The Importance and Purpose of Christian Education

 

The Importance and Purposes of Christian Education

 

                                                                                                                                                   Nak Moo Jun

Introduction

 

This paper discusses Christian education, focusing on the “why” questions. That is, it tries to answer the questions of why education is important in the Christian religion, and what purposes Christian education aim. These questions may be answered mainly through examining the nature and values of Christianity. First of all, however, we need to clarify the meaning of English word “education.” The English word educate can be traced back to the Latin word educere, “to lead out.”[1] With this etymological meaning, we can say that education is to lead the students out from what they are to what they should be. This implies that there are universally accepted values to which educational activities are to be oriented. It also implies the existence of leaders and their intimate guidance, without which such leading out would be impossible. Moreover, this meaning of education suggests its comprehensiveness. Education is not bringing something to the student, but bringing the whole person of the student to an intended state. In this sense, education should take place in every area of human life, especially in the intellectual, volitional and emotional dimensions. In addition, Christian in “Christian education” needs to be understood in its broadest sense. That is, Christian education means education “carried out in the context of a Christian community” and “taking its orientation from the purposes, language, beliefs, and self-understanding of that community.”[2] With these understandings of the meaning of “Christian education,” this paper aimed to present a number of reasons why education is important in Christianity and to suggest a few essential purposes of Christian education.

 

The Nature of Christianity

 

Christianity has characteristics that distinguish it from other religions and philosophies, and a clear understanding of these characteristics leads us to recognize the importance and purposes of education in Christian communities. As to characteristics related to Christian education, this section explains Christianity as a religion of knowledge, as a religion of salvation, and as a religion of community.

 

Christianity, religion of knowledge

 

Christianity is a religion of knowledge, and its community is built based on commonly shared knowledge. In this religion, knowledge is expressed in various terms including wisdom, truth, way, word, revelation and understanding. In Hosea 4:6, God said to the Israelites, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests.” In Matthew 13:11 as well, Jesus said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” These verses show that knowledge is the core of Christian faith, and without truthful knowledge, Christian faith cannot be established nor maintained. Moreover, different from human knowledge that is discovered and refined through experiences and experiments, Christian knowledge comes from God as its source and therefore it is supposed to be wholly right, to be universally applicable, and to have absolute authority. As a religion of knowledge, Christianity emphasizes the maintenance and transmission of knowledge, and the starting point of such efforts is fearing God as Proverbs 1:7a “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”

 

Christianity, religion of salvation

 

Christianity is a religion of salvation. In this religion, all individual souls are in a fallen state and they need to be led out of the state to a restored state, which is characterized by reconciliation with God and transformed life. In Christianity, salvation does not mean just going to heaven after death. Rather it means a long tedious process through which every corrupted aspect of a person’s life is corrected and sanctified. Concerning this, Philippians 2:12 says, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” In the world, all Christians are in the “continuous process of working out” and no one can say, “I have attained salvation.” The process of salvation may be rephrased as a process of learning or process of discipline. For this reason, Paul said to Timothy, “and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2Timothy 3:15). Through learning and discipline based on the truth in the Scriptures, a Christian student lives as a pilgrim on a journey and the teacher (the Scripture, human teacher, or God) provides guidance and support.[3]

 

Christianity, religion of community

 

Christianity is a religion of community. Even its God is God of Trinity, forming a love community among the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Many of Christian teachings are applicable only in the context of community. Especially the command of love presupposes that individual Christians live as members of community and have the objects of love. For example, Jesus said to his disciplines, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). In a strict sense, a Christian cannot escape from the context of community because God of Trinity is supposed to be always with him/her and the God continues to urge him/her to carry out some task or mission among other people in need. Thus every Christian should play a role as a member of community, or should initiate a new community if he/she is alone. The foundation of Christian community is the members’ faith in the same God and the same Christ based on shared stories coming mainly from the Bible. Then, in order to maintain the integrity and unity of the community, it is crucial to promote the faith among the community members and this is “a process of enculturation, in which a community attempts to aid a person to accept and internalize its values, beliefs, and way of life.”[4]

 

Why is education important in Christianity?

 

Based on the nature of Christianity discussed above, this section presents a number of reasons why education is important in Christianity and in the church. Why should education be emphasized in Christians’ life? To the questions, I give four answers as follows: first, because God is the source of knowledge and wisdom; second, because God himself is an educator; third, because there is the Deceiver; and fourth, inadequacy may lead to eternal destruction of souls.

 

1. God is the source of knowledge and wisdom.

 

Christian education begins with the proposition that all true wisdom and knowledge comes from God through God’s revelation and, apart from God, men cannot access knowledge. Thus, Christian education is a channel through which true knowledge and wisdom flow from God, its source, to his people. If education does not function properly the flow will be blocked and the people will be shut up in darkness. Thus, in Psalm 78:1, God invites his people by calling, “O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth,” and in 78:3,4, the people respond, “What we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.” These verses represent the image that the knowledge of God’s words and deeds cascade from God to “our fathers” and down through “the next generations.” Furthermore, the purpose of God’s revelation, namely, the Word of God is “God’s attempt to get the nature of his being and his will across to us so that we shall understand it.”[5] This means that revelation from God should be preserved, studied, understood, and spread carefully so that God may be manifested without distortion, be recognized fully by his people, and be glorified on earth. Because it is from God, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, furthermore, the wisdom of God is not just to be learned but to be accepted and obeyed. Therefore, Christian education always stands between God, the source of wisdom, and the learners, its destination. With regard to this, Richard Baxter insisted that the ministerial work must be carried on purely for God and the salvation of souls.[6]

 

2. God himself is an educator.

 

God in the Bible is an educator. In Psalm 23, the psalmist called the Lord his Shepherd who guides his way. In the New Testament as well, Jesus worked as “the Master Teacher” for his disciples as his students.[7] In addition, the Holy Spirit is called “the Counselor” who will teach the disciples all things and will remind them of everything that Jesus has said to them (John 14:26). The God of Christianity is not a dictator who forces his will to his subjects and threatens them with death, but he is a merciful and patient teacher who enlightens his students on the truth and guides them through the way of life. Christian education is our cooperative work with God as the Master Teacher. According to Lois Lebar, what Jesus wants from us is not that we become good teachers like Jesus himself, the perfect teacher, but that we allow Him to live and teach in us. He wants to have perfect control of us that He is free to work in His own way through us and with His own Holy Spirit.[8] This means that everybody has potential to be a great teacher as long as he/she is full of the Word and the Holy Spirit. In the same context, Paul Stevens introduced Joseph Hovsepian, a mature lay church leader, who could not go to a Bible school or take courses for the ministry but educated himself for the ministry within the ongoing life of the local church by reading the Bible on his own over and over again, loving the Word.[9] As the Master Teacher, God provides his people with both the contents and authoritative leadership of education. For this reason, we do not have any excuse for being lazy in Christian education.

 

3. There is the Deceiver

 

The importance of Christian education is reinforced by the existence of the Deceiver, namely, the Devil. Christianity always lies in the tension between truth and falsehood, and between light and darkness. Unfortunately, there is no neutral ground between the two opposites. one has to stand on the truth leading to life or to be deceived by falsehood leading to death, and with no other choice. As God is, the Devil is also rather an educator and preacher than a dictator. He leads people to the way of destruction by his excellent educational skills. Hugh Latimer (1487-1555), the Bishop of Worcester and a martyr in England, said in his Sermon on the Plough (1548), “There is one that passes all the other, and is the most diligent prelate and preacher in all England. And will you know who it is? I will tell you: it is the devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all other; he is never out of his diocese; he is never from his cure; ye shall never find him unoccupied; he is ever in his parish; he keeps residence at all times; you shall never find him out of the way, call for him when you will he is ever at home; the most diligent preacher in all the realm; he is ever at his plough: no lording nor loitering can hinder him; he is ever applying his business, you shall never find him idle, I warrant you. And his office is to hinder religion, to maintain superstition, to set up idolatry, to teach all kind of popery.” Latimer’s argument is even truer these days when people are surrounded by all kinds of mass media pouring out false precepts unceasingly when people are seeking and grasping whatever they find useful for solving their immediate problems of hunger and thirst. With regard to “the principalities and powers” exerting enormous influence on today’s people, Marva Dawn said, “people cling more desperately to whatever idolatries seem to them capable of freeing them from pain, confusion, weariness, or meaninglessness.”[10] Baxter also warned lazy teachers of the consequence of their laziness by saying, “If I do not bestir myself, Satan may prevail, and the people everlastingly perish, and their blood be required at my hand.”[11] In this sense, Christian education is not just a promotion of a good cause, but a fierce spiritual battle against the Deceiver.

 

4. Inadequacy may lead to eternal destruction of souls.

 

Inadequate education may result in various consequences such as failure in ignorance, low esteem and low income. These results are saddening but may be corrected through a second chance, and even they are endurable as long as they last only in this world. Inadequate education in the church, however, brings a much more grievous result, which is the eternal destruction of souls, and this result may nullify what God has planned and achieved in his eternal providence. With regard to the gravity of pastoral oversight, Baxter urged pastors, “Take heed to yourselves, for you have a heaven to win or lose, and souls that must be happy or miserable forever.”[12] That is, eternal happiness or eternal misery of souls depends on the pastors’ performance of their oversight duty. For anybody responsible for church education, therefore, the weight of his responsibility is as heavy as the weight of a soul. Thus, Jesus warned, “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). Recognizing the value of human souls, furthermore, we can restore the authority of teaching offices in the church.

 

What are the purposes of Christian Education?

 

What are the fundamental purposes of Christian education? As we have discussed above, various dimensions are involved in Christian education including the glory of God, the salvation of souls, and the frustration of Satan, and therefore the purposes of Christian education have to be multi-dimensional. Nevertheless, the subjects of Christian education are individual souls and churches and, therefore, we can say in the most general term that the supreme goal of Christian education is “building up” individual Christians and Christian communities. Yet this general purpose may be divided into more specific goals that Christian educators keep in their mind, and the goals are: first, transmission; second, transformation; and third, glory of God.

 

1. Transmission

 

According to Deuteronomy chapter 6, the most basic purpose of Christian education is preserving God’s command in the heart (“remember”) and transmitting it to the next generations (“teach”). Moses said to the Israelites, “Here, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children” (vv. 4-7a). This command suggests that the transmission of God’s commandments should be facilitated between the generations and it requires the efforts of all members in the community. In fact, Israel is a single body headed and ruled by God. In this sense, active transmission of God’s commandments is comparable to a sensitive nervous system through which every neuron in the body is connected to the brain, or a cardiovascular system through which every cell in the body is connected to the heart. If any neuron or cell is blocked from the transmission, it dies and decays quickly. In Colossians 2:19 as well, Paul said, “He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.” This image also suggests that every member in the body should play the role of either teacher or learner, or both. Concerning this, Paul Stevens said, “Every member of the body is indispensable. only as each part does its work can the body grow and attain its goal of maturity and unity in Christ.” He also argued, “In receiving the grace of Christ we become ministers.”[13] This means that when we receive the secret of the Heavenly Kingdom we are automatically given together the ministry of transmitting the secret to others. If we ignore our role in the transmission of God’s truth, it results in the destruction of the souls coupled to us. Thus, we should always find ourselves in the middle of the continuity of transmission, and keep us clear so that God’s grace and truth may flow smoothly through us to our neighbors and our children.

 

2. Transformation

 

Another key purpose of Christian education is transformation. That is, education in the church is not just for sharing knowledge but for changing lives. Especially with regard to the education of wisdom in the Old Testament, Pazmino said, “Wisdom in its fullest sense was only to be understood in relation to its source, namely, God,” and “Education should have an impact on people’s lives and should enable them to grapple with the practical consequences of the truths studied and discerned.”[14] This means that the basic purpose of Christian education is giving an impact on the students’ lives with regard to their relationship with God, exhorting them to love, fear and serve God. In fact, this exhortation originally comes from God himself and therefore “the hearing and heeding of God’s Word issues in the restoration of life and worship.”[15] In this context, Christian education should be focused on God’s heart toward the learners and, at the same time, the learners’ relationship with God. Christian educators need to remember that life-transforming power is not in the teachers nor in the learners, but in God and his loving heart toward his people. According to Campbell Wyckoff, “the Christian life is not properly man’s search for God at all. The Christian life is more properly God’s search for man. The objects of the search – truth, righteousness, and the good life – become clearer when we realize that it is God who is searching for us.”[16] This proper spiritual view helps us find ourselves as the objects of God’s ardent search, and the love of God becomes the source of power that transforms us so as to love God. Briefly speaking, transformation through Christian education starts from God’s love to us and ends with our love to God.

 

3. Glory of God

 

The ultimate purpose of Christian education is glorifying God. God’s vision for all creation is that it will come perfectly under God’s reign, which is to be a kingdom of peace and justice, wholeness and completion, happiness and freedom.[17] That is, God is glorified when all creation including each human soul comes perfectly under God’s rule. This purpose should be laid as the foundation in all educational activities in the church. As one of the motives for the duty of personal catechizing, Baxter also mentioned, “This duty is necessary for the glory of God. As every Christian lives to the glory of God, as his end, so will he gladly take that course which will most effectually promote it.”[18] Personal catechizing and, more generally, Christian education is the most effective way to promote the glory of God. It is because it leads individual souls to submit themselves to God’s rule, and through them God’s glory is revealed and God’s name is hallowed in the world. This is possible when each Christian accepts the Christian world view and life view that God is at the center of all life. In this sense, the glory of God is promoted effectively when such God-centered views are implanted through Christian education.

 

Conclusion

 

This paper discussed the importance and purposes of Christian education based on the nature of the Christian religion. In Christianity, education is the most essential element for preserving and transmitting the truth of God, for saving individual souls from the Deceiver to the Savior, for sustaining the vitality of the church, and ultimately for glorifying God. Moreover, responsibility for education is not limited to a few leaders in the church. Every member of the church should participate in educational activities as either a teacher or a learner or both. That is how each soul is connected to the Head and becomes a living part of the body.

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[1] Jim Wilhoit, Christian Education and the Search For Meaning (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1986), 11

[2] Sara P. Little, “Religious Instruction” in Contemporary Approaches to Christian Education (Ed. Jack L. Seymour and Donald E. Miller, Nashville, Tennessee: Abington, 1982), 38

[3] Wilhoit, Christian Education, 91

[4] Jack L. Seymour, “Approaches to Christian Education” in Contemporary Approaches to Christian Education (Ed. Jack L. Seymour and Donald E. Miller, Nashville, Tennessee: Abington, 1982), 21

[5] D. Campbell Wyckoff, The Gospel and Christian Education: A Theory of Christian Education for Our Times (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Westminster Press, 1959), 99

[6] Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (Edinburg, UK: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974), 111

[7] Robert Pazmino, Foundational Issues in Christian Education (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1997) 44

[8] Lois E. Lebar, Education That Is Christian (Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books, 1989), 65

[9] R. Paul Stevens, Liberating the Laity: Equipping All the Saints for Ministry (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity University, 1985), 166

[10] Marva J. Dawn, Is It a Lost Cause? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997) 21

[11] Baxter, Reformed Pastor, 112

[12] Ibid, 72

[13] Stevens, Liberating the Laity, 30

[14] Pazmino, Foundational Issues in Christian Education, 32-33

[15] Ibid, 31

[16] D. Campbell Wyckoff, The Task of Christian Education (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Westminster Press, 1960), 82

[17] Thomas H. Groome, Christian Religious Education (San Francisco, California: Harper & Row, 1980), 38

[18] Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, 195