Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Sept/66

Contributor - T. Hogerwaard

Title - Christian Education

Topic - Education

Because we are expected to give special attention to the matter of Christian Education this month, I have been asked as the Agent for Christian Education and Chair man of the Christian Education Committee of Classis Ontario, to write about this subject.

No Christian can deny the importance of Christian Education. Some time ago the Particular Synod of Michigan of our Church expressed uneasiness about the fact that the number of children attending Sunday Schools is declining. This is serious indeed. If you do not have the children in Sunday School, you will not have them later on in the catechism-classes; 'in the best case you get lukewarm ,adherents" but not living members of the Church of Christ, dedicated to Him in a life of grateful obedience.

The Board of Education of our Church has planned a two days' meeting in November with the Classical Agents for Christian Education in order to discuss all matters pertaining to this part of our task and calling

Covenant Life Curriculum

Starting a few years ago and increasing in scope every year, a new method of Christian Education is now in use with us: the Covenant Life Curriculum. This new method is by no means limited to our Church and the cooperating Presbyterian Churches in the U.S.A. The new curriculum of the United Church has caused quite a lot of comment and controversy; the Presbyterian Church in Canada has used a new curriculum for many years now; the Anglican Church too is busy on a similar project. In our own Church some are very enthusiastic about the C.L.C., others are sharply critical about it. A levelheaded approach is required to evaluate this new program. A homely example may help to make matters clear.

Let us say that a doctor has told a man that it is required for his health that he eats 5 ounces of beef a day. Now, after discussing this matter with his helpmate the latter will see to it that the one whom she promised to love and to care for will get what the doctor ordered. One day she will make him a neat little beefsteak,, the next day he gets his 5 ounces in the form of a hamburger, the third day his 5 ounces will be cut up and he gets them in his soup, while finally, when the wife has extra time to spend in the kitchen, she will work his 5 ounces of beef into a few nice croquettes. Every day the taste and form is slightly different, but what really counts is: that he gets his 5 ounces a day.

For Christians it is required that they know the Word of God, that they hear it preached and be instructed in it. That represents the beef. Now, one of the ways in which the meat can be made palatable is the C.L.C. Some will say this is the best or even the only way, others will be of the opinion that this is no good way at all. That point is debatable, but what we should remember at all times: it is the meat that counts, the way of preparing it takes second place.

Any and every method of Christian instruction (C.L.C. not excepted) has to be judged on two counts, e.g.

1. Does it do fully justice to the entire Word of God?

2. Is it the best way to present it?

A third consideration - from the standpoint of Christian stewardship is: Do the advantages of this method justify the enormous expenses involved? Only when all three points are taken into consideration can the discussion be fruitful.

Effort and result

Since I came to this country 13 years ago I have been uneasy about a certain feature of Church life here. That feeling was very strong when I was a minister in the United Church of Canada, but it has never left me in the seven years that I have been a minister in our Reformed Church. As I am at present the classical agent for Christian Education, in the Classis of Ontario it may be a good time and opportunity to share this uneasiness with fellow - ministers, members of consistories and all those who are concerned about the Church of Christ.

What I mean is this. There has never been a time in the entire history of the Christian Church that such enormous sums were spent for Christian Education by practically all denominations. Practically everywhere ambitious and expensive building -projects (Christian Education wings) are undertaken; the number of books, pamphlets and circular letters published is staggering; the headquarters of any and every denomination are most heavily staffed in the dept. of Chr. Education and yet, I have never been able to ascertain that the result of all this is very satisfying. In conversations with others I discovered that many share this feeling.

We all have heard about the man who went fishing with an expensive motorboat, armed with fishing equipment which had cost him a few hundred dollars. At the end of the day he had only a few small sunfish to show for his pains and expenses, while a little boy, fishing from the shore with equipment costing less than 50 cents, had landed several big bass. The implication may be clear.

About Scotland (where they can only spend a small fraction on Christian education of the amount that we spend on that and where they have only one man for Christian education for every ten that our Church engages for this work) Professor Dr. T. F. Torrance wrote (1) that in the days when the children were thoroughly instructed in the classical reformed instruction books, the 'common' man possessed a deep spiritual insight which is nowadays notably lacking in that group. The reason that so many young people first are bewildered and then often lose their faith in -high school and college is simply because their religious knowledge is that of children, while they are up to the standard in worldly knowledge. Often they are dwarfs in Christian understanding and giants in arts and science. Sometimes I am afraid that our mountain of effort and expenses in Christian Education gives birth to 'a mouse of result, as we say in Dutch.

Theology and educational methods

What strikes one who came from Europe in Church life in the USA and Canada as well is the fact that here in the Churches the devotional life and the Christian activity come more to their own than in Europe, but that there exists a deplorable lack of Christian thinking (the loving of God with all our mind). In the last chapter of his book(2) Prof. Osborn admits this frankly.

Devotion and Christian activity are very important indeed, but neglect of Christian thinking leads to disastrous results. Especially in our days unchristian thinkers claim allegiance for their "earthbound god" (Dr. K. Hamilton). The fashionable slogan nowadays is that God is dead. This lack of spiritual armament (and consequently lack of spiritual discernment) can be seen in the life of many devout Christians, it also applies to the Churches as a whole. The New Testament has two great words kerygma (preaching) and didache (instruction). Often one gets the impression that in this part of the world the kerygma has been swallowed up by the didache. Preaching has become a sub-division of "Christian Education".

That "the Word of God spares no one" (Calvin), least of all the man who undertakes the task of instructing others in the faith (Christian education) does not come to its own at all with the one-sided emphasis on Christian education. The fact that the genuinely reformed title for the servant of God (ordained to the ministry of the Word and Sacraments) e.g. V.D.M. - minister (servant) of the Divine Word is hardly ever used anymore in our Reformed Church and that now we speak and write about him as "pastor" (shepherd) is symptomatic and very significant. The emphasis has shifted from the fact that he is first of all a servant of God and His Holy Word to the circumstance that he has to serve people. This is no absolute contrast, of course, but the order is reversed and that is bad enough already. The second chief commandment (to love our neighbour) is equal to the first (to love God) but the first is never equal (let alone sub-ordinate) to the second. God comes first, the neighbour follows. Before we can be pastors, we have to be servants of God and His Word.

Psychology and theology

It goes without saying that we have to use the best educational methods known to us when we try to instruct persons in the Word of God. However, we have to be very careful here. Every educational system is based upon a certain school of psychology which in turn rests upon a certain philosophy. Sometimes this philosophy (to a certain extent) is compatible with the Christian message, sometimes it is secretly or openly hostile to it. If we do not give sharp theological attention to the matter of method we may fin(i ourselves in he position of the men of Troy who brought the wooden horse (in which their enemies were hidden) within their gates which action turned out to be their undoing.

What we need is far more theological thinking about the whole enterprise of Christian Education and scrutinize sharply the seemingly innocent presuppositions upon which our approach is based. What all those who are engaged in the task of Christian education (that means practically all of us) should read and read again till they know it by heart is the brilliant "Introduction" in Dr. Torrance's School of Faith (1). Here the matter what Christian education is and what it is not is examined by one of our greatest Reformed theologians. To whet the appetite, may I quote here a few lines from page XXVII?

"Educational theories that insist that teachers must concentrate on drawing out (edu care) the latent capacities of the child, and help him at every point to form his own judgment, without equal attention to the supply of information are tragically mistaken. (Think for example of our famous panel discussions about Christian matters with a minimum of knowledge of the Word of God. - T.H.) That is to work with the old Orphic myth that all learning is a form of recollection, or to hold that all truth is ultimately self-evident, and at the same time to inculcate the false notion of the autocracy of reason. If modern science has taught us anything about the reason, it has taught us that reason is nothing without its object, and that truly rational activity is inseparable from learning to behave in accordance with the nature of what is objectively given, for that is the only way to learning what we do not and cannot otherwise know. But there are whole branches of knowledge, such as history, where the sheer impartation of factual knowledge is a primary prerequisite. Christian truth is essentially (but not only) historical in nature, and requires historical impartation. Thus it belongs to the fundamental nature of Christian instruction to impart to the learner a great deal of information which he does not have and could not acquire apart from receiving it from without and from others. Only with this Christian information can a child learn to think in a Christian way and learn Christian truth."

We are not only under obligation to instruct our children in the things of God, we should also do it in a way and based upon presuppositions which are in accordance with the Word of God.

Let us be careful not to bring strange fire of uncongenial methods, based upon anti-Christian presuppositions, upon the altar of God.

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