Four Educational Myths

I wish there were vocation schools that offered some classes in New Testament, Old Testament, Ethics, and Intro-theology. One of my children was academically oriented and went to a Christian College, another was Mechanically inclined and went to a vocational school. The difference in their spiritual interest is profound. I wish there were Christian Vocational schools that offered a faith based environment geared toward their learning style. Maybe more hands on interdisplinary mission and theological/bible learning. I felt my mechanic got short changed spiritually andd communally in the vocational setting.

I meant, I don't think the church considers vocationally inclined students.

In response to the original post:
I found all of the arguments grossly oversimplified, which is what Murray does in almost all his writing.

In response to RJS #9:

My wife and I are heading into an interview on Monday for a program that brings gifted college students together with people who are usually marginalized due to race, class status, etc. We bring to that program several years' participation in a non-residential community that intentionally brings people together across lines of race, class, religion etc. One thing we need to see is more people in the educated top tiers open to God's leading into humbling service such as Jean Vanier has taken into L'Arche.

Right now the church is focused on the collegiately educated comfortable middle class. It misses both the intellectual class and the marginalized (memories of my primary school education here). It is certainly important that we present an educated Christianity to the educated class. I just finished a discussion with a professor about the number of people who find themselves between the church, where they cannot express their professional selves, and the academy, where they cannot express their faith. But until the church considers those socially marginalized as part of their mission, all the discipling in the world for the elite will not matter. It will simply continue to increase the divide between classes, and that is not the call of Jesus' church. Rather, the church needs to be a place where the divide is healed, where people can cross the usual lines a la Galatians.

Fortunately, many of our Christian colleges, as well as larger universities, are embracing service learning. That can simply be a cool program, or it can offer real ways to bring the educated together with others in meaningful ways. I take it as a good thing when my undergraduate mentor says "I find that history majors are usually unsettled five years after graduation and are usually leading something, usually in the non-profit sector, ten years after graduation.
Peace,
Randy