Pastors Face Unique Opportunity to Help Parents Educate Children amid COVID-19 School Closures
PHILADELPHIA — As COVID-19 pushes curriculum content, social issues, and worldviews toward deeper parent scrutiny, the pandemic has opened wide the door for pastors to guide parents through tough decisions about the upcoming school year — and American society is counting on them to do so.
American Pastors Network (APN, www.americanpastorsnetwork.net) President Sam Rohrer says that parents — not schools — are ultimately responsible for their child’s education.
“God gave the responsibility to parents for the primary education of their children,” Rohrer said on APN’s “Stand in the Gap Today.” “He told fathers, ‘You pass along what I have done and what I have commanded to your children and pass it along even to your grandchildren,’ so there is a generational responsibility that comes to parents.”
A parent’s responsibility begins with personally knowing the God of the Bible and extends to imparting a “virtuous education”—both of which are vital to America’s experiment in self-government.
“William Penn laid out a frame of government, which actually became a foundational element for all of government broadly, but he made it clear that self-government must function under God, which means our founders had to understand who God is,” Rohrer continued. “Penn also said there had to be a virtuous education of the youth, and that it was the parent’s responsibility. Frankly, the only way you can have a virtuous education is if they’re taught biblical principles.”
As parents attempt to fulfill this responsibility amid pandemic-induced school closures, understanding and evaluating options can be overwhelming. Pastors have the opportunity of a century to guide parents through options such as Christian schools and homeschooling.
E. Ray Moore, co-founder of Frontline Ministries, Inc., and leader of Exodus Mandate, was a guest on the “Stand in the Gap Today” episode. Moore said, “Pastors have a unique opportunity to point families to the Christian school option. The curriculum world for homeschooling and Christian schools is so rich and so manifold that it’s hard for people to make decisions [because] they’ve got so many good choices. But the scripture is clear about pastoral responsibility for the flock, so we see this as falling in that category.”
Rohrer, co-hosts, and guests explore topics like these on APN’s popular, live, daily radio program “Stand in the Gap Today.” Rohrer also hosts the daily short radio feature “Stand in the Gap Minute, and “best of” shows from the week are broadcast on “Stand in the Gap Weekend.” Likewise, “Stand in the Gap TV” considers transcending complex and divisive cultural issues, seemingly difficult to navigate, from a biblical worldview perspective.
View the media page for APN here. For more information on APN, visit www.AmericanPastorsNetwork.net, its Facebook page or follow APN’s Twitter feed, @AmericanPastors. For information about forming a state chapter of APN, contact amy@americanpastors.net.