Tag: spiritual formation

Discipleship in the School, Part 2: Spiritual Formation

In my first article in this series, I explored the idea of discipleship and what it means for the Christian school to make disciples. I noted from the offset that the Christian school and local church have different purposes, and therefore, we should expect their discipleship approaches to look different. At the same time, both institutions share a goal to promote the gospel of Jesus Christ. In this regard, there is to be found a shared vision of discipleship, namely, to help others follow Jesus and grow in conformity to his image. I then went on to offer two general

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Training the Prophetic Voice, Part 3: The Schools of the Prophets

In my previous two articles on training the prophetic voice, I laid some groundwork by establishing first that our understanding of prophecy (truth telling) is grounded in the character of God as a truth-telling God, and second that the kind of truth we are talking about is of a moral nature when we are considering prophetic acts and speeches. My goal with this series of articles is to promote the idea that our schools are aimed at developing the prophetic voice of our students. In this next article, we travel back to the Bible to make some observations about where

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Training the Prophetic Voice, Part 1: The Educational Heart of God

The God we worship and serve is an educating God. Our God has chosen to reveal himself to those whom he has created. God’s verbal communication with his creation is expressed in the opening of John’s gospel, “In the beginning was the Word.” Our God is a speaking God, which means he is continuously teaching people, taking them from a place of ignorance to a place of understanding. There are numerous implications emanating from this concept of God as an educator. In this article, we will explore the many facets of God’s educational heart. We will see that the foundational

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Class of 2020: The Next Greatest Generation

The class of 2020 has felt the full force of the disruption caused by the Coronavirus. Graduation ceremonies have been cancelled, postponed or held virtually online. Nothing about the spring of senior year went according to plan for the class of 2020. It has been described as catastrophic and traumatic by students, parents and teachers. In the face of such obstacles, how do we maintain a confident faith? Part of gaining the courage to lead, we must come to grips with our current circumstances. I myself find great meaning in the quote by Marcus Aurelius, “What stands in the way

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Teaching Confident Faith in an Age of Religious Uncertainty

Christianity, as a global religion, is at a crossroads. On the one hand, it remains the largest religion in the world: 31% of the world’s population is Christian, and sociologists predict this percentage to increase to 32% by 2060. [1] On the other hand, the religion is experiencing notable decline in the West. In 2010, 75% of Europeans and 77% of North Americans identified as Christian, practicing or non-practicing. The percentages in both continents are expected to decrease to 65% by 2050. [2] If Christianity is projected to increase globally, but decrease in the West, in what parts of the

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