Christian education is the application of Law and Gospel to all aspects of life and learning.
We believe that second only to the Christian home, the Christian day school is the MOST effective education agency available to the church for equipping children for a life of service to God.
The Christian day school assists the church in fulfilling the five functions of a Christian congregation: education, worship, evangelism, fellowship, and service.
1. Education: Classical education is an education in the liberal arts and is the most effective educational model known. The Bible is the primary textbook in a classical school. There are no secular subjects in the Christian day school. Every subject is taught from a Biblical worldview.
2. Worship: Worship is a foretaste of heaven on earth. School-wide formal worship following the Order of Matins is shared once a week. School-wide morning devotions are shared four times a week. Worship expresses back to God what He has said to us.
3. Evangelism: The Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ alone is God’s message to all people through the Christian’s proclamation. At school, children are encouraged to profess their Faith in their only Savior from sin, death, and the devil.
4. Christian Fellowship: We expect students and staff to accept each other as fellow members of the Body of Christ as they work, play, support, and encourage each other.
5. Service: The Holy Spirit leads each Christian in Christ-like compassion and acts of loving service. The school facilitates these acts through visits to the nursing home, sending letters to servicemen, in-house service projects, and the like.
– Dr. Martin Luther
This We Believe, Teach, and Confess
With the whole Christian Church throughout all ages, we worship the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – three distinct persons in one divine being, coequal and coeternal. The Father created all that exists and continually sustains His creation and provides for His creatures. Jesus Christ, the Son, became a human, was born of a virgin, and suffered and died for the sins of all people. His resurrection to life again on that first Easter Sunday was the sign of His ultimate victory over sin, death, and Satan. The Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son, creates and sustains faith through God’s Word and sacraments. This Trinity is the one and only True God. (Deuteronomy 6:4, Matthew 28:19, 1 Corinthians 8:4, 2 Corinthians 13:14.)
Our teachings can be summed up in one phrase: Grace alone, Faith alone, Scripture alone.
Grace Alone: God created a perfect world and two people, Adam and Eve, without sin. When they in pride disobeyed God’s command they brought death and corruption to all of mankind and all of creation. (Genesis 1-3). Consequently, all people are sinners, accountable from birth for the sin they are born in and the sins they commit, and the wages of that sin is death. (John 3:5-6, Romans 3:9-10, Romans 6:23) None of us are righteous and none of us deserve God’s kindness, (Romans 3:10—18) but God, in His mercy, sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to save the lost. We are chosen by Him, not out of merit, but solely out of grace.
Faith Alone: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, true God and true man, lived a sinless life in our stead. (Galatians 4:4– 5) On the cross took upon Himself the sins of the world, made full payment for them, and won forgiveness for all. (Isaiah 53:4—5, John 1:1—14, Romans 5:19, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24) All those who believe in Him will receive eternal life. (John 3:16) This life is a gift of God. We cannot earn it by performing good works or living our lives in a certain way. It comes only through faith in Christ. (Romans 5:6-8, Romans 3:23-24, Ephesians 2:8-9)
Scripture Alone: The Bible is the Word of God. By this we mean that God the Holy Spirit gave to His chosen writers the words they were to write, thus making the Bible God’s own Word and the Truth, without error. This applies to everything written in Scriptures. It is thus the sole rule and norm for all our doctrine. (2 Peter 1:21, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 1 Corinthians 2:13) Jesus, the Savior of the world, is the heart and center of the Holy Scriptures. Through this Word, the Holy Spirit brings forth faith. (John 5:39, John 20:31, Acts 10:43, Romans 10:17, 2 Timothy 3:15)
Jesus graciously comes to us today through His Word and the Sacraments.
In the waters of baptism we are washed clean— our sins are forgiven, and the Holy Spirit bestows on us the gift of faith. This is entirely the work of God and not our own. We baptize infants, for they are also in need of God’s grace and forgiveness, and are able to believe through the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 29:19—20, Acts 2:38—39, Romans 6:3, 5, Galatians 3:27)
In the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion, our Lord invites us to His table. We believe that when Jesus said, “Take, eat, this is my body,,,” and “Take, drink, this is my blood,,,” He meant what He said. When the Pastor says the words of institution, as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and in 1 Corinthians, the bread and the wine are no longer just bread and wine but also the body and blood or our Lord Jesus Christ, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:26—28, Mark 14:22—24, Luke 22:19—20, 1 Corinthians 11:17—33)
These sacraments are God’s gift to His people. He gives, and we thankfully and passively receive.