The challenge of faith in religious institutions

One of the common issues that papers in this journal tussle with is how educational institutions founded by people of faith are sustained over time with their foundations intact. It is good to have a paper in this edition of the journal that addresses this core concern, as well as coverage of other topics addressing educational issues from a Christian faith perspective. The first mentioned paper discusses how a school founded in Indonesia by missionaries is now sought by many purely due to the quality of education. The authors consider the role Christian schools might play to mitigate ethno-religious violence. They issue the challenge that ‘Christian education and mission cannot be separated (Matthew 28:16–20). Despite adversity and opposition, Christian schools must be faithful to their mission of proclaiming the Gospel’. One of the great challenges for faith-based schools is how to sustain the original founders’ vision for an education centred on Christian belief, with pedagogy that reflects the faith. While faith originally underpinned all religious schools, sustaining such a focus can be difficult. If our measure of success in schooling was as simple as maintaining academic, cultural and sporting standards, sustaining enrolments and keeping our parents onside, then maintaining a good Christian school would be less challenging. But our Christian institutions were always meant to offer so much more. The challenge for many institutions is that after successfully founding and growing Christian schools and universities; progressively and often subtly, the pursuit of excellence in academic studies begins to dominate. Of course, faith-based schools should assume that some parents will send their children to us with a primary concern for the facilities, quality of teaching and results that students obtain. If we accept this premise, we should expect the delivery of Christian education to be harder. Consequently, this requires us to ensure a priority is given to the faith on which the school was founded. Sadly, this aim can be lost over time and this has been seen most clearly within universities that were typically founded by religious orders and churches. Sadly, most of these once Christian institutions are now largely secular in focus, with Christian teaching and practices located in individual colleges, or affiliated institutions and organizations on or near each campus.