Please take some time to read the article entitled, “How Christian Were the Founders?” by Russel Shorto. You can find this article at this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html?pagewanted=1 

Mr. Shorto though trying to come across as objective, his strategic use of some words definitely demonstrates his position on this issue.

Ron Brace

The State of the Union Address given by President Obama on January 27, 2010 left many people shaking their heads, not necessarily in the affirmative either. Based upon the comments made by the President, one could easily slip in to chiding and deriding the President that he does not have a clue of what is really needed for the United States. One could even get to the point of using the words like doublespeak, puppet, socialist, and manipulator to describe the character and actions of the President.

The believer on the other hand is given some clear directives in God’s Word regarding their position to the President and his actions. The Apostle Paul gives the greatest number of imperatives, each on hitting on a little different aspect of this relationship.  In Acts 23:5b the Apostle Paul states, “Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.” President Obama is the ruler of the people of the United States. He is not the type of ruler that Paul experience in the first century, but nevertheless, the President is the chief of the government and the believer is not to speak evil of or about him. This level of obedience to God will definitely set the believer apart in the everyday work place and will require great dependence upon God for the strength to measure up.

The Apostle Paul gives the believer some insight to leaders that do not necessarily lead in a Godly fashion or manner. The Apostle in Romans 13 gives the believer the most direct insight:

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.(NIV)

This passage spells out that God is the one who has put President Obama in power. It is the believer’s position to seek God to the point that God’s intention for the current administration is revealed. This can be accomplished by applying the Apostle’s imperative from 2 Timothy 2:1-2,

 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. (NIV)

Here the Apostle specifically mentions “those in authority”, not very much leeway given to who is to be included in our prayers. Note the personal reward for praying for the leaders and authorities of the land – peaceful and quiet lives. The continent has not seen warfare since the mid-19^th Century, and on a day-to-day basis, the threat of bombings and terroristic attacks has only become a reality in recent years. The United States has enjoyed 150 plus years of peaceful homeland existence due to the prayerful diligence of the faithful through the years and now is not the time to quit.

The last imperative that came to mind as a result of the address was 2 Chronicles 7:13-14,

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (NIV)

Right away when this passage is read, visions of Moses, the plagues, and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt come to mind. God sent these afflictions to get the people’s attention – both the Egyptians as well as the Israelites, but primarily the Pharaoh. Matthew Henry notes in relation to the Pharaoh: “God suffers the lying spirit to do strange things, that the faith of some may be tried and manifested, that the infidelity of others may be confirmed, and that he who is filthy may be filthy still.”  It is in times like these that those that are playing “Christianity” will fall away from the faith, and those that are truly Christ-followers will be refined to greater and greater purity. There will not be any time to play games when one is cast into the thick of the fray, either there will be perseverance or capitulation.

Let the believers, the Christ-followers, take these imperative and begin by applying them personally and then corporately.

Ron Brace

The Dumbest Generation… by Mark Bauerlein

While teens and young adults have absorbed digital tools into their daily lives like no other age group, while they have grown up with more knowledge and information readily at hand, taken more classes, built their own Web sites, enjoyed more libraries, bookstores, and museums in their towns and cities… in sum, while the world has provided them extraordinary chances to gain knowledge and improve their reading/writing skills, not to mention offering financial incentives to do so, young Americans today are no more learned or skillful than their predecessors, no more knowledgeable, fluent, up-to-date, or inquisitive, except in the materials of youth culture. They don’t know any more history or civics, economics or science, literature or current events. They read less on their own, both books and newspapers, and you would have to canvass a lot of college English professors and employers before you found one who said that they compose better paragraphs. In fact, their technology skills fall well short of the common claim, too, especially when they must apply them to research and workplace tasks (p. 8).

Mr. Bauelein answers for this educator a number of questions as to the “whys” of the perceived trends in education. It “connects the dots” of seemingly random behavioral patterns of students into a cohesive picture that one can understand. The above passage sets the stage for the rest of the book in defining how and why today’s youth are what they are. Mr. Bauerlein points to a couple of cultural and societal influences that he believes are the culprits of this downward slide of today’s youth: screens and weak leadership in adults.

Mr. Bauerlein’s definition of screens is encompassing: TV, video games, computer/internet, cell phones and any other electronic medium of transmitting pictures and data visually. Through the research that he has either personally conducted or that he has read the conclusion is that screens cause an intellectual stunting or a mental stagnation (p.139). The research bears out that the consumption of screens is addictive and causes the user to become self-absorbed (p. 137). This addiction and absorption can take place very easily; just observe what a mother will do with a fussy child when she is exasperated. She will plop the child down in front of the TV with a video. Though seemingly harmless, it is the beginning of a possible habit forming trend.  When the user become self-absorbed, and it doesn’t take much screen action for some people to slide to the state of being self-absorbed, all focus is on the next game, the next text message, the next YouTube, the next email, the next show… The self-absorbed person loses perspective on life, loses interest in the affairs of others, and loses interest in the lessons learned by those that have gone before them (p. 235). The self-absorption that occurs with screens is very similar to phenomenon that occurs with individuals that become addicted to a particular drug (p. 137).

Mr. Bauerlein also points a vindictive finger at the adults in our society for not actively passing on important convictions, traditions, and history to the younger generations (p.199). There are a couple of reasons for this lapse in intergenerational connectedness: the drive for monetary/career success and an over willingness to please and placate children.  When the adults of the society are wrapped up into gaining all the money or career success or social engagement they can achieve, something or someone is going to get the short straw. Many times over it is the children that are the ones that suffer from the lack of meaningful adult interaction from the earliest ages. This abandonment results in a whole host of psychosomatic issues that Mr. Bauerlein does not even touch on. Mr. Bauerlein also accuses adults for not standing up to the whining and affluenza of today’s youth and not assertively helping them understand what is truly important in life (p.136). This takes the form of not allowing that child have an Xbox 360 or that cell phone at age 8 or TV in their bedroom at any age. When parents deny these things, they had better be ready to step in and fill that seeming void with other mind active activities; activities where the parent can engage the child in understanding the world outside the child’s little sphere. This also takes the form of actively educating the younger generation in the cultural mores that have made America great.

Mr. Bauerlein continues with a discussion on how the attitude of the average teen/young adult compounds the problem.

The attitude is even more harmful than knowledge deficiencies we have seen earlier. An ignorant but willing mind can overcome ignorance through steady work and shrewd guidance. Read a few more books, visit a museum, take some classes, and knowledge will come. An unwilling mind can’t, or won’t. It already knows enough, and history, civics, philosophy, and literature have too little direct application to satisfy. For many Americans, that translates into a demoralizing perception problem, a mismatch of expectation and ability. – pg. 193

This demoralized perception then translates to apathy about the events occurring around the average teen/young adult that does not directly affect them. They do not care about the events of Haiti, Israel, Iraq, or Afghanistan and likewise the current affair the elected official has been accused of or current legislation. As an educator, working with a student who is apathetic is pathetic. It is beating one’s head against the proverbial wall – any and all means of engaging the student academically comes to naught. This demoralized perception also translates in some students have an inflated view of the acquired skills. To make themselves feel good about themselves without putting in the effort to truly attain the skill they will inflate the abilities. Sometime the parents come into play as with pressuring an administration to force grade inflation for their Johnny.

Mr. Bauerlein closes with this statement:

The youth of America occupy a point in history like every other generation did and will, and their time will end. But the effects of their habits will outlast them, and if things do not change they will be remembered as the fortunate ones who were unworthy of the privileges they inherited. They may even be recalled as the generation that lost the great American heritage, forever. – pg. 236

May we adults and current leaders heed Mr. Bauerlein’s dire forecast and actively engage ourselves in the mentoring and nurturing of the future leaders of this nation to avoid the impending disaster.

Ron Brace

Recently I came across an article entitled “Successful education has many components.” The title seemed very intriguing enough in itself, but when you take into account the magazine I was reading then, you begin to realize why the title was all the more intriguing. The magazine I was reading at the time was the Midwest Ag Journal right alongside advertisements for farm equipment auctions. I would like to quote the six points that the author, Greg Wolf, makes:

• Successful education at any level involves both inspiration and instruction. This speaks of touching the heart as well as the head. Effective teaching and effective learning really requires a good blend of the two.
• Successful education involves appropriation and application. Appropriation simply means to take ownership, or to transfer that which is universal to a personal level. Appropriation might be better described as “make it mine,” while application might be better described as “make it real.” It is the “lab” component – learning how to take things that have been learned academically and apply them. It is one of the great challenges of formal education, no matter what venue, to make quality instruction both personal and relevant for students.
• Successful education involves patience and practice. By patience I mean not as much moment by moment patience, but more endurance, or sticking to something over time. Twelve years stretches out a long way in front of a Kindergartner and it involves patience to make it. Sometimes those with college degrees are accused of not having practical “common sense.” While that may or may not be true, the reality is that employers often value a college degree nearly as much for what it means in this area of patience as any other. Practice I would describe as just the development of capability over time in an area – probably a combination of all the preceding factors combined and the fulfillment of education.

At Valley Christian School, we must credit a vast majority of our success on the fact that our foundational text book, the Bible, is completely inspired by Almighty God who knows and understands all things, and it is profitable for instruction in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16 KJV). From the Bible, the rest of our curriculum is derived. We take great care that the curriculum presents material that is aligned with the Bible. In doing so, we can have meaningful and insightful discussions on a wide array of topics that are pertinent for our times.

While reading these first couple of points, I was reminded of the verse that states that “we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul and with all of our mind (Matt. 22:37 KJV). The joy of Christian education is the freedom to instruct the heart and the mind in the ways of our LORD.

Our curriculum and methodology works to make appropriation and application a reality for each of our students. Our faculty is continually evaluating the material that he or she is presenting and the presentation of the material so that it reaches each student where he or she is at. When the teacher senses that he or she has not made that connection, he or she strives to understand where the breakdown has occurred. One powerful tool that we have access to is the Holy Spirit. When presented with such as situation, we can go to the throne of God to seek wisdom and understanding to bridge that disconnect between the student and the subject matter. There have been countless times when the God, through the Holy Spirit, instructs, demonstrates the steps needed to be taken to generate success in the student.

In our present culture, patience and practice have almost become bywords, words that are detestable. We live in and with such instantaneousness at every turn that we want what we want, and we want it now. The sound, successful education of an individual does not happen instantaneously. Such education takes time and work on the part of all that are involved – student, parent, and teacher. When any one of those three components is not fully devoted to the mission, to the long haul; the final product has the potential of being less than what was anticipated. At Valley Christian School, the school board has mapped out what they would like our students to “look like” when he or she graduates. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can have the patience and the practice to instill, inculcate, and cultivate the qualities and skills that match that ideal.

Ron Brace

Wolf, Greg, “Successful education has many components”, Midwest Ag Journal,     September 28, 2009

On the Valley Christian School homepage, the question is posed boldly in the middle of the page, “Why Christian Education?” Why should a parent expend precious dollars in tuition monies to pay for the education of their child when they could receive free schooling at the local government school? The answer to these questions can be found in God’s Word. There are many more verses that are appliciable than the verse discussed here, but in Ps. 1, God gives a pretty clear mandate.

In Ps. 1:1-2 it states, “Blessed are those who do not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mocker, but who delight in the law of the LORD  and meditate on his law day and night.” (TNIV)  There is a clear dichotomy – clear separation – of what we are not to be doing and what we are to be doing.  Along those lines, anything that is not for God is against God (Lk 11:23) including the area of education.

In the area of education, any institution that willfully and purposefully seeks to obscure the truth about many the aspects of history, science, morality, and life in general is anti-God. Teaching evolutionary philosophy as though it is truth, which it is not, teaching homosexuality as though it is normal and even a genetic trait, which it is not, and teaching history without acknowledging God’s presence and involvment in it, is anti-truth, anti-God. Any Christian parent should question the subjection of their child’s mind to anti-truth at a school that does this when at the same time working to establish truth in the child’s mind at home and at their church.

The answer to the initial question, “Why Christian Education?” in reference to the Ps. 1:1-2 passage above is clear.  The purveyors of anti-truth are “the wicked and the mockers” that God clearly states have nothing to do with them, but instead we are to associate and commune with people who delight the Lord and in His law day and night – all the time. It is a God-given mandate that the Christ-follower is to ensure that the education received by their children “delights the Lord and in His law day and night.”  Where is this going to happen except with Christian education? When the Christian parent fully understands this mandate, they will make the sacrifice in dollars and creature comforts to see that they are obedient to God’s Word and that their children receive a Christian education.

At Valley Christian School, we work at have the truth, God’s Word, fully incorporated into all of our subject matter. The mind is a precious thing, and the faculty seeks to use every opportunity to have the truth firmly cemented into the mind. The parent’s efforts at home are complemented by the truth-filled education that their child receives at Valley Christian School.

Ron Brace

In the January 2010 edition of Focus on the Family’s Citizen, there is a portion of the magazine dedicated to the “Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience.” This declaration is the work of Chuck Colson and others, including Focus on the Family, to formally declare what Christ followers believe about the hot-button issues of the day – the sanctity of life, abortion, euthanasia, religious freedom, and marriage. It is essentially drawing the proverbial “line in the sand” on these issues.

As I read this declaration that calls to task the actions of our government, I could not help remember that the actions of the government are “down stream” from the actions of the culture and society. The government only reacts to the activities of the culture and society at large. In some cases those activities are connived by those in power to attain the desired ends. Needless to say, the government that is over us is a reflection of what is happening at the grassroots level. So, if we truly desire a change in our government, it needs to begin with you and me and how we conduct ourselves.

The philosophy and mission of Valley Christian School completely espouses the positions and mandates of the Manhattan Declaration. Valley Christian School believes in the sanctity of life – the life of the unborn and the life of those individuals that are not “perfect” at whatever age. Valley Christian School believes in religious freedom. Our shear existence is testimony to that. Valley Christian School believes that God ordained marriage is between one man and one woman.

With these foundational premises, Valley Christian School seeks to educate our students and model for our community these Godly values. It is through the clear and thorough Godly education put forth at Valley Christian School that these premises are instilled and solidified in the hearts and minds of the students. As these student graduate and move out into their respective communities, the efforts put forth at Valley Christian School begin to multiply and have greater impact on the culture and the society at large.

I would encourage you to read the entire Manhattan Declaration. Go to manhattandeclaration.org to read and to add your signature to the declaration.

Ron Brace

During and after the Christmas celebrations, many people take some time to look back at year soon to pass recalling the events that have occurred. This recollection can happen on a personal level or it can happen on a corporate level. As the Administrator of Valley Christian School looking back over this past year, it was a year with some major changes and challenges.

Steve Suther, in an article entitled, “Mixed Blessings”, notes that these changes “could be considered blessings in disguise.” Many times, he goes on to state, “challenges… can force you to make decisions you resist in better times.” These decisions, as with any decision, have a risk factor, an unknown component that up until that moment has prevented the decision to be made. On the flip side though, Mr. Suther points out through some examples that there may be some hidden benefits, blessings that may outweigh the perceived and apparent risks involved in making the tough decision.

One of the challenges that Valley Christian School faced this past year was securing a site to operate from for the 2009-10 school year. The facility committee worked for some months looking at a number of potential sites resulting in a dead end. Apprehension and frustration mounted as time pressed on. Resolution finally came when the committee returned to the first site considered for a second look.

The challenges facing the committee in the site selection boiled down to usable space, the price to obtain and get the space to point where it could be used for educational purposes, and the location of the site. Many of the sites that committee looked at had adequate space, but to make the space usable for educational purposes was beyond the available budget, thus eliminating the site from further consideration. Location played in the committee’s actions when it was understood that shifting the location of the school in any one direction too much would place a significant additional travel burden to one or more of the families currently attending Valley Christian School. Our current location has its own set of challenges that day by day we work through.

The benefits and blessings of the challenge of moving Valley Christian School continue to be realized. The first benefit of this challenge was the coming together of the parent body to call upon God Almighty for direction and wisdom. This unity of purpose and dependence upon God continues to be evident in the parent body, students, and staff. The material accumulated for the past 30 years was sorted and organized. Having essentially a thorough “house-cleaning” has been refreshing – like a new start. The new location has forced a re-thinking of the teaching methodology due to the differences in space allocation. This re-thinking called into question those practices that were “sacred cows,” but not necessarily the best for ensuring student educational growth – our ultimate goal. The new site has better curb appeal than the old site. The move also involved moving across a state boundary. This added twist has caused the updating of many of the legal documents for the school which without the move would have not seen much attention.

As Mr. Suther notes, the challenges, the trials that one faces personally or corporately could hold a host of benefits that up to that point were unknown. We know as believers in Christ, God in His infinite wisdom knows what is best for us and what is needed for our timely growth.

Suther, Steve, “Mixed Blessing”, Midwest Ag Journal, December 21, 09

You are invited to attend the Valley Christmas Program at the Valley Christian School on December 17, 2009 at 7pm.  Valley Christian School is located at:

Valley Christian School
661B West Street
Taylors Falls, MN 55084

(651) 465-3333

Valley Christian School Christmas Program
December 17, 2009
7pm

Valley Christian School Christmas Bake Sale is coming soon.  Come join us at Valley Christian School for a Christmas Bake Sale.  Stock up early on a great assortment of holiday goodies, including:

• Cookies
• Pies
• Breads
• Candies
• And much more…

Friday, December 11, 2009 from 3pm to 7pm
Saturday, December 12, 2009 from 8am to 12pm

Valley Christian School
Now Located at:

First Baptist Church
661B West Street
Taylors Falls, MN

Call 651-465-3333

Welcome to Valley Christian School’s new website and blog.  We look forward to connecting with you soon.