Philosophy of Christian Education:
Every Christian’s Responsibility
In last summer’s “Get-to-Know-Dr. Sutton” series, we released a piece about his approach to Christian higher education and featured two points of his 12-point educational philosophy. This semester we will highlight the other ten principles that Dr. Sutton believes should drive Christian education at the classroom level.
Dr. Sutton’s sixth principle of Christian education is pointed and simple: The Christian educator should acknowledge that education is every Christian’s responsibility.
Of this principle, Dr. Sutton writes, “Many Christian education scholars consider the foundational biblical passage for Christian education to be Deuteronomy 6:4-9:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Implied in this passage is that godly instruction does not automatically transfer from one generation to the next. It must be intentionally communicated with vigor and care, and the text leaves no room to suggest that only certain people communicate that instruction. At Warner University, this reality means that staff members from all departments join the faculty in communicating and promoting biblical truth—and we hope that parents of our future graduates join us in this work as well.”
