Prayer in School
Today I opened my Facebook page and had an invite to join somebody’s cause. You know what I’m talking about, there is a little side menu that tells you that somebody wants to be your friend, suggest you become friends with someone, invite you to an event, give you a cow from Farmville, load you down with some grenades in Mafia Wars, show you their score in Farkle…the list goes on and on.
This particular cause has been one that I’ve received a lot lately. Maybe because I’m a Youth Pastor and the sender of such cause invites assumes that I believe in their petition. The cause: Put prayer back in school.
Put prayer back in school!
The heart of the sender is good and they deeply believe in the cause. But, I sometimes fear that we expect too much out of government institutions (such as public schools). In a public school, in one classroom, you can range from born-again Christians to Muslims, atheists to agnostics. Do we really want to impose our prayer time on them?
But really, this only scratches the surface of the issue. This issue is intrinsically tied to the Ten Commandments debacle and the call to bring God back into the public sectors of our nation. We fear that “In God We Trust” has been removed from coins. Politicians aren’t getting sworn in on a Bible.
The madness stems from this misunderstanding that somehow the United States is a Christian nation. Nothing could be further from the truth. The U.S. wasn’t even founded as a Christian nation. Our founding documents show great influence of the Enlightenment and seek to separate, as much as possible, the state from the Church. We live in a highly secular, skeptical society. Plain and simple folks, our culture is open to spirituality but it is not ideologically Christian.
But really, the issue even goes deeper than that. We followers of Jesus have failed to recognize the most basic principle of theology. Upon acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment to Him as our Lord and Savior, we were indwelt with the Holy Spirit. Think how crazy that is for a moment…God lives in us!
So, when a student goes to school, the following Scriptures are lived out:
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Romans 8:9-11, NIV)
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? (1 Corinthians 6:19)
We do not need the government to sanction out a space for God to be present in schools. Governments are of this world. This world will continue to be the fallen mess that it is. Our job is to be the light of hope, love and grace. We are to bring renaissance and renewal to public sectors like schools. We do not wait around for a law or an amendment to put back up our sacred items or carve out sacred space for us.
When students walk into schools, this is what should be happening
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23, NIV)
These fruits should be exemplified in all our lives. As the Holy Spirit takes dominion, judgmental attitudes, meanness, bitterness, narcissism, anger, hatred, gossip, demanding things to be my way…all of these things should be purged out of us. As the old self flakes away, what is born is a life of love, a spirit of joy, a presence of peace, an attitude of patience, an outlook of kindness, a modeling of goodness, a call to faithfulness, a reputation of gentleness, and a commitment to self-control.
Attention Christians in America: the difficulties we face are not because prayer is out of school. It’s not because Barack Obama is president. It’s not because of our secular culture even. Our world is programmed into sin…it knows no difference. We cannot keep expecting the world to act like the Church. Furthermore, the Church needs to stop acting like the world!
What this world needs to know is what we, as Christians, are for and not always what we’re against. Prayer in school should be happening because the people of God are there. God’s presence in school should be evident because the followers of Jesus there are shaped by Him and model Him to those around them.
It is time to allow this hope of Christendom to die. We need to stop propping up these relics of putting prayer in school and hanging the Ten Commandments. We need to stop hiding behind statements, government wish lists, bullying, and being sin detectives in the world around us. We need to instead pick up our role laid out in Romans 8:
18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:18-25, NIV)
If we want prayer back in school, maybe we should begin developing a life of prayer becoming more and more aware of His presence. If you want the Ten Commandments in public places, maybe we need to live lives shaped by their virtues. If we want God back in schools, maybe we need to A) exhibit the fruits of His Spirit in the schools and B) grab hold of His purposes outlined above each and every school day!
Remember: God is in school when His people show up!
Tags: America, cause, Christ, Christian, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, mafia wars, Prayer, school, the Holy Spirit, U.S., United States
Right on Barney. Along the same lines Dave Sherwood had a post about the death of Christendom…of which this type of thing is a manifestation. Good stuff.