Learning to be Living Witnesses

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.
Always be prepared to give an answer
to everyone who asks you to give the reason
for the hope that you have.
-1 Peter 3:15

For Christian school students and their families, the basic fact of their affiliation with the school can be a conversation starter and the opening of an opportunity to witness to new people we encounter in the general community. Our families have made a commitment that sets them apart in society, creating an immediately noticeable difference that can spark curiosity among others, which can lead in turn to opportunities to share.

With Bible courses being part of our educational program from preschool through high school, we work to equip our students with a scriptural understanding that enables them to, in Peter’s words, “give answer to everyone” when the opportunity arises to testify about their faith.

But by striving to be a school in which Christ is visibly present in all of our activities, whether directly related to scriptural study or not, we also work to equip our students to be living witnesses to God’s good work in all aspects of their lives.

There’s a difference that shows when people come to visit, as related in several of the testimonials on the CSY Web site--like the story of the hospitality our students showed to an opposing basketball team that inadvertently arrived early while a spaghetti dinner was still taking place in the gym, or the comments on the Christian character that our basketball players have demonstrated both on and off the court.

Just as living the Christian life is something that can’t be done on Sunday alone, building in our students the ability to serve as living witnesses isn’t something for Bible class alone. Christian education is a ministry that builds witnessing into the whole life of the whole student, so that through their actions as well as their words they will show themselves to be “a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9).