Christian Education Program

Our Christian Education program was introduced by the singing of several songs. Freeman Hostetler gave a hearty welcome to Holmes county, land of tourists and history, with the largest concentration of Amish people in the world. This was followed by a number of songs by the Salt and Light Co. from Rosedale Bible Institute.

Leon Zimmerman, president of RBI gave a report of the new developments there, including the fact that RBI has been authorized by the state of Ohio to grant the Associate of Arts in Biblical Studies degree to those students who complete one of their seven two-year programs.

The evening program consisted of a look at our responsibility to teach our children through home schooling, public schools or Christian schools.

Don Showalter discussed the topic of Home Schooling. Goal number one for Christian Parents is having a passion to know Jesus Christ. He mentioned, from Philippians 4, that we need to add knowledge to virtue. The goal of instilling Christian character must precede the goal of instilling a body of knowledge. Other important goals are developing proper priorities, avoiding peer pressure, developing strong role models for our children, attentiveness, and the fear of God. This is in contrast to the Greek priorities of developing knowledge, power, prestige and status.

Steve Swartz spoke on the need of involvement in the public schools of the community. In many places there are wide-open doors for outreach through our children. Children are permitted to share their faith and give literature to other children in public school. We, with our children, need to be a light in our society, instead of withdrawing and isolating ourselves. Salt is effective only if it is spread around. Public school education can have a vaccination effect on our children as they are exposed to the need of making decisions against the evils of the world in which they live.

Elmer Miller spoke on the value of Christian schools by having a Christian staff that can serve as effective mentors to our children through their most formative years. Children will develop their world-view through the lives of their teachers. The curriculum, including their workbooks, will be such that they have memorized a great deal of Scripture by the time they are through. Their lessons are often given a mission emphasis. In history class they can discuss Anabaptist history.

Elmer also recognized the downside that can develop if parents become apathetic and leave the responsibility of Christian training to the schools. Schools can never take the place of parents. They can only supplement the teaching in the home. Children can be given all the right answers, the right knowledge, without an inner experience. Children can lose their sense of being the "called-out-ones" since everyone in their school experience is expected to demonstrate a Christian life style.

One theme that ran through all of these presentations was that, regardless of which educational model is followed, it is extremely important that the parents are deeply involved in the educational experiences of their children. Different situations in different communities may cause different decisions, but, regardless of which model is chosen for our children, only a deep passion for the welfare of our children will enable us to discharge our responsibility of nurturing them as they grow up to be strong followers of Jesus Christ in our world today.

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