Serving God and Parents

Post a comment! Christian schools are not merely places to get training for high paying jobs, they exist to serve God and families. How should our schools view their role as servants of God and families?
Obviously there are other motives that influence everyone involved with the school (including the students) such as:
  • Concerns to serve local churches or denominational affiliates.
  • Concerns to serve the community.
  • Concerns to serve the requirements of the state.
  • Concerns to treat employees and volunteers well.
  • Concerns that drive the budget.
But I think all the above concerns are submitted (in often complicated ways) to the service of God and the parents who ultimately hold the God given obligation to educate their children.

School leaders ultimately look to God for a sense of the schools’s mission and identity and offer this to parents. Parents then select the school (perhaps it is their own homeschool) that best fits their sense of how they are to educate their children. Parents should obviously have a say into the school (i.e. the administration better be open to and seeking out parental concerns), but ultimately individual parents should not expect to dictate how others should conscientiously teach or run their school.

Some schools seem to view themselves as businesses. Parents who are dissatisfied with the school can look for others or homeschool, which places pressures on schools to meet the concerns of parents. However, this interchange should not be viewed merely as “market interactions.” Christian schools should view themselves as communities within the Body of Christ. Some are gifted and called to teach the children of others, but everyone is humbly serving Christ and needs to see themselves as servants.


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