written by Dan Sarian
When I was a child, one of the toys I enjoyed playing with involved the creation of little army men by pouring liquid rubber into a heated metal mold, adding thin wire to the “goop” to make the little army man flexible and then cooking him. After a few minutes, out popped a miniature green soldier whom I could bend and pose any way I desired. Perhaps this was a delightful experience because I bear God’s image and therefore creating is in my DNA.
As a father, I often wish I could shape and flex my daughter’s beliefs, her will and affections like those little army men, but such is not the case. My daughter was created with a will of her own and as she grows up I am acutely aware (and sometimes fearful) of how many influences are vying for her heart. As Christians, we call the process of conforming to the image and likeness of Jesus, Spiritual Formation. In essence, Spiritual Formation is the lifelong process where all of the elements of who we are as persons are effectively organized around God as our center.
Front Range Christian School is unique in that we recognize a child’s education isn’t complete unless that education goes beyond academics. According to Scripture our children are the result of a deliberate designer who fashioned them to find their way back to Him. “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thoughts from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways” (Psalm 139:1-4).
Saint Augustine reflected on this as well when he wrote, “God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.”
We call this perspective of personhood a Theistic Worldview, and that is the foundation for all that we do and teach as FRCS. When you enroll your child in any school you are committing them to learn under the influence of men and women who communicate or advocate a particular worldview. Everyone has a worldview whether stated or not. The average student spends 35 hours a week in school. When multiplied over the course of a year that equals thousands of hours of adult influence both formal and informal.
God has made me a steward of my daughter’s education during the most formidable years of her development, when she’s asking questions like, “who am I,” why do I matter,” “what is my purpose,” and “am I loved?” The answers my daughter comes up with form her view of the world and most importantly of her Creator. We have somehow abdicated the role of our children’s education to the state, which purports to be religiously neutral when in fact it isn’t. Every teacher, administrator and school board advocates and endorses a worldview.
At Front Range we teach all academic subjects with the foundational understanding that all truth is God’s truth. All is sacred, and God’s fingerprints can be seen through all disciplines. We study math and observe that our world operates according to mathematical principals, timetables and calculations. Science is all about listening to the language of God from what has been made on the molecular level to the vastness of space. “The heavens are telling of the glory of God” (Psalm 19).
But beyond the weaving of a Biblical Worldview through the tapestry of our course catalog we also provide ongoing opportunities for our students to serve in the name of Jesus. We offer dGroups (discipleship groups), weekly chapels, practicum experiences and other means by which our students can get outside the comfortable walls of our school and see, hear, and touch the needs in their own Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.
So although I cannot form my daughter’s heart, I can certainly form around her an environment that assists me in leading her to drink from the well of Living Water so she will thirst no more for that which was never intended to satisfy.
