You have written a deep draft of truth here. I hear a "holy desperation" in your call to re-ordering our thinking on this urgency. It's a Spirit-provoked or Spirit-interceded conversation that has begun. Has it begun? It has indeed begun if it's catching others up into its heat. I would not expect the wordsmith to be able to put this article to bed and fall back into sleep himself.
I agree with everything that you are saying, but all of it takes time. Having more time means completely rejecting the “normal” American lifestyle of busy-ness and success. How can you have time to be deeply formed in community when you have no time for community? We have to start by teaching that you can’t pursue the kingdom and the American Dream (in its modern, excessive iteration) at the same time. It’s time to get back to simplicity and sabbath for the sake of relationship with God and our brothers and sisters.
This is why I just wrote my dissertation on why most church planting needs neo-monasticism as a partner in kingdom growth. Because Protestantism lost much of the foundations of Christianity in its pursuit of “more.”
I love this thought and I think so many people want it including myself. But getting into a tight sticky” community here in the USA is a little harder because we live in a culture that prioritizes the individual and their own needs. Schedules and life gets in the way and our mentality is that hosting other people is another chore or to do list instead of something that is rejuvenating and restful. We see it as taxing and burdensome to have someone over or anything that interrupts our rhythm of life.
I find myself falling into that trap where convenience is the highest priority for my life and it keeps me from community.
Regarding issue #4 Catechesis: I presume you would agree this does not have to be only the work of the ordained clergy, but laity gifted by the Spirit as teachers can step into this role? I have taught adults for the past 25+ years (rigorously). We have looked directly at Scripture; none of these "10 Ways to Have an Easier Marriage" or whatever fluff was on the bookshelf. Just straight from Scripture, "sit up and take notes" sort of teaching. My pastors were always supportive of what I was doing, and it seems to me this is a place for laity to support clergy in the local church. And now, with good, solid catechism available, there is no excuse for adults in our churches not to be taught well.
Dr. Watson, I love this post. The only suggestion that I would add, and you already touched on it, is that we Christian’s need to take Paul’s command in Ephesians 4 to strive to “maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace “, more seriously. The unbelieving world sees how we constantly debate secondary doctrine's on social media, and realize how divided the institutional church really is. This open conflict is a true disincentive to acceptance of the Gospel message. Thanks for this wake-up call.
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”
All of these think pieces get written when the very simple answer to the question is that all of this was the inevitable endpoint of American Evangelicalism.
Hi David, I enjoyed this read as I have your other work and I thank you. I look foward to your reflections on education and your experience with the classical christian school. Can I ask or hope that there will be some notice taken of Christian homeschoolers? My kids were raised in that context and it worked petty well by most measures. Happy to share what I saw at the (homeschool) revolution if you have a mind to hear.
Harley, I have great appreciation for Christian homeschooling, acknowledging that some curricula are better than others. Please do share your thoughts on the home school movement.
When we started homeschooling 35 years ago , we saw the same issue you mentioned, that 6-8 hours of daily instruction looked pretty large compared to the one hour of sunday school. Shouldn't daily learning be Christ-centered? We personally were not especially concerned about weird/secular doctrines in the public schools. First-hand experience of public school teachers revealed them to be neighbors with similar world-views. What we had seen was that our generation and social class, (poor, white appalachian-stock baby boomers) had not thrived. The world lunched on us kids in city high schools. Our parents thought that making us do our homework and taking us to church and scouts would produce a decent outcome. The context had changed. In my experience, middle class parents could wrangle the money for christian school or apply resources to mitigate the negatives of public school. Poorer families were and are less able to pull a strong-in-the-faith child out of the public school hat. We decided to change the setting. Family influence over peers and lived faith along with doctrine and bible knowledge. For the most part, the homeschoolers I know have good track records for faith involvement, resistance to the sexual revolution, sobriety, and high percentages in Christian vocations, full or part-time. They appreciated classics, knew their literature and arts and aced the standardized tests. (All for a fraction of the cost!) We could point out that there were more students being homeschooled than sixteen states had enrolled in public school. This is out of a movement that grew fairly organically, without charismatic leaders or large institutions. Churches, evangelical and mainline, didn't know where to have us. (It's just as difficult for an evangelical church to deal with a passionate young couple with markedly conservative views as it is to assimilate and bring to maturity a couple with progressive views.) The picture is now muddied by the numbers of kids in charter school,some are rather like Christian homeschoolers, and some are not. I am not sure how to best judge between christian homeschool curriculums (per your comment). We tended to buy from the same houses that Christian schools used. Some of the American history could have used some critical analysis.Some of it came from a tradition that saw american exceptionalism as a matter of God's decree. This was also a reaction to the long schoolprayer/seperation of church and state fight that generated so many screeds. I think the Chistian homeschoolers did well, navigated some theological pitfalls and generally are now living their faith. They have not changed our culture to the extent some hoped, which is likely due to the gospel not being designed to make us 'winners' in the culture wars.
That was, of course, unpardonably long, David. Please excuse spelling errors. I am recovering from a stroke two weeks ago, and my left hand knoweth not what my right hand is doing.
As a mother of four homeschooled adult daughters I treasure the deep friendships our daughters have. Long after my husband and I are gone, they will still have their sisters. Separating children from their parents and their siblings takes them away from the people who know them best and who are most committed to them. I would like to claim that this was part of our plan, but we chose to homeschool because of our concerns about leadership and content. As engineers, we also couldn't get past how inefficient traditional school models were. Interminable car lines or bus rides eating up the best hours of every day wasn't attractive to us. We wanted the best hours of our days to be together, not the leftovers.
As a daughter of an exceptional public school teacher and someone who attended quality public schools all the way through grad school, I wasn't naturally inclined to homeschooling and wondered about "quality." But, sadly, modern pedagogy and content and the myriad career options open to women have combined to degrade the quality of instruction and experience in classrooms.
We also were concerned about our children having "two masters." The rules and schedules of the schools would be the greater authority in our home if we voluntarily committed to group education. We aren't anarchists, but compromise would have been inevitable. My thought was, "If I wouldn't be willing to submit to the authority of the classroom teacher and school administrators, how do I require my children to do so?" There is a different calculus required when one is "optimizing a system" for hundreds of children from many families with different priorities. We weren't committed to a system. Our commitment was for every one of our daughters to become the adult God created them to be and to walk in the good works he prepared for them.
I will desist here, but I have deep concerns about the well-being of boys in the current model of education.
I agree with some of what you say even though I am definitely not your kind of Christian (retired clergy woman and would not call myself “conservative “ although I am passionately committed to The Christian Faith.).
For what it’s worth, what I am seeing in my Texas town that is home to a major research university is that young people, especially, are flocking to the Eastern Orthodox Church.
You have written a deep draft of truth here. I hear a "holy desperation" in your call to re-ordering our thinking on this urgency. It's a Spirit-provoked or Spirit-interceded conversation that has begun. Has it begun? It has indeed begun if it's catching others up into its heat. I would not expect the wordsmith to be able to put this article to bed and fall back into sleep himself.
I agree with everything that you are saying, but all of it takes time. Having more time means completely rejecting the “normal” American lifestyle of busy-ness and success. How can you have time to be deeply formed in community when you have no time for community? We have to start by teaching that you can’t pursue the kingdom and the American Dream (in its modern, excessive iteration) at the same time. It’s time to get back to simplicity and sabbath for the sake of relationship with God and our brothers and sisters.
This is why I just wrote my dissertation on why most church planting needs neo-monasticism as a partner in kingdom growth. Because Protestantism lost much of the foundations of Christianity in its pursuit of “more.”
I can’t love this enough!! Will read again and again and spread it as much as possible. Thanks
I love this thought and I think so many people want it including myself. But getting into a tight sticky” community here in the USA is a little harder because we live in a culture that prioritizes the individual and their own needs. Schedules and life gets in the way and our mentality is that hosting other people is another chore or to do list instead of something that is rejuvenating and restful. We see it as taxing and burdensome to have someone over or anything that interrupts our rhythm of life.
I find myself falling into that trap where convenience is the highest priority for my life and it keeps me from community.
Amen, David! I was scared to take the path of dying to self, but it is the way!
Regarding issue #4 Catechesis: I presume you would agree this does not have to be only the work of the ordained clergy, but laity gifted by the Spirit as teachers can step into this role? I have taught adults for the past 25+ years (rigorously). We have looked directly at Scripture; none of these "10 Ways to Have an Easier Marriage" or whatever fluff was on the bookshelf. Just straight from Scripture, "sit up and take notes" sort of teaching. My pastors were always supportive of what I was doing, and it seems to me this is a place for laity to support clergy in the local church. And now, with good, solid catechism available, there is no excuse for adults in our churches not to be taught well.
Dr. Watson, I love this post. The only suggestion that I would add, and you already touched on it, is that we Christian’s need to take Paul’s command in Ephesians 4 to strive to “maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace “, more seriously. The unbelieving world sees how we constantly debate secondary doctrine's on social media, and realize how divided the institutional church really is. This open conflict is a true disincentive to acceptance of the Gospel message. Thanks for this wake-up call.
These verses haunt me.
1 Timothy 4:1-3
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”
Spot on analysis of our Post-Christian Culture - of Christendom.
Might institutional Christianity focusing on going to church rather than being the church be a factor?
Go to church.
Listen to a monologue (sermon).
Be a good person.
Get other people to go to church and listen to a monologue
...
Hmmm
All of these think pieces get written when the very simple answer to the question is that all of this was the inevitable endpoint of American Evangelicalism.
Hi David, I enjoyed this read as I have your other work and I thank you. I look foward to your reflections on education and your experience with the classical christian school. Can I ask or hope that there will be some notice taken of Christian homeschoolers? My kids were raised in that context and it worked petty well by most measures. Happy to share what I saw at the (homeschool) revolution if you have a mind to hear.
Harley, I have great appreciation for Christian homeschooling, acknowledging that some curricula are better than others. Please do share your thoughts on the home school movement.
When we started homeschooling 35 years ago , we saw the same issue you mentioned, that 6-8 hours of daily instruction looked pretty large compared to the one hour of sunday school. Shouldn't daily learning be Christ-centered? We personally were not especially concerned about weird/secular doctrines in the public schools. First-hand experience of public school teachers revealed them to be neighbors with similar world-views. What we had seen was that our generation and social class, (poor, white appalachian-stock baby boomers) had not thrived. The world lunched on us kids in city high schools. Our parents thought that making us do our homework and taking us to church and scouts would produce a decent outcome. The context had changed. In my experience, middle class parents could wrangle the money for christian school or apply resources to mitigate the negatives of public school. Poorer families were and are less able to pull a strong-in-the-faith child out of the public school hat. We decided to change the setting. Family influence over peers and lived faith along with doctrine and bible knowledge. For the most part, the homeschoolers I know have good track records for faith involvement, resistance to the sexual revolution, sobriety, and high percentages in Christian vocations, full or part-time. They appreciated classics, knew their literature and arts and aced the standardized tests. (All for a fraction of the cost!) We could point out that there were more students being homeschooled than sixteen states had enrolled in public school. This is out of a movement that grew fairly organically, without charismatic leaders or large institutions. Churches, evangelical and mainline, didn't know where to have us. (It's just as difficult for an evangelical church to deal with a passionate young couple with markedly conservative views as it is to assimilate and bring to maturity a couple with progressive views.) The picture is now muddied by the numbers of kids in charter school,some are rather like Christian homeschoolers, and some are not. I am not sure how to best judge between christian homeschool curriculums (per your comment). We tended to buy from the same houses that Christian schools used. Some of the American history could have used some critical analysis.Some of it came from a tradition that saw american exceptionalism as a matter of God's decree. This was also a reaction to the long schoolprayer/seperation of church and state fight that generated so many screeds. I think the Chistian homeschoolers did well, navigated some theological pitfalls and generally are now living their faith. They have not changed our culture to the extent some hoped, which is likely due to the gospel not being designed to make us 'winners' in the culture wars.
That was, of course, unpardonably long, David. Please excuse spelling errors. I am recovering from a stroke two weeks ago, and my left hand knoweth not what my right hand is doing.
As a mother of four homeschooled adult daughters I treasure the deep friendships our daughters have. Long after my husband and I are gone, they will still have their sisters. Separating children from their parents and their siblings takes them away from the people who know them best and who are most committed to them. I would like to claim that this was part of our plan, but we chose to homeschool because of our concerns about leadership and content. As engineers, we also couldn't get past how inefficient traditional school models were. Interminable car lines or bus rides eating up the best hours of every day wasn't attractive to us. We wanted the best hours of our days to be together, not the leftovers.
As a daughter of an exceptional public school teacher and someone who attended quality public schools all the way through grad school, I wasn't naturally inclined to homeschooling and wondered about "quality." But, sadly, modern pedagogy and content and the myriad career options open to women have combined to degrade the quality of instruction and experience in classrooms.
We also were concerned about our children having "two masters." The rules and schedules of the schools would be the greater authority in our home if we voluntarily committed to group education. We aren't anarchists, but compromise would have been inevitable. My thought was, "If I wouldn't be willing to submit to the authority of the classroom teacher and school administrators, how do I require my children to do so?" There is a different calculus required when one is "optimizing a system" for hundreds of children from many families with different priorities. We weren't committed to a system. Our commitment was for every one of our daughters to become the adult God created them to be and to walk in the good works he prepared for them.
I will desist here, but I have deep concerns about the well-being of boys in the current model of education.
I too rejoice that my children know each other and like each other. We also managed to keep the love and respect of our children.
The time element you mention was an unexpected plus. We could get the schooling done in a lot less time and on a flexible schedule.
I really enjoyed this piece. But how does this practically get implemented?
I agree with some of what you say even though I am definitely not your kind of Christian (retired clergy woman and would not call myself “conservative “ although I am passionately committed to The Christian Faith.).
Good ideas - did Joe come after I left campus in 96?
Can’t remember the exact year, Brett. Suffice it to say, it was a long time ago. 😐
For what it’s worth, what I am seeing in my Texas town that is home to a major research university is that young people, especially, are flocking to the Eastern Orthodox Church.