LONG LIVE THE CHRISTIAN DAY SCHOOL
This writer has lived long enough to see one wave of Elementary Christian Day School enthusiasm come and go within the Mennonite brotherhood. In the late nineteen-thirties and the early nineteen-forties Christian Day Schools were being brought to birth one after another in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and other areas throughout the nation. Some of these schools are still existing and growing. Some have been turned into community projects and others have come to what we would call an untimely and lamentable death. One case in history may suffice to show how quickly Christian schools, as worthy and important as they are, can die.
This school was born in the early nineteen forties in a fairly good sized Mennonite community with conservative interests. Deep conviction, hard work, sacrificial giving of both time and money, dedication and perseverance resulted in a convenient four-room church school building with a good enrollment and several dedicated and loyal teachers. About twenty years later the school died. The church still owned the school property but refocused their interests in the property by turning it into a social center for the youth of the church. A ball diamond was dedicated for youth interests on the school grounds, and a new bishop which had arisen for the district had a dedication prayer for the occasion. A local pastor of one of the churches was asked to be chaplain for the church ball team. The local interest in sports and other social activities, in the name of the church, constituted the final death strangle to their diminishing school interests.
The church school properly guided and maintained, is now and will continue to be, one of the most worthy causes of the true Christian church.
Within the past decade the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church and Related Areas has experienced a gratifying interest and growth in the elementary, as well as a limited degree of secondary, education of our children. Our constituency now includes approximately forty congregations that are sponsoring more than thirty schools. Church school privileges are available for our entire brotherhood, including our foreign churches, with from 1,200-1,500 (practically 100%) of our children cf school age enrolled in these schools. Most of the schools are comparatively young and appear to be in a state of good health. Longevity would seem to be inevitable. However, the seeds of deterioration are always with us, endangering decadence or even death to the cause.
We believe the Christian school must live on and on to keep alive the biblical concepts of biblical separation. Israel gravitated back to heathenism because they "were mingled among the heathen" from whom they were to be separated "and learned their works" (Psalm 106:35). If adults cannot mingle freely with the world without jeopardizing their spiritual stability how can we expect the children to do so. A child's heart and mind is not intended to be a battleground between the home and the school. If the doctrine of separation is to be maintained the children must be kept in the right environment socially, educationally, and religiously. Having our children in a church controlled school, rather than in a state controlled school, automatically establishes the doctrine of separation of church and state as well as separation from the world in general.
The church school must live on, on, and on, in order for the church to fulfill her teaching responsibility to her children. The great commission of our Lord does not say, "Go ye into all the world and let them teach your children." Both the Old Testament and the New Testament lay heavy obligation on the home and the spiritual organized body of God's children to teach the children diligently and in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Obviously, the public school can be no better than the public society. Therefore, if the public is an immodest society the public school will be an immodest school. If the public is a society of immorality the school will be an immoral school. If the public is a society of anarchy, rebellion, and disrespect, the public school will be of that same general character. The faithful church cannot turn her children over to secular, godless, immodest, immoral, sexually perverted, luxury styled, earthly, sensual, devilish, and atheistic institutions for the development of their intellect, morals, manners, etc. and be guiltless before God.
There are many ingredients that will need to go into the church school to keep it in good health and enable it to live long within the brotherhood.
There must be proper motivation for the existence and operation of the school. To look upon the school as a necessary nuisance or something to go along with just because the church is doing it, or to support the school merely as a place to have children put the time in required by the compulsory state laws is not the kind of motivation that will bring us through the hardships, stresses, and sacrifices that are an unavoidable part of this work. This kind of motivation can only result in a sickly and dying school. Church leaders, school board members, teachers, patrons, and the church as a whole must together sense a divine urge for the Christian school if she is to maintain a state of good health.
It is vitally essential to keep our priorities in proper focus. When Jesus told Martha that "one thing is needful," He was speaking to the point of priorities. Every child who is born into this world will add either to the population of heaven or to the population of hell. While guarding against a child evangelism emphasis in the school the overall focus must be on helping the child to know about the one needful place to find, the one needful message to hear, and the one needful blessing to obtain that will ultimately add his soul to the population of heaven. Of course we want our children to learn the principles of thrift and economy as well as the other sciences necessary for this life, and we believe that our achievements in these areas should generally be superior to state school achievements. However, this part of life should be understood as a means of helping to attain the overall purpose of life related to the one thing needful rather than being the purpose of life itself.
Another ingredient for the schools' health is a readiness on the part of the church as a whole to contribute to the financial needs of the work. The state school taxation involves the entire public whether parents have children in school or not. Similarly, should not our church school program be looked upon as an investment in which the total church is involved, whether we have children in school or not? With the concept of investment and with a proper sense of values we can say that Christian schools do not cost - they pay.
When the prophet Malachi asked the question, "Will a man rob God?, he was referring to their neglected offerings needed for the Lord's work. It would be a very serious matter to rob our fellowmen by refusing to pay our just bills and debts. Might it not be even more serious to rob God by neglecting our offerings to His worthy causes. It will doubtless add health and longevity to the Christian sehoo: cause if we look upon this work as a total church responsibility and investment rather than only as a necessary expense for the patrons.
Present Pennsylvania laws require an average of five days of school a week for thirty-six weeks of the year. It would seem almost impossible for parents to compete with the influence public schools can have over their captive children five days a week. Only by means of the Christian school, along with other provisions of the home and church, can parental responsibility be fulfilled. Our children do not belong tc. the state, the world, or to hell - they belong to God and to heaven.
Long live the Christian Day School as contributing factor in helping our children ultimately to obtain that one needful blessing which cannot be taken from them.
Aaron M. Shank
October 1977