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How can your church easily minister and help?
Children who attend public school are provided with a venue for sports, activities, etc – provided by tax money. However, that comes with a high price: the absence of God. Regardless of how you spin it, the “separation of church and state” has come to mean that God is not at the foundation of public education, even if there are yet a few places where He can be mentioned now and then.
But Christian homeschoolers are different. They want to bring education back under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They desire to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That should be a desire that your church can get behind!
Christian homeschoolers are home-based. But that means there’s nowhere for larger support group meetings, testing facilities, or sports activities. And that’s where you can easily bridge the gap by providing your church building and/or property for those needs.
But you can do more than that very easily! Just by understanding that they are trying to do something very Biblical, you can offset the constant discouragement foisted upon these parents by the culture – that they can’t do this, that their kids won’t be socialized, etc. Homeschooling actually works very well. If you, as pastoral staff, realize what the fruit of home education is, you can undergird (cheer) these parents as they fulfill God’s calling on their lives. That kind of support is invaluable!
So, 1. Offer your facility for their activities.
2. Speak positively about what they’re doing.
Want to do more?
- We’ve prepared a brief, free workbook that walks parents through God’s Word on the subject. You can get a copy absolutely free right here! Feel free to use that resource to host a Bible study for parents. With minimal preparation, you can help parents consider what is best in training their children. By hosting this class every 2-5 years, you can not only solidify the concepts, but you can continually reach the new crop of parents.
- Host CHEWV’s Homeschool 101 class each summer or fall. We can provide a 2-hour workshop about the nuts and bolts of home education. We start with what the WV law requires in order to homeschool. Then we follow up with practical aspects – how to find curriculum, ideas for planning the school day, etc. This can be valuable for your own church congregation, but also be an outreach opportunity if you open it up to the community.
- Organize sports activities. Unfortunately, sports can spoil a good parent’s openness to home discipleship. By sponsoring a basketball league, 5k training, track opportunities, or even Ultimate Frisbee group sports, you can offset this felt need and help parents, especially fathers, transition to things which are vastly more important than physical training. Plus, this is another outreach opportunity! If you have a gym of any sort, this is easy peasy! But even without one, there are many ways to make this happen.
- Host a test center each spring. Homeschoolers are required to have an annual assessment. One option is to take a nationally normed standardized test and you could provide a local facility as well as test administrators. Contact testing@chewv.org for more information.
- Start a homeschool library. If you have available wall space, invest in a bookshelf and start a curriculum-sharing resource library. Homeschoolers tend to be sharers, and they quickly graduate from curriculum – that can then be helpful to someone else. This, too, is an easy peasy way to minister. If you have a bit more space, provide reading books that are vetted for content. This could be a blessing to your entire congregation! Add a few chairs and open it up for “reading time” or “family library hours.” For homeschoolers, this can be during the daytime hours when you’re in the building anyway!
- Host family movie nights. Chances are you’re equipped with a good AV system. Host family-friendly movie nights once a month to develop healthy fellowship time. Kendrick Brother films are a great start, but there are many possibilities. Contact chewv@chewv.org for ideas. Better yet, enlist one of your trusted homeschool families to head this up.
- Become aware of key curriculum choices. CHEWV can teach you! Financial concerns can become a deterrent to Christian education, but it needn’t be! Free (but excellent) resources are available and we can show parents how to use them. Online Christian curriculum starts at only $260 per year per family. Your sharing library can further make curriculum affordable. CHEWV would love to discuss the possibilities with your pastoral staff!
- And last, but certainly not least, pray. Pray for your homeschooling families. Pray for those parents who are not giving their kids a Christian education. Pray for what God wants you and your church to do. Prayer makes a difference!
Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
Find the statistics.
Statistic sources are embedded below. But first, have you ever considered…
Many churches lament that their congregations are becoming older and older. Have you ever considered that this happens because we lose our children?
If you have, you may have been tempted to believe that the remedy is to change the music or provide an exciting summer VBS. But that’s not really addressing the root of the problem nor is it the Biblical solution.
Instead, consider what statistically works to keep children in the faith. Statistics indicate that the church’s children leave the church in droves. 64% or 2 of 3 students stop attending church, at least for a time, after they graduate. Hmm. Why is that happening? More concerning is that they don’t have a Biblical worldview – likely the real reason why most stop attending. A shocking 1% of adults under age 30 holds a Biblical worldview! While many discuss why kids are leaving the church, perhaps a better question is why those who stay don’t even have a proper Biblical lens through which they view life.
Interestingly, 87% of homeschoolers continue in their faith into adulthood. This is regardless of denominational affiliation, church music, or theology. Certainly, nothing we do can save them. But we can implant the Word which is able to bring them to salvation. If it doesn’t produce fruit early (and it appears that it usually does), it can produce fruit later in their lives. The truth? God’s ways work. But then you already knew that!
Who are homeschoolers?
Homeschoolers come in all sizes, shapes, and maturity levels. They also come with a variety of motivations. However, the true motivation should be honoring the Lord God through obedience. And that’s where we all need shepherding.
As you understand how homeschooling can help families become stronger spiritually and children raised with a Christian worldview that holds them steady through adulthood, you can promote this valuable training tool. It will strengthen your church!
Find out what homeschooling is and how it works.
We’re delighted that you’re interested in finding out more about actual homeschooling! Most of us have experienced “school,” but we tend to judge homeschooling by stereotypes.
The roots of the modern homeschool movement are grounded in Christians families who felt that God impressed this as a way to give their children a comprehensive Christian worldview. In many ways, James Dobson helped grow the movement back in the 1980’s when he brought it to the attention of the Christian public at large via Focus on the Family.
Here are some easy ways to learn some basics:
- Short videos that give you a flavor for what homeschooling is like
- The actual WV homeschooling law
- A short explanation of the homeschooling law
- A brief WV timeline
See CHEWV's mission statement and meet our Leadership Team.
CHEWV’s founders were parents who cared so much about Christian homeschooling that they sacrificed to regain the right to homeschool back in the 1980’s. We’ve been serving homeschoolers ever since – for over 30 years.
We’ve always been a service organization. We have no paid staff members. We serve out of conviction and love.
You can learn more here.
But we’ve always been aware that God’s plan for undergirding parents is actually the church and pastors. It would be a privilege to provide the resources to help make that happen!
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