Accordingly, our desire is to engage this community as the proverbial firewall of righteousness and justice. In order to achieve the aforementioned objective and advance the cause of Christ in America, we must address the educational disparity in our community.
According to a joint study conducted by the NHCLC and Barna, at least 25% of Hispanic American children never graduate from high school. In certain communities, the number reaches close to 50%. In addition, because Hispanic American children will represent the majority of school students in next 20 years, we must provide the framework for an educational movement that will equip our community with the necessary skills to articulate the gospel, defeat biblical illiteracy and shine the light of Christ.
The division of the sacred from the secular has led to the cultural disintegration that we are now experiencing. God never intended that such a separation exist in His world. From Genesis to Revelation, it is clear that the spiritual and the social are always to be integrated if life is to be lived as God had planned.
Yet implementing this in a nation that has established divisions between the sacred and the secular must be done in such a way that respects the institutional separation of church and state while alsoreflecting God’s kingdom values through acts of service.
Social services to those in need satisfies the law of love while building a relational bridge back to God and the ministries
offered through the local body of Christ.
At the heart of social chaos exists how a person thinks and behaves based on his or her presuppositions about how life is to be lived. To start the community rebuilding process, a practical beginning involves the two institutions that bring people together more than anything else—the church and the public school.
One significant advantage of churches is that they are located everywhere. There is an average of fourteen churches for every public school in America. They are closest to the needs of the people since they are located in the heart of the community. Churches also offer the largest volunteer force in the nation – enabling strategic mobilization to bring about lasting positive change. Likewise, churches already have buildings for use in hosting community programs. They also offer a combined spiritual and moral framework for assisting people to make good choices.
Since many of our nation’s issues stem from ethical and moral foundations, churches represent the most strategic social service agency to restore hope and transform lives.