders to address the issue of education biblically.  Church leaders need to be ENGAGED in studying God’s Word and see what it has to say about educating children.

Passages like Deuteronomy 6, Psalm 78, Psalm 127, Ephesians 6 need to be studied and applied consistently to the entire educational process of leading our children to the Lord and then discipling them in the Lord.  As I have studied Scripture, God has shown me 14 biblical principles that tell parents, church leaders and teachers how He wants them to educate future generations.  You may click HERE to see these principles.

 

The second way that pastors can be ENGAGED through kingdom education is to help them understand that parents have been given a mandate from God to educate their children in the Lord.  However, most parents are not equipped to fulfill their God-mandated assignment.  The church must step up to the plate and help parents understand that God holds them accountable for how their children are educated. Then the church must partner with parents in equipping them for the task.

I am convinced that the biggest obstacle to ENGAGING the church through kingdom education is the fact that so many pastors have developed a dualistic worldview.  They have divided life up into the secular and sacred compartments; most of the time this has taken place subconsciously.

One evidence of this reality is seen by what church leaders would and would not allow taught in their churches to young people.  Most pastors would not allow such things as evolution or gender dysphoria taught in their children and youth programs. However, they are silent about this being taught in the schools these same young people attend.  We must ENGAGE the church to understand that Christianity is a complete worldview that addresses all of life as a whole.  Nancy Pearcey says it this way.

We have to insist on presenting Christianity as a comprehensive, unified worldview that addresses all of life and reality.  It is not just religious truth but total truth.  Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey

If we are going to be successful in raising future generations to know God and think and act from a biblical worldview, we must ENGAGE the church.  I will be announcing an effort that God has laid on our hearts here at KEM to do exactly this in the very near future.  Stay tuned!