How is studying Pilgrims Progress supposed to help me get a career? was the comment I overheard from one of our grade eight students. On one hand, this line of thinking is expected given our enculturation in a pragmatic view of education for the primary purpose of acquiring a job. But on the other hand it saddened me to hear firsthand such a shallow and incorrect view of the benefits of the number one greatest selling book of all time (besides the Bible) to the formation of a human created in God’s image in desperate need of continual renewal.
Discussing the most famous allegory ever written about Christian’s journey to eternity may, at first glance, seem almost useless for preparing one to follow the herd in the all-consuming aspiration of acquiring a job someday. Someday, and maybe it’s not today, learning and developing at FCS will be thought of by students as more than job preparation.
Someday, our students will know that FCS is preparing them to be ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit to be salt and light in this dark and decaying world. Someday, our students will know that FCS is developing in them a love for the true, the good and the beautiful that are committed to the sold-out pursuit of Christ’s glory and the advancement of His kingdom in this world. Someday, studying one of the greatest and most influential novels of all time will be considered a joy and a privilege in itself. Someday studying the great books that have shaped our Western culture will produce free-minded kingdom citizens desirous of an intense pursuit of their goals and dreams. Goals and dreams which will go far beyond getting a good job but rather impacting their families and communities through their gifting and hunger for God’s glory. They will be owners of industry, leaders of evangelism and parents of the new generation of sons and daughters of the King of Kings.
