From the Principal

Why are Christian Schools attractive?

There is a view out there that Christian schools are merely about protection and removal of the real world, a world that desperately needs the Gospel.  This position becomes a little unstuck when they see Christian schools providing a meaningful story. 

Mark Sayers, a cultural commentator cultural, writer and speaker, who is highly sought out for his unique and perceptive insights into faith and contemporary culture, pondered why some Christians are changing their minds and why Christian schools are growing in popularity.  What follows are triggered by his reflections and insights.

Why Schools have to provide answers

If the church was meant to provide meaningful answers to the questions or needs that people have, attendance rates would suggest that they are missing their mark.  Whilst there are exceptions to the trend, its not all that great on the church front.  Christian Schools in Australia are growing at around 10% and lots of parents who do not personally share the Christian faith are knocking on the school door to get in. Why is that?  Why is one Christian community attractive and the other is not?

A meaningful story

Sayer points out that parents are desperately looking for some significant answers because what they are seeing out there is making them frightfully scared.  He says that built into our DNA, the framework of our human makeup, is the need for a meaningful story about life, one that will answer the pivotal questions of, ‘who we are?’ and ‘what we’re doing?’ 

Parents are turning to schools to provide this, particularly schools that communicate a meaningful story.

Each generation (Builders, Boomers, Gen X, Y, Z, Millennials) have in their own way answered these questions. The Builders (our parents and grandparents) saw school as a launch pad into their single career/job that they kept for life.  Their big job was to acquire their own house and to provide a clear and solid set of values built through family, school and church (or at least Sunday School) upbringing, and your legacy was to ensure that your children did it better than you did. Lots of us are still trying to cling to that way of seeing the world, even though we might be from different generations. 

Its scaring the living daylights out of them

As parents cast their eyes across the growing landscape, what do they see?  If you asked a bunch of parents about the challenges they currently faced, what would they list?  35 Principals gave the following list: cyber stuff, bullying, addiction, lethargy, loneliness, cutting, binge drinking, suicide, parental confidence, confusion about boundaries, body image, tattoos, mental health, narcissism, drugs, responding to authority, disposable commitment, affluence and consumerism.

Parents look at this and they are fearful.  Understandably so.  They do not want this form of self-indulged sorrow and meaningless to be their child’s lot in life.

Sayers writes all these concerns above the line and then poses a big, ‘Why?’ below the line.  He points out that to understand what’s happening above the cultural landscape surface, you need to look at what is happening underneath.

It is tempting and easy to respond in quick condemnation.  ‘The place is going to the dogs … there’s no respect anymore … why don’t kids finish their degrees … they don’t stand for pregnant ladies … what sort of person pierces their tongue?’  This sort of response is commonplace.  Every older generation has looked at the ‘later-comers’ and despaired about the decline.  However, simplistic generational laments diminish our ability to wrestle with the more complex questions around causes.

What’s below the line?

Sayers says we are living in a ‘morally insignificant universe’ where there are no big answers. For today’s generation, if there is nothing underneath - no meaningful anchors, no soul-giving meaning – all that is left is your body.  So you adorn it to the max, and when your body is not doing what you want, when it provides no deep satisfaction, you cut it or you commit suicide because what does it matter? Why else would a young person send a picture of their naked self and post it?  Why else would you sleep with whomever and not think it has any baring on your soul? Why else would you readily share your every moment  on-line? If nothing actually matters, then who gives a proverbial?  The epicurean posits, “If I don’t know what the hell this is all about, I may as well party!”

People living in this morally insignificant universe are no longer caught up in a grand story.  They do not need a grand story because their panorama is ‘now’ – just their personal story.  Mark Sayers uses the metaphor of ‘The Road’ to point out that we’ve become infatuated with the journey, rather than the destination – it is all about my experiences and what I am learning on the way, the road to self-realisation.

In a morally insignificant universe, in the absence of a grand story, parents are looking for answers that make sense, answers to questions that concern – what you post online, who you sleep with, what is your intoxication, what you consume, how you dress, what you think of yourself.  Parents want answers that make sense of the nonsense, values that give purpose and hope among the directionless-ness.  Parents are shouting, ‘We know in our heart of hearts that it’s a morally insignificant universe and we want our children knowing that too.’

Decent answers

Why are Christian schools so attractive when the church in not?  Whilst people may have given up on formal religion, they have never stopped wanting answers to the questions of human beings.  Parents are voting with their feet and saying, schools that have the attention of their child for the whole week should be able to come up with decent answers.

The challenge for Christian schools in this battle of shaping hearts and minds, is that we only get a short time to show that bigger picture, to point to the grand story, to build a Christian imagination that shows the finger prints of God in all matters. Students and parents within our sphere of influence need to be shown that they can belong to this bigger story that makes sense out of the mess we are in and shows the way out.  It tells students who they are and what they are doing here.  These are the decent answers, the significant messages that parents want to hear and the Christian school can provide.

Christian schools should boldly broadcast, ‘We are not going to live in a meaningless universe.  How can it be when it is God’s world!’

Where churches can help

A challenge for the church is to contribute to the ongoing journey of faith development, especially when the parents, school and church work together, unravelling the mysteries and providing unfolding answers to the questions we have.

And there is some evidence that the church is "making a comeback" as it provides deeper layers in answering these questions that parents and students are asking.  This is especially evident in the growing work of support for the needs of people in the most practical ways of food, shelter and protection.

This work gives an even greater answer to the grand story of the Bible by being the hand and feet of Jesus to the needy.

Nurture Conference

Christian Education National (CEN), our parent organisation, holds a Nurture Conference each year to promote Christian Education in Australia.  COVID-19 has put a spanner in the national part of this conference.  This has had an unexpected benefit for us here in Tasmania.

Launceston Christian School is hosting the conference this year and the Board at LCS are investing heavily in this critical and strategic initiative.

So what do want from our parents in this?

LCS is providing the opportunity for any parent to come to this conference completely free of charge. The Nurture Conference begins on Friday 4th September in the evening with a dinner date together.  This is a time where parents can enjoy a lovely FREE meal and have a great night out together.  Look at it as blessing from LCS to provide a unique cost-free night out with others who are interested in Christian Education.

On Saturday 5th September, the Nurture Conference continues at our school with the opportunity to engage with engaging speakers who will present their understanding and give compelling reasons for why Christian Education is important.  They will encourage and challenge parents to become more involved partners in this important work: growing the hearts and minds of our children in a world that needs young people to know and be confident contributors, who know that they have a purpose and value in God’s world.  More information about the conference will be available very soon. 

If you would like to attend the Nurture Conference please call the office and let them know.  A reminder that there is no cost for any LCS parent who attends.  While we obviously encourage parents to attend together, we understand the various circumstances that allow for only one to attend.  All are welcome!

Men of Faith Prayer Meeting

Praying as fathers is a manly privilege that we have been given by the Lord. And with the challenging disruptions of 2020, it seems like a great time for dads of LCS to come together and pray. Our school in Launceston has such an opportunity to be a refuge and an oasis in a dry and dusty land - fertile soil for kids to find their place, their joy, their identity in the Lord, and be inspired to live wholehearted, faithful and joyful lives for Him. We need to be praying for these things with the spiritual authority the Lord has given to us as fathers.

We will have a ‘Men of Faith’ prayer meeting on August 9. Details are:

• Sunday afternoon - 2.45-4.00
• LCS Staff Room - COVID Safety Plans in place
• (If unwell, please don’t attend but enjoy praying from home - you are still welcome in the Lord’s Presence as He does not need the protection of social distancing like we do!)
• Any praying father/uncle/grandfather, connected with LCS, is welcome to attend - see you there!
• Further information - Graham Poole, Andrew Goelst or LCS Office