Vernard T. Gant, D.Min., Director of Urban School Services, ACSI
Perhaps unlike any other expression, the word “meantime” best describes the dynamics of the Christian experience in today’s world. We are caught up in a continuum between who and what we already are in Christ Jesus and what we are yet to be. I think John expressed it best when he said, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be....” In the meantime, we must live with the tension of the now and the not yet. This quarterly newsletter is dedicated to addressing the issues associated with this tension as it pertains to Christ-centered urban education. Christian educators working in our nation’s urban centers and those targeting urban children understand and appreciate what’s involved in this tension.
In the meantime, we must live with the tension of the now and the not yet.
We are well aware that a divine movement is attempting to address the plight of the urban poor.
We know further that a critical component in this effort is the education of urban children. According to a special report in Education Week (January 1998):
Urban students perform far worse, on average, than children who live outside central cities on virtually every measure of academic performance. The longer they stay in school, the wider the gap grows.
Moreover:
The poorest students are at greatest risk. In urban schools where most of the students are poor, two-thirds or more of children fail to reach even the “basic” level on national tests.
Christian urban educators believe that this condition of darkness and despair from the world’s point of view is an opportunity for hope and light from a Kingdom standpoint. There are literally hundreds of schools the Lord has raised up to target and serve this at-risk group—and they are succeeding. They are already impacting thousands of children who have been written off as uneducable, undereducable, learning disabled, at-risk, lost, and a host of other labels used as excuses why urban children do not fare as well academically as other children.
Christian educators realize that if you educate a child today, you educate him for life; and if that education is a Christian education, you educate the child for eternity. However, we have not arrived—yet. Most of us would confess that we have a long way to go. Hence, we are caught up in the tension between what is already happening and what is yet to come. In other words, we are living in the meantime in Christ-centered urban education. This publication will address issues pertaining to this period in the hope that it will help prepare you to face the unique challenges and opportunities associated with this great and noble cause.
The Meantime Volume 1 Number 1