Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

earth."sermon."stakes."education."Cords and StakesBy Henry J. Evenhousefrom The Banner of July 16. Used byspecial permission.. . . lengthenthy cords, and strengthen thystakes. Isaiah 54 :2MisconceptionThere is a popular misconception current amongsome of our people which ought to be corrected.There are those who contend earnestly for Christianeducation but are rather indifferent towards missions. On the other hand, we find those who go allout for missions but remain cool toward Christianeducation. This misconception carries through to thepoint that we have ministers who become identifiedin the church as being either "school-minded" or"mission-minded,"as though it were possible to havea divorce in loyalties between two proper and legitimate functions of the Kingdom of Christ.About a year ago, wnen traveling through theWest on the Women's Missionary Union tour, I metMr. J. Christian Lobbes, one of the lay preachers ofthe Christian Reformed Church. Since he is a schoolteacher and has long been recognized as a zealousproponent of Christian education, I asked him whether at times he also preached a "missionHe replied that he certainly did try to do justice tothe cause of missions in his preaching and did soby preaching on the words of Isaiah 54:2: "...lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy Itwas his contention, and he was. altogether right,that the Christian school movement and the causeof missions are not two separate programs. Bothbelong to the Kingdom of God, and neither may beconceived of as isolated from the other.ExtensionThe text from Isaiah brings out that point mostbeautifully. The cause of the Lord must be wellstaked down on the home front, but there must bea range of vision that reaches far beyond that homebase. Tspjah, m exhorting the people of his day, reminded them that their seed would inherit the Gentiles, and also that the God who is their Maker is "theGod of the whole Just as a tent must be wellstaked down, so the Lord's cause must be well stakeddown. Otherwise the winds and the gale will comeand upset and destroy. On the other hand, theremust be the extending of the cords. This means thatas the cords of the tent are stretched out to covermore ground, so also the vision of the Kingdom mustbe suc^ that the people will see beyond the limits oftheir own national boundaries. However, if the cordsare to be extended the stakes will have to be madesecurA.This calls for reflection on our own Churchsituation with reference to the interest and loyaltiesmanifest towards both Christian education and missions. When conducting worship in one of our congregations recently I preached a sermon in which thecauseof missions received rather pronounced attention. After the service, one of the elders commentedwith the words: "Missions are all right, but in thischurch we are strong on Christian Itwould not be difficult to find others within the344r Church who would make an equally erroneous comment if a sermon were preached on the importanceof Christian education. Such a one might say: "Don'tcarry that Christian education business too far." Thefact is that there are those who have loyalties foreither Christian education or for missions, but havetogether andfailed to realize that the two belongare inseparable.. EducationChristian education is one of the great spiritualblessings which the Lord has given to us as a Church.For this heritage we cannot be thankful enough.Our Christian school system is, in the opinion ofmany,the secret of our ecclesiastical strength.Having learned of our school system, many orthodoxChristian churches have sought to establish theirown Christian schools. This fact ought to sharpenour own appreciation of what we do have. But thestrange fact is that whilemanyhave conceived oftheir Christian schools as having very importantlocal value they have not thought of them as havingreference to the entire world, and as being importantfor the whole earth. Certainly a strong Christianschool should be a bulwark for building a solid homechurch. History bears out the sad fact that manychurches which have been busy bringing in thesheaves from foreign fields have at the same timelost the harvest right at home. In such instancesthe fault lies not in doing mission work, but in thedereliction of the home front. It does not follow,however, that because some have erred in one direction that therefore the extreme in the opposite direction is right. It is also possible to err in the extreme towards Christian education. A pronouncedemphasis on Christian education without a healthymission attitude also works havoc, but in its ownway. The proper balance must be maintained.MotivesIn reflecting on the driving motives behindour Christian school supporters, I find that therehave been two which have been very prominent whilea necessary third one has often been sadly missing.First, there has been the motive to build well thelocal church and Christian community. A Christianschool can certainly work towards this goal and bea medium for really strengthening the stakes.Second, there has been the important emphasis, oftenthought to be Calvinistic emphasis, to prepare youngpeople to live for Christ in any vocation of life.This, too, has been significant, and has undoubtedlybeen the occasion of preparing for our churches andour Christian communities many a professional person whose training and influence has been contributory to the coming of the Kingdom of God. Athird aim should be the development of a missionaryconcern operating throughout our entire educationalsystem and giving to the scholars a rich awarenessof the universal significance of the Christian message, giving them a stirring sense of urgency to getthis message to the ends of the earth, and supply-COVENANTER WITNESS