We Are Better Together!
Samuel, a 7-year-old boy, after Wednesday night Bible class, while getting ready for bed was asked by his mother, “What did you learn tonight in Bible class?” “God,” he answered as he quickly hopped into bed. “What about God?” she asked. With JOY he claimed, “He knows me by name!” The mother’s heart melted as tears swelled in her eyes, and she thanked God for the NEW relationship between Jesus and her son.
What did you learn in Bible class last Sunday? What was your conversation like at the dinner table last night? What did the Holy Spirit say to you recently about your children’s relationship with Jesus this week? These questions should cause us to contemplate “The What”?
The other day a blog came before me and spoke directly to our intentionality of how Master’s Academy partners with parents in teaching Christian Education. Here is a compelling excerpt from the blog about our roles in “spiritually developing” this upcoming generation.
“J. Gresham Machen, a seminary professor until his death in 1937, once said of his mother, “I did not get my knowledge of the Bible from Sunday School or from any other school, but I got it on Sunday afternoons with my mother at home”—high praise from a man who was educated in elite private schools, as well as Johns Hopkins University and Princeton University.
His experience, one we daresay is shared by many others, illustrates that a great deal of children’s spiritual formation takes place in the home.
Many Christian educators articulate this view. We’ve asked about a biblical philosophy of Christian education in a few different contexts and consistently gotten the same response: teachers, administrators, and parents most commonly believe that a biblical philosophy of Christian education is a partnership with parents.
Those holding to this view may turn to the Mosaic command in Deuteronomy 6 to teach these words “diligently to your children” (Deuteronomy 6:7), to the responsibility given to parents in Psalm 78 to “teach to their children that the next generation might know” (Psalm 78:5-6), or to countless examples of parents training their children in the ways of their faith (e.g., Joshua 24:15; Job 1:5; 2 Timothy 1:5, 3:15-17; etc.). Parents superintend this divine responsibility by asking Christian schools to come alongside them in partnership to train up their children. (ACSI 2024)
That is exactly what you have done. You have chosen Master’s Academy to partner with you, and we honor and cherish that responsibility! Why? - Deuteronomy 6!
Why Master’s Academy? - Recently a parent stood outside my office in tears conversing with one of our teachers about the difficulties she was having with her youngest child. They shared similar stories. They prayed together. They hugged! Relational transformation!
The WHY!
