Every Christian parent has felt the tension. Do you send your kids to a Christian school? They're plugged into kids church right? The faith formation is happening right? But is it? And whose job is it really?

Joel, Stu and Tim are joined by David Stonestreet — Principal of Shire Christian School and Soul Revival member number 009, to work through the history of Christian schooling in Australia, what sets a covenantal Christian school apart, why church attendance in the Sutherland Shire has dropped from 11% to around 1% in a generation, and why the school-church-home partnership is more urgent now than it's ever been.

They also end up somewhere unexpected: a conversation about transcendence, immanence, why young people are flocking to ancient liturgical churches, and what the seeker-sensitive movement got wrong about a generation that hates its own life.

Timestamps
00:00 Welcoming Dave and some old Soul Revival stories
06:30 Francis Schaeffer, L'Abri and why Christianity doesn't require intellectual suicide
13:30 What sets a Christian school apart, David unpacks the covenantal model
20:30 Tim's school choice story, pro and con lists, a billboard and vanilla Christianity
28:30 The offload problem: why sending kids to Christian school isn't enough
34:00 Church decline in the Sutherland Shire: the statistics that should concern every church leader
44:00 Schools and churches working together: the partnership model
54:00 Has state school become more hostile to Christianity?
1:07:30 Transcendence and immanence: why young people are flocking to ancient churches

Discussed on this episode
Shire Christian School

Abraham Kuyper's sphere of sovereignty
Francis Schaeffer and L'Abri
Francis Schaeffer's The Great Evangelical Disaster
NCLS Research: How Religious Are Australians?
NCLS Research: What draws newcomers to church?
Kendra Creasy Dean's Practicing Passion

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