Christian Education and Sugar Water
The legend goes that when Steve Jobs was recruiting John Sculley to leave the CEO role at Pepsi for an executive spot at Apple, Steve said, "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to join me and change the world?" I might have to repurpose this line when talking to prospective students, families, staff, and faculty about serving in a Christian school.
I've read, studied, and taught about faith formation and catechesis for over thirty years. Last year, I was re-reading C.F.W. Walther's The Church and Ministry. While reading Thesis V, I realized that I've sometimes made things too complicated when discussing the core distinction of Christian education. The foundational difference of a Christian school is quite simple. It is the presence and prevalence of God's Word, not just in chapel or theology classes but in all of our life and learning together. This is no small thing, especially not in our current age. It is a precious gift to have learning communities where God's Word is welcome in any office, meeting, stage, dorm, performance, class, conversation, court, field, locker room, or lab. We have ample room to grow, improve, and learn—but what a treasure to be part of a school where God’s Word is wanted and welcome!
Not to take anything away from my past writing and teaching on the subject, but the most important why and how of Christian education can be summarized this way. Christian education matters because God's Word matters and because God speaks to us through His Word. Why would we not want to create as many schools and learning communities as possible that provide a solid education (across levels, disciplines, and purposes) while also making them communities where God's Word is sown freely, joyfully, repeatedly, and pervasively?
God tells us through the prophet Isaiah, "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I intend and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:10-11).
Martin Luther once wrote, "Do you really want to consider the Word of the Gospel on a par with the word or the talk of a peasant in an inn or a tavern? Remember that God has said: When the Word of Christ is preached, I am in your mouth, and I pass with the Word through your ears into your heart. So, then, we have a sure sign and know that when the Gospel is preached, God is present and would have Himself found there" (W 16, 210).
I might make a few modern additions to his comment. Do we really want to consider the Word of God on par with the word of a textbook, philosopher, politician, professor, social media influencer, or anyone else? Then why not create learning communities where God's Word is regularly shared amid one's study? After all, it is in His Word that God promises to speak to us. Why not celebrate and support those places where God speaks so freely and regularly?
Look at the Concordia University, Nebraska seal where I’m honored to serve. You will see a man sowing seeds, pointing us to the parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 and Luke 8…" the seed is the Word of God" (Luke 8:11). That seal reminds us that this is fundamental to who we are and what we do. We are a community where God's Word is sown, and where God works, as he promises, through that Word.
Luther further wrote, "Whenever a man reads the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is speaking to him. Wherever the Word of God is, there the Holy Spirit, faith, and other gifts of the Spirit must necessarily be." (W 31 II, 755). This Word has immense relevance for temporal and eternal life, pointing us to the significance of Jesus Christ in and amid modern life, thought, trends, and events.
There are many ways that we learn and acquire knowledge. We learn through the scientific method, philosophical inquiry, and by experience. These are readily available in schools throughout the world. Yet, none of them get us to the highest form of learning, the Holy Spirit at work through the Word—"…teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness" that we might be well-equipped for our present and future callings (2 Timothy 3:17).
God's Word is, again in the words of Luther, "…a thunderbolt so powerful that its impact turned the whole Roman Empire…into a pile of rubbish" (W 34 II, 531). It is also a salve for the wounded, a quencher of the deepest thirsts, a source of life to a valley of dry bones, a means of turning hearts from stone to flesh, and (as reminded by C.S. Lewis) an irrigator of our modern educational and ideological deserts.
By God’s grace, I’ll probably keep writing about the why and how of Christian education, and I will probably still make it more complicated than it needs to be. Yet, for today, suffice it to say that Christian schools matter because God’s Word matters.
Disclaimer: Do you use AI to write the articles on Substack? The ethical use of AI is an important topic. When new technologies emerge, they often evolve faster than our ability to make sense of the ethical implications. As such, I offer this disclaimer to provide a transparent picture of my own journey and approach. I’ve already made mistakes, even embarrassing ones, but I will strive to quickly learn from them and provide a transparent view of my present approach. As such, this disclaimer will be updated over time.
The full initial draft (in writing or as an audio dictation), words, and ideas for my Substack articles always come from me. From there, I sometimes use AI for editing Substack articles. I regularly use Grammarly and/or Microsoft Word’s built-in Spellcheck or Grammar Check (both of which are a form of AI) to aid in proofreading and editing my work on Substack. In instances where I use AI for something other than background research or editing my original work, you can expect that I will cite or note it in the article.
I also regularly use DALL-E to generate the images for many articles. In addition, I sometimes use royalty free images. If credit is required by law, requested by the creator, or simply the courteous thing to do, you can expect to see the credits right below the image.
I continue to evolve in my experimentation with the use of ChatGPT, Grok, CoPilot (and various other ChatBot technologies) to serve as an editor for my Substack publications.
What does this mean? There are three common scenarios, though I hope to experiment with others in the future (and I will update this accordingly):
I write a full first draft in Word, Grammarly, or a word processor, and then submit it to the ChatBot, asking it to serve as an editor and give me feedback, akin to how I have one or more people edit almost anything that is published in my formal capacity. This is also similar to how editors review my manuscripts when they are submitted to a journal, newspaper, or book publisher. By the way, when I write for any of these partners/publishers, I never use AI beyond the basic spellcheck / grammar check available in Microsoft Word (or Grammarly if permitted by the publisher)—not even to use and then cite it.
I record myself speaking on a topic and then place the recording in a ChatBot to transcribe, remove disfluencies, and provide a draft transcript that I can refine before publishing it. This is where I’ve made the most past mistakes. Because the ChatBot is transcribing, it adds its own grammatical interpretations and even takes liberty with sub-titles, organization, corrections, and adding clarifying language. As such, I’m still learning to use prompts that ensure my words, voice, style, and intent dominate—while also achieving a quality, personal, but streamlined approach to sharing ideas. Because this is an evolving practice for me, and also because it sometimes creates a final draft that can be flagged as AI-generated content, expect that when I use this approach, it will be noted at the beginning or end of the article.
I use ChatBots to conduct background research related to topics that I’m writing about, akin to an interactive and advanced search engine. If there are quotes or unique ideas that I include in the article, you can expect that I will give some sort of citation or in-text credit.