Nathan E. Lewis

St. Stephen’s Academy is a ministry of Evergreen Presbyterian Church a Christ centered congregation intent on embracing the gospel and applying it to every area of life. The gospel not only informs all our endeavors but it transforms our views and participation in a ministry like St. Stephen’s Academy. We do not make the sharp distinction between evangelism and edification that some churches make. Instead we believe that Christians and non-Christians alike need the gospel. The gospel is the proclamation of our entrance into the Church by faith in Christ alone by grace alone. The gospel is also the central message of the Holy Scriptures informing all areas of life.
The gospel can be summarized in the words of Tim Keller: “We are more flawed and lost than we ever dared believe, yet we can be more accepted and loved than we ever dared hope at the same time, because Jesus Christ lived and died in our place.” The entirety of the Bible is the unfolding story of God redeeming his people. At the climax of this story is the gospel proclaiming the coming Son of God, Jesus Christ. The life and work of Jesus liberates us and all creation restoring peace and freedom. The death of Jesus on the cross atones for our sins, removing guilt and shame. God forgives our sins. The resurrection of Jesus assures us new and eternal life transforming us, giving us the privilege of rolling back the curse within us and throughout the world. The ascension of Jesus assures us that he is the Ruler of the world, who will put all things right in the end. This gospel informs everything that is said and done at St. Stephen’s Academy.
It is our aim and desire that every student at St. Stephen’s hears and understands the gospel and that we call students to profess faith in Jesus. We do this with parental permission, making it publicly clear that we place the gospel in the center of all educational messages imparted in the school. We do so with no intention of supplanting parental rights and so, parents give their permission for their child(ren) to be educated in a gospel-saturated environment. At the same time we sincerely offer the gospel to everyone, we do not believe that the gospel is merely a message of initiation into personal faith or into the membership of the Church. Our gospel goal is not merely to persuade a person to pray “the sinner’s prayer” and to make a decision to follow Jesus. We would see such a prayerful recitation and personal choice to be the first in a series of steps, a life-long experience of trusting in Jesus Christ and reliance upon the Holy Spirit to transform our lives.
We do not believe at St. Stephen’s that the integration of faith and learning occurs by tacking onto a lecture, a gospel message and invitation. Opening our class sessions in prayer is a fine custom, but it is a far cry from integration of faith and learning. Rather, the gospel sheds light on the content of each learning activity, its structure, and its presentation, even its tone.
A teacher or principal disciplining students at St. Stephen’s Academy consistently takes the opportunity to proclaim the gospel. For the most part a teacher must quickly and strongly say in the classroom, “Sit down this minute and be silent!” To go into more detail about the aberrant behavior could be a waste of precious class time. But when the teacher arrives at a juncture where an extended discussion of classroom behavior must be addressed, then the applying of the gospel to our rule keeping and classroom management is in order. The teacher would say something like this statement: “Some of our behavior in this classroom is sinful – our lack of respect; our cheating; our unkind words. Jesus not only died so that the murderer might be forgiven his sins, but Jesus also died for kindergarteners, who say unkind words to each other. Jesus rose from the dead so that we might enjoy new life free from sin and human weakness.” A teacher might introduce a discussion with these words: “You may be as grateful as I am for Jesus dying on the cross for us and for God the Father raising him from the dead so that we might have new and eternal life. Can you list some ways that we can show our gratitude for so great a salvation? How can we show our gratitude in this classroom, in our behavior and treatment of each other?”
The more the light of the gospel is shed throughout St. Stephen’s Academy, the stricter we may maintain order through reasonable rules. A few rules enforced in a context bereft of the gospel create at least a stifling educational environment and at worst an oppressive environment. Some of us fear that a gospel-saturated context means a rule poor context of disorder. But this is not the case at all: If the gospel is regularly articulated and embraced then the proper establishment of order by rules finds its place. Part of the education offered at St. Stephen’s Academy is helping people understand the relationship between law and grace. We certainly do not make the distinction between the gospel operative in our salvation from death and hell and the law operative in all common aspects of life. Rather we believe that the gospel impacts all of life, including our need for rules and informing even the way we communicate and enforce them.
The principal at St. Stephen’s Academy calls misbehaving students to account moving a student to repentance for his misconduct. The gospel informs such repentance. The principal has the opportunity to teach a student to confess his sins specifically. He also teaches the student to take the next important step to express remorse for his sin and his desire to turn away from it. The principal also teaches the student the final and vital step of repentance: to endeavor to do what is right. He teaches the student privately, but also in the presence of his teacher and his parents so that accountability might move a repentant student to embrace the gospel, namely Jesus removing our guilt and shame. A student in this context enjoys the privilege of closure – a principal and a teacher saying, “You are forgiven. Your guilt and shame are gone.”
Trickier than disciplining a student who breaks a school rule is the disciplining of a self-righteous student who never breaks the rule and so, is left in his personal confidence and security. Our lack of addressing such a student cultures and breeds self-righteousness. Sometimes such a student articulates his despicable personal view by tattling on fellow students less obedient than he is. Those of us morally upright students must repent of our self-righteousness. Some of us, as Jack Miller used to say, must even “repent of our repentance.” There is a heart issue that must be addressed by the gospel. Each one of us needs the gospel. Among younger students, the one who consistently talks out of turn and does not raise his hand is continually corrected and upbraided. Over time this student picks up “bad vibes” not only from the teacher but also from fellow students. Swift closure to such behavior is most effective. If the situation of such non-moral misbehavior continues, then two problems arise and become entrenched. The misbehaving student begins to think of himself as a misbehaving student and some of his fellow students begin to think of themselves as morally superior to him. The gospel helps us discipline all these students.
The gospel also helps us remember that not all classroom misbehavior is sinful. Some of it is due to human weakness – lack of focus/attention; lack of the disciplines of listening; ants in the pants and wiggle worms; immature humor; lack of prioritization and so forth. At St. Stephen’s we are informed by the gospel aiding us in making distinctions between sin and weakness and disciplining accordingly. Both sin and weakness need to be addressed to maintain classroom order and quality of education. But we do not wish to teach our students that wiggling is immoral.
It is not uncommon for a student to believe that a teacher “has it out for him.” Some teachers cast a cloud of displeasure and some students feel the shadow deeply concluding that the teacher is never satisfied, never pleased, consistently and negatively critical and judgmental. The gospel upon the mind and heart of a teacher moves him to daily statements of encouragement, endearment and affirmation of his students. These statements should never be insincere. The gospel will open the eyes of the teacher to see how many legitimate compliments he may offer to his students. A teacher can actually maintain classroom order and proper respect and yet create a joyful and peaceful climate. A daily and momentary meditation upon the gospel produces this climate.
Once again, some of us fear that a gospel-saturated school could produce laziness and mediocrity. The gospel properly applied will actually produce academic fervor and excellence. Teachers need to remind their students regularly that the gospel liberates us from laziness, making us fruitful, not only virtuously but also productively in academic and vocational pursuits. In every area of our lives from our struggles against temptation to our ability to sell widgets, the gospel transforms us, making us productive members of Christ’s body.
On the Evergreen Church side, in our children’s education, we lace our instruction with statements like this one from the Apostle Peter: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior….” Such theme verses repeated and memorized remind all of us that the gospel is central and that there is no sharp distinction between faith and learning.