All Articles For The Christian Story and the Christian School

Miss Lubbers is a member of First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan and administrator of Eastside Christian School. (Preceding article in series: June 2003, p. 398.) With this article we bring to a conclusion the discussion of the narrative approach in Reformed Christian education. The defense and development of an understanding of the narrative approach is the burden of the book The Christian Story and the Christian School, Christian Schools International, 1993, by Dr. John Bolt. In this book Dr. Bolt contends that the problems in Christian schools arising from contemporary education and our culture could be addressed...

Miss Lubbers is a member of First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan and administrator of Eastside Christian School. This article continues a series of articles that have identified the narrative approach as one in which the Christian school through its teachers must tell a specific and distinctive story. The story, rooted in the correct source, must reflect the truth of the inspired Scriptures as summarized in the creeds of the Christian church. Dr. Bolt defends the narrative approach in The Christian Story and the Christian School and argues that “a concept of narrative could help resolve some of...

Miss Lubbers is a member of First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan and administrator of Eastside Christian School. Two previous articles have traced the argument of Dr. John Bolt in the book The Christian Story and the Christian School, respecting the crisis in public education and the attempted educational reforms in public education since the 1930s. Included were descriptions of the symptoms and the proposed solutions during the 1990s, plus a section devoted to an answer to the question, what is really wrong with public education? It is imperative for Christian educators, supporters, and parents to understand the developments...

Miss Lubbers is a member of First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan and administrator of Eastside Christian School. In the first article on this topic we made a start in attempting to understand the narrative approach to Reformed Christian education proposed by Dr. Bolt. We identified the narrative approach as one in which the Christian school, through its teachers, must tell a story. The story is about God and His children—a story that includes the Christian school because the school serves the mission of God and His people. It is the story of the triune God’s mission—commissioned by...

Miss Lubbers is a member of First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan and administrator of Eastside Christian School. The Christian faith is a gift of God that in a very real sense is a story—the true story of the triune God and His people. Thinking about Christian education in narrative terms or in terms of the Christian story causes one to ask the question, how does the Christian school fit into the story of God and His people, and the question really becomes, how does the Christian school serve the mission of God. The story of God and...