children were being influenced through the media. Every-
one agreed the influence from the media had to be more
controlled by parents.
Then I presented some biblical principles that tell us how
God wants us to educate our children. I began listing these
principles on the whiteboard along with the correspond-
ing Scripture references. These are the same principles that
I included in my book Kingdom Education: God’s Plan for
Educating Future Generations.
The education of children and youth...
1. is the primary responsibility of parents.
2. is a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week process that continues from
birth till maturity.
3. must have as its primary goals the education of and
discipleship of the next generation.
4. must be based on God’s Word as absolute truth.
5. must hold Christ as preeminent in all of life.
6. must not hinder the spiritual and moral development of
the next generation.
7. if and when delegated to others by parents, must be
done by teachers chosen with utmost care to ensure
they all follow these principles.
8. results in the formation of a belief system or worldview
that will be patterned after the belief systems or world-
views of the person’s teachers.
9. must lead to true wisdom by connecting all knowledge
to a biblical worldview frame of reference.
10. must have a view of the future that includes the eternal
perspective.
It was when I wrote down principle #6 that it happened.
Suddenly, one youth worker spoke out and interrupted the
presentation. She firmly stated, “We can’t follow these!”
I was a little shocked, and I asked her if she thought these
were biblical principles. She said, “Yes, these are biblical
principles, but we can’t follow them.”
Puzzled, I asked, “Why can’t you follow these?” Her
answer wasn’t what I expected. She said, “If we follow these
principles, we would have to pull all of our children out of
public school.”
I explained to her that the word “school” is not mentioned
in any of these principles because these are universal bibli-
cal principles that apply to the total education of children
and youth. She agreed with me but went on to explain that
public schools do not follow these principles so we couldn’t
leave our children in them.
I then asked her if she was saying that we can’t obey what
the Bible says if it means we would have to change the way
we educated our children. She emphatically said, “Yes, that
is what I am saying!”
My next question was, “Why wouldn’t you obey Scripture
even if it meant you would need to provide your children
with another form of education?” Her answer was some-
thing I had heard many times before: “We can’t take our
children out of public school because they are the only Jesus
lost students will see.”
Fortunately, I had left how the teens in these churches
were thinking on the whiteboard. Pointing to the list on the
board, I asked, “Is this the way teens at your church think?”
She nodded her head, yes. Then I asked her, “Where do you
see Jesus anywhere in this list?” She didn’t reply.
CONSISTENT THEOLOGY OF LIFE
A few months later, I was invited to a meeting of the Disci-
pleship Department at LifeWay. The director wanted me to
present these biblical principles of education to the lead-
ership of his department. As I presented the principles, a
similar reaction took place. One of the leaders interrupted
me and said, “I don’t like this ‘abandonment’ language.” I
asked what he meant by his statement. He replied, “This is
language that would mean we had to ‘abandon’ the public
schools.” Again, I reminded this group that there is no
mention of school anywhere in these principles.
I responded, “Suppose a new family moved into your
neighborhood. You visited them, and you soon were
convinced the entire family had accepted Christ as their
Lord. However, you also found out they were attending a
local Mormon church. What would you do?”
He replied, “Of course, I would explain to them they need-
ed to be in a strong, Bible-believing and teaching church.”
To which I quickly asked, “You mean you would ‘abandon’
that Mormon church?”
In both of these situations, the same dangerous condition
existed. These church leaders were living a compartmen-
talized life. What they would never allow in their “church
lives,” they would fully embrace in all other areas of life—
even if it meant they would have to violate biblical princi-
ples! My challenge to both groups was quite simple. You
need to develop a consistent theology of life.
This is the same condition I find in today’s Church. It is
time to stop living out a sacred/secular divide in our lives.
As Nancy Pearcey writes, “Either Christianity is total truth or
it is not truth at all.” It is time for us to develop a consistent
theology of life no matter what changes it will demand of
our lives. What we decide to do today will impact how the
next generation thinks and acts. ■
Dr. Glen Schultz has given his life to educating future generations according to God’s plan.
After five years in public education, he entered the field of Christian education where he
has been a teacher, coach, principal, and superintendent. He has directed the Christian
school work at LifeWay Christian Resources, served as the Association of Christian Schools
International Southeast Regional Director, Superintendent of Liberty Christian Academy
in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Headmaster of Sherwood Christian Academy. Currently, Dr.
Schultz serves as founder and director of Kingdom Education Ministries. He is the author
of Kingdom Education: God’s Plan for Educating Future Generations and several parenting
booklets. Glen and his wife, Sharon, have three children and six grandchildren and live in
Summerville, SC. He is a member of the Renewanation Board of Directors.
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