Category: Uncategorized

Be Kind to Yourself and Trust God (Not Yourself)

Posted on by Kelly Hayes in Bible, Biblical Integration, Encouragement, Holy Spirit, Uncategorized

The end of the school year is coming. This can lead to excitement and anticipation for some. However, it can also lead to feelings of disappointment and frustration for others. Why didn’t we cover everything I wanted to cover? Why wasn’t my class as transformative as it could have been? Why is a particular student struggling so much or for so long? Why haven’t I been able to meet every need?

Academic disciplemakers feel a burden to make a difference. And it can hurt when our best-laid plans end up being less than perfect in practice. When the finish-line is in view, we sometimes realize that the past year wasn’t the best race we’ve ever run. High standards are good, but they sometimes mean that we don’t meet the mark that we have set for ourselves.

If you are the discouraged and disappointed teacher, I want to speak to you for a moment. I want to share specific truths from the Word of God for you:

1) God’s perfect plans are never thwarted by imperfect people.

I am encouraged that “the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations” (Ps 33:11). I may fail, but He will not. He says, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please’” (Is 46:10). God will do all that He pleases in me, through me, and in spite of me. Thank God for his perfect faithfulness.

2) We don’t see the whole story.

God told Samuel, “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam 16:7). We see so little. We don’t know how God is working in hearts. We don’t know all the ways that He is drawing people to Himself. But we know that He is. The Author only writes good stories.

3) God will use you. And He will use you well.

Jesus told the Apostles, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This is a multi-layered promise. He promised that they would: a) receive power from the Spirit, b) be witnesses, c) be his witnesses. We are not first-century Apostles, but we are Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered believers. We are witnesses. We are his. God used normal fishermen and tax-collectors to turn the world upside down in the first-century. And He is using his people today as well. 

So, did things go the way you hoped this year? Maybe not. Have you struggled? Perhaps. Were you frustrated at times? Probably. But know this: God is never frustrated because his good plans cannot be stopped. He is working in and through you. And He is not doing a poor job.

I’d encourage you to meditate on these truths as you listen to “Be Kind to Yourself.” Be reminded of God’s love for you.

Integrating Your Thinking: A Plan for Growth

Posted on by Kelly Hayes in Biblical Integration, Planning, Uncategorized

If you want to teach your students in a biblically integrated fashion, one of the best things you can do is to work on your own thinking. Yes, it is good to think about how you can deliver content. It is right to work on strategies. It is necessary to plan your course and units. However, it is also crucial to work on yourself; the way you think about your subject will affect how you teach your subject. So what are some doable, affordable, excellent things that you can do to better integrate your own thinking? Here are three steps that I would recommend:

1) Purchase and read a book on your subject from the “Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition” series. These short, Christian titles on everything from economics and education to science and psychology will help you understand your topic better. (Vern Poythress has authored books on a number of topics like sociology, history, language, and logic as well. These are a bit more technical.) How much will one of these books cost? Most of these books fall in the $12-25 range. 

2) Read the chapter on your subject area in Understanding the Times. It would be great to read the whole book, but reading one chapter will make a difference. This book examines 10 areas of inquiry including things like biology, law, history, and politics. And this book compares how different groups — like Muslims and Marxists — approach and understand these topics. This book can be purchased for less than $30, but many schools have these books on hand. So you could likely read it for free.

3) Read the Bible. This might sound overly basic, but it is not. The more you read the Bible, the better you will understand your topic from and toward the biblical worldview. I bet this will cost you nothing because you likely already own a Bible.

I am bringing this up now because (at my school) the final quarter of the school year just began. We are nearing the end of this year. This is when I want to start planning to be more equipped, more aware, and more skilled in my thinking for next year. If you are like me, you want to be on a trajectory of growth. I want my teaching to be better each year. And I bet you do too! If you do any of these three things, I bet you will grow as an academic disciple-maker. If you do all three, you will grow even more. Let me encourage you to make that investment in your own thinking because that is an investment in your students as well.

Parables for Language Learners and Integration from the Biblical Text

Posted on by Kelly Hayes in Bible, Biblical Integration, Communication, Planning, Spanish, Uncategorized

Recently, I’ve been exploring the idea of organizing biblical integration by starting with Scripture itself. Rather than bringing Scripture into the course concepts, I am intrigued by the possibility of bringing concepts out of the Bible itself. Why? Because the culture that forms many of our students is changing.

Even evangelical culture and church-adjacent culture is becoming more and more detached from the Bible, the biblical worldview, and biblical literacy in general. This means the task of integration must change. We must respond to the needs that are presenting themselves. In the past, it may have been easier to focus on applying Scripture to a topic/subject because students had some exposure to and understanding of Scripture. However, that exposure and understanding seems to be becoming more limited and cursory (in many cases). If this is true, academic disciple-makers will have to engage the Bible differently (perhaps more directly) in order to help the students think more biblically. 

To be clear, I am not suggesting that we should be trying to teach our subjects from the Bible. I am saying that we might consider trying to teach about our subjects from the Bible. The Bible is not a textbook for poetry, pre-calculus, or public speaking. But it does have something to say about humans, appreciation, and art. It does have something to say about order, structure, nature, and reality. It does speak clearly about speaking clearly. 

Just to be extra clear: I can’t teach a student to play guitar from the Bible, but I can use the Bible to teach that student about beauty, hard work, and the role of music amongst the people of God. The Bible doesn’t teach music, but it does teach about music. The Bible can’t make a guitarist. But the Bible can shape a musician.

Let’s consider this with a case study on language learning. A super-star Spanish teacher at my school recently asked some questions about this and I thought it might be good to share with a wider audience. Here is where I would start if I were integrating a Spanish 3 class by starting with a biblical text.

The Bible is not a Spanish book. However, it does teach about culture and communication.

In Acts, there are discussions of cross-cultural communication between Jewish and Greek people and ideas. In the Gospels, the parables are great examples of effective cultural understanding mixed with story-telling. And the Sermon in the Mount shows Jesus’ mastery of understanding where people are coming from (“You have heard it said…”) and then speaking thoughtfully into that context (“But I say…”). Perhaps Luke 15 for Spanish Language Learners or The Sermon on the Mount for Cultural Engagement would work well. 

The teacher could have the students take note of Jesus’ understanding of Jewish cultural things (like receiving an inheritance). This could “translate” to the importance of understanding the cultures of those around us (particularly Spanish speakers). Students could learn the vocabulary of the parable/sermon (and potentially some syntax) as well. Additionally, they could have a project where they read/teach the passage to younger kids in Spanish. 

These activities could be great integration opportunities. They could show how Jesus notices and loves those around Him. And they would naturally (not artificially) get students in the biblical text in Spanish. And it would prepare students for real-world experience (like missions trips to Honduras or other local connections with Spanish speakers).

Basically, a structure like this could help Spanish learners learn to love their neighbors and to speak/read Spanish at the same time. This certainly is not the only way to integrate. But I think it could be effective. And I think it might work in many areas. 

As I have said before, this is just an experiment. But it might be a fruitful one. We shall see.

Learning Teachers = Learning Students

Posted on by Kelly Hayes in Biblical Integration, Leading, Planning, Uncategorized

We all want our students to grow. We want them to learn. So what do we do? We teach. That is good. Explicit, directed instruction is essential. However, I want to suggest that if we want our students to learn, we must be learners. We must model this for them. And the beginning of a new year is a great time to set some specific goals. 

I have many learning-related goals and I am not going to bore you by listing them all here. But I am going to highlight a few. I hope that my goals will be food-for-thought that helps you create your own goals for your context, situation, available time/energy, and personality.

What one thing will I do this year that will make me better as a teacher in general?

One of my ongoing goals during the past few years has been to become a better teacher of reading. Confident, experienced readers are in a powerful position to continue to learn. Teachers understand the axiom that after learning to read, students read to learn. A bulldozer can dig deeper and faster than a spade. I want my students to have bulldozers for reading. I want them to be able to access, understand, and evaluate content. I want them to be excellent readers.

So, I am investigating “Readers’ Workshop” in more detail this year. And I am trying implement elements of it and experiment with what works best. I have long been a fan of the workshop model, but there are specifics about Readers’ Workshop that I need to learn more about. Specifically, as a Bible teacher, I want my students to increase their abilities to read the Word of God for understanding and application. Students who can’t read well can’t read the Bible well.  

What is one thing that you can do this year to help you improve generally as a teacher? Can I suggest that advancing as a biblical integrator can be a great goal? Think about reading a good book on integration or academic discipleship. Consider working with a partner to talk through your syllabus or course design. 

What one thing will I do this year that will make me better as a teacher in a specific subject area?

I am pressing hard to develop greater proficiency with the biblical languages this year. My biggest goal is to increase my reading proficiency in Greek. As a Bible teacher, it has become increasingly important to me to be able to read the Bible better in the original languages. Since this is a skill, I have designed a system for daily practice. My goal is 400 hours of deliberate practice this year (2022). Thankfully, this goal is not isolated to my teaching. I love reading the Bible. And I love learning about how to do it better. So the 66 minutes of required work each day feels fun to me. Yes, learning/practicing a language is work. But hard work can be fun. This is especially true if it is meaningful personally, tied to vocational goals, and leads to worship.

Now, your goal doesn’t need to take you 400 hours. Four deliberate hours might make a big difference in some areas. But regardless of the time-commitment, you should be growing in a specific subject area. And you should be doing it on purpose. 

What’s your goal for growing in a specific subject area? Maybe it’s reading a biography of a person in that field. Perhaps it’s taking an online training or going to a conference. Maybe it’s getting a new certification. The options are endless.

Let me finish this article with a little-known secret: People often like their work better and are more passionate about doing it well when they are good at it. A learning teacher is often a more satisfied teacher. And a learning teacher is modeling growth to students. And a teacher who sees students growing will be an encouraged teacher. Your learning will help you and your students. So plan it. Organize it. And do it. It will make a difference. 

The Christian School and Extensive Reading

Posted on by Kelly Hayes in Uncategorized

Over the past several months, I have been doing some research on language learning. This has been interesting to me on a personal level, but it has also been intriguing to me as a teacher. One of the most useful concepts (in my mind) is called: extensive reading. In a class setting, the big idea is for students to read tons and tons of enjoyable material that is on an appropriate level while following the example of the teacher. 

This reminded me of my own childhood journey to loving books. Before I was a great reader, I didn’t enjoy reading. But once I found a series that was interesting and at my level, I just took off. Within a few years, I was reading more advanced literature—from Treasure Island  to Tolkien—and I was loving it.

As I was considering this kind of reading recently, at first I thought, “Wow! My students don’t really do this very much.” I know of a couple students who read real books for fun, but they are the exception to the rule (it seems). However, it didn’t take long for me to realize that my students do regularly engage in extensive reading. They don’t read books; they read social media feeds. They digest Fantasy Football articles. They soak in memes. 

Today, more and more people are making the case that social media may be generally unhealthy and dangerous. However, it is effective and addicting. Users can become incredibly proficient in understanding/comprehending (exegeting) and evaluating/applying (hermeneutics) what they are intaking via social media. Many young people are feasting on it through extensive reading.

And it is no wonder that they are being shaped by it. Much can be said about the addictive, negative, divisive outcomes of social media intake, but I want to simply focus here on a lesson that can be learned: extensive reading, regardless of media or mode (book, magazine, computer, phone, website, app, etc.), is powerful in developing fluency. 

It all starts with practice. Getting the ball rolling can be tough. But once it is rolling, it gets easier and easier. Yurika Iwahori explains:

“The human mind has a limited capacity to perform difficult tasks; in performing difficult tasks, such as decoding words and comprehending a text, people make efforts and as a result consume their limited mind capacity; through practice over time, the amount of effort needed for the tasks becomes less; and eventually, the effort required for performing the tasks drops drastically.”     

And the results are good. At the end of a study on teaching Japanese students English, Yurika Iwahori concluded that extensive reading “provides a possible way for students to become fluent readers by being exposed to English, to increase their vocabulary size, syntactic knowledge, and knowledge of the world.”

Okay. So extensive reading can help students read. Got it. And students are doing extensive reading on social media and the wider internet. Got that too. But what’s the point? 

My point here is simple: Christian schools need to get our students reading the Bible extensively. Not reading about the Bible. Not analyzing the Bible. Not jumping to application of the Bible. Not climbing Bloom’s ladder. Not yet. That will come. Much of that must come. First, we just need to get them fluent in the Bible. We need to get them reading extensively so that they become fluent. 

Could it be hard at first? Yes. Will students progress at different rates? Yes. Will there be some bumps along the way? Yes. Will it be tough to retrain brains that have only been feasting on snippets to ingesting long-form texts? Yes. But Bible fluency will be worth it.

English and language arts teachers, can you help? 

History and social studies teachers, can you help?

Spanish and other language teachers, can you help?

If our students become great readers of long-form writing, they have a chance to really become people of the Book. If our students become great Bible readers, the living and active Word will equip them to live as people of the Book (Heb 4:12; 2 Tim 3:15-17). 

We know that extensive reading works out there; people are using it to learn second languages. We know that extensive reading works in here; our students are being shaped by extensive internet reading. So, will we help our kids master the Bible so that the Bible can master them? I think a focus on extensive Bible reading might be a wise and powerful adjustment to our educational strategy.

A Prayer for Biblical Integration: Psalm 1

Posted on by Kelly Hayes in Uncategorized

This week’s post is a short application of the discussion we’ve been having regarding the role of the Bible in Christian school curricula. As we consider the role of Scripture, we want to be obedient to Scripture. And one way that we can do that is by praying. So, below you will see Psalm 1:1-3 and a prayer built around that passage. Please feel free to utilize this prayer for your students, classes, and school.

1 Blessed is the one
  who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,

2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
  and who meditates on his law day and night.

3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
   which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

Father, we know that true happiness never comes from wickedness. Please help our students to see and know that. As they learn the world and the Word, help them to live wisely. Give them the understanding and courage to choose godliness. Give discernment as they make choices and develop friendships.

Through the power of the Spirit, delight these young people with your Word. Give them diligence to meditate on it day and night. Plant their lives in your Word, your church, and your ways. Grow fruit in their lives—the fruit of the Spirit—make them like you. Let their work prosper for their good and for your glory.

Help me, as their teacher, to walk in your ways as well. Build an ever-deepening passion for Scripture in me. And help my work as an integrator to prosper. Make me an example: a good and godly example. Use your Word in my class to form all of us—my students and myself—into your image and into happiness with you.

Amen. 

Do We Trust the Bible?: Christianity and Christian Schooling in America (Part 4)

Posted on by Kelly Hayes in Bible, Biblical Integration, Culture, Uncategorized

In 2 Kings 22, the Bible speaks about a country that finds the Scriptures. The Word of God had been lost, but religious activity had continued without it. There was still a temple. There was still a high priest. But no Word. And then—one day—they found it and read it. What was King Josiah’s response? He tore his clothes in anguish because he understood something scary: “Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us” (2 Kings 22:13b, emphasis mine). God was angry at the nation because they had neglected his Word. They didn’t reject it. They neglected it.

Upon renewing attention to the Word, things changed. 2 Kings 23:3 tells the next step in the story: “The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant” (emphasis mine).

What turned the nation around? Attention to the Book. If Barna did a survey of Judah while the Book was lost, I think it might have looked quite a bit like this one from ACU.  So what role can Christian schooling play in turning our nation around? Well, we can’t change hearts. But we can direct people to the Book that does. Christian schools can play the role of Josiah by putting the Word back in the spotlight. 

Tony Merida tells his high school students, “If you want to hear God speak, open the book. When you open the Word of God, you open the mouth of God” (The Christ-Centered Expositor, 50-52). Our schools should take this to heart. We must trust that God’s Word is God’s voice. And we must trust that his voice is powerful to change things. 

So I must ask: Do we trust the Bible? When people say that we do, I think we usually mean that we trust that the Bible is true and authoritative. However, I am curious if we trust the effectiveness of the Bible. Do we trust the Bible to do its work in the lives of our students? Do we believe that the Word form worldview in the lives of our students?

Let’s get a tiny bit technical for a moment: The Word of God is living, active, and sharp (Heb 4:12). The biblical worldview is not. You can’t make someone a fisherman by giving that person a fish; you have to give them a fishing pole. You can’t form a biblical worldview by giving them worldview alone; you have to give them the Bible. The biblical worldview is an outcome. It is born when a person starts to see the world through the lens of Scripture. How does this worldview form? By interacting with the Scriptures. But do we trust the Bible to do what the Spirit who authored it says it will do? 

Below are three truths about rightly interacting with the Bible. With those in mind, we will be in a good position to consider some potential ideas to adjust Bible curricula to better accomplish our goals. 

1) We need to trust the power of the Bible. 

This year, my wife and I have been using the book The One-Year Praying through the Bible for Your Kids to help us pray for our children each night. Reflecting on 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Nancy Guthrie discusses what it means for the word of God to continue to work after it has been shared: 

“What does it mean to believe the Word of God is what accomplishes the work of God in the lives of our children? Certainly it means that we do our part to expose our children to the Word of God. But it also means that we trust the Word of God to do its work in them. We trust the Word to convict, convince, and challenge them. It may not happen in our preferred time frame or in our preferred way, but we trust it to work” (283).

While Guthrie is writing about the children in our homes, her point also applies to our schools. Are we trusting the Word to do the work? Or are we leaning on something else?

2) We need to trust that the Bible is for our students. 

There is a big difference between a class about the Bible and a class of the Bible. Let me give an example. We all know that there is a canyon-sized gap between a class about playing guitar and a class of playing guitar. In the first class, the teacher might hold a guitar and point some things out to the students. The teacher might even play the students a song. In the second class, students have guitars of their own. They are making noise… and sometimes music. The second class is much more messy and loud. But it is also the one that will lead to students knowing how to play. 

Teachers rightly have the desire to make every lesson organized, clear, and assessable. But the Bible is not always so clean and clear. It is not a systematic theology book. We might have a concordance, but the Book wasn’t written with an index. But the fact that the Bible is not systematic does not mean that it is flawed. God perfectly gave us what He wanted us to have. And He gave it to us in the way that He wanted us to have it. 

Though it can be easier and simpler to teach about the Bible, we must do the hard, messy work of teaching the Bible itself. We can explain. We can share context. But we must be careful not to replace the Bible itself with teaching about the Bible. Students won’t be able to play guitar if we don’t put guitars in their hands. Students won’t be able to read the Bible if we don’t put the Bible in their hands. 

This does not mean that we give them the whole thing all at once without any developmentally-appropriate framing. We still need to use wisdom. We are not going to give the details of David and Bathsheba to first graders. 

Think of it like this: Learning ukulele can help students learn guitar. You can give a plastic baby-fork to a young child. It’s not an all-or-nothing situation. Even with the ukulele, the student is still making music. Even with a dull plastic fork, the toddler is using utensils. They are in it. Really in it. In an appropriate, healthy way.

In the best possible ways, we should give our students real Bible. They need classes where they are in it. Might younger students need to live in the Gospels for a while? Maybe. Should we save Song of Solomon for later in the sequence? That makes sense. There is nothing wrong with playing ukulele if it is what they need to prepare for the full guitar. But if the students are just getting material about the Bible (or with sprinkles/nuggets of Bible), we are showing that we might not trust that the Bible is for them. We know that we trust that the Bible is for our kids when we actively, expectantly give it to them. They need to be in it. Even when it is messy and challenging.

3) We need to trust that the Bible forms worldview.

We do not need to choose between teaching the Bible and the biblical worldview. When we teach the Bible, a biblical worldview follows. When Josiah read the Bible, idols were destroyed. Ingesting the Word affected his worldview. This still happens. It is God’s plan for changing us. 

Let’s get practical! How can Christian schools enact this? The simplest, easiest idea might be to employ a Bible curriculum that is text driven. These do exist. However, there is another option: use the Bible as the textbook for Bible classes. This might be wise because students can learn to study the Bible without workbooks and other study-resources that they will likely not employ after graduation. If we use the Bible as the textbook for a reading-focused Bible class, students can build habits that will translate beyond the classroom. They can keep going long after they leave out classrooms. Here are some basic starting points:

  1. High school. Read-the-Bible-in-Four-Years Plan. Devotional plans to read the Bible in one year abound for personal use. They take about 12 minutes per day on average for proficient readers. So what if we allotted 15 minutes per day in a high school setting over four years? We could read the text, do an inductive study, consider worldview implications and applications, and pray from the text each day. Over 440 days, students would graduate having considered the entire Bible and built serious Bible-study muscles. In addition, there would be room for 280 days of assessments, discussion, projects, and focused worldview conversations.
  2. Middle school. Read-the-New-Testament-in-Two-Years-Plan. Proficient readers can read the New Testament by reading six minutes per day for 180 days. Middle schoolers might not be there yet. So what if they read for 10 minutes per day for 200 days? They could read the entire New Testament in two years and still have 160 days for assessments, discussions, projects, etc. 
  3. Middle or high school. Read-the-New-Testament-in-One-Year-Plan. 20 minutes per day would do it with room for lots of conversation and assessment.
  4. Elementary. Bible-story-time. For younger students, the teacher can read the Gospels and Acts to students in 800 minutes. This could be a great time to choose an easy-to-understand translation and read for 5 minutes per day. In one year, these books would be covered. For older elementary students, the learners could do the reading for themselves (or read along with the teacher). 

But what if a Christian school is already committed to a worldview curriculum in Bible class? It is still possible to simply devote a few minutes per day of Bible reading. For example, if a school uses something like Summit’s curriculum in high school, they could still devote 12 minutes per day to Bible reading. This would at least allow those students to have direct contact with Scripture itself in Bible class. While this might not be ideal, it might be a step in the right direction.

Christianity and Christian Schooling in America: Part One

Posted on by Kelly Hayes in Uncategorized

The summary data from a fascinating research project conducted by George Barna were recently published by Arizona Christian University’s Cultural Research Center. The findings are worthy of consideration and discussion. Therefore, I will be devoting the next few posts to reflections on this study. Some topics will include:

1. Biblical beliefs are unusual in American culture.
2. The biblical worldview doesn’t stay biblical without the Bible.
3. Self-identification is often an exercise in self-deception.
4. Taking away from the teachings of the Bible is dangerous.
5. Adding to the teachings of the Bible is dangerous. 

Let’s start by looking at #1 this week. Only 6% of American adults belong to a group that uniformly believes that the Bible is the true, accurate Word of God. Only 6% belong to a group that is uniformly confident that God is the perfect, just, all-powerful, ruling Creator. Only 6% percent belong to a group that almost unanimously holds that salvation is not contingent on people doing enough good things to earn eternal life.

What do these facts say about you and your school?

If you believe the Bible is true, you are in the minority. If you believe in the biblical view of God’s nature and character, please know that many, even some who call themselves “Christians,” disagree with you. Works-based false gospels have been prevalent since the birth of the church. Paul battled them in Galatia. We battle them in the USA. 

Biblical beliefs are unusual in American culture. In ACU’s summary, Barna notes, “‘Christian’ has become somewhat of a generic term rather than a name that reflects a deep commitment to passionately pursuing and being like Jesus Christ.” Generic Christian-ish ideals and sentiments are common. But specific, concrete commitments stemming from the Bible are not not.

How does your Christian school communicate what it believes about God, Bible, and salvation? How well do your students understand those things? Is your school “Christian” or is it Christian? What about your specific classroom? How can you tell?

Next time, we will take a look at the role of the Bible in shaping the biblical worldview.

Knowing About God is Not Enough: Biblical Integration

Posted on by Kelly Hayes in Uncategorized

In his classic book, Knowing God, J. I. Packer offers the following reminder:

If we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us, and we shall come to think of ourselves as a cut above other Christians because of our interest in it and grasp of it; and we shall look down on those whose theological ideas seem to us crude and inadequate and dismiss them as very poor specimens.

(Packer, 21)

Knowing about God is essential, but it is not enough. There was a certain group of knowledgeable people in Jesus’ day, but they had a problem: they saw the knowledge as the end rather than the means. Here is Jesus’ response to this group:

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life… If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?

(John 5:39-40, 46-47)

As academic disciple-makers, we want to make sure that our students know about God. But we don’t want to stop there. We want our biblical integration to show that Word and the world testify about Christ. And He is not a mere fact to be downloaded, but a Person to be honored, treasured, worshiped, and pursued. One goal of our work is to help students to know about God. But that goal serves a greater goal. 

Knowledge about God is meant to help people live well in relationship with Him. When we know that He is faithful, we can live in faith. When we know that He is strong, we can trust Him to handle the things that are too big for us. When we know that He is kind, we can approach Him in repentance. 

In other words, knowledge is meant to be fuel for worship. When you serve your students through biblical integration, remember that all the knowledge you teach your students about God is meant to help them know and rightly respond to Him. Part of your role as an academic disciple-maker is to be an academic worship-leader. As your students gain knowledge about God, give them the opportunity to respond to that knowledge in praise, wonder, repentance, fear, joy, and love. 

High-Pressure Testing: Biblical Integration and Calling Students to Examination

Posted on by Kelly Hayes in Bible, Biblical Integration, Testing, Uncategorized

Testing is a hot-topic for teachers. What kinds of tests are best? How should tests be constructed? What are the outcomes that we are looking for? What do test-results really mean?

Tests are often on the minds of students as well. They can sometimes be opportunities to shine. But they can also be stressful. This is especially true of high-leverage tests like the ACT/SAT or other standardized tests. Graduation could be on the line. Acceptance could be on the line. Scholarships could be on the line. Tests, especially in academic settings, can be high-pressure activities. However, they can also be quite valuable. This is also true in our spiritual lives. 

Recently, our school devoted time in MS/HS chapel to interact with the question, “How can I know for sure that I am saved?” This is an important test: a probing question. And it is one that many students were asking. Thankfully, it is also a biblical question. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul challenges the church there, saying, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” There is a way to test ourselves. And it is possible to fail.

Self-examination is a crucial part of following Jesus. And the test-results should lead people to know where they actually stand. In 1 John 5:13, the motivation of John’s writing is clear: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Believers should test themselves. And they should know if they pass the test. 

So what does this examination look like? How can we examine ourselves? How do we really test ourselves so that we can know for sure that we have eternal life?

One of our chapel-speakers pointed out that one evidence of salvation is change: Have you been changed by the gospel? Is your life becoming more Christlike? Are you hating and battling sin? That is in line with what John says just a few verses later: “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them,” (1 John 5:18).

A famous Reformation line is something like, “We are saved by faith alone, but not by faith that remains alone.” We can test if our belief is real by the impact it has on our living. Good faith will be joined by good works. Are we being changed? Are we growing? Do we keep fighting?

At the close of this article, let me take a turn toward academic discipleship in particular. As a teacher, you likely test your students. You probably also teach them to self-assess. They may learn to do study guides, reviews, practice activities, ungraded quizzes, and more. But are you teaching them to examine themselves to see whether or not they are in the faith? 

I am burdened that there are many non-Christian students populating Christian schools. There will come a day when they face the true final exam. Standing before the Lord Himself, will they hear, “Well done!” or “I never knew you,”? Perhaps practicing some self-examination now will put them in position to prepare for that final exam.   

If you speak of God in your integration (and I am confident that you do), consider helping students test where they stand with that God. The final exam is coming for all of us: “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.,” (Heb 9:27-28).