We can’t just sit back and assume that just because a student goes to church or attends youth group that they are ready to follow Christ in today’s culture. Attendance isn’t cutting it; training is needed. And with it, a compelling vision of true education. 59% of Christian students losing their faith is unacceptable.
I am convinced that the prevailing approach to education in our society is doing a great disservice to students. As a culture we can do better but as Christians we must do better. Unfortunately, much of contemporary education has come to be identified with data acquisition.
[Tweet “”True education cannot sever the purpose for which we exist from who we are.””]
However, simply regurgitating facts does not mean that one is educated. The ability to look something up on Google or Wikipedia is useful to be sure and I am certainly thankful for the unprecedented access to information available today, but this ability is not to be confused or conflated with education.
In order to understand what it means to be educated, we need to answer a fundamental question—what is a human being for? If a human being is understood to be the result of a blind, random process that did not have him in mind, then strictly speaking there is no objective purpose (this is the contemporary Darwinian narrative).
But if a human being is specially created in the image of an essentially relational God, then education is about flourishing according to God’s design and for his glory. True education cannot sever the purpose for which we exist from who we are.
As Christians, we must resist the reductionism so common in our culture today. For as one of my professors put it one time, “education is not about testing well…but living well.” I’ve written a post about how to build a Christian worldview and I’ve also have attempted to make a start at recovering true integration for students in my book Welcome to College: A Christ-Follower’s Guide For the Journey. Here’s what some leading Christian thinkers are saying about it:
“Wow! What a book! Quite frankly, this is the book I’ve been waiting for the last forty years to give to college students. It is the single best volume I have ever read for preparing students for how to follow Jesus and flourish as his disciple in college.” – J.P. Moreland, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
“Jonathan has both the intellectual resources as well as the practical experience to provide an effective students’ survival guide to university life. I’m impressed with the wide array of issues he discusses, from intellectual challenges to financial problems to sexual snares to getting enough sleep! All this is done in easily digestible bits for the student on the run.” – William Lane Craig, Philosopher, Theologian and Author, Reasonable Faith
“Unpacking biblical truths, Welcome to College is a treasure book of wisdom that will literally save lives and help build a culture of life.” – Kelly Monroe Kullberg, Author, Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas (Founder of the Veritas Forum)
Thousands of parents and churches have already used Welcome to College as a gift for their high school graduates and it’s exciting to hear the stories of how God is using this book. It is gratifying to me as an author and my prayer is that many more students are encouraged and equipped by it in this year’s class.
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First, students want to engage the tough questions. They don’t just want pat answers. Next, this generation is passionate and wants to follow God and do big things for him. Lastly, there is increasing confusion about moral and spiritual truth in our culture and Christians are unconsciously absorbing it. The remedy for this is equipping and training. Students are fully capable of having mature conversations about topics that matter.