Question:
How should I advise my daughter as she desires to choose a private Christian school for our 5-year-old grandchild to attend? Even though she doesn’t want to be “forced” into a Christian mold herself since she feels threatened by strong Christians like myself. She says she felt “forced” to go to church as a teen, though she says she enjoyed Sunday school. They haven’t had our 3 grandkids baptized yet, but have found a good church in Texas, where they moved. They have not attended church consistently.
Response:
You could encourage your daughter to begin by looking up the websites for Christian schools in her area. She can read their statements of faith, learn about their teaching philosophy as well as how they integrate Christianity into their curriculum and learning experiences.
Once she has narrowed the search to three or four that she (and her husband, if she is married) likes, encourage her to set up visits to those schools where she (or they) can meet administrators and teachers. Then, suggest that she talk with parents who send their children to those schools.
On another note, having spent many years working with people who are young parents, I can tell you that your daughter’s thoughts about her Christian upbringing are not unusual for her generation.
When we were raising our children, many churches took a programmatic approach to early Christian education and presented discipleship of our children as a formula such as:
Sunday School attendance + bedtime prayers + memorizing Bible verses = An abiding faith in God
This left some of our children feeling as if they were forced into Christianity. This current generation of parents tends to reject that approach, instead desiring that their children seek authenticity with God and with others.
There are many Biblically-based, evangelical Christian schools that are finding ways to expose children to the faith in a different way than our children were, leading to the same end goal: an abiding faith in Jesus Christ.
Pray that God would lead your daughter and her family to a school that will cultivate a deep trust and faith in God and a dependence on our Lord and Savior.
