Why a Christian College?

I. Introduction Why are you in college? What do you want from your education?

II. What is the main goal of education? When the Puritans founded Harvard College just six years after arriving in Massachusetts, one of the rules at the new college was this: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well (that) the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ…, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.” When Thomas Shepard’s son entered the college, he wrote to his son, “Remember the end of your life, which is coming back again to God and fellowship with him.” In Of Education, John Milton gave this definition of Christian education: “The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him.”

II. What is the main goal of education? There may be many ways to achieve a Christian education, but in the meantime we must not lose sight of what it is for. What it is for is to produce Christian growth. Our whole milieu has conditioned you to conceive of your education in measurable quantities, with grades and jobs upon graduation topping the list. But when we view it in Christian terms—as a process of redemption and sanctification—we have an entirely different agenda of concerns. The crucial question is not how many requirements you met nor even how much you know, but rather what kind of person you are in the “process of becoming” during your college years.

III. All of Life is God’s There is no division of life into sacred and secular. For a Christian, all of life is sacred. What goes on in chapel is not more glorifying to God than what goes on in the classroom. What goes on in the classroom is not more important to God than what goes on in the dorm or the dining hall. We have no basis for viewing some academic courses as sacred and others as secular. Nor are some academic majors holier than others. God calls Christians to make his will prevail in every area of life. All truth is God’s truth. Acts 17:28 John Calvin wrote, “All truth is from God; and consequently, if wicked men have said anything that is true and just, we ought not to reject it; for it has come from God.”

IV. Liberal Arts Education Education in our day is obsessed with a single public role, getting a job, which is increasingly defined in terms of one’s income. But the public roles that a person fills cover much more than that. What are some of these roles that a liberal arts education should prepare us for? And what are the private roles of life for which an education should prepare you?

V. The Legitimacy of Preparation When God calls people to a task, he also calls them to a time of preparation. This preparation time, moreover, is as important as the performance of the task. What age did Jesus begin his ministry? What about Moses? Paul? Does God turn his head the other way when a person prepares? Is this time and effort somehow ignored? Learning, in whatever form, is the student’s calling. It is the arena within which you display good stewardship or lack of it. I urge you to review your time of preparation as a calling in its own right.

VI. Spiritual Disciplines Students entering a Christian college may think that in a Christian atmosphere the spiritual aspect of their calling will automatically take care of itself. This is not true. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom. 12:1-2) “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Tim. 4:7-8)

VI. Spiritual Disciplines Prayer Jesus – Matthew 14:23; Mark 6:46; Luke 6:12; Luke 11:1ff David – Psalm 119 What has been your experience with prayer? Bible Reading Deut. 17:14-20 What has been your experience with Bible reading? Worship John 4:1-26 What has been your experience with worship?

VI. Spiritual Disciplines Church gathering Heb. 10:24-25 What has your experience been in church life? Chapel