:: Our Compelling Call (Continued):

Cultivating a generation of wise and virtuous leaders

By Dean Luckenbaugh
Executive Director

In every generation, individuals of distinguished character, wisdom and courage have risen above self and the worst of society and purposely given their lives for the good of others. Men like England's William Wilberforce show us faithful Christian leadership over a lifetime -- for the love of God and for the love of neighbor. In the process he was an instrument of God that transformed a culture and a nation.

We are thus compelled to ask - How do we prepare Christian thinkers and leaders with the humility, intellect and wisdom to serve and lead in our society? If we created a strategic plan for cultivating a cadre of capable future Christian thinkers and leaders, where would we begin?

G.K. Chesterton said "Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another." The Classical School Foundation has been established with a dynamic vision to gather and invest resources to expand K-12 classical Christian schools across the nation and the world. Why is this mission a priority? We know that the education systems of today will shape the thinking, the character, the competence and the calling of the next generation of leaders -- in Chesterton's words, the "soul of our society." As today's leaders committed to Christ, we have an inherent responsibility and calling to passing "the soul of our society" to the next generation by intentionally educating and discipling our children and grandchildren's generation with faith, vision, intellect.

"In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ... As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ."
Colossians 2:2-8

In an age of deepening moral relativism, the majority of our children and grandchildren spend their days in schools that teach "according to the tradition of men, and not according to Christ." The typical school's vision for the graduate is limited to providing the knowledge sufficient for entering college and later employment and does not seek to shape a student's mind and soul toward a life of faith, wisdom, eloquence and virtue.

We believe God has raised up a viable alternative. Classical Christian schools are uniquely equipped to disciple and prepare the next generation of students with the moral foundation, knowledge, understanding and communication skills to meet these challenges for all of life.

Traditionally, much focus on shaping leaders begins at the university or postgraduate level. Yet, we know that a person's moral foundation and worldview is largely established by age 14. Research shows that 85% of people come to Christ before the age of 14. The family represents the primary influence on a child yet children spend over 20,000 hours in school or school related programs. We know that the K-12 school community has a profound influence on shaping a student's vision, worldview and calling.

We believe that we must start at the earliest ages with schools that align with the values of home and church. In Steve Garber's book, Fabric of Faithfulness, he articulates that individuals with substantial integrity have connected belief to behavior, personally as well as publicly requires the weaving together of these three strands:

Convictions (Worldview): They were taught a worldview which was sufficient for the questions and crises of the next twenty years, particularly the challenge of modern consciousness with its implicit secularization and pluralization.
Character (Mentors): They met a teacher who incarnated the worldview which they were coming to consciously identify as their own, and in and through the relationship they saw that it was possible to reside within that worldview themselves.
Community: They made choices over the years to live out their worldview in the company of mutually committed folk who providing a network of stimulation and support which showed that the ideas could be coherent across the whole of life.

Woven together, convictions, character and community nourish a vision of moral meaning that can stand against the most destructive forces of modern consciousness and sustain the faith begun in the early years.

Classical Christian schools partner with parents to provide a school community with the Christian worldview and teachers who are models of learning and character to provide students the tools to connect belief to behavior in private and public life.

"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters-that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace (Shalom) of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace."
Jeremiah 29:4-7

We recognize that we live in Augustine's two concurrent cities - the city of God and the city of man. We need to both nurture students in Christian faith and educate them with the tools of learning, reasoning and persuasion. Classical Christian schools integrate faith and reason, equipping graduates with the tools to be capable thinkers, articulate speakers and wise, virtuous leaders.

We encourage you to invest your time, your expertise, your relationship network and your resources to supporting this vital mission in your community and in our nation.