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Episode Notes
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TranscriptIntroduction
Okay, so a bunch of you potentially might not think this episode applies to you because your kids are so young, but please keep listening. Regardless of the current educational landscape and how it may or may not change in the future, the theme of today’s show applies to your kids.
As always, be sure to check out the description of today’s episode. Not only will you find free episode notes and a transcript, but I’ve loaded it with a bunch of related resources for your consideration. There are resources there about education, the things that influence your kids, various factors of rebellion, and how to teach your kids to learn. In one way or another, each of those concepts and more play into today’s discussion, and—as Christians—it’s our responsibility to search the Scriptures to better discern how we can glorify God in every facet of our lives. So, let’s do that now. Topic
If you’re familiar with the name Mike Rowe, then you know that what was once the traditional mindset that everyone should go to college if they could, has changed. For years now, Rowe and a growing number of people have been building bigger and bigger arguments for why no one has to go to college to be successful.
And there are so many these arguments—most of which we’re actually not going to discuss today, because—here’s the thing—many of the arguments are accurate. Our culture has changed, the workforce has changed, education has changed, and if going to college doesn’t give you a leg up over all the people who haven’t, then you’re all on the same level, but you have a huge student loan. And if you attended a secular college, you probably believe the government needs to make your debt disappear, but that’s a different issue on which we’ll touch later. But I have all of my own reasons that it may be pointless for your child to attend a regular old secular college or university. In fact, I was directing people away from secular education long before it was popularized my Mike Rowe. I was doing it before it was cool. And it’s those reasons that I want to discuss today. But, before we do that, if you’re new to the show, I welcome you and invite you to click the subscribe button. We’re happy to have you and pray that you are built up in Christ while you’re here. Second, I’d like to remind you that one of my supremest joys is meeting God’s people and ministering to them face to face. I had a wonderful time in New York and Arizona this year, and I’m preparing for my trip to Texas to speak at the ACBC annual conference. If you would like to have me speak at your event, please visit AMBrewster.com or check out the AMBrewster tab on the Evermind App to submit your request. Third, the iconic MyPillow brand has partnered with Evermind Ministries, and they are extending you some amazing savings if you use the coupon code EVERMIND at checkout. You can click on the link in the description or simply visit MyPillow.com and enter the promo code EVERMIND to enjoy all of their fantastic products. And, finally, I am so happy to announce that you can now purchase a real life tangible copy of Quit: How to Stop Family Strife for Good. The digital version is—of course—still available on the app, but you can now click the link in the app or at TruthLoveParent.com to purchase a physical copy. Every purchase gets practical help into your home as well as blesses this ministry. For now, the link in the description is the only way to purchase a physical copy, but—Lord willing—it will soon be available anywhere online where books are sold including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and stuff like that. So, now you have some homework. Please consider if I might be a good fit for your upcoming conference, get yourself an amazing deal on so many fantastic products from the MyPillow company, and definitely get your copy of Quit: How to Stop Family Strife for Good. And—with that—we transition to today’s topic “Why a Regular College May Be Pointless, But a Christian College Isn’t.” I actually thought long and hard about titling this episode “Why a Regular College Is Dangerous” instead of just “Why a Regular College May Be Pointless,” and I just want to come right out and say here at the beginning, if the world thinks that a secular education is proving to be less and less valuable, then you can absolutely guarantee that it’s value is likely far lower when you look at it from a spiritual perspective. And here’s why I say that . . . Education always impacts worldview. In fact, education is the very process by which one’s worldview is formed. That’s the entire point of education. To be a student is to be a disciple. To be discipled is to be turned into a version of your discipler. And there are so many disciplers in a university setting. 1. Everyone passively disciples. I don’t care if it’s a tech college, nursing college, or business college, every professor and student will exemplify their belief system like a smell wafting from them onto your kids clothes. Only it’s not really a smell, it’s a spiritual influence that will bypass the nose and influence your kids without them even knowing it. Those failed worldviews and wicked theologies will cling to your children’s very souls—especially if your children are unaware of the dangers. “But, Aaron, it’s not that bad. Not everyone in secular education is a degenerate.” In an article I read about the pros and cons of going to college, the author listed as the only pros that you get a lot of sex, can drink, and your friends are just like you for the last time ever. And, no, this article wasn’t satirical. And what I’m talking about now is only the passive influence your kids will experience. 2. Many actively disciple. Most of the students won’t merely be passively leaving their smell on your kids, most of them will be actively advocating for their lifestyles and ever eager to tell anyone who thinks otherwise that they’re evil, phobic, fascists. And that’s just the students. In every instance the teachers themselves are actually teaching their failure philosophies in class! In some classes your child’s grades may depend on them toeing the professor’s line. You don’t have to search far or wide to see evidence of this in not only higher education, but also secondary, elementary, and even primary. And this is it, this is my big point for the day. Even if your child were to receive an amazing education and get first pick of their choice employment, they will have to dodge and weave like a freshmen football player on an NFL team to avoid being impacted by the pervasive worldliness that will surround them at all times. And just like that freshman football player, your child will likely lose. And—please—I can hear it now. “Well, I know so-and-so. They went to a secular college, and they’re fine.” Well, first, I don’t know who you’re talking about, so I don’t have an opinion on how they turned out. Second, I have no idea what you mean when you say “fine.” Do you mean holy? Do you mean on fire for God? Do you mean doing the right things in the right ways for the right reasons and in the right power? Are you telling me that if God were removed from their lives, they would be completely different people? Third, I don’t doubt that there’s someone out there who got through the secular educational system who came out on the other end more spiritually mature than when they went in . . . but statistically and historically, that number is very small. And fourth, I’ve met a whole lot of people who claim to have graduated from secular colleges and are “doing fine” who are either currently bottoming out or have so many hidden scars that no one other than their biblical counselor can see. So, yeah, I can’t allow the claim that secular college graduates are fine regardless of the experience shape how I interpret what the Bible says about sin and influence and holiness. “Yeah, but, Aaron, all of that passive and active sinful influence happens in Christian colleges too.” You, my friend, are right. Please understand that this episode is not about how Christian colleges are 100% safe and will guarantee your child matures into the man or woman of God they were created to be. That is not my thesis. I myself was one of those bad influences when I was attending Bob Jones University, and I hung out with a bunch of the other bad influences. My point is that secular education is not only going to have all the exact same failings that Christian education may have, but they also are all definitely going to be far more dangerous—from a biblical perspective—because of the rampant wickedness. Well, now that I say that, to be fair, the most dangerous university is the one professing to be Christian that is actually teaching lies about God and the Bible. That’s the worst. But when I’m talking about Christian education, I’m not talking about the people who use it in their name alone. I’m not talking about mere nominal Christianity. I’m talking about a school of higher learning that actually and faithfully teaches the truths of the Bible. They will never be perfect, they will make mistakes, and there will be sinners there, but secular schools will always be far worse than faithful Christian schools. So, if our society has come to the place that it believes a college education no longer has the value it once did, then, yes, a secular university will be pointless for many . . . if it not all. But regardless of whether it’s pointless or not, it’s definitely dangerous. However, a genuinely Christian college where the truth of the Bible is being taught and exemplified—though imperfectly—has many benefits. 1. Christian higher education can still greatly equip your child for certain occupations. Not every job is something for which you have to go to college, and I’m not even talking about the ridiculous and pointless majors offered in so many secular schools. Our culture is such that there are a lot of training opportunities both on the job and otherwise that can equip a person just as well as higher education can, but that’s not true of every occupation. It’s not true of nursing, it’s not true of law, and it’s frequently not true of ministry. There are exceptions, but certain ministry opportunities will definitely be better equipped via higher education. And, yes, it’s true that a secular school retains some level of value as it is able to equip its students to do jobs that one cannot do without the proper education. But why go to a secular school for that when you can learn it at a Christian school where you are also going to receive the other benefits? 2. Christian liberal arts education seeks to do more than equip your child for an occupation. A good liberal arts Christian college or university is seeking to help your child be a well-rounded, mature adult. Sure, the standard for what accounts for an affluent adult has changed over the years. We might not need to study Latin anymore in order to reach the level of affluence, but the existence of internet search engines doesn’t mean that mature adults aren’t knowledgeable and capable in a wide range of skillsets. And the most important of those skillsets is the final destination of today’s episode. 3. Christian education is designed to disciple in Christ. As I said earlier, all education disciples, but like my biggest grievance with secular education, the question is for whom and to what your child is being discipled. Your kids are immature. They have foolishness bound up in their hearts. Turning 13 doesn’t change that. Turning 18 doesn’t change that. Let’s be honest, becoming a parent doesn’t change that. What changes that is spiritual growth. You should check out the The Evidence of Spiritual Life Series to see the trajectory God has planned for yours and your kids’ maturity. You can also get a copy of Quit: How to Stop Family Strife for Good because I discuss this topic in detail in that book as well. Christian discipleship is something that we need to be pursuing for our entire life. But here’s the trajectory I see in so many families in the church. Early on the parents do a pretty good job of having a Bible time or talking about God. The child eventually is sent to a Christian school, but conversations about God at home start to plateau because so many parents aren’t equipped to talk about God on more than an elementary level. Of course, the family is attending church, and—in their estimations—that’s where the real discipleship should be happening. By the way, most of the kids in the average church didn’t ever go to a Christian school. The only real spiritual influence they get every week happens at church, and only a little bit at home. But even for the kids who went to a Christian school, let’s say they continue into a Christian college. So they have a few more years of discipleship, but once they graduate, the active discipleship in the things of God is relegated to church services. They’re not getting it at home, they’re not getting it at work, they’re not getting it with their friends, church is it. But it shouldn’t be this way! Discipleship should be the single most important facet of our lives. We should pursue discipleship relationships, we should be filling our lives with spiritual education in the form of podcasts and books and conferences and workshops. We should want our everything to happen within the formal of biblical discipleship if we can. That includes our academics. When we finish our formal schooling, we should continue to pursue aggressive discipleship as defined by the one anothers in Scripture. We should live for evangelizing the lost, discipling other Christians, and being discipled ourselves. But since this is not how the average professing Christian parent lives and thinks, the Christian discipleship of their kids is really just not that important. But—as we observed from the very beginning of this episode—education is discipleship. In fact, life is discipleship. So, since we’re not pursuing biblical discipleship for our kids, we end up thrusting them into all sorts of situations where they’re being discipled by the world . . . pure and simple. We’re signing them up to be discipled by their teachers, their coaches, their bosses, and their friends. And what tiny little touches they receive when they attend church services absolutely cannot compare to the daily onslaught they experience. Listen, your kids are being discipled all of the time. And even though every moment of their lives is formative, the discipleship they receive as part of their college experience is going to pull hard on the steering wheel of their adult choices. This is why most secular education is not merely pointless, but all secular education is dangerous. And this is why—though it’s far from perfect—Christian education . . . when done correctly . . . is at least attempting to disciple your kids for Christ before they step out into the world. Conclusion
There. That’s it. Some of you may agree. Some of you won’t. So, I challenge you, if you disagree with the points I’ve made today, ask yourself this: on what are you putting your faith that your kids are going to learn to love God more when they’re at school?
Are they just going to do it naturally? Are you trusting the one day a week you hope they go to church? Are you convinced they’re mature enough to fight off the sinful influences? Are you just believing that God is going to miraculously preserve them even though they don’t necessarily seem that passionate for Him now? In what are you trusting? Those of us who warn of the dangers of secular education in America are putting our trust in the Bible’s expectations for spiritual life and maturity. We’re trusting that God’s plan is the best plan. We’re believing the multiple illustrations God has given us in His Word about how easy it is to lose a generation to the spiritual slide of immaturity we talked about last time. Now, of course God can and will do miracles, but I never want to presume on Him like that. He hasn’t promised that He will supernaturally step in so that your child can be like Daniel. He has commanded that we bring them up on the nurture and admonition of the Lord and to surround them with a culture of biblical discipleship at home and in the church. Still, He may choose to preserve your kids through a secular college education . . . and I pray He does. But please make sure your faith in not in foolish or presumptuous things. If you dare . . . please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets, and join us next time as we tell you all about our upcoming Season 30!
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