The Short Answer—I Can’t Do Anything Else

Proverbs 19:27 “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causes to err from the words of knowledge.”

In 1976 God spoke to my heart about starting a Christian school. I was then pastoring a small, rural church in Northeast Missouri. When I say rural, I mean way out in the middle of nowhere. When I went to the church with my burden, the people I pastored, whose lives incidentally were integrally tied into the small public school there, did not have my burden.

A few months later I was ousted from the church and I and several families started a new church about 18 miles away. From the very beginning, everyone knew that a Christian school was in the works. I made a vow to the Lord that my children would never go to a public school.

In September of 1978 God fulfilled my burden and the Monroe City Christian School opened its doors with 17 students. If I had had 1700 students that first day, I could not have been prouder. My wife and I bought a huge home there in the city of Monroe City and the church met in our house and we redecorated the basement for the school. Oh, what the Lord did that year.

Well, it is now 20 years later, and I believe more in Christian education today than I did 20 years ago in that first ACE classroom.

Let me be honest though. There have been times in these 20 years, when it has been tough to continue in this ministry. Finding good, qualified teachers and administrators with the same burden is not easy. The Christian school movement itself has not always been as popular as it was 20 years ago. On many occasions the financial burden has been a great strain on the churches I have pastored. But if something is right and God-ordered, then we should keep doing it even when it is not easy to do it.

On a couple of occasions I said to the Lord, kind of in a complaining way, “Lord, would You let me pastor a church without a Christian school?” But God has always answered me, “No, I have given you this responsibility—you carry it.” During times when my burden has grown lax or problems with the Christian school have engulfed me, I have reminded myself of 3 reasons why I believe in the Christian school.

Philosophically, I Cannot Do Anything Else.

Our text says for us to command our children to stop hearing those who teach them contrary to the Bible. My faith is the most precious thing that I have. I cannot send my children to a Catholic Sunday School because the teachers there would teach them contrary to my faith. Neither can I send my children to a humanist Monday school because the teachers there will teach them contrary to the scriptures.

Proverbs 22:15 says, “The rod and reproof give wisdom but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” The older my children get, the gladder I am that I did not give up during the tough times! I see in my grown, older children a worldview that comes from their training at home and at school.

It is sad to me when parents give their children a choice about one of the most important things in their life: their education. God gave parents the duty of “bringing up their children” not of allowing them to bring themselves up. As a parent, I am to guide my child, I am not to allow them to guide me. (By the way, parents, that means that you have to know where you are going and what goals you have for your children).

Christian schools are not found in the Scriptures. However, the command is that we are to train our children in our faith and not to allow others to teach our children (who are so moldable) contrary to our faith. Christian schools and home schools are simply a way to fulfill those commands.

Practically, I Cannot Do Anything Else.

One million girls will become pregnant outside of wedlock before graduation day. Before they leave high school, 1.2 million boys will become sexually active. One third of all school children will be so poorly educated they will function under their own intelligence capabilities. All public school students will be taught the untenable and unbelievable theory of evolution. Few will learn the undeniable truth that there is more evidence to support the belief that man was really created by God.

Most public school students will not learn to read well and many will not learn to write and think clearly at all. Only about 50% will learn enough geography to identify the location of places like Chicago, Miami, Forth Worth, etc. Fewer will learn to locate Germany, Spain, or Saudi Arabia.

They will be exposed to violence, crime, cursing to an extreme, drugs, and sexual promiscuity. Often these things will be condoned by teachers and the administration itself! Many school districts now are exposing their kids to homosexuals and will be taught by sensitivity training that alternative lifestyles are a matter of choice.

If I did not have the conviction from the scriptures, even practically, I cannot send my children into that system.

Purposely, I Cannot Do Anything Else.

I am afraid that most parents do not raise their children on purpose. They simply have no driving purpose that guides their decisions with their home and children. I have one driving desire for my children and that is that they love and serve the wonderful God that I have loved and served.

My prayer and aim is that they either serve the Lord in a full time capacity or be used in a good, Bible believing independent Baptist church to further God’s work. I want them to be ambitious and do well in whatever vocation God calls them into, but business is second in my mind, God’s work comes first.

We only have one life and it will soon be past. A hundred years from now it will not make any difference how much money I made. It will make a difference how many souls I led to Christ, how many people I helped guide along the way, and how I served Him for Whom I was made and redeemed!

Ps.127:3 says, “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord.” The word “heritage” means ‘loan.’ My children are not mine to raise for myself, they are on loan from the Lord and I must raise them for Him. With these things in mind, I must choose a school that helps me toward my purpose. I must help my children choose a college that will help me toward my purpose. Money should not be the primary consideration. The will of God must be the driving factor. I would sell my house rather than have my children trained contrary to my faith. I know many, many people who live very sacrificially in order to train their children according to their faith.

We only get one chance to train our children. Their faith and values cannot be taken for granted. They will learn faith and values. The question is, “Whose faith and whose values will they learn?”

– Dr. Dan Reed

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