This is the second installment of a 5-part blog series by CHA Head of School Joseph Torgerson, entitled "Christian Schooling: A Ministry Like No Other."
When you think of the most influential forces that have shaped the world, outside of Jesus himself, what do you think of? Perhaps it’s an idea like democracy, from its birth in Athens to its eventual global influence. Maybe it’s a technological advancement like the computer or the printing press (or if you’re a history nerd like me, maybe it’s the stirrup or the moldboard plow). Maybe it’s a person like Moses or Martin Luther or Genghis Khan.
If you thought of Christian education, I’d be impressed.
In 1995, author Thomas Cahill argued in How the Irish Saved Civilization that monasteries in 6th-8th century Ireland were essential in preserving Western learning as myriad Germanic people conquered and ransacked the rest of Europe. His argument is that Christian education in monasteries, then the centers of Western learning, saved Classical culture in Western Europe. It’s a great read if you like history.
The historical influence of Christian schooling doesn’t stop there. The modern university, founded through the church, proliferated the core concepts in our society today (at least historically) of Truth as objective reality, the common good as a core purpose of learning, and the harmony of reason and faith.
Our nation’s great universities were originally founded as Christian institutions.
Christian schooling has been a massive historical driving force of global literacy and missions.
Truth be told, Christian education has been one of the most powerful forces in shaping the world today.
In the mid-nineteenth century, however, the United States encountered a significant change: public schooling began to replace Christian schooling as the primary means of education through the Common School Movement. Importantly, public schooling remained in many ways broadly Christian. However, that changed substantially in the mid 20th century (think 1960s and 70s) when public schooling experienced a massive shift from nonsectarian Christian to functionally secular.
As a consequence, many Christian schools (like CHA) were founded – and often as a reaction to secularism. Christian schooling was a way to protect kids from an educational environment in which God was not just absent but sometimes intentionally rejected. I believe it’s this sentiment that causes many in my generation (I’m a geriatric millennial) to see Christian schooling as a reactionary movement – a Christian retreat from the public sphere.
But this is 2025. Christian schooling should no longer be a reaction to secularism. That’s very 1985.
The mission of Christian schooling in the US today must be the formation of a coherent vision of human flourishing in the next generation. This is a reclamation of its historical importance. And this is why our mission of “equipping and inspiring lifetime followers of Jesus who love and serve others” exists.
We do not exist because we are running away from secularism. Instead, we have the answer for a floundering world: flourishing lives oriented toward Jesus.
CHA parents are executives and health care workers and business owners and contractors and lawyers who understand what it means to live life within our now-secular society and, through their vocation, to be a light for Christ. We want the same for our students.
...we have the answer for a floundering world: flourishing lives oriented toward Jesus.
Our prayer is that Christian education will, like it has for centuries, shape the world to look more like the Kingdom of God.
With this as our mission, why wouldn’t you send your kids here? We are an excellent school preparing kids for lives of purpose.
And as you think about what ministries might be worth supporting this year through your giving, why not support us in making an impact in the name of Jesus on the world?
—JT
Read the next post in this series
Joe Torgerson (M.Ed., University of Missouri, B.A., Bethel University) serves as Head of School at CHA. Drawing on nine years of high school humanities teaching in addition to nearly a decade of U.S. and international administrative leadership, Joe guides the school with a global perspective rooted in a lifelong commitment to Christian ministry. He is a husband, father of three, and an avid enthusiast of athletics, board games, music, and dim sum.
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