Recently, I had the privilege of addressing the Christian Men’s Fellowship of Kingston. This is a group of around 60 retired Christian men who meet weekly at Enjoy Church in Kingston and share a time of fellowship, singing, devotions and the odd really bad joke!
Several of these men have been long serving Members of our Association and have either had children go through one of our schools or have grandchildren currently attending. The verse I shared with these men was from Ephesians Chapter 6 verse 12
‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’
As Christians working in Christian education, we need to take this verse seriously and remember that we are all in a battle, whether we are aware of it or not. We need to remember that our schools are also in this battle. So what prize does the enemy have his eyes on in this battle? The hearts and minds of young people!
Right now, across this beautiful country we live in, as Christians we’re facing a battle against false teaching that says there is no God only science and self. False teaching that tells us that we came about as part of some cosmic accident and that because there’s nothing after we die, we may as well just enjoy ourselves as much as we can while we’re alive.
We’re in a battle against depression and anxiety that affects so many of our children, especially our teenagers. We’re in a battle to stop chronic self-harming and destructive behaviours.
We’re in a battle with so-called gender fluidity, where it’s becoming common place for girls to identify as boys and boys to identify as girls. With laws that are being brought in that make it a criminal offence to try and counsel these young people or to caution them to not go ahead with life changing medical procedures that can’t be reversed.
We’re in a battle against Social Media where millions of young people are immersed for hours every day in platforms such as FaceBook, Myspace, Twitter, Tik Tok, YouTube, gaming sites and virtual worlds. Platforms where many experience “cyber-bullying” and some that are known sites for predators.
We’re in a battle against the degrading values of a society that is becoming more and more godless. More and more depraved. More and more selfish and self-centred.
“I believe our response is to continue to honour God in what we do and have faith in Him and in His promises to us”
So, what is our response to this as Bible believing Christians? Well, I believe our response is to continue to honour God in what we do and have faith in Him and in His promises to us; to hold on to the hope that God has given us through Jesus; and to keep God’s first commandment – to love Him and to love others. And our responsibility as those working in Christian education is to instil these values in the precious children we have such a privilege of teaching every day in our schools. So that the next generation will grow up to not only believe there is a God, but to love and to serve that God. To know that they’ve been created for a purpose. That they aren’t just an accident. To know that they have immeasurable worth. We want the next generation to grow up with faith in God, with a hope for the future and with a deep conviction that they are loved.
I am so very grateful for each and every one of you. For standing side by side with me, your colleagues and the leadership in your schools in this battle, and for never giving up. And for upholding the values that we’ve just adopted as our core values – Faith, Hope and Love.
Faith in God and faith in His calling for every child that goes to one of our schools, for every staff member, to follow Him. To love Him. To serve Him with their gifts and talents. To discover His amazing plan for their lives. And faith that God has called each of us according to his purpose.
Hope for a brighter future. We know that our hope is in Christ. But what hope do children who are told that Jesus is a myth have? What hope do children who are told they are just a result of an accident or evolution have? What hope do children who are told there is nothing after this life have? At our schools we give our students hope because we teach them the truth that’s been revealed to us through God’s word – the truth that the world is not an accident. It was created by a loving God. The truth that sin entered the world and that we’re living in a fallen world as a result. And the truth that God sent Jesus as a way to redeem and restore His creation and to reconcile us back to Him.
And finally Love. Paul tells us that out of everything that will remain, the greatest of these is love.
My prayer, as I’m sure is yours, is to see every student transformed by faith, hope and love, and transformed by the distinctive Christian teaching and learning that we deliver in our schools. And that these students in turn will transform the communities around them for generations to come.
David Gillman — CEO Christian Schools Tasmania