Education And The Gospel

In this hard-hitting history of "the gospel of education," W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson reveal the allure, and the fallacy, of the longstanding American faith that more schooling for more people is the remedy for all our social and economic problems--and that the central purpose of education is workplace preparation. But do increasing levels of education accurately represent the demands of today's jobs? Grubb and Lazerson argue that the abilities developed in schools and universities and the competencies required in work are often mismatched--since many Americans are under-educated for serious work while at least a third are over-educated for the jobs they hold. The ongoing race for personal advancement and the focus on worker preparation have squeezed out civic education and learning for its own sake. Paradoxically, the focus on schooling as a mechanism of equity has reinforced social inequality. The challenge now, the authors show, is to create environments for learning that incorporate both economic and civic goals, and to prevent the further descent of education into a preoccupation with narrow work skills and empty credentials.

Christian education has all but disappeared from the majority of educational systems around the world. As governments limit or banish God from among our schools in the name of "separation of church and state," we find the very foundation upon which many schools began disintegrating before our eyes. This is not a new problem. Over the centuries people have had the same concern of what is true education and the place of religion in the educational system. Among these were the newly devoted Christians arising from the Great Advent movement sweeping North America during the 18th and 19th century. Author Alonzo T. Jones, an important figure in Great Advent movement, felt that Christians should take a solid look at the educational systems of that day. Jones believed that true Christian education was the only becoming choice to Christians. In The Place of the Bible in Education, he outlines according to the Bible what exactly Christian education looks like. He also explores the true meaning of the separation between church and state and how Christian education does not fall under such discrimination. In this book, he discusses how secular education falls short of even the true meaning of education and how this has an adverse affect on our young people. Jones shows how there is a Biblical precedent for true education and how the Bible should and can become part of the educational system.

Teaching Like Jesus is a handbook for Christian education in local churches that applies Jesus' methods to make the Bible culturally relevant for today.

In this transformative resource for youth workers, children's ministry teachers, parents, and VBS volunteers, Jack Klumpenhower teaches how to discover the gospel connections in every Bible story. Show Them Jesus is an instruction manual for teachers of kids and teens written by a lay Bible teacher with thirty years of experience. With a simple framework and real-life examples, Jack helps teachers identify and communicate the heart of the gospel to each child in each lesson. Show Them Jesus challenges the culture of low-stakes, low-expectations teaching and invites teachers to do nothing less than teach and treasure the good news of Jesus—in every lesson. Instead of leaving kids with lessons about changing their behavior, Show Them Jesus offers a new way by sweetly, masterfully, and powerfully showing kids how the gospel really applies to their lives and changes them for eternity. In sharing example after example from his years of experience, Jack provides readers with a more enriched view of Jesus and how to teach this gospel perspective in a classroom setting. This life-changing tool will complement and enrich existing lessons or teaching materials, and it's appropriate for teachers of children and teens in any setting. Millions of church kids are growing up and deciding to leave the church. If we are not primarily teaching our kids about God's love for us in Christ, we may miss our opportunity to capture their hearts. Don't miss your opportunity to show them Jesus.

A refreshing truth-over-technique call to small group leaders and Sunday school teachers to stay focused on continually reintroducing people to Jesus whose life and death changes everything.

"In Worldviews and Christian Education, editors W.A. Shipton, E. Coetzee, and R. Takeuchi have brought together works by experts in cross-cultural religious education. The authors and editors have a wealth of personal experience in presenting the gospel to individuals with various worldviews that differ greatly from those held by Christians who take the Bible as authoritative. They focus on the beliefs and issues associated with witnessing to seekers for truth coming from backgrounds as diverse and animism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Marxism, Taoism, and postmodernism." -- Back Cover