her long before high school graduation to navigate the tsunami of bad ideas and harmful lifestyle options that will confront and entice him or her . In order to thrive , Christian students in a secular school will also need to know that there ’ s a loving , prayerful family back home and a youth pastor or mentor from their home church who will maintain a strong relationship throughout their undergraduate years . In addition , they will need to connect with a local church and one of the many campus ministries such as InterVarsity , The Navigators , Baptist Student Ministry , and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes . Maintaining a strong Christian witness and withstanding the crush of ungodly cultural values will be hard but not impossible — with the proper support network .
On the other hand , attending a Christian university does not guarantee that a student will maintain his or her faith . Not all Christian colleges provide a distinctively Christian environment in the classroom and dorms , and even those that do cannot provide one hundred percent confidence for families that their kids will stay true to Christ . Families must look carefully at a university ’ s statement of faith , code of conduct , and other documents to understand the school ’ s culture . Better yet , they should visit campus and talk with random students about what being a part of that community is like . They should visit the dean of the department their child is interested in . Parents can ask hard questions about student life , biblical fidelity , and cultural hot buttons . Finally , parents should commit to praying regularly for the friends their child will connect with at college . The impact of friends will be one of the key influences on their children ’ s faith .
As you can likely detect , my strong inclination is to commend Christian universities as a great way to encourage and support high school graduates to grow their faith as they prepare for their vocation . But I have another — perhaps less obvious — reason why Christian higher education is to be favored over a secular school , and this other reason is directly related to their vocation .
Students in a secular school will not be taught that the specific career for which they are preparing is deeply connected to God ’ s redemptive work . Getting this right is just about as important as maintaining faith in Christ . Conversely , not getting this right can set a person up for a lifetime of struggle trying to reconcile one ’ s job with one ’ s faith . I know many Christian adults who live with a pervasive , nagging sense of guilt from not “ doing more for God ,” which often arises from a view of reality that classifies their Christian life and their work life as separate .
In his book Every Good Endeavor : Connecting Your Work to God ’ s Work , Tim Keller unpacks a vision for work that every Christian needs to truly flourish in a career . He says , “[ God ] invites us to continue His work of developing creation , to develop all the capacities of human and physical nature to build a civilization that glorifies Him . Through our work , we bring order out of chaos , create new entities , exploit the patterns of creation , and interweave the human community . So whether splicing a gene , doing brain surgery , collecting the rubbish , or painting a picture , our work further develops , maintains , or repairs the fabric of the world . In this way , we connect our work to God ’ s work .” 2
I ’ m not saying that attending a Christian university is the only way to gain such a vision for work . Nor am I saying that every Christian college teaches toward this end . Sadly , I know from experience that this is not true . However , no secular university will promote this vision of work and equip an engineer , nurse , teacher , or businessperson to live out that kind of God-saturated life . The best Christian colleges will , as they immerse every subject area and every course in a biblical worldview of reality and vocation .
College is not merely about gaining knowledge , skills , and connections for gainful employment . More importantly , the undergraduate years will dramatically shape the worldview of students . For Christian students , college should prepare them for their unique calling in a campus and classroom culture that is distinctively Christian so that when they graduate , they will be eager to engage their career with a biblical vision of vocation .
If your kids will attend a secular university , keep your eyes wide open . Be realistic about the challenges to their faith , morality , identity , and purpose that will bombard them . And , acknowledge that you will need to arrange for other resources and mentoring to help your child gain a biblical understanding of their calling and how God desires to use them in their career to “ develop , maintain , and repair the fabric of the world .”
Dr . Roger C . S . Erdvig is the Director of the Center for Biblical Worldview Formation at Summit Ministries . He and his wife , Lori , live in the small corner of Pennsylvania that touches Maryland and Delaware , where you can find some of the most beautiful and unspoiled farmland in the northeast . Connect with Roger at roger . erdvig @ summit . org .
ENDNOTES
1 . Aaron Earls , “ Most Teenagers Drop Out of Church When They Become Young Adults ,” Lifeway Research , January 15 , 2019 , https :// research . lifeway . com / 2019 / 01 / 15 / most-teenagers-drop-out-of-church-as-young-adults /.
2 . Timothy . Keller , Every Good Endeavor : Connecting Your Work to God ’ s Work ( New York , NY : Penguin Group , 2012 ) 61 .
© 2024 by Roger C . S . Erdvig
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