Everyone is familiar with education in one way or another. It’s functionally impossible to go through life without learning something in some way. Most of us as people living in the western world are familiar with education in the formal sense, such as public school or higher education like university. It’s understandable that when we think of Christian education then we think of marrying up this concept of a formal education with the church. This usually takes the form of private Christian schools that mostly teach a similar but modified curriculum as secular public schools but this curriculum is taught from a Christian worldview. While that is an accurate portrayal of Christian education it is not a complete one. Scripture paints a more holistic approach to Christian education that differs from the narrow “public education plus Jesus” view that many of us immediately think of when we hear the term Christian education.

The view of education in scripture doesn’t necessarily concern itself with teaching what we would consider classic school subjects, such as math or science. Instead, education is almost exclusively interested in the transmission of religious traditions from one generation to the next. ^[1] Deuteronomy 6:7 clearly instructs that parents should be the ones who teach these religious traditions to their children. This is a fairly far departure from our cultural model of child education where children are sent to a school to be taught by a teacher. Sometimes this model is incorrectly applied to the church, where parents believe that it is the church’s responsibility to teach their children. While we would hope that our churches do their very best to equip parents and assist them in this duty, Deuteronomy clearly places the ultimate responsibility upon the parents, not the pastors. This is quite possibly one of the greatest differences between our western idea of education and Christian education. As far as it concerns children, Christian education starts in the home.

Another striking difference between our cultural concept of education and Christian education is the scope of each model. Traditional education, at least at levels beyond early childhood, is primarily concerned with the development of the pupil’s mind. The ultimate goal for the educator is to expand the pupil’s understanding of the subject matter. The pupil’s other areas of development are not usually of primary concern. This is not true about Christian education. Good Christian education not only concerns itself with simply developing a pupil’s mind but developing their entire being into that of a disciple. “Elaborating further, an Internet search on the phrase “discipleship education” reflects a bifurcation of discipleship and education even though from a biblical perspective they are not separate entities.” ^[2] Christian education is forming believers into disciples in their entire existence. The best way to describe this difference is found in discerning the difference between knowledge and how it affects our worldview. Understanding that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell is all well and good, but it’s not going to fundamentally change the way that I see myself and the world. Contrasting this, understanding that there is a loving Creator who sent His only son to die for my sins should fundamentally shift the way that I understand myself and my place in creation. It is knowledge that is formational to my being. “Accordingly, Christian education is about far more than just academics; it is ultimately about discipleship!” ^[3]

This is truly why Christian education is so deeply important, because it is the way we create disciples. How could a sculpture create a bust of Beethoven if they are unaware of what Beethoven looks like? Similarly, someone cannot be formed into the image of Jesus if they do not know what that image looks like. It is through Christian education that we begin to understand what our ultimate goal of being like Jesus looks like.

Before we close this post on Christian education, I would be remiss if I did not mention a couple pitfalls of Christian education that must be avoided. The actual practice of Christian education is actually composed of two actions, doing and being. There are the actual activities that we do for Jesus. Think of these like the worksheets and practice tests that would be present in a more traditional educational setting. A student must practice their skills in order to develop them. The other is being with Jesus. Ultimately, we all learn from Christ, and it is by being with Him that we learn His heart. Going back to the classroom metaphor, a student cannot practice something they have not learned in the first place. These two actions, both doing and being, must be held in their appropriate places.

Many churches, if they err, seem to err on the side of over emphasizing doing over being. Churches traditionally have many programs that are constantly hungry for volunteers, so churches push volunteering for programs as the key to developing as a disciple. This is also seen in the offering plate, where discipleship development is boiled down to giving and practicing stewardship. Unfortunately, this sort of programming that is centered on doing ends up becoming empty. The growing disciple begins doing these things not as a way of becoming more like Christ but as a way of developing themselves. “The ultimate goal of ethical living, however, is not self-improvement but rather to love and serve God and others so that Christ might be exalted.” ^[4] These become practices done with the intent of developing the self rather than serving God. They help create great moralists but disconnected and lost disciples. They become empty and hollow practices. “Christian living is therefore more about being with Jesus than about doing for Jesus.” ^[5] Doing things for Jesus must always be performed in service to ultimately being with Jesus.

That isn’t to say that it cannot go the other direction. Occasionally a church may overemphasize the practice of being with Christ to the detriment of doing. This results in believers who believe they have a developed faith and a healthy understanding of who Christ is, but they themselves look nothing like Him. James describes this in chapter two of his epistle that this is a dead faith. A faith without works to embody that faith is useless. These churches may be the ones who are insular and fail to serve their community. Instead, they’d rather focus on building themselves up without actually putting the faith they are fostering to work. The problem presented in James 2 is that a real growing disciple who has a real growing faith will perform works because by doing these works they grow closer to God. “There is a cautionary caveat in all of this. That is, while doing does not guarantee righteousness, being – even in relationship with God – is incomplete without doing.” ^[6] Doing completes the work of being.

So, in this way, Christian education is best understood in these two parts, doing and being. True discipleship formation is Christian education that occurs through being with Christ. This being with Christ is the transformative relationship that metamorphosizes a person who is created in God’s image into truly embracing that image as a disciple. By understanding the heart of God we are then equipped to do the work of Christ. The process of being with Jesus is only completed by doing for Jesus. This is how both being and doing work side by side in Christian education.

^[1] Culpepper, “Education,” 21.

^[2] Cox and Peck, “Christian Education as Discipleship Formation,” 246.

^[3] Cox and Peck, 248.

^[4] Chandler, “Whole-Person Formation,” 328.

^[5] Cox and Peck, “Christian Education as Discipleship Formation,” 251.

^[6] Cox and Peck, 252.