Education is a vast and various enterprise. We have public education and private education. Then there’s preschool, elementary school, secondary school, college, and beyond. Education happens in a wide range of schools, institutions, workplaces, studios, community centers, and places of worship.

Education happens within families, whether through the ordinary interactions of family life or intentional homeschooling. More than ever before in history, education takes place technologically as people learn through the Internet and other hi-tech media.

Although one cannot begin to address in detail how the church might engage these vast and various educational contexts, I have asked Mark Roberts to offer a few fundamental biblical commitments that should guide us as we rethink the role of the church in education.

1. We must be committed to God as sovereign over all things.

Scripture repeatedly affirms that God is ‘the great King over all the earth’ (Psalm 47:2).12 God’s sovereign reign includes education, whether done in God’s name or not. As Abraham Kuyper put it so famously, “[T]here is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: “Mine!”’13

This means that all education, including that which happens in public schools and universities, is ultimately under God’s reign. It is God’s business and, therefore, also the business of God’s people.

2. We must be committed to stewarding faithfully the world God has entrusted to us.

In Genesis 1, God creates the world. In the so-called Cultural Mandate (Gen. 1:28), God gives to human beings the unique responsibility of being stewards of creation. Education is an essential element of this stewardship since it enables people to bear fruit while helping the world to flourish as well.

3. We must be committed to the goodness and godliness of teaching.

Those who teach in schools are doing good work, work that honors God and contributes to his purposes. Of course, some teach poorly. But those who strive to teach with excellence, to pass on what is true, and to help students learn well in both content and character are doing godly work. Teaching itself is a good thing and not only a context for evangelism. This goodness extends also to those who support classroom teaching: principals, custodians, special needs aides, etc.

4. We must be committed to being the salt of the earth in the places where education happens.

Jesus told His followers that we are the “salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13). We are not just the salt of our families, churches, and private worlds. Rather, we are salt in and for the world. This means we must be out in the world, in places needing the salt of God’s kingdom.

Surely these places include public schools, secular universities, vocational centers, parent-teacher organizations, and school boards, not to mention YouTube, Facebook, and Coursera. We mustn’t abandon the institutions of this world because they are too ___.

5. We must be committed to the welfare of the place where God has put us.

To the Jews who had been sent from Judah into exile in Babylon, the Lord said, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jer. 29:7 NIV). The Hebrew behind “peace and prosperity” is shalom, a word often translated as “peace.” But shalom is much more than the absence of war. It implies prosperity, justice, and flourishing.

Though our churches may not have been literally sent from one place to another, God has placed us in a particular location, a distinctive neighborhood, city, or town, so that we might seek its ‘peace and prosperity.’ One of the main ways we do this is through contributing to the education of children in the place God has placed us.

6. We must be committed to justice for the poor through education.

Proverbs 29:7 states that “the righteous care about justice for the poor.” God calls His people to “lose the chains of injustice” (Isa. 58:6). Through education, we break the bonds of injustice, empowering people to flourish and live into their God-given responsibility as stewards of creation.

7. We must be committed to those among us who invest their lives in education.

Not all of us will be professional educators. Some are called to be teachers, administrators, and counselors. Most are not. But because we are the body of Christ together, we will show tangible care and concern for those whose work is education.

We will rejoice when they rejoice and weep when they weep. We will support them with prayer and expressions of love. We will be their advocates, helping them flourish in one of the most challenging (and often underpaid) professions.

8. We must be committed to speaking the truth in love.

Though the command in Ephesians 4:15 to speak the truth in love addresses Christians in community, it also informs the church’s role in education. As followers of the one who is the Truth (John 14:6), we will seek and uphold the truth in every sector of life, including history, biology, psychology, film studies, economics, and literature. We will do this, not with arrogance, but with a posture of loving servant-hood.

The church will fulfill its rightful role in education when it seeks above all to love children, teachers, administrators, and neighbors. Love for the poor and oppressed will be expressed through empowering education. The church will come to love not just the people educating and being educated, but also the institutions that educate. Such love is not boosterism. Rather, it comes from Christ-like love, grounded in the truth, as the church plays its rightful role as steward of God’s creation.

An Excerpt from the book, “Church for Monday” by Dr. Svetlana Papazov.

Svetlana Papazov is Lead Pastor and Founder of Real Life Church, President/Founder of Real Life Center for Entrepreneurial and Leadership Excellence, a first of its kind model of church and business incubator that educates in entrepreneurship, leadership and faith praxis.