Shocking as it may seem, our primary work at Evangel Classical School is not education. Though we’re a school, education is a feature in the bigger project of culture shaping, or enculturation. Education is like the wire that trains the branches of the bonsai tree of enculturation. Though the wire twisting is important, it’s only part of the job. We are commending the works of the Lord to our children so that they can run farther and faster with the baton of Culture than we have (or can!).
Building is hard work, it’s long work, and we are engaging in that work here and now, believing that Christian blessing can work through Marysville like a lump of leaven does its work in the bread dough. ECS is strategic in this. And I have benefited from hearing stories of those who have actually done it, from Nehemiah to Douglas Wilson.
As you may be aware, the modern classical and Christian school movement had its humble beginnings in Moscow, Idaho a generation ago. Logos School has proven instrumental in the development of the cultural Christian gravity of Moscow, and allowing for the obvious differences between Moscow and Marysville, we’re striving to increase our mass here, and with it, a gravity of our own.
I was intrigued by a recent episode of the Stories Are Soul Food podcast featuring ND Wilson (Doug’s son) and Brian Kohl, both natives of Moscow who are deeply invested in its cultural work. The episode was entitled “Invasion of the Consumers,” and I found some very interesting points of application. Here’s the YouTube link, if you want to see their faces.
I’m recommending it for your consideration. While we cannot read too much into the parallels, many of the lessons these men have learned have application universally, though the evidence in Moscow has been particularly stark. For instance…
- Being a mere consumer gets boring eventually. In Moscow, they tend to either help the the moving sidewalk move even faster as producers, or they get off the sidewalk altogether.
- There is a correlation between how much people sacrifice to join the Moscow community and how blessed they are by it. Those who migrate there to plug in and contribute do so; those who come first to receive are likely to be disappointed by how little others are doing for them.
- When you’re involved in a productive, vibrant Christian community, you will be both the vehicle and recipient of countless blessings. At the same time, just because someone doesn’t drop everything to focus on you when you’re having a crisis does not necessarily mean they don’t care; it may mean that they’re busy doing other worthwhile things…like producing.
- Those who go to Moscow to give find themselves receiving more than those who come to consume.
- Criticism (constructive or otherwise) lands better when the critic and his hearer have the same loves. Having skin in the game builds a platform.
- If you think someone else should start a baseball team, maybe you are wrong…not about the baseball team, but about who should be starting it. In the words of George Grant, “If you see it, you’re probably called to it.”
- Contribution should be viewed as hospitality. How can you build, involving others, and making them feel welcome in the work?
There’s a lot more to this, and your mileage may vary, but I strongly encourage you to give it a listen and consider your own community context, including your local church and ECS.
One last thing. A destination and a vortex are not the same thing. Let’s be honest. Marysville is just like my (and everyone else’s) hometown: While some people are here because they actually want to be, many are here because they just can’t get out.
If God blesses our work (according to our prayers), Marysville will become a destination for faithful Christians who want to come here and build with us, and the work we do will effect cultural formation under Christ’s lordship and lots of people will come to faith as a result.
We believe our labors will advance the Great Commission here, and many of our fully-trained Raggants will want to join with us in the building as well. But that will not be because they cannot get away. There are pockets of faithfulness wherever there are Christians, though some have more gravity than others. We have work to do “far as the curse is found.”
If we live by faith, in community, it may just make our lives harder, but the fruit will be really sweet and well worth the sacrifice.
Risus est bellum!
Jonathan