Got Solutions?

It's one thing to point out problems (as I did last week). It's another thing to provide solutions. See https://youtu.be/ZAEGrH_z8gE

In a recent blog post, I made a statement that may have raised some eyebrows. Actually, I have made a number of eyebrow-raising statements recently, but the particular statement I'm referring to is:

"Regrettably, the secularization of academics can happen in Christian schools as well as state schools, because most Christian school teachers aren't trained to teach academics in the Light of God's Word. Few universities provide instruction in this acquired skill."

"So," some may ask, "what are you doing to fix the problem?"

It's one thing to point out problems, it's another thing to provide solutions. With this in mind, Worldview Matters® provides practical helps for educators, including:

1. Individual coaching for teachers via video conferences of 45-60 minutes, anywhere in the world, to help teachers create lesson plans that seamlessly blend any subject, at any grade level, with the biblical world-and-life-view. Click here.

2. 2-year professional development program for entire Christian school staffs together, focusing on the practical skills of teaching any academic content within the context of a biblical world-and-life-view through a proven process called, the "WRAP" [Worklife Restoration and Advancement Project]. Click here.

Worldview Matters® is now accepting applications for new WRAP schools in the coming 2018-19 academic year. 

The WRAP is available to any qualifying school where English is spoken, worldwide, through on-line training and video conferencing. The number of schools accepted is limited, however, and the sooner applications are received, the better. Contact Worldview Matters to request a WRAP Application, here.

3. E-text for high school students combining biblical worldview with theology of work: click here.

If you would like to speak with Christian Overman about any of the above services, you may request an appointment to chat via telephone or video conference here.

Got solutions?

The teachers, staff and principals of Lighthouse Christian School, in Gig Harbor, Washington, seem to think so. Take a look at the video below of teachers, staff and principals talking about their WRAP training experience. 

(If this video does not play, click https://youtu.be/ZAEGrH_z8gE)

Below is an interview with leaders of a WRAP school in Jos, Nigeria:

(If this video does not play, click https://youtu.be/q9C3Jbe_DLc)

Not Far Away

You can spread the word worldwide in a matter of clicks.

What's far off and not far away at the same time? 

(Far off the mark, that is.)

Click HERE.

If the link does not work, use:

https://issuu.com/christianoverman/docs/not_far_away__an_american_s_lament_

To share "Not Far Away: An American's Lament," simply open it to full screen [by clicking the small square in the lower RH corner of the black reading area], and then click "share" in the upper RH corner.

Easy!

Onward, upward, and outward.

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman 

Why The Church Has Remained So Silent

This "two-decker" pulpit rots in an abandoned chapel in Wales, Great Britain. Someone went to a lot of work to fashion this. Today, dogs sniff bird droppings from the rafters.

Photo by ceridwen [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

If the Bible is irrelevant to the most important things taught in school, then it will certainly be irrelevant to the most important things outside of school, too. This is the devilish outcome of dualism. In the end, we all lose. 

Is it any wonder the biblical foundations for law, civil government, economics and family that once provided accepted harbor lights for our society have been replaced? The incessant move toward the secularization of education and the privatization of Christianity has been enormously successful, being expedited greatly through elementary and secondary schools.

Is it any wonder our youth are disinterested in church today, since Christianity is deemed irrelevant to the majority of their waking hours?

By divorcing the Light of God’s Word from language, literature, science, history, civil government, the arts and sports, we have created a Sacred-Secular Divide that has spanned several generations. The free exercise of religion is now defined as freedom of worship, restricted to a building called “church.” 

What’s more, Christianity, being first secularized then privatized, is now being demonized. Christians are branded “intolerant,” “bigots” and “haters.”

What doesn’t make sense is why the Church has remained so silent about the secularization of education. Bible-believing pastors would never tolerate secularized Sunday Schools. Yet to what degree does the silence of their leaders account for the fact that 85-90 percent of Christian parents continue to send their children to secularizing schools that are indoctrinating yet another generation into a dualistic way of seeing life that will only shape their future for ill—and everyone else’s as well?

Sending children to such schools to be “lights in the world” sounds noble, until they come home thinking like their textbooks, making no connection between any academic subject and the bigger picture of God’s Word. In the end, they are quite comfortable thinking Christianity is for church, or one’s personal life, or for getting souls to heaven, but not for directing a business, designing software, or performing civil service in the here-and-now. They become practicing Monday-morning atheists, and think nothing of it.

Our culture is suffering greatly because of this.

As the United States continues its transition from a post-Christian to an anti-Christian culture, churches still stand in the center of town. The congregants are fewer these days, and (as with other Western nations) the virtual disappearance of biblical thought from the public square is not far away. 

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman 

When Dualism Reigns

Millions of children from Christian homes are indoctrinated daily in the tenets of Secularism—by means of silence from two sides.

Blackcatuk at English Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Separating the Word of God from academics in school has spawned a debilitating yet popular mindset known as “SSD,” or the “Sacred-Secular Divide.” This dualism constricts the Light of Scripture to Sunday morning sermons, and does not apply it to business, law, medicine, art, civil governance or anything else outside the four walls of a church.

A secularized math class that never explores how numbers fit into God’s plan for humans to govern over all of creation, is as senseless as a secularized Sunday School. Once education becomes secularized, God’s Word can then be marginalized, privatized, and made solely personal. 

When dualism reigns, Christianity is not applicable to the public square, or to the daily workplace. It’s only good for Sunday morning services, and nothing beyond.

Regrettably, the secularization of academics can happen in Christian schools as well as state schools, because most Christian school teachers aren’t trained to teach academics in the Light of God’s Word. Few universities provide instruction in this acquired skill. Adding the trappings of chapel services, Bible verses on the wall, and “Spiritual Emphasis Week” will not fix the problem. It can actually magnify the problem, by reinforcing the Sacred-Secular Divide.

And if we think state education is religiously neutral, think again! Millions of children from Christian homes are indoctrinated daily in the tenets of Secularism while the Church remains silent. 

Indoctrinated is the correct word. Because it is indoctrination in the religion of Humanism, which, as John Dewey, the Father of so-called “Progressive Education” maintained, is a non-theistic faith. A man-centered religion.

So, if it is a religious position to teach—or to imply—that God’s Word is relevant to math, science, history and language, is it not also a religious position to teach—or to imply— that God’s Word is not relevant to these subjects? Both are religious positions, guided by one faith or another. 

A teacher does not have to stand in front of a class and say, “the Bible has nothing to do with our subject” to communicate the message that The Book is immaterial. All they need to do is never mention how any subject relates to the overarching Truth of God’s Word, and thus give students the impression that Secularism is true, by never saying otherwise. Are such teachers really being “neutral?"   

This is the underestimated power of silence! For schoolchildren, this silence is far more effective than speech.

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman