What Is Education & What Are the Top 6 Goals of Educating Generations for Christ?

Q: What is education?

Let’s begin by defining it. According to Noah Webster, the father of American Christian education, “Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties.”

Q: In light of this Scripturally-based definition, what are the 6 most important goals of Christian education?

Jesus tells us: “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the Only True God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent.” – Jn 17:3

The most important task and the primary purpose of every Christian parent is to educate their children for God. The educational role of parents can be briefly summarized in the following 6 goals:

1. to teach their children that the purpose of their lives and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, to love and serve God wholeheartedly, and to know His voice;

2.  to form godly character by depositing in them moral virtue and forming godly habits, while reproving and correcting the temper;

3.  to train them in the art of Christian self-government so that they are governed internally by the Spirit of God;

4.  to renew their minds with the Word of God and train them in Biblical scholarship;

5.  to assist them in developing a truly Christ-centered Biblical worldview;

6.  to train them in wisdom, knowledge, and discernment so as to equip them to fulfill their Providential purpose in God’s Kingdom.

Our chief aim as Christian parents is to lay Jesus Christ and obedience to His commandments as the only foundation of all wisdom, knowledge, and learning. Our long-term vision is to perpetuate our faith and the covenant we have with God to our children and to teach them to pass it on from generation to generation. This is what it means to educate children for God. Have you ever wondered why God chose Abraham to be the father of faith? Genesis 18:19 tells us, “For I have chosen him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice; in order that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken to him.”  In other words, God chose Abraham because He knew that Abraham would be faithful to teach his children to keep the covenant with God and perpetuate their faith from generation to generation.

In Psalm 78:5-7, we find this same generational vision: “For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.”  We see here that God Almighty commands fathers to teach their children His commandments and His works, so that their faith and obedience to God was passed on perpetually from generation to generation.

Thank you for visiting my blog on Preparing parents for their primary purpose educating children for God. This is Josiah Friberg asking you to check back often for my most recent Christian education postings on Christian schools, homeschooling, and the dangers of public schools. Consider adding my RSS FEED so you can keep up to date on godly alternatives to public schools. This article was posted by Josiah Friberg on his Christian Education blog: www.alleducationisreligious.blogspot.com. For assistance, contact Exodus Mandate at: Click here - ExodusMandate.org

Christian Educational Goals & Objectives for Parents & Teachers Educating Generations for Christ

In my research, I’ve developed a detailed composite of Christian educational goals and objectives that I’d like to share with you so that you can have a target to aim at as you educate your children for God. These are all derived from an explicitly Christian philosophy of education and can be used by any home school parent or Christian school teacher. A combination of the Biblical principle approach, the teacher-mentor approach, and the classic approach is designed to facilitate, model, teach, and enable our students to achieve the following educational goals and objectives.

For the spiritual growth of the student,

To instruct the student in God’s Word, to teach the tenets of its doctrines and principles and leading ideas of Scripture, to edify the student towards full spiritual stature in Christ, and to equip the student for a life of Kingdom service. To impart to the student, by the power of the Spirit of Truth, the full experiential knowledge of God for a deep awareness of the glory, the justice, the holiness, the goodness, and the love of God, and of the fallen state of man, so that the student will be drawn to surrender his heart and submit his life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. To train the student to hear the voice of God and follow the leading of the Spirit in his daily walk in the Spirit. To teach the student the stewardship of his most sacred possessions – his conscience and his character. To teach, model, and develop wisdom in the student, which is the ability to live a godly life skillfully in an ungodly world, and to foster and develop in the student moral discernment, discretion, and practical righteousness (right living and right relationships) before God and man in every area of life. To foster the spiritual disciplines and joys of worship, prayer, fasting, giving, Bible meditation and study, and obedience for the practice of spiritual warfare and for living an overcoming Christian life.

For the personal and social development of the student,

To encourage the student’s personal relationship with the Lord as the dynamic of all his relationships as he grows towards adult roles in marriage and the family, in the church, in the community, in the nation, and in the world. To give the student a vision for his unique purpose, for which he has been endowed with unique individuality made in the image of God, and to lead him to affirm and accept his peers and relations with the same value. To enable the student to pursue his God-given vocation and fulfill his Providential calling with passion and faithfulness. To inspire the student to set excellent standards for the development of his abilities, gifts, and talents, for accountability of personal resources of time, opportunities, health and energies, and for relationships. To inspire and equip the student to become a free and responsible Kingdom citizen who governs himself under God through the Holy Spirit within. To inspire the student to become a godly example in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Our teacher-mentors will lead by example, mentoring each student as they integrate wisdom, knowledge, responsibility, and service. To equip the student to share his faith effectively, to make a reasonable defense of the faith, and to inspire him to bring the light of the Gospel to all men everywhere. To enable the student to follow a Biblical model for distinctive Christian leadership that demonstrates Kingdom living as God-appointed stewards over His creation, and that seeks to influence society and transform culture with a thoroughly Biblical worldview. To prepare and train Ambassadors for Christ, courageous Kingdom Statesmen, who will lead others with an excellent spirit through the dark times that are challenging our world, by having the courage to make wise moral decisions, bring Kingdom solutions to society’s problems, and show the way of righteousness.

For the academic performance of the student,

To teach the learner, successfully respecting his unique individuality, and by realizing that teaching is not complete until learning is achieved. To equip the student to be able to think critically and independently. To instill a Biblical worldview by laying a foundation of presuppositions based on Biblical absolutes in the thinking of every student through a curriculum framed by Biblical principles and leading ideas. To equip the student with the textual hermeneutic skills that demonstrate Biblical scholarship, in order to show himself approved unto God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth, and to prepare him to be able to defend the Biblical worldview against the many pagan and secular philosophies of the world. This includes equipping him with sound scientific data regarding the origins of the universe and of mankind. To build a Biblical foundation of knowledge, wisdom, discernment, & understanding for life. To introduce the student to foundational truths and evidences that clearly demonstrate the authority, authenticity, and accuracy of the Scriptures, particularly in light of religious, scientific, and cultural norms conflicting with the Biblical worldview. To raise a generation of defenders of the truth by equipping each student with careful study skills and habits of inquiry and research, patterns of Biblical reasoning, and methods of recording and presenting ideas and understanding. In addition, to encourage students to have real encounters with the living God so that they develop a lifetime of living testimonies of what God has done in their lives as they experience the love and the power of the living God. To give students the appreciation of all areas of knowledge as God-given and experiences in every academic discipline and the arts, so that they can identify their areas of strength and interest for future choices and positions. To cultivate a love for the truth and a love for learning so that each student becomes a self-motivated and self-taught lifelong learner. To build a sense of history and its providential links and purpose so that the student recognizes both his heritage and place in “Christ - His Story,” and is ready to take responsibility for his place in his generation; to recognize the importance of historical and cultural context, and to learn to interpret history and current events through a Biblical Providential perspective. To give students the technical and communication skills needed to prepare for further education and vocation choices.

Thank you for visiting my blog on Preparing parents for their primary purpose of educating generations for Christ. This is Josiah Friberg asking you to check back often for my most recent Christian education postings on Christian schools, homeschooling, and the dangers of public schools. Consider adding my RSS FEED so you can keep up to date on godly alternatives to public schools. This article was posted by Josiah Friberg on his Christian Education blog: www.alleducationisreligious.blogspot.com. For assistance, contact Exodus Mandate at: Click here - ExodusMandate.org