What Commitment to Christian Education Looks Like

By Ron Gordon

The year was 1970. High school sweethearts from working-class families, they took the plunge to commit their lives to one another. They had no savings accounts, no college degrees, and no tangible assets. They jumped into a rental agreement for a small, rural home. Only 20 years old, he had secured a job delivering Coca-Cola products. Fresh out of high school and just 18 years old, she started working in a clerical position at a local hospital. Before they could celebrate their first anniversary, a baby boy arrived.

A few short years later, it was time to enroll their son in the first grade. The youngest child in each of their families, they and their combined nine siblings had all attended local public schools, and their collective fifteen children were automatically sent to public schools as well. Still scraping by to make ends meet, this couple didn’t have enough income to consider any other educational options for their son, or did they?

While they were raised in Christian homes, there was never any parental push or familial encouragement to consider Christian education. Along with a few other couples in their “young couples” Sunday school class, they sensed a firm conviction to consider Christian education. There weren’t many options, and homeschooling wasn’t even on their radar at that point. The only Christian school available was a 45-minute drive with traffic, and it had just been launched a few years earlier. Nonetheless, they committed to making Christian education a requirement for their young son and sacrificed as needed to make this a reality.

This was truly a commitment, not mere interest. Interest will yield to fluctuating circumstances based on convenience and ultimately yield only fleeting results. Clarity of purpose leads to a courageous commitment to fight obstacles, challenges, and difficulties to ensure lasting impact. However, maintaining too many commitments or priorities prevents us from accomplishing anything substantial. This couple saw Christian education at its right level of importance. It was THE priority.

The word “priority” came into the English language in the 1400s with the original meaning of the “very first or prior thing.”¹ For 500 years, the term had been singular in meaning until it started being used in a plural form in the 1900s.² There was only one priority. This terminology shift reflects our Western culture’s obsession with tackling more, achieving more, and ultimately diluting our focus. When we have too many objectives or “priorities,” we set ourselves up for failure.

They couldn’t have known the level of impact that decision would have, not only on their son but on the generations to follow. No one called it biblical worldview education back then, but that’s precisely what they were shaping in their son. They were committed to raising their son in a home where mom, dad, and grandma taught biblical principles, in a church that preached from the Bible, and in a school firmly grounded in the Word of God.

This intentional cultivation generated a soul fertile for receiving the truth of Scripture. He was certainly far from perfect and would face the same struggles common to everyone around him: a desire for accomplishment and praise, the rewards promised by pursuing the “American dream,” and the lusts of youth (see 1 John 2:16). Yet, throughout his life, he would respond in ways that were often different than most of those around him. His confidence was rooted in his resolute faith that his Savior was working all things for his good, which may or may not be realized in the brevity of his earthly life.

This commitment, this priority, was the greatest investment that couple could have made in their son’s future. How do I know this? I am their son. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for your eternal investment in me. Your grandchildren and undoubtedly your great-grandchildren will also reap heavenly rewards from the path you chose.

Ron Gordon leads the REAP Division and has shepherded dozens of Christian school launches and renewal efforts over the past decade. Before joining RenewaNation, Ron spent 23 years in the corporate world, leading manufacturing organizations, mainly in the Defense sector. Ron and his wife, Tonya, are passionate about developing Kingdom stewards for the next generation. They have been married for 30 years and are blessed with three children: twin sons, Caleb and Jacob, and a daughter, Kate.

Endnotes:

1. McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (2022), 16.

2. Ibid.