I cannot recall where I heard it, but I have never forgotten the quote: “Education without Christ is ignorance multiplied by the speed of light, squared.”  We have come to learn how true the quote is in our society today.

North American Culture has a tremendous need today!  The need has to do with the biblical mandate regarding the Christian Education of our children.  The only education the vast majority of children partake of today is from the perspective of a secular world.  It seems that our world is bent on declaring that Christian Education and Christian Heritage are politically incorrect and intolerant in design.

Christian Education today is training children to do battle at the crossroads of our society.  Christian Colleges, Christian Schools and Christian Home Schooling fall within God’s biblical mandate today.  We are nowhere near the advocates we should be for Christian Education.  Ponder the following statements recently given by Dr. Alan Pue, President of The Barnabas Group at a Christian Conference of Christian School Administrators and Christian School Board Members.

1. Less then one percent of college students attend a Christian College or University
2. Fifty percent of evangelicals abandon their faith their first year at secular colleges and (75-80% lose interest or go into a cocoon with regards to their faith) at secular colleges, [Josh McDowell]
3. Ninety percent of evangelical parents never consider a Christian School or Christian College for their educational needs

The following reasons (not in order) are popular reasons why Christian parents do not send their children to Christian Education institutions or Home School:

1.  Misconception of quality…Public Education is better quality than Christian Education or Home Schooling.
2.  Are not aware of a biblical responsibility they have towards their children’s education. [Prov. 22:6; Deut. 6:4-9]
3.  Finances will not allow them to choose Christian Education…the average American family carries over $8,000 in credit card debt.  Christian Education costs about half that amount for one child.
4.  A belief that the churches of today can train children within the mandates of II Timothy 2 in 40 minutes of Sunday School when in truth the vast majority of churches have decreasing Sunday School programs and struggle to offer viable Vacation Bible School programming.  Many children manipulate their parents into not sending them to Sunday School or church.
5. Like the Great Society debacle of the Johnson years in the early 60’s, many parents believe that an education, at whatever cost to a child’s spiritual life, is the only hope for their children to make lots of money tomorrow to fulfill the Great American Dream.
6.  Parents are overwhelmed with information today.  Because of the information that bombards them, they refuse to take the time to continue the momentum in regards to telling the truth of their conversion experiences and where those conversion experiences took place. Christian campuses, Christian camping programs, and Christian parents Home Schooling lead the way in conversion experiences today. Time spent in Christian education is immeasurable with regards to a person’s current walk with the Lord.
7.  The intellectual development of children can only take place in the public sphere.  When in truth the intellectual development of children must take place in the Christian Education sphere.  It must consist of the two-pronged effort where academic development and spiritual development must be a 50/50 proposition. In the public and many private institutions today the spiritual development of our children stands boldly near 0 % in regards to biblical Christian mandates.
8.  Lack of knowledge that most students educated at home or in Christian Schools are actually academically ahead of their public school counterparts due to the ongoing dumbing down of public school curriculum.

Consider John 17:4-8, Peter, James, Bartholomew, and all those around Jesus saw Jesus full of truth and grace, having completed God’s assignment and glory.  They saw Jesus in light of the whole package or full circle.  Likewise, the powerful story or lack of story is that Christian Education completes the whole package or full circle in the lives of our children.  It is not enough today to be an Apologist for Christian Education; we must be Advocates partaking of the Biblical mandate to train up our children in God’s Way.

The Christian Civic League of Maine addresses education in its policy statement number five which follows.

5.  Education

A.     We believe that parents should exercise the ultimate responsibility and authority in the education of their children and that the State should respect these parental rights.

B.     We affirm the value of a public educational system in fostering an enlightened society.  We also affirm the importance of educational pluralism and the accessibility of educational choices.  We therefore, support the right of private schools, including home schools, to exist free of undue State interference.  We believe private schools should be subject only to those state requirements necessary to protect the health and safety of students and to insure reasonable academic achievement.