CCB Position Paper on Christian Education

In this paper, the Session of Christ Church Bellingham seeks to equip the families of our church to think biblically through the question of Christian education. 

The Lord has blessed our community with so many amazing children who have parents who love and care for them so deeply. We are immensely grateful for this. That’s why a concern for education has been such an important part of our ministry throughout the history of our church, especially since the formation of Trinity Classical School. 

But naturally, not all parents in our church send their children to Trinity, and the topic of education can be emotionally charged. Some of our deepest convictions are tied to our children, and we imagine that for anyone reading this paper, there may be many emotions stirred by this topic. So we appreciate the need for both clear and careful biblical teaching when we ask ourselves, “How do we think about education at CCB?”

We must begin by saying that education is a wisdom issue. By that, we mean the Bible does not give us a formula for how every Christian family must educate their children. It can be very tempting for a church community to become dogmatic: “This is how you raise godly children.” But to elevate one specific educational philosophy to be God’s clear command for everyone is legalistic, going beyond what is written in the Scripture. It is important for us to avoid this error.

Does that mean that everyone should just do what is right in his own eyes? No. Biblical wisdom may not have a formula, but it does have biblical principles that wise parents will carefully heed and let guide these important parental decisions.

In this paper, instead of offering a formula, we will list some of the important principles from the Scriptures. These principles could be summarized with this guiding conviction: The desire and default for all Christian parents should be to provide a gospel-centered education for their children. Our church recognizes that a variety of factors (the needs of the child, available resources and opportunities, etc.) will result in a diversity of educational choices in our church. Nonetheless, our families must be discipled to understand the biblical principles that should guide their educational decisions.

A couple preliminary notes about this statement: first, it defaults toward Christian education, and that is not necessarily saying, “Everyone needs to go to our church’s school.” This could also be a homeschool or other Christian school. Second, we are using “education” in three different senses throughout this paper: paideia (basically, a child’s upbringing), philosophy of education (classical, modern, Waldorf, Charlotte Mason, etc.), and method of education (homeschool, private, public, hybrid). As you move down these three senses of education, the more practical and specific we become. Everyone agrees that our children should have a Christian upbringing. This is a non-negotiable that we should all be on the same page about. But that does not mean we will all make the same choices about philosophy and method. Generally speaking, “education” refers to all three––upbringing, philosophy, and method. If we are speaking about just one of these aspects, we’ll try to clearly state that.

Below are nine biblical principles that should guide these decisions.

1. Christian parenting depends on God’s promises.

“For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself” (Acts 2:39).

The raising of children is one of the greatest challenges in the Christian life. We are confronted with failures on our part as parents, and often the souls of our children are mysterious to us. Before we consider the important decisions around education, we must first firmly place our confidence in the promise of God in Christ for our children. We disciple and educate our children not from fear that they might reject the faith, but from confidence that God loves for his grace to run down the lines of generations and that he has promised to be a God to us and to our children and to our children’s children. We are simply cooperating with God’s grace as we parent and make our educational decisions.

2. Education is primarily the responsibility of parents.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:5-7).

The Bible consistently puts the responsibility of child-discipleship on the parents, so the church must always call parents to that God-given responsibility. Education, then, is a form of discipleship, and schools are merely there to assist the parents.

In thinking about this as a church, we see there are two sides to this coin. On one side, the church needs to honor this responsibility by trusting parents’ judgment as they make (sometimes difficult) educational decisions for their children. Legalism always imposes on the freedom that Christians should experience in the gospel.

On the other side, the church is there to call parents to not take this responsibility lightly. Being responsible means that discipleship will require work and attention. Over the last hundred years, Christians in America have been far too passive in the formation of their children in the home and their outside education, which consists of a significant number of hours. The result has been that the church has been losing her children at unprecedented rates. 

Part of the importance of this verse from Deuteronomy is that it reminds us that education and discipleship starts in the home. Does a child grow up seeing his or her parents involved in a church, worshiping God every Sunday, studying the Scriptures and praying? Do their parents talk about their faith in day to day life? Is the home a place of grace and joy and love and laughter? Was it a happy childhood growing up as a Christian? The culture of a home is of first importance. 

3. Education is discipleship (and it works). 

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Christianity is a faith focused on teaching; put another way, it is focused on education. Jesus sent his disciples with a plan to change the world, and that plan had two simple instructions: baptize and teach. The reason our church has a school is because baptism and teaching go together; we baptize children, and then we teach. We believe education is at the heart of the Great Commission.

For this reason, Christians throughout history have been champions of education. Their God revealed himself in a book, and so wherever they go, they teach people to read and to understand history, literature, geography, language, logic, music, astronomy, math, and theology. These are all the things you need to read the Bible well and explain it to others.

Someone might say, “Jesus only said to teach everything he commanded. He wasn’t talking about what you learn about in school.” To say that is to compartmentalize the teaching of Jesus into a religious or moral department of our lives. This is exactly what we don’t want our children to do. We believe that that gospel shapes everything about human life. There is no part of our thoughts, emotions, actions, relationships, work, hobbies, culture, civilization that is left untouched by the Lordship of Jesus Christ. As C. S. Lewis said, “Either [the gospel] is an illusion or else our whole life falls under it. We have no non-religious activities, only religious and irreligious” (Letters to Malcolm, p. 30).

Also, we must be aware that education works. As Jesus said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). Educational programs have clear goals, and they form children according to those goals. There is always a kind of person a school wants the child to become like. Teachers are mentors, models for the children to emulate. Teachers have a tremendous influence over our children, shaping their beliefs and worldview. Children are trusting (we love them for that!), and so they adore their teachers and follow them. Christians have to ask, “Do I know the teachers who are the models for my children? Do I know what they believe, and does it cohere with what my family believes? Do I know they are loving and generous? Do I know they love God? Does the leadership of this school share my vision of the kind of person I want my child to become?” 

4. We are all commanded to give our children a Christian paideia. 

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

It may not seem on the surface that this verse is about education, but the Greek word translated “discipline” is paideia. In the ancient world, paideia was a much fuller program of training children than simply correcting them when they sin. In ancient Greece, it was how the whole tradition of Greek culture was passed down to children so that they could grow up as loyal citizens in the Greek city. They learned Greek stories, Greek ideals, and Greek practices. The paideia included the training at home, in a school, and in city life. 

So, when Paul tells fathers to bring up their children in the “paideia of the Lord,” he is saying that fathers are responsible for making sure that the program for educating and preparing a child for adulthood is “of the Lord”—that is, not centered on Greek culture, but centered on Jesus. This is why we say, “We are all commanded to give our children a Christian paideia.”

Now, someone may ask, “Are you saying it is sinful for Christians to send their children to a non-Christian school?” Not necessarily. But what we do know for sure is it is a sin to neglect the Christian nurturing of our children and to ignore the Bible’s principles for child-rearing. This is why we stated at the beginning that we believe a Christian education should be the desire and default of every Christian family. It fits most naturally with the “paideia of the Lord,” which we are commanded to give our children. But paideia, strictly speaking, is not just the school. It is the combination of church, school, home, and community life that is shaping and forming a child for adulthood. This whole complex must be Christian—“of the Lord.” 

We have a tradition, a culture, that we are called to pass down to our children (2 Thessalonians 2:15). C. S. Lewis wrote a paper in 1946 called “On the Transmission of Christianity” in which he argues that the reason most young people reject Christianity is simply because it has not been taught well: 

Firstly, that the content of, and the case for, Christianity, are not put before most schoolboys under the present system; and secondly, that when they are so put, a majority find them acceptable. The importance of these two facts is that between them they blow away a whole fog of 'reasons for the decline of religion' which are often advanced and often believed… If the younger generation have never been told what the Christians say and never heard any arguments in defense of it, then their agnosticism or indifference is fully explained. There is no need to look any further: no need to talk about the general intellectual climate of the age, the influence of mechanistic civilization on the character of urban life. And having discovered that the cause of their ignorance is lack of instruction, we have also discovered the remedy. There is nothing in the nature of the younger generation which incapacitates them for receiving Christianity. If any one is prepared to tell them, they are apparently ready to hear.

We have a duty as parents and as a church to make sure this transmission and clear explanation of the riches of the Christian faith is passed down to the coming generation.

5. Education must have both gospel and law.

“As a father shows compassion on his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13-14).

“Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:9-11).

A gospel-centered paideia must bring together both the tender grace of Jesus in the gospel and the corrective discipline of God’s law. It must avoid errors of both legalism and of lawlessness. Children who are only loved become selfish and lazy. Children who are only challenged become discouraged and despondent. 

Christian education, on the one hand, should have a spirit of love, grace, and compassion. Educators (whether parents, teachers, or administrators) should seek to know each individual child the best they can—“he knows our frame”— and to create an educational plan that leads to flourishing. A school should be like a garden, with children being like a variety of different plants growing inside. All share an environment, and yet the gardener knows what each plant needs to thrive and bear fruit. This is how Jesus is with each of us in our own spiritual journey—he carefully tailors each trial and lesson to our need, to form in us the work he wants to see done. 

However, our cultural moment puts a huge emphasis on empathy, and this can cause parents to think that admonishment and rebuke are generally sins against their children. This is clearly not the view of the Scriptures. Compassion does not negate correction. On the contrary, correction is an act of love (Hebrews 12:6). A childhood is both an experience of unconditional love and diligent discipline—the latter of which is both painful and hard. This is good for children. To be a loving person in this world, you must be resilient, long-suffering, peaceable, and patient. All these things are formed in a human being by the corrective discipline of the Lord. That kind of discipline should shape how we raise and educate our children. They need to be stretched, challenged, corrected, and led through repentance. They may even cry at times. We do this because we believe in who they can become. To coddle someone is not to have a high view of that person’s potential. 

Education needs both grace and discipline. 

6. Determining who has spiritual influence over children is of grave importance.

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea… [I]t is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18: 5-6, 14).

These words from the Lord Jesus are some of the most severe that he spoke in all of his teaching. Jesus had a clear love for children and a concern that they come to know God and be nurtured in his love. Therefore, if an adult causes a child to sin, the consequences are serious. We must be sobered by the words of our Lord.

Therefore, it is of grave importance who we allow to have spiritual influence over our children. That is what this verse is about. Teachers are authorities in the lives of our children, and Christian or not, have significant spiritual influence over these young lives. If a teacher is teaching falsehood to one of God’s covenant children, Matthew 18 says they are under the responsibility Jesus assigned to them. This command hangs over that teacher. 

Furthermore, a child will receive roughly 12,000 hours of instruction during his or her education. If the spirit of this instruction is at a crossroads with the discipleship goals of a parent, a parent must be prepared to put the time into re-educating. A parent should consider whether they are faithfully harnessing the 12,000 hours at their disposal. The hours could go into training their child in the fear of the Lord, or they could go (in some ways) against the fear of the Lord. Undoing ungodly training is a tremendous amount of work for parents. 

7. Education is never neutral.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Proverbs 9:10).

All knowledge—and therefore, every educational plan—is founded on fundamental views about the world. Many Christians have believed the idea that there is such a thing as neutral education about math, science, literature, and history. But even non-Christian philosophers have shown that this is an illusion. All people bring a worldview to their understanding of the world. We have a lens through which we interpret everything. For the Christian, all true insight starts with a posture of humility before our Creator and his word (“the fear of the Lord”). Any knowledge that does not take this posture is built on pride and will always lead to folly and destruction.

Science and history make enormous assumptions about the natural world and the meaning of events in human civilization. The study of literature always includes ethical interpretations. The question is not whether a school (public or private) has a dogma. It is whether they are explicit about their dogma or not. As Chesterton said, “The special mark of the modern world is not that it is skeptical, but that it is dogmatic without knowing it.” An education that does not mention God or the Scriptures is not a neutral education, but dogmatically believes humans can understand the world without God. It is founded on a dogma that is stubborn, proud, unproven, and (even) religious. It is an atheistic faith.

We should be aware of this, especially with respect to public schools. We should not view them as neutral, but more akin to sending our children to an Islamic school or a synagogue school or a Wiccan school. At a religious school, we would expect the children to be indoctrinated in a worldview, whether Christian or otherwise. It is vital to understand that a child is receiving a religious education, whatever the school.

In our day, there is also an added open hostility to the Christian faith in public schools. A lack of tolerance for independent thought, cancel culture, and gender identity politics all make these schools a minefield for impressionable young children.

Christian education, of course, is also not neutral. Our worldview assumes God does exist and that every square inch of creation is his dominion, and it is precisely our goal to equip our students with this vast and beautiful understanding of the world.

8. Common grace is present in the world around us—including the public schools and schools run by other traditions. 

”Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for, ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring’” (Acts 17:27b-28).

This quote is taken from the Apostle Paul’s speech in Athens, in which he introduced the gospel to the philosophically-minded spectators at Mars Hill. The Apostle was likely trained in an unbelieving philosophical school in Damascus. He was well-versed, not only in the Old Testament scriptures of his people, but also in pagan poetry and philosophy. Though he was clear in his loyalty to the gospel, he could also appreciate truth, even when it appeared in pagan literature. In this passage (cited above) from Acts 17, he quotes approvingly from the poem ‘Phainomena’ by Epimenides and Arastus––both pagans.

This same appreciation for common grace in the unbelieving world can be found in both Augustine and Calvin. Augustine notes that Moses was trained in the court of Pharaoh, and goes on to say about pagan learning:

 

Moreover, if those who are called philosophers, and especially the Platonists, have said aught that is true and in harmony with our faith, we are not only not to shrink from it, but to claim it for our own use from those who have unlawful possession of it. For, as the Egyptians had not only the idols and heavy burdens which the people of Israel hated and fled from, but also vessels and ornaments of gold and silver, and garments, which the same people when going out of Egypt appropriated to themselves, designing them for a better use, not doing this on their own authority, but by the command of God, the Egyptians themselves, in their ignorance, providing them with things which they themselves were not making a good use of; in the same way all branches of heathen learning have not only false and superstitious fancies and heavy burdens of unnecessary toil, which every one of us, when going out under the leadership of Christ from the fellowship of the heathen, ought to abhor and avoid; but they contain also liberal instruction which is better adapted to the use of the truth, and some most excellent precepts of morality; and some truths in regard even to the worship of the One God are found among them. Now these are, so to speak, their gold and silver, which they did not create themselves, but dug out of the mines of God’s providence which are everywhere scattered abroad, and are perversely and unlawfully prostituting to the worship of devils. These, therefore, the Christian, when he separates himself in spirit from the miserable fellowship of these men, ought to take away from them, and to devote to their proper use in preaching the gospel. Their garments, also—that is, human institutions such as are adapted to that intercourse with men which is indispensable in this life—we must take and turn to a Christian use [On Christian Doctrine, Book 2].

Calvin, too, says something similar:

Moreover, the liberal arts and sciences have descended to us from the heathen. We are, indeed, compelled to acknowledge that we have received astronomy, and the other parts of philosophy, medicines and the order of civil government, from them. Nor is it to be doubted, that God has thus liberally enriched them with excellent favors that their impiety might have the less excuse. But, while we admire the riches of his favor which he has bestowed on them, let us still value far more highly that grace of regeneration with which he peculiarly sanctifies his elect unto himself [Commentary on Genesis, 4:20].

This is why our students in Trinity Classical School read literature from both Christians and non-Christians. This also means that God’s common grace is present in schools that are not Christian. Public schools have teachers, believing and unbelieving, who are loving, excellent instructors, and knowledgeable in their fields. Public schools also have many resources that are truly a blessing. Christians who have had children with learning disabilities praise God for the resources and gifted teachers he has provided through these schools. In addition, these schools have resources in sports facilities and extracurricular activities. 

Though we think critically about the importance of Christian learning at CCB, we must be careful to still thank God for his grace and goodness wherever we find it. Though it is true there is often much hostility to Christianity in public schools, sometimes Christians who haven’t even been in a public school will wholesale condemn them. This is not charitable and doesn’t recognize the common grace present in these places.

Many believers involved in Christian education forget the Christian assumptions that actually still undergird the public school. The vision of educating the masses is a spiritual remnant of the gospel’s influence on our society. Public schools are not pagan institutions through and through, but they have largely refused to acknowledge the God who first taught us to love children.

9. Christians should not stand over one another in judgment about issues of wisdom and conscience.

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1-2).

Because this is a wisdom issue, in our church community we must respect the diversity of educational decisions parents will make. We generally do not know all the factors at play in a family's decision, and since the responsibility is ultimately on the parents, we honor the freedom of families to do what they deem right.

What holds us together as a church family is not identical thinking about education but the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

FAQ

In addition to the principles above, there are some questions that regularly come up in our church, and we want to take the opportunity here to offer some thoughts. 

“Isn’t it a worthy calling to be a missionary in the public schools, and what would happen if all the Christians just left the public schools? Shouldn’t our kids be salt and light?”

We feel a strong sympathy for this sentiment. Several of our elders and their wives have served with Young Life and deeply respect their vision for bringing the gospel into the public schools. It is both reasonable and honorable that many Christian families carry a burden that if all the Christians leave the public schools, the schools will suffer for it.

What is often neglected in this question though, is, “Has the child been called by God to be a missionary?” In most cases, it was the parents who felt the burden to be missionaries. But the expectation for a developing child to oppose the worldview of a large institution run by adults, and to share their faith with other children, is a tall order. It requires substantial courage, maturity, and clarity of conviction. The whole point of a school is for a child to be inculcated. Many sincere Christian children in public schools are simply trying to make it through without being ridiculed for their beliefs. (Parents should ask themselves how successful they have been as missionaries in their own workplaces, and then consider what they can realistically expect from their children in a school.)

Our burden is that Christians should see education more deeply as a part of our mission in the world. A former member of our church moved to Chicago and has a deep aspiration to start a mixed-race, classical Christian school in the inner city of Chicago. We would far rather take this approach and have the church and Christians invest more in the planting of schools than to sacrifice the Christian education of our children in the wishful name of “mission.” 

Again, this is not to say that there are no reasons why a Christian child should be in a public school. It is just to say generally that children have not actually received a call to be a missionary, and so likely this rationale ought not guide a family’s decision. A good middle ground is to enroll your child in extracurricular activities with non-Christians. That way, their formation can be in line with your values, and then that formation can be put to evangelistic use in the public sphere. Christian education is about training our children to be light in the world—so train them in the light, and then send them into the dark.

“Does our church provide any support for families in other Christian schools, homeschool, or public school?”
CCB desires to be a support to all families, no matter their educational choices. We strongly encourage families to make use of our youth group, children’s church, catechism classes, and home groups. These are all opportunities to support the discipleship parents are doing at home. 

“Isn’t private school so expensive that it is really only for the privileged few who can afford it?”

One of the biggest factors playing into the education of children is the cost. If you homeschool your children, it is costly—especially with time and energy. If you send your kids to a Christian school, it is costly—both financially and with parent involvement. If you disciple your children while correcting the influence of a public school, that too is costly. (It is worth mentioning that public school is also financially costly. Our society has realized how crucial the inculcation of knowledge and culture on children is, and so the government taxes and spends generously on these programs.)

For us to faithfully disciple our children, it will be costly. We have to embrace that. (We’ll address more below the question of the financial cost of Christian education.) Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Trinity Classical School does not want finances to be an obstacle for any child getting a gospel-centered education. We do extensive fundraising to offer scholarships and keep our tuition as low as possible. At the same time, Jesus says, “a worker is worth his wages,” and the school must strive to pay our teachers and administration fair wages. As we try to honor both convictions of low tuition and fair salaries, we strongly encourage families to come and talk to us about how to make TCS work for them.

2. While the church and school strive to make Christian education achievable for anyone who desires it, the priority of a child’s discipleship may mean a family needs to make sacrifices. If a family has to go camping instead of going to Mexico for vacation so that a child is nurtured in the gospel, it is worth it. If a family has to buy a used car instead of a new one so the children are discipled in a Christ-centered way, it is worth it. 

3. Parents should begin with their convictions––“This is the training I want for my children”–– and then approach our school or another school asking, “How can we make this work?” Talk to the school as early as possible. Don’t let finances be a barrier to having this conversation.

“Whose responsibility is formal schooling? The parents, the government, or the church?”
One of the great thinkers of Christian education over the past two centuries was the public theologian Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper was a pastor, at one time the Dutch prime minister, and a key leader in the “free school” movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Netherlands. Kuyper strongly believed that Christian schools needed to be free from government oversight so that they would stay faithful to the scriptures and orthodox Christianity. He saw that when the government was funding schools, they were able to leverage that influence and water down the doctrinal commitments of the schools. 

But as Kuyper’s career progressed, he began to realize that the government did play an important role in making education available for all social classes. He had developed a theory of sphere sovereignty, identifying the areas of authority given to the family, the government, and the church. Education tended to land in a place of overlap between all three. Parents were responsible for educating their children, the church made sure the education was biblical, but the government needed to fund it.

Our church faces the same questions Kuyper did in his day. In the future, our school may have opportunities to receive vouchers or other funding from the government. We should want a government that is supportive of Christian education, and if that were ever the case, we should not disparage that support. Generally though, these funds come with obligations for the school to meet state or federal requirements. From a biblical perspective, it is not necessarily wrong for a church school to receive this support, but the financial structure of the school must be done in such a way that it can instantly be “turned off.” The church and school must never be put in a situation where it is saying, “We either have to compromise on what we believe or lose our funding and be shut down.” Kuyper spent his career figuring out how to creatively navigate these principles, and we will likely need to do the same.

“Why does our church have a classical school?”

As we mentioned in the beginning of this article, “education” can refer to: upbringing more generally, a philosophy of education, or the method of educating. CCB’s specific ministry for Christian education (Trinity Classical School) follows the classical model. Our version of classical education is focused on children being formed in the love of Jesus through a daily liturgy built around spiritual disciplines. Academically, we structure the school around the seven liberal arts of the Trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and science). We do this for two reasons.

First, this is historically how Christians have led education throughout the centuries. Many of the greatest Christian thinkers were classically trained (Augustine, Calvin, Chesterton, Lewis, etc.). Part of the vision of our church is to build on the tradition of Christian culture passed down to us through history. We have an historic liturgy and an historic doctrinal standard, both following the presbyterian tradition. We also follow the Christian liberal arts tradition that was so effective in building western civilization. 

Second, we believe classical education is the model most naturally shaped by the gospel. There are a variety of ways people have understood classical learning, and we have a unique gospel-focused way we understand it. Pastor Nate has written a book called Gospel Education: How Jesus Shapes the Classical School, which is a book-length vision of how the gospel fuels an educational program, and it specifically describes the unique vision at Trinity. So we consider classical education to be a natural expression of our core values as a church: grace, truth, hospitality, formation, and kingdom. 

These principles make the decisions around education complex. Nonetheless, our church hopes that the Lord would form in all our parents a deep desire for our children to be formed in the truths of the gospel and God’s word; and that, as parents, we would be willing to go to great lengths to provide that for them. Our dream is that our children would grow up feeling that being a Christian was a happy childhood, and they understand with their minds the truth, goodness, and beauty of the gospel. May the Spirit strengthen us in this important work!