People Without Conviction Are Boring

One of the things we are working on within our staff is a systematic method for teaching our children the basic principles of our faith.  Our goal is that all of our kids will benefit from a comprehensive approach to teaching doctrine.  We want it to be interesting, fun, engaging, but most importantly - effective.

Our desire is that from the time a child enters our Preschool to the time they leave our High School that they will have developed over time a strong understanding of the most important tenants of Christianity.   And that they will be able to articulate not just what they believe but the reasons for that belief.

We really don't see that anything we do is any more important than passing down our faith to the next generation.

This is why we are so big on drilling down on our "24 Essentials"- those 24 basic beliefs that we see as being central to Christian life and doctrine.

Why is this so important?  The simple answer to this is that we believe that one of the biggest problems people have in an increasingly secular humanist and multi-cultural society is that they don't know how to distinguish their belief from competing world views and don't know why they believe what they believe.  In other words, they don't have a strong "epistemology"- the study of knowledge. 

To not have this kind of foundation in faith can be devastating to a young person who goes off to college and enters an environment in which all of his or her core beliefs are challenged relentlessly and without shame.  Many young people who were raised in good solid Christian homes nevertheless leave those homes ill prepared for the epistemological warfare they will engage in within the academic jungle of higher learning.

We see it as our role to join in with parents to help equip our kids with not just knowledge but with a good ability to look beneath the surface of belief and to answer questions like, "What are the core reasons for my belief?", or  "Why do I believe the Bible is true?", or "Why do I believe there is only one way to heaven?"

We don't just want to be good at dispensing knowledge in other words, but also in teaching the philosophy of knowledge.   Because after all, if the question of why I believe is never contemplated and if there is not a solid basis laying beneath my core belief, then the human heart is dangerously exposed  to what the Bible calls "wavering doubt". 

But there is another compelling reason for a person to have a good epistemology- and that is that people who don't have conviction about things are just plain boring.

This is humorously illustrated in the video below: 


Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.