As the church that birthed this ministry 47 years ago, it is only right that we begin our school year tonight in worship at Westminster Presbyterian Church.
The goal of Westminster Christian Academy is to partner with each family and each student in providing an education that is Christ-centered, excellent and able to produce graduates who ultimately will think in higher categories, critically and Christianly in all things. But, this partnership did not begin here; it began 47 years ago when a church was given a profound idea… to start a school, and not just any a school… a school that would be Christian and excellent and open to families who wanted such an education for their children. The church had no lofty goals initially. No, it wanted to humbly obey the calling given to it by a Holy God. So, the church began to make preparations to start this school. Many gave much, and, despite tragedy and great sacrifice, the church started the school. And the school survived and started to grow. Times were hard and difficult, but the church was faithful and the school continued to grow. From one blessing to the next, the church and the school continued to move forward together, from one property to the next, and now we sit, tonight, preparing to begin our 47th year together. Belief, obedience, sacrifice, faith and vision have moved both entities to this point, but why? Is education that is Christian really worth all the effort and money?
James K.A. Smith offers a response to that question; he writes,
“Stemming from the conviction that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps. 111:10), the Reformed tradition has long recognized that Christ’s lordship extends over every sphere of life, including education. There is no sphere of life that is “neutral”; rather, our practices and institutions are always and ultimately shaped and informed by faith commitments. So, while an institution might claim to be “secular,” as if it were not religious, Reformed thinkers from Abraham Kuyper to Nicholas Wolterstorff have seen through such claims: what pretends to be neutral or secular in fact masks some other faith commitment.
The vision of Christian education is radical because it stems from the conviction that any and every education is rooted (Latin: radix) in some worldview, some constellation of ultimate beliefs. Therefore, it’s important that the education and formation of Christians be rooted in Christ (Col. 2:7)—rooted in and nourished by a Christian worldview across the curriculum.”
Education will imprint a worldview on all children. Christian Education rightly should be an extension of what we believe, how badly we believe it and how desperately we want our children to believe it. I Timothy 4:12 states, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” So, we should not apologize that we want our children in an education that sets before them Christian examples of these things.
As we prepare for another school year, the school will welcome an enrollment of well over 700 students, the largest enrollment in the school’s history. The school is establishing new heights in scholarships, test scores and various other academic areas, but while all of those are important, and they are because we are called to be a school, they are only the beginning. There is so much more to what is taking place in the minds and the hearts of Westminster students.
In 2001, Dr. Ruth Simmons was sworn in as the first African American women president of Brown University. In her acceptance speech she said this: “the purpose of education is not to provide you employment, but to nurture your soul.” I believe she captures the essence of what we are trying to do at Westminster Christian Academy. We are trying to compete with the world for the souls of our students. Such a lofty and seemingly impossible task, how can we hope to capture the souls of students in a world that has so many advantages over us? Do I dare say it again… education that is excellent and Christ-centered. Some would say we utter those words too many times; I would say we don’t do it enough.
Those are only words; what can they do to change the hearts and the minds of students. Come to our campus, walk our halls and talk to our students and you will see students who love the Lord Jesus, love each other and want to engage the world for their Lord. Are they perfect? No, and neither are we, but in some ways, they are well ahead of the rest of us.
The question I get most is this: what is Christian education? It is not Christian textbooks; it is not Christian pedagogy. It is not even Christian policies and procedures. Christian education is mostly about the Christian teacher. It is the Christian teacher that imparts the education to the student. This summer in a class we were studying the transfer of knowledge. One of the papers we read posited this idea: the transfer of knowledge is at its best when both teacher and student possess a “critical spirit” towards each other. Upon reading more, this idea of a critical spirit – mutual respect, freedom of expression and concern for each other – is rooted in the idea of discipleship. At Westminster, the teacher is not just expected to teach but also to disciple.
When a school hires its faculty and staff with a vision of academic excellence and discipleship something takes place inside students. Something will always take place inside students as they mature. Theorists have a phrase for this change; it is called cognitive dissonance. Simply put, it states that students will fall to the majority influence in their lives as the maturation process takes place. Fifty years ago most students spent that time with their families, but over the last twenty with families forced to work longer hours and with both parents now working, students now spend that time at school with teachers and peers. When We take cognitive dissonance and make it work for us by providing our children influences outside the family that reflect those inside the family… well, you start to see students do amazing things for the Lord. I am certainly not discounting the intervening work of the Holy Spirit, but what I am pointing to is our calling as parents… to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
At Westminster Christian Academy, we desire to prepare students to engage the world as followers of Jesus Christ and as those who think in higher categories, discern truth from heresy and articulate faith in a firm but loving manner. And all of this flows out of a command given to each and every one of us in I John 4:1, the command is to “test the spirits.” Our response to this command will determine much in the years to come. This is Westminster Christian Academy! Is it worth all the effort, sweat and tears? The answer is yours. I already know mine.
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