Saturday, January 3, 2009

Is Your Christian Institution Christian?

There is a lot of pressure on Christian institutions to be "successful" in a secular sense.

I recently drove by a large local church and school with a nearby playing field. A large sign (bigger than the church's sign) welcomed all to the "Home of the Seahawks". It made me wonder about the priorities of that school. Was this really a Christian school or a school that happened to be run by Christians?

A few minutes ago I randomly googled the word "adventist". (Short term for the "Seventh-Day Adventist" denomination to which I belong) High in the results list was the web site of the university I attended. This was no accident. For years the leadership of the school has successfully resisted sliding into a secular definition of success. The results for the University and the church have been markedly successful as the school has spawned large numbers of missionaries and church workers.

As Christians we must make certain to identify success by our religious mission and not be distracted by the identities of the world. Otherwise we risk becoming shabby clones of what the world already offers.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with trying to improve the world you live in, rather than attempt to build your own separate world?

Tim Faulted said...

What in scripture causes you to think any institution other than the church can be "Christian" rather than just run by Christians. The word Christian is a noun not an adjective to be flippantly applied to whatever we want (ex: Christian music, Christian school, etc)