When I started in ministry in 1965, Christian education was considered synonymous with the Sunday school. This is interesting because Sunday school in the United States tended to be an evangelistic enterprise. Also, there were “traditionalists” in the early days of our nation who objected to Sunday school because they were convinced it would undercut instruction that should be taking place at home.

When the Christian day school movement began to gain strength, some equated Christian education with the Christian school, in theory at least, and suggested that the church’s role was peripheral at best. Others argued that education is the responsibility of the parents. Consequently, they thought day schools should be run by parents – not the church, not the state.

I suggest that Christian education ought to be seen as learning to be a disciple of Jesus. If you accept that correlation, then you cannot equate Christian education with any program or activity, be it in a church, home or school. Rather, it is a lifelong process by which we continually learn what it means to follow the Savior. Hopefully, the programs and activities that we might identify as “Christian education” will help and not hinder that process.

One inhibitor, which is often present, is a lack of communication between those attempting to help a child follow Jesus. Each has a part to play, and the overall effect is enhanced when they work together.

If a child’s Sunday school teacher never talks with a parent, there is a breakdown that blunts the effectiveness of that ministry. Often no attempts are ever made. When my children were little, teachers would sometimes send notes with them, but they seldom got to us. If a teacher wants to communicate with a parent, he or she should contact the parent and vice versa.

The Presbyterian Church in America has vows for parents who present their children for baptism. That’s appropriate. We dare not underestimate the home as either a force for good or ill. Many of the issues that vex us as a society are tied to a significant degree to deficiencies in the family. But families were never meant to go it alone. Sin and its effects followed by salvation gives rise to the community of the redeemed – the church. It is in that community that families are to be nurtured and the children in those families exposed to the mosaic known as the people of God. Each one has a contribution to make to the whole. So congregations in the PCA are asked to pledge with the parents that they too will be engaged in the nurture of that covenant child.

Robert Edmiston 
Training Coordinator, CE&P

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