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A Christ-Centered Education

Paul Fisher, Headmaster

In our last newsletter, we explored the importance of our Capstone Community Covenant as a mutual commitment made between the academy and parents. We now begin a series of articles on the principles to which we have mutually committed ourselves in our joint service to your children. The first of our covenant principles is Christ-centered education. The term is often used by Christian schools, so what does it mean at Capstone?

We draw this principle from Colossians 3:15-19, among other biblical passages and observations from great thinkers over the millennia. In Colossians, the apostle Paul writes, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Out of the life and teachings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels of the Bible, we derive a clear vision for virtue and wisdom for not only what we teach but also how we teach it. We learn who Jesus is so that we can administrate, teach, coach, and shepherd our learners in a manner that can be “in the name of the Lord Jesus.” For us, to do something in his name means to be a faithful ambassador for him. Ambassadors must conduct themselves in a manner that reflects the message, character, and intentions of the one they represent. Therefore we expect that Capstone parents will help us to serve as better ambassadors for Christ by helping us to see when our practices do not honor the name of Jesus and by giving thanks with us when they do. 

You also may have noticed in some of our email signatures Paul’s words from Colossians 1:17, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” We believe, as Abraham Kuyper declared in his 1880 speech to mark the opening of The Free University at Amsterdam, “There is not one square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’” Because creation was made through him, life and light are in him alone, and reconciliation and restoration of all that is broken is accomplished through him (John 1, Colossians 1), we view all curriculum, traditions, and human interactions at the academy through Christ-colored lenses. We expect that even when we do not readily see the connection, there is a necessary logical connection to be found between Jesus and the subject or human challenge at hand. 

The possibilities for seeing and knowing Christ more fully through a Capstone education are boundless. Because Jesus is engaged in reconciliation of all things, we look for principles in history that lead to reconciliation between peoples and nations in conflict and see how they are congruent with the life and teaching of Jesus. Because he is intimately involved in his creation, we study science to reveal more of his majesty but also so that we can become better caretakers of his world, which must be precious to him. Because the world is created and sustained by Jesus, we see in Calculus the grandeur of the power of God in the invisible laws that govern physics. Because Jesus met people where they were in life, regardless of their culture and socioeconomic position, we teach writing and speaking with a concern for understanding and serving a diverse array of people well through clear and effective rhetoric. Furthermore, this is done as an act of love for neighbor, fulfilling the greatest command taught by Jesus. Because Jesus said that his food was to do the will of God, we teach our students who struggle to do what is right because they fear they will be starved of pleasure, that they will find fullness by doing right. We want them to enjoy righteous work as a feast rather than a burden.

The Capstone model of education is a reverent one because it places Jesus Christ as the integrating core of learning about the world. We fulfill our mission to engage our students in a rigorous pursuit of what is good, true, and beautiful for the development of wisdom and virtue to God’s glory if and only if we collectively submit our ideas about how to do school to the centrality of Jesus in all things. Every square inch of the Capstone experience is subject to this principle. We ask you to join us in our pursuit to do this more faithfully by praying for this effort and by sharing your observations and ideas with us along the way. 

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