The Kingdom of God & Christian Education--a longer opinion

A few years ago, we were challenged to revision how to teach Bible at CSCS. In that process, I became convinced that it was not that we need a completely new and regenerate Bible Department, but that we need a new and regenerate view of “why Christian education”, “why Bible” and “why we emphasize Spiritual Life” (or Student Ministries as we call it at our school).

I believe that a revolution needs to happen in our perspectives of ourselves as a school; as individuals at the school; or our students and their parents; of our position in this city, state, nation and world; and in the realm of Christian education.

The perspective that I feel we need to have can be described in a “we should not be” perspective or in a “should be” perspective”. I will attempt to project a positive vision of what we could be rather than a vision that appears to be reactionary to what we currently are.

• Since we are Christian schools we need to look at things from the perspective of Christ—the One whom we follow and are equipping and empowering our students to follow. Jesus Christ taught us to pray that God’s Kingdom would come and His will would be done on this earth as it is in heaven. Our overall prayer for our Christian schools, as institutions and as bodies of believers, needs to be that God’s Kingdom would come and His will would be done on earth in our day, in each student’s life and in every class that graduates from our schools. Our prayer and ambition in and through our Christian schools is that God’s Kingdom would come and His will be done in all the policies, operations, budgets, curricula and decisions at that our schools make so that His will would be done in our lives and in the lives of our students; and that we as individuals and an institution would be His instrument through which God’s Kingdom comes and His will is done in our cities, around our states, throughout the country and to the ends of the earth.
• Jesus, before leaving this earth gave His followers some instructions on how to see His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He said this:

All authority and power has been given to Me and you will receive that power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You are to go and be My witnesses to all the earth, beginning in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria and ultimately to the ends of the earth. You are to preach the Good News to everyone, making disciples of those who believe and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. And be sure of this: I am always with you and will work with you until the very end of this age. A combination of translations

I believe that our Christian school can play a more instrumental role in the advancing of God’s Kingdom and will on this earth without changing many of the programs, but in rather changing perspectives and filters. I believe that if we filter our current policies, budgets, programs, curricula—everything—through such a filter that it will truly make our school distinct in the Christian Education community, in the competitive community of education in the region and in the Kingdom of God. I suggest that we say the following:

In order that the Kingdom of God may come and the will of God be done in our day, in this generation, both in our lives and around the world, we will make disciples of our students and empower them with spiritual programs that are age appropriate, academically sound, and biblically consistent. They will be taught by biblically spiritual men and women who are academically, relationally and culturally prepared to teach them at each level. We will then provide complementary programs of excellent education as well as quality athletics, fine arts and training in leadership, service and ministry. We will do this so that upon completion of a students time at our school, our students will be young men and women who are skilled, empowered and prepared to continue to advance the Kingdom of God and His will for them individually and their generation and to the ends of the earth.

Outreach to the Poor in the Book of Acts

One of the things the Lord is working into the new church we are a part of is a heart for the needy and broken in Colorado Springs. As a result, I’ve been thinking about church outreach to the poor and needy and wondering what the early church in Acts did regarding the poor and needy in the community. The Book of Acts is one of my favorite books in the Bible. I’ve taught parts of it from the pulpit in a previous church, and have taught the first half of it with a group of students in one of our internship classes at the school for the last two years.

One of the things that has continually come up in our various studies of the church in Acts 1-6 is their community and how they lived that out. This very idea came to my mind as I pondered the early church’s response to the needy in the community. Here’s what I found:

• Alms Giving: The early church followed the Jewish pattern (which seems to have been confirmed by Jesus) of giving alms to the poor. This practice is incidentally seen in the narrative. In Galatians 2:10, Paul mentions that in one of his initial visits to Jerusalem to verify the Gospel he has been preaching, that the only thing James, Peter, and John stressed to him was to make sure that he remembered the poor.
• The Poor in the Church: Besides alms giving, I don’t find anything that specifically points to them having programs to the poor in the city. It seems however, that one of the notable things about the early church was that there was no poverty within the church. In nearly every study of the early church that I’ve had with my students, this idea (and its semblance to Communism) has become a matter of discussion. This issue of Communism versus Community sounds like a great topic of another debate or blog. In almost everyone of the places in Acts where it describes what the first church looked like, these phrases or ideas are presented:

• “the believers were together” or “were of one mind” (Acts 1:14; 2:12:44; 4:32; 5:12)

  “they had everything in common” (Acts 2:44; 4:32)

  there are people selling their possessions (Acts 2:45; 4:34-37)

  “there was not a need person among them” (Acts 4:24)

• I also found a number of things about their distribution of resources to the needy:
  o The believers gave their money directly to those who are in need (Acts 2:42-47).
  o The believers gave their money to the Apostles (church leaders) to be distributed to those in need (Acts 4:32-5:11).
  o The church (under the direction of the Apostles, then later the deacons), distributed food and resources to the widows in the church on a regular and systematic basis (Acts 6:1-7).
  o The believers took up offerings (apparently on the first day of the week), gave it to the church elders who sent it to other congregations who were in need (Acts 11:27-30; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8-9).

So, the summary of what I think the local church should do about the poor and needy in the community is:

Paul said: “so then, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:10 ESV). Following this pattern, I believe that outreach to the poor and needy begins in the church. It is clear that the early church focused the attention of their giving to the needy on those within their midst. Likewise today, no one in our churches should go with their needs unmet. It is my perspective that this is a short coming of the American church. If we focus on the needy, it’s usually the needy in the community. I believe that we should focus on those who are needy in our churches first. Our focus needs to flow from community and relationship with each other. Our help for the needy in the church should not be punitive, but compassionate and generous. Self-help training through small groups and courses on financial stability are great, but should not necessarily be prerequisites to receiving financial help, but should be part of generally helping to create financial stable congregations. If helping the poor within our churches becomes normal and expected and done well, then it will have the following byproducts:

1. The reputation of the church will become one of being a caring, generous, loving group of people. This will be in contrast to the condemning reputation of Republican and Conservative Christians today whose message is “you’re poor because you are lazy or have done something wrong”.
2. The reputation of the generous church will be one of the church’s greatest advertizing and recruiting points. I believe that second to the wooing and conviction of the Holy Spirit, the community and oneness of the early church was their greatest drawing point. People were attracted to the church because they loved and took care of each other.
3. As a secondary point: if the Christian church took care of their own as the Bible describes and if they cared for the poor and outcast as the Bible also talks about, American wouldn’t need to be a welfare state. After all, the care for the poor, broken, needy, and outcast in the community really is the job of the church not the government.

Should churches have community outreach programs…yes! However, I the best biblical precedent is to care for the poor in the church, then take care of others as a second priority.

The Kingdom of God and Christian Schools--brief

Oh, that Christian schools would be focused and intentional as such (see “democracy as a tool for evangelism”), rather than seeking to be popular and touchy feely. Rather than striving for more students, a larger empire, more state championships and an increase of news reports on us, we need to be focused on the Kingdom of God coming on this earth as it is in heaven in our day, in each student’s life and in every class that graduates from our institution. Academics, athletics, fine arts and student ministries are to be the tools through which we reach this end. They are not ends in and of themselves. An excellent education from a biblical Christian perspective for lifelong service should not be a sales pitch to reach a niche market, but a means to another end—God’s Kingdom come in our school, in Colorado Springs, around Colorado, throughout the United States and to the ends of the earth.

What you do
Thunders so loud above your head
That
I can’t hear what you are saying.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our boards ends statements, our advertising, our curriculum development, budget meetings and decisions all should begin with such a statement as this:

• In order that the Kingdom of God may come in this generation…to the world, we will teach these subjects; have these athletic programs; train our students in the fine arts; and prepare them for leadership, ministry and service.

OR do we say:

• We teach these subjects have these athletic programs, train our students in the fine arts and prepare them for leadership, ministry and service and we also hope that the kingdom of God may come in this generation….to the world?