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The following is a question that came in from parents considering Cornerstone for their family and answered by Sharon Cannavo, founder of Cornerstone Community School and Training Hearts for Jesus parenting ministry. It is lengthy, but these questions are asked so frequently, we felt it was valuable to add to this page. We hope it will help answer your questions:
When placing our children at CCS, will we be be putting them in a 'bubble" where they don't know how to conduct themselves in secular or every day settings, and other than praying for your kids and being diligent to teach and discipline them Biblically, is there anything else you did to help your kids "own" their Christianity?
I heard once, that when a banker is trained, they do not give him counterfeit money but have him work with the real thing over and over and over until he immediately knows when something is not the real thing as soon as he touches it. As Mario and I have trained our children through the years and come along side so many parents over the past fifteen years, we have seen that this theory is very effective when training young hearts to know the Lord. Training them in their formative years with what is true, over and over and over, has given our children an uncanny ability to recognize what is false as soon as they are faced with it. When our oldest son started taking classes in college, under the instruction of nonbelievers for the first time in his educational life, he immediately came home laughing at the absurd declarations from the teacher as he taught from a worldly perspective. Though he knew that people believed such things as he had been taught through his Christian education about evolution and the beliefs of the non-Christian world, but to actually hear a college teacher expound on these theories as if they were fact, was humorous to him, because he had been raised on the wisdom of God's Word. I do not believe that his faith will be shaken through the years (tested, yes, shaken, no). He is a believer, baptized at age 18 (when he, without the influence of his parents, made the decision to be baptized), and is morally mature enough to know what is Truth and know what is counterfeit.
Do you know that it is reported that 86% of all kids who have been attending youth groups throughout their pre-adult lives, leave the church in their 20's and never return. We lose 86% of our Christian youth! That, in my estimation, is absolutely unacceptable! I will give you my theory for why this is happening, but first I want to share with you from a book I am reading.
In Battle Cry for a Generation by Ron Luce, Ron makes a statement that because of the onslaught of lies and moral degradation in the media (books, magazines, video games, movies, TV, billboards, storefronts, etc), children of Christian families may be drinking from the fountain of Truth via Mom and Dad teaching them Christian doctrine (if they are), Sunday school, Christian music, etc..., but according to Ron, they are being fire hosed with the world's lies. How can they sip from a fountain and not be radically influenced and confused as they are being fire hosed??? From my experiences, I believe Ron hit the nail on the head. The only way to battle what the world is doing at this time is to work hard to reduce the pressure of the fire hose (which, by the way, by law is all they will receive in a public educational institution) being careful to monitor the onslaught of media, and increase the water pressure of the fountain. The worse the world gets, the harder Christian parents are going to have to work to keep their children focused on the Lord. The world is getting worse by the day.
At CCS we do not isolate our children, we insulate. We keep them submerged in Truth and the reality of that Truth as it is played out in our homes, our classrooms and our playground, so that they know how God's Word relates to every circumstance they face in their lives now, and in their future. We are the only school that I know of that deals with all issues when they are in conflict to Matthew 22:37-39. Most Christian school authorities see these behaviors as typical childhood phases and don't hold the children accountable by holding these behaviors up to the Truth of Matthew 22:37-39. All day, every day, these children are learning, memorizing and studying God's Word in Bible class, but on the playground they are discovering that what they learned in Bible class has nothing to do with what happens in real life (which is what recess is to our children...real life). As we place our children in a typical Christian school, we are potentially promoting a hardened heart towards God's Word. Hear it, memorize it, but don't practice it. In our youth groups, we find that kids are engaging in drinking, drugs and sexual behavior, just like the world, because they are learning that God's Word has nothing to do with their behavior. Bingo...why be a Christian, if it has nothing to do with real life? that is why we are loosing our youth as they reach their twenties and as they begin to be challenged by the brilliant professors standing before them in their college classrooms. Many of those parents might have thought that placing their children in a public school setting would give them the opportunity to be witnesses for Christ, but could we adults be up for such a challenge in such a hostile setting? I seriously believe, even with all my convictions, if I were in that setting day in and day out, I would compromise. Maybe only a little in the beginning, but eventually more and more until I blended in with all the other non-believers. I know some kids manage to do well. They get into Christian groups (self-submersion in a Christian environment, attempting to monitor their own fire hose) and learn to be witnesses on their school campuses, but most children don't manage well, and are influenced by the world's ways. That is a very large burden to put on a child's shoulders, before they are ready for it. Mario and my feelings are, let's first train and equip and spiritually strengthen our children to be strong Christians that know what it is to be obedient to God's Word, so that when they are adults, then they can effectively witness and lead others to Christ. And, that's not to say, that our children at CCS don't have opportunities to be witnesses. They are actually very strong witnesses through their respect and obedience to their parents and authorities, their respect for their peers and their respect for the property of others. They are also given back childhood, when the rest of the world is stripping children from their childhood by exposing them to immoral subjects before it is necessary for them to deal with them. I won't even begin speaking of the blatant desensitization that our school system is doing in the minds of children which is in direct violation of what God's Word declares to be sin.
Ultimately, we don't save our children. That is the work of the Holy Spirit, by grace through faith. But, as Christians, God tells us in Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
We are to teach them Scripture when we rise up and lay down, when we are in our homes and walking along the road. Basically teaching how God's Word applies to their every day events. How can we do that when our children spend approximately 35 awake hours of their week under the authority of those that will not do that. If we are faithful to follow this instruction, our children will be equipped, ready to receive the drawing of the Holy Spirit to a commitment of submission to Christ. That's the only work we can do to assist in their salvation. The importance of learning parenting through THfJ is that it encourages parents to train their children based on the Truth, not the circumstances in their lives. This is how our kids are equipped to understand how to be under God's authority when they are old enough to be out from under our authority and to truly make that commitment of obedience to Christ. It is a natural transition from our authority to God's authority. That's the goal!