Dear Fellowship Family, 

 

Welcome to the second installment of our Rooted series. Before I launch into today's message, I would like to state a few assumptions I believe to be true about our parent community. As a Fellowship parent, you are here because you desire more for your children, and you’ve chosen to invest sacrificially in both their academic and spiritual development. You value not only a rigorous education, but a covenant Christian one. That means, in partnership with the school, your hope is that your children will develop a hunger for truth that surpasses worldly knowledge and reflects a personal understanding of who God is. 

This brings me to the focus of this week's Rooted message: developing Truth Seekers. Last year, our faculty and staff identified six characteristics of our Portrait of a Graduate. We endeavor to foster these attributes in your children as we fulfill our vision. The first trait, Truth Seeker, is foundational to all the others that will follow in this series. We have defined a Truth Seeker as one who "exhibits a thirst for learning, desires wisdom and discernment, and pursues truth while filtering knowledge through a biblical lens. While a traditional education will ensure that your children grow in knowledge, Fellowship is focused on making sure that they can process that knowledge through the lens of God's Truth. What is the difference between knowledge and Truth? Knowledge is acquired by gathering and then being able to recall information. Each day, your children are being fed information and acquire knowledge by watching television, listening to podcasts, scrolling social media, having conversations with friends, and much more. But if they take worldly knowledge at face value and apply it to their lives, what does that look like? What is current culture telling our children about truth? 

Today's "truth" is ever-changing. It ebbs and flows depending on the mood or the situation. It has been diluted to phrases like, "Live your truth." In essence, our children are being encouraged to do what feels good to them in the moment. Whatever is pleasing to them is fulfilling their "truth." As Christians, though, we realize that not all information is Truth. So what Truth are we seeking? 

What Fellowship is attempting to create in your child is a characteristic that is counter to culture. We are encouraging your children to hide God's Word in their hearts, capture every bit of information they receive, and filter it by asking, "How does this align with God's Truth?" Our biblical reference for the trait Truth Seeker is 1 Thessalonians 5:21: "test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good." Through our curriculum and classroom discussions, we are teaching your children how to do just that. We want them to be able to objectively listen to the opinions, perspectives, and experiences of others, but then decipher whether or not that lines up with God's Word. To do so, they have to be rooted in His Word and supported by a community of believers. This is where your partnership comes in. 

You can help your children process information by asking questions like:

• How are we helping our children to be truth seekers now and in the future?
• How do we help them discern what media passes off as “truth” when it’s contrary to God’s truth, which is absolute truth?
• How do we help them combat the “my truth vs your truth” mindset and worldview? 

I want our students to be Truth Seekers as they live a life worthy of His calling.

 

Seeking Truth, 

Dr. Kathryn M. Teston