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What are Christian schools to do?
Becky Hansard
 You only have to listen to the local news to know that our children live in a culture that is in crisis! They are bombarded with one minute images on television that go against every value system we as a Christian society hold dear. They are inundated with music that contains lyrics that chip away at every biblical precept they have ever learned. Our children have to make choices daily that would have made us cringe had we been faced with the same choice at their age.
As we are aware of all of this we have to ponder the question "How do we address these realities within the Christian school?" Do we act as though they do not exist? We had best not. We cannot ignore our responsibility to redeem the surrounding culture. If we do that our Christianity will remain privatized and marginalized. To turn our back on the culture would be a betrayal of our biblical mandate and our own heritage because it would deny God's sovereignty over all of life.
In the book, "How Now Shall We Live" by author Charles Colston, we are reminded that Christianity offers the only viable, rationally defensible answer to all of our human problems. It offers a way to understand both the physical and the moral order. Colston reminds us that only Christianity offers a comprehensive worldview that covers all areas of life and thought, every aspect of creation. Only Christianity offers a way to live in line with the real world.
That brings me back to the question: What are Christian schools to do? At SBA our goal is Kingdom education. This goal requires that the Academy be a support for the Christian home and that the beliefs and values taught in the school must reinforce those that God says must be taught and practiced in the home. If this support does not happen, our children?s lives will become more and more fragmented, and their life will continue to lose purpose and meaning! Schools, in order to be a part of kingdom education, must have their instruction grounded in God's word.
When the home is a place where parents are involved in God's plan for educating future generations then the Christian school becomes an extension of the home. This is the beginning of the answer to the question: What are Christian schools to do? If the home and the school are "like-minded" and can support each other in all things then the children we partner together to raise will be the godly warriors that will impact our culture for Christ. I look forward to exploring this question together further as the year progresses.
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