These warm evenings, I have occasionally found myself on our deck, enjoying the golden light and watching the world go by. Our neighbours also do the same and many a catch-up has been had across the way, a cold bevvy in hand. Simon Smart in Eternity magazine builds on a metaphor from an article called “Lemonade on the Porch: The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society” by the late Timothy Keller.
Smart writes; ‘Keller used the metaphor of the “porch” to talk about engagement with people who are not Christian. Drawing on experiences of neighbourhoods where busy porches functioned as vital community spaces, Keller painted an image of the secular world (the street) and the church (the house) finding a point of connection on the “porch”. Keller’s interest was in spaces where relationship can develop to the point where it might even be natural for the person to enter “the house”.’
For many people in a post-Christian Australia, Smart suggests one of those key ‘porches’ is the Christian School. He goes on to ask; ‘What will people find today when they step onto the “porch”, that is the school, that offers a Christian view of the world? What are the ways that education might be a gift to those people encountering the core of the Christian story at their school?’. He suggests 4 perspectives that I believe gel well with what we are on about in Lutheran Education.
• Understanding the physical creation as a gift of God
• Forming a stable identity
• Finding community
• The great paradox: the full life from service of others
It is not a long article and I encourage you to take 10 mins to consider what these perspectives might say to you in your context. What is missing for us?
David Spike
Pastor for Ministry and Formation
david.spike@levnt.edu.au
