Cultivating the Culture of Your Christian School

This is part 3 of the series. You can read part 1, Creating the Culture of Your Christian School here. You can read part 2, Establishing the Culture of Your Christian School here.

We’ve talked about creating the culture of Christ in your Christian school, establishing the culture of Christ in your Christian school, and now cultivating the culture of Christ in your Christian school. Cultivating has a couple of meanings: It can mean to prepare your land for crops or gardening or to try to acquire or develop a quality, sentiment, or skill. When we talk about cultivating the culture of our Christian school, we mean both: We want to prepare our students for the seed of salvation that we are trying to plant and we want them to begin developing a strong relationship with Christ (a new quality or skill). We’re going to look at them separately below.

Preparing Children to Plant the Seed of Christ In Their Hearts

I believe this process starts before kindergarten and starts at home. If we want to see our children grow in Christ, it has to start at birth and we need to surround them with Jesus in our homes, their child care facilities, their preschools, by prioritizing church and worship, and ultimately by choosing a Christian school as they begin kindergarten. At school, we need to make sure our classrooms are centered around Jesus. Biblical integration in our curriculums is important and so are loose conversations where students can talk and ask questions. During our chapel services at our school, I always talk about the need for salvation from kindergarten throughout twelfth grade. One of the common misnomers is that all students that attend Christian schools are raised in Christian households or the students have accepted Christ. That’s not the case. Some parents may want that for their child, but some parents may just want them out of public schools and away from negative influences or the student may have gotten in trouble and they feel they need a change of scenery. We need to make sure we’re sharing the message of salvation frequently for our youngers and our olders. You have to remember that we, as people, are not what can make people Christians. It’s God that calls their heart and there will come a time when they have to respond. Our job is to share the truth of God’s Word and give children the knowledge they need to accept Christ.

The best way to do that from birth through elementary school is to share Bible stories: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Ark, Jonah and the Great Fish, Moses parting the Red Sea, and on and on and on. Share these biblical truths to students at a young age and as they mature, begin discussions to where they are seeing how it all points to the cross and to our need for Jesus. As they enter fourth grade through high school, start illustrating applications to their lives and begin showing the need for salvation. The illustration I use for salvation is from Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Notice it says “the gift of God.” It’s not of our works, it’s not of our own efforts, but our salvation is God’s gift through the perfect works of Jesus Christ. I will ask the question, “If it’s your birthday or Christmas and you’re given a gift, what are your two choices? You either take it or don’t take it. If you take it, you have it. If you open it, it’s your gift, you can use it, it belongs to you. If you don’t take it, it’s still there, but you don’t even know what it is.” It’s a simple illustration and you could word it differently, but it’s relatable to young children because who doesn’t love getting birthday gifts?

The other important part of this is the most important: We need to pray Colossians 4:2-4 over our students daily. It says, “² Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; ³ meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, ⁴ that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” As principals, as teachers, or as parents, we need to pray that God would open a door of opportunity for us to speak the mystery of Christ for these children, that He would give us the words to speak and how we should speak to them, and that He would prepare their hearts to receive the message of Christ. Once students become Christians and start their relationship with the Lord, that brings us to the next aspect of cultivating the culture of Christ in our schools.

Help Students Grow in Christ

One of my favorite Bible verses is Hebrews 10:14: “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” I love how succinctly it sums up what Jesus did for us: By one offering – His perfect sacrifice – He has perfected us forever in God’s eyes. Once we come to Christ, God the Father doesn’t see us separated from the blood of Jesus. Because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, when we become a Christian and accept Christ into our lives, we become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). But the last part of Hebrews 10:14 is also great: Those who are being sanctified. According to the Vine’s Dictionary, the word “sanctified” means “the separation of the believer from evil things and ways.” This is clearly talking about Christian people. And notice that it isn’t past tense, it’s future tense and that shows us that sanctification is an ongoing process. The deeper our relationship with Christ, the more we start to resemble Jesus and we start to separate from the evil things and ways that tempt us so often. This should be our goal with our children: The disciple them in a way that they would not only get saved, but that they would continue in a relationship with Jesus, grow deeper, and let Him govern their lives. We do this in several ways: First, by integrating biblical principles in every aspect of life. Second, by modeling the Christian life in our words and actions, by modeling prayer, and by modeling grace and forgiveness. Third, by emphasizing the importance of that relationship with Jesus in daily life by showing the impact Jesus has on our decision making and circumstances in our lives. Lastly, by displaying the importance of worshipping the Lord in church or chapel services, but also outside of those services and just through our normal days.

The more our children see us living out what we’re preaching the more they’re going to understand just how valuable it is and just how much they need Jesus. Sometimes the greatest testimony we can give is our daily lives. The more our children see us living out the Christian life the more impact it makes. And that should be our focus as administrators, as teachers, or as parents.