One of the biggest reasons why my family and I decided to move to Carson City five years ago was because of Bethlehem Lutheran School and Sierra Lutheran High School. Lutheran education is something we value very highly as a family, and the chance to send our children to Lutheran schools was an opportunity we just could not pass up.
Our church body, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, boasts the largest protestant school system in the United States. This fall, over 113,000 students will be attending over 1000 preschools, nearly 800 elementary schools, and 86 high schools across the country.
Why do we maintain Lutheran schools? It’s not because we oppose public schools. Without public education, much of our country would be left without any education whatsoever. Public schools are necessary for our society. Many public schools provide a top-notch education, and many Christians serve in public schools and work to educate their students in a god-pleasing way.
Sometimes we Lutherans are accused of using our Christian schools to shelter our students from the evils of the world or from bad students. However, that is not our goal either. Christian education exists to prepare students to live in a world in which sin and evil are very real. Our children need to know those bad things do happen to people, but we can learn to respond to them in a Christlike way. In the same way, Lutheran schools are not limited to Lutheran or even Christian students. Anyone who wants to attend a Christian school can do so regardless of what they believe, so long as they agree not to interfere with the doctrines and beliefs which we confess as Lutherans. In fact, as we educate nonChristians, we find that some of them will come to believe in Jesus Christ and be baptized.
We don’t expect that all our students are going to be problem-free. However, it is important that teachers are trained and certified with their Lutheran Teaching Diploma or through a colloquy program that prepares them to be a “commissioned minister.” These programs give teachers and church workers an array of tools and resources like an understanding of the doctrines of Law and Gospel to deal with sin and all the problems that come with it.
The main reason we support Lutheran schools is that there is no better way of educating not only the head and the heart, but also the soul. In a country that espouses the separation of Church and State, it would be impossible to expect that Lutheran beliefs and worldviews would be given free rein in a non-Christian school as they are in a Lutheran one.
The Holy Scriptures teach Christians to “train a child in the way he should go.” St. Paul’s radical direction to Timothy that “I permit a woman to learn” was out of step for his day and age, but it ushered in a new world where all people were to be educated, regardless of sex or social standing. Here at Bethlehem, we continue that tradition, and as a new school year begins, we thank God for His grace poured out upon us both in and through Bethlehem Lutheran Church and School and Sierra Lutheran High School.