The Challenge & Significance of Education - Part 2: What Are We Gonna Do About It?

(If you have not read Part 1, please read it first. Scroll down.)

We, the Church, must step up! This has to matter to us. One Teach For America graduate puts it this way, “We’ve all heard a lot of sermons preached about our God, who is a God of justice. “The Lord works righteousness and justice for the oppressed (Psalm 103:6).” If we want to know and serve God, we must be willing to act on His desire and mandate for justice. Education is key to justice for many children in low income communities; it’s key to restoring peace and ending discrimination…it is key to helping all children have the change to live free and productive lives (Pearl Esau -Los Angeles, Teach For America)."

A Harvard professor offers this challenge...

“How many effective schools would you have to see to be persuaded of the educability of
poor children?...We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose shooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far.”
-Ronald Edmonds, Harvard University

So how can the Church get involved. In New York City, local pastors have started a movement called Vision 20/20 (http://www.2020schools.net/) that connects local churches with local schools. Today there was a meeting in Chicago to discuss the possibility of starting this here. Consider this...

-There are roughly 700 public schools in Chicago
-There are roughly 7,000 churches in Chicago
-That is 1 school to every 10 churches

So imagine if...

-10 churches would partner with their local school and assist the present administration to create the best environment possible for the students.
-Believers would volunteer a couple of hours a week to read to a kid, coach a basketball team, paint walls, assist in ACT prep, etc.
-The Church would have the impact on the world that God intends.

This is an incredible opportunity for us to be "salt & light" - Matthew 5:13-16. We have got to work on developing more of a "life on life lifestyle" in which the ministry involvement described above is just something we do. If I could quote Pastor Vincent from an earlier post, "This is what the Church does. This is what we do as Christians."

Amen?