"Education is formation," writes Gordon T. Smith, in a short essay on how Christ-centred adult education is one of the most effective contributors to spiritual growth and church health.
I’ve been involved in Christian education for more than 40 years, as a professor, dean, university president and now as the executive director of Christian Higher Education Canada. I’ve also pastored in three congregations. Over the years I've been impressed again and again with how education can make such a substantial difference in the spiritual growth and development of a person.
This should come as no surprise. The Christian spiritual heritage has always valued education and recognized it as a primary and essential way that women and men grow in spiritual maturity, wisdom and character. It is the most effective way to equip us to bear witness to the reign of God in Christ in our daily lives and weekly work.
This is the commitment of Christian educators – making disciples, fostering maturity in Christ. And this is what I witness in Christian postsecondary education, most notably in the cultivation of Christian thinking and the life of the mind.
There’s more to making disciples than the intellectual life. Of course. But discipleship does not happen until and only as we learn to think Christianly. We are transformed by the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:1).
Renewing our minds: Education is formation
Teaching and learning are the key means by which wisdom is formed in us, and then becomes available to others through us. Jesus was a teacher. He commissioned His disciples to be teachers. We make disciples through teaching. The Apostle Paul laboured, with all the energy within him, to present believers mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28-29). His priority wasn’t merely to see converts; his resolve was that they would be fully formed and mature in Christ.
This is why the Church through the centuries has made education a priority, beginning with even the youngest of children. And this is the hallmark of our Canadian Christian colleges, seminaries and universities.
Meaning what? First and foremost, the renewed mind is formed and transformed by the Christ story – hearts and minds aligned with the revelation of the Triune God and God’s ultimate triumph through Christ. This is the worldview through which we understand everything else. The Christ story becomes our story. And that story is the lens through which we think and interpret our world.
Critical thinking
We go further. A good education also cultivates in us a capacity for critical thinking that equips us to live the Christ story in a secular and pluralist society. We learn to think for ourselves. We learn how to make astute judgments. We learn discernment. We develop the capacity to recognize propaganda and not be swayed by it. Education is not indoctrination, which only infantilizes.
Yes, of course, we do pass on the faith from one generation to the next. But it is not handed down like a baton in a relay race. Rather the essence of an education is that each generation makes it their own. They receive this faith, allow it to settle in their hearts and minds and then inform how they live now, in this time and in this place, with wisdom, courage and moral discernment.
This kind of maturity comes not by compliance and passive deference, but through discovery and debate, through conversation and deliberation. A good education is not about teaching you what to think but how to think. And that is what our schools do.
The Christ story becomes our story. Only then is someone truly grounded in the faith in the midst of the world’s competing messages. Or, as the Apostle puts it, only then will we no longer be tossed about like children, bewildered by every wind of teaching (Ephesians 4:14).
Whether studying Scripture or history or sociology, the principle is the same – we are not compliant, unquestioningly deferential. Nor are we loud and strident. We simply, deeply, own our convictions and allow the Christian faith to inform life, relationships and our work in the Church or in the marketplace.
Innovation and creativity
A good education fosters critical thinking; but more, we also develop the capacity for creativity and innovation. We learn how to respond to changing developments in a fluid environment. We are not intimidated by change, but engage a changing culture with grace, wisdom and courage. In a word, we’re entrepreneurial. We find solutions.
We allow the arts to shape our minds and hearts, so an inherent creativity directs our engagement with the world. We immerse ourselves in the Scriptures, but we also read fiction and poetry and quality journalism as an essential part of our formation. We allow this expanded learning agenda to be the essential complement to our study of Scripture. We know how to read the times – and how to engage our world with creativity, courage and humility. That is the gift of a good education.
Emotional maturity
There is more. A quality education fosters emotional maturity. In our teaching and learning we know the integration of head and heart. We learn what it means to transcend fear, anger, grievance and discouragement. Worship and prayer are integral here – essential complements to the classroom. But the skill of navigating our own dark emotions are also disciplines that can and must be taught. Further, the integration of head and heart deepens our capacity for compassion and empathy.
Moral formation
Finally, a good education also means what C. S. Lewis spoke of as moral formation, the cultivation of virtue and character. Others would insist, and rightly, that education includes competency – the skills and abilities associated with a craft or vocation. But nothing is so crucial and foundational as character. Without character competency counts for little or nothing. Character is fundamental, the cultivation of a moral compass, the capacity to live in the light, the resolve that one will be a person of virtue – integrity, truthfulness, consistency and a person who is true to their word.
Becoming lifelong learners
Most of all, a good education turns us into lifelong learners, ever learning, continually fostering greater emotional and moral maturity. Whether in K through 12 elementary and high school or in a university or college or even in a graduate theological seminary, it is always not only about learning but how to learn, how to be a person who is a continuous and eager learner through each of the transitions and challenges of life. A good education equips us precisely for this. We approach life with discernment but also with curiosity and humility. This humility includes the willingness to change our minds when needed, even as we “stand firm and hold fast to the teachings” passed onto us (2 Thessalonians 2:15).
Can this happen within a church community? In theory, yes. But nothing quite matches the power and intensity, the focused agenda, of a college or seminary or university – particularly when the focus is emerging adults at the most formative time in their lives. As the Christian community in Canada fulfills its mandate to make disciples of the nations, academic institutions bring a wealth of gifted teachers, mentors, spiritual guides and, yes, athletic coaches together to form a community with a concentrated agenda of forming emerging adults in Christ. The academy needs the Church, but the Church also urgently needs the academy as together we fulfil the call and mandate to make disciples of all nations.
The Church and the academy need each other
Even though the focus here is higher education, the Church is surely a teaching-learning community for all ages. While worship is a focal point, the ideal vision is a community where weekend conferences, book clubs, seminars and all manner of learning opportunities are part of the fabric of our shared life. The Church is a worshipping community and a missional community, but both worship and mission are informed by our resolution to be a learning community.
And then as a congregation we can support and encourage emerging adults to let their college and university years be formative, to choose a college or university where there is a comprehensive vision for transformation – and to be part of a church community while during these formative years. The goal is that they feel (and are immersed in) this critical partnership between Church and academy as we trust God to do God’s work in the life of each person.
Gordon T. Smith is executive director of Christian Higher Education Canada, an association of 29 accredited Christian learning institutions across Canada. Photo by Javier Trueba on Unsplash.