Today is Katie's first day at her new school, your school. Although Katie has been attending a Christian school since kindergarten, her parents are unhappy. Katie can recite many Bible verses and can talk about their meaning, but when it comes to answering the big questions about how God works in her life, Katie seems confused.

The reason seems clear. Her previous school failed to integrate biblical truths into the curriculum. While Katie did have Bible courses, other subjects were taught with secular curriculum and with infrequent mentions of how God is central to all things.

Yes, parents do have the primary responsibility for ensuring their children develop a Christian worldview, but if the truths they teach at home are not mirrored in your classroom, a confusing disconnect happens. This is the secular/sacred divide, and it's leading our children astray.

As teachers in Christian schools, you are responsible for much more that helping students learn facts, figures, and processes. You are responsible to be a bearer of THE truth—absolute, knowable truth that comes from God. To make biblical integration real, teachers must constantly remind themselves that nothing in the universe is devoid of God. There is no neutral knowledge.

As one colleague said, teaching any subject without asking how the topic reveals the character and nature of God is like teaching about the solar system without reference to the sun.

Think of the God as the sun. His hand touches everything under creation. Teachers must be intentional in connecting every single lesson to God and in helping students interpret every thing, every action, and every event based on its relationship to God. Only in this way can you give God his rightful place in your classroom.

No matter what subject or topic you're teaching, ask your students

1. How does this principle reveal the character of God
2. What does it tell us about creation?
3. What does it tell us about the nature of man and his purpose?
4. How does it help us make godly decisions about our behavior?
5. How does it guide us to act as part of the greater society?
   

When you ask these questions and help your students answer them from a biblical perspective, you teach your students to think critically and biblically about every topic, integrating the secular and spiritual worlds. You erase the divide between the physical world around your students, and the world of the Father.

The reality is that there is no divide.

Today you may meet Katie. She needs you. As a teacher in a Christian school, your worldview and the way you conduct your classroom will have a huge influence on her future, both academically and spiritually. Your clarity and guidance is essential to Katie's Christian education and the education of hundreds of others. Help your students make the connection.