Christian Day Schools: An Open Door to the Unchurched

Among some Protestant groups, the Christian day school is a relatively recent discovery. Among others, Christian education through the agency of a day school is a long tradition. While the primary purpose of the Christian school will always be education, there is currently an added dimension. The Christian day school today is taking on a new face: unchurched people are lining up to enroll their children in Christian day schools, and these schools are forming a new and exciting horizon of opportunity to reach children—whole families—with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Traditionally, Christian day schools have been nurture oriented. Christian families supported the school to insure a good, Christian education for the children of the parish. Many immigrants to the U.S. settled in communities of people like themselves, and America blossomed as a multiethnic smorgasbord of pluralism. The church played no small part as a solidifying factor in these pockets of ethnicity in America. In this role, the Christian day school was often central. Geared primarily for the Christian child, it presumed that, theologically, the child was already one of God’s people. It simply reinforced what the child learned in Sunday school and at home from Christian parents.

In the last decade, however, things have begun to change. Public education has lost much of its good reputation. U.S. Supreme Court decisions banning prayer left a bad taste in the mouths of evangelicals; the emphasis on evolution to the exclusion of creation also concerned them. But the most significant force influencing the growth of outreach in Christian schools has been the increasing discontent of unchurched people with public education.

The mood surrounding education at this point in history has generated a powerful felt need in thousands of parents. The Christian church has an unprecedented opportunity to reach out with evangelistic efforts through the Christian day school. Many denominations are taking steps to seize the opportunity: a new Christian school is now opening on the average of every seven hours.

Two missiological principles lie at the core of this opportunity:

First, whenever the church meets a felt need, people are more receptive to the gospel. Right now, many people are grateful for an educational alternative for their children. They appreciate the dedication and commitment of Christian school teachers. They are thankful for the discipline that is a part of the Christian way of life, especially discipline that is couched in the love and forgiveness of the gospel. Parents are so grateful for what Christian education has to offer that they are willing to pay tuition for it. As the Christian school is meeting their felt need, they are generally more receptive, more open to new teachings—whether the new math or the “New Life.” God has provided a great open door for the gospel.

Many denominations are perceiving this felt need to be strong among people in multicultural urban settings. A number of churches see the Christian school as the best strategy for reaching cross culturally with the gospel. What could happen, for example, if evangelicals began educating the thousands of Cuban children who entered the U.S. in recent years? Besides taking enormous pressure off public school systems in Florida and elsewhere, the Christian schools would be a great context in which to present the gospel. Expensive? Yes, but it may be the most economical and realistic way to reach Cubans for Jesus Christ.

A second missiological principle that involves the Christian day school is what church-growth people call the web movement. As Donald McGavran has pointed out, God provides bridges of contact within the structure of society, over which the gospel flows. These bridges can be friends or relatives. Research shows that between 70 and 90 percent of all Christians trace their entrance into the church through the influence of a friend or relative. A web movement is simply the extension of Christianity through these natural relationships.

The Christian day school has an exceptional opportunity to capitalize on the principle of web movement. The Christian school that invites unchurched people to enroll their children has an open door into homes of thousands of people. The school child has a family—brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents—as well as friends. The child himself can be reached with the gospel, of course. Equally powerful is the God-given link that child provides to many others who may be unchurched.

Parents do not usually feel uneasy when they discover their children are being evangelized. Most parents expect their children to learn about Christianity—especially if the school has communicated its priorities clearly at the time of enrollment. These receptive family members are often delighted when their children come home with good news to share. The children become natural bridges God can use to spread the gospel. At Our Saviour Lutheran Church on Detroit’s near east side, baptisms quadrupled in number when the congregation used these natural bridges of opportunity by means of the Christian day School.

These two New Testament principles of outreach can be incorporated into the ministry of the Christian day school. But how does it happen?

The first step is to establish a philosophy of ministry that recognizes the day school not only as an agency of nurture, but also as a vehicle for evangelism. The people involved must establish and support an evangelistic attitude—pastors, teachers, Christian school board, congregation. For some, it will mean a change of attitude, expanding a whole tradition of Christian education once aimed only at nurture. For others, such an attitude means a new and fresh ministry. Laying a foundational attitude is critical.

A few years ago I was pastor of a congregation that decided to provide a day school as an agency for mission. One of our greatest mistakes was that we did not develop a written statement of purpose. We should not have been surprised that some church members totally misunderstood the nontraditional intentions of the mission school. Furthermore, some of the teachers called to that ministry were not prepared for outreach and did not really understand the philosophy of ministry for that school. We should have spelled it out, we should have written it down; all of those involved should have accepted and owned it. We must base the day school on an attitude of mission.

The second step in establishing a day school designed for outreach involves training a staff equipped for evangelism. Principals, teachers, and teacher’s aides may be well-taught, state-certified educators. But can they also present the gospel? Christian day school teachers are usually well prepared to teach Bible lessons in the classroom, but as more unchurched children fill the seats of Christian day schools, the challenge is more fundamental. The teacher is more than a teacher. The teacher is an evangelist, a witness, a missionary. The congregation needs to provide training that will equip staff people to use their God-given opportunities for witness, both in the classroom and in their students’ homes.

The third step is to develop a job description that goes beyond the four walls of the classroom. Christian day school teachers, who sometimes suffer from chalkboard myopia, must be challenged and stretched to ministry beyond the classroom setting. When unchurched people send their children to a Christian school, it is not the pastor or evangelism board member who represents God’s primary contact with that family: it is the teacher. He or she is the key to reaching unchurched people through the Christian school. As the teacher develops rapport with the parents, opportunities to witness multiply. He is the primary carrier of the good news, not only to the child, but also to the child’s family and friends. In this way the web movement will carry the gospel across bridges that God has provided.

Clara exemplifies the teacher who is evangelist, witness, and missionary. She teaches in the inner city of a large metropolitan area. Her vision of ministry stretches far beyond the classroom. She knows the families who send their children to her for Christian education. She cares about their spiritual welfare. She visits their homes and shares the gospel in a natural way through the open door provided by the child they have placed in her classroom. She is concerned about their material needs as well. She is often involved in projects that extend God’s love beyond the child to the child’s friends and relatives. One summer she helped the children turn a vacant lot into a garden—a lesson in creation, and food for the families.

All of this was accomplished beyond the classroom, beyond the school year—but most important, beyond the mindset that believes a teacher is just a teacher. In her work with children and their families, Clara is a prime example of a teacher who serves beyond the chalkboard. As a result, many children and their families have heard and seen the gospel. Through her ministry many have become Christians and responsible church members.

The fourth step is for pastors, traditionally plagued by a separation of church and school mentality, to be reprogrammed to catch the vision of the Great Commission as it relates to the Christian day school. The school cannot be separate from the church. The school is not an agency of the church; the school is not an arm of the church; the school is the church in action. The Christian day school is the church in ministry. The two must be welded together to become a team ministry under the banner of making disciples.

The fifth step is to recognize that the ministry of outreach through the Christian day school can reach its maximum potential only if it is aimed at the Great Commission goal of making disciples. While discipleship is surely a lifelong process, there is an initial stage of training through which the new Christian must be helped with special care. Some churches call this confirmation; some refer to it as instruction to join the church. Yet we are beginning to see that we have underestimated the challenge of the Great Commission in two respects: we have limited the preparation for church membership primarily to the learning of doctrine, rather than doctrine plus training for ministry; and we have grossly underestimated the enormous length of time this process normally takes. For example, the Master spent years training his disciples—not just in the classroom, but in the marketplace of everyday life.

Discipled people know their spiritual gifts, and therefore, know where they fit in the body of Christ. In addition to knowing Bible stories and some basic doctrine, discipled people can use their Bibles—not only for personal devotions, but for ministry to others. Discipled people not only know the old, old story of the gospel, but they can share it with others in new, relevant ways. Even more, discipled people can show others how to witness. Discipled people are truly equipped, not only as agents of addition to the kingdom, but also as ambassadors of multiplication—in evangelism, in stewardship, in every area of the Christian life. Indeed, discipled people are equipped to be the church. The Master Teacher took three years with his twelve. It may take us a bit longer—8, maybe 10 or 12 years. How absurd to think people are equipped to be the church after 6 or even 16 weeks of an instruction class!

We must perceive the ministry of the Christian day school as an experience, not a building. Christian education—discipling—requires

on-the-job training. Field trips are not new to teachers: educators often take children to museums, the circus, the zoo. In discipleship training, the Christian day school will add other field trips—into the harvest fields of the nursing home, the hospital, the funeral home, the jail, the homes of the needy. The Christian day school is potentially a ministry that not only tells about Christianity but shows how to live the faith. It can send out people prepared for the Christian life, in action as well as knowledge, becoming thereby a mission agency of the church, a training ground for a future generation, preparing an army of discipling people to fulfill the Great Commission.

But this type of ministry has its price—discipling always costs. It cost Jesus his life. A burden for the world carries with it the cost of the cross. And the Christian day school is expensive. The enormous expense of a building, curriculum, and staff salaries is only the surface. The real cost lies with the pastors, principals, teachers, and lay people who serve sacrificially for years in a demanding ministry.

But the cost is justified if Christian day schools (1) are used as agencies of outreach as well as settings for nurture, and (2) graduate not only doctrinally knowledgeable people, but disciples equipped to carry out the ministry of Jesus Christ.

The cutting edge of kingdom growth always costs. Yet, where else can the church today find people standing in line to pay tuition so that we may have their children for some of their most formative years? The harvest beyond the chalkboard is ripe with opportunity.

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