Heidi St John is one of the most influential Christian voices in the world when it comes to parenting, education, discipleship and culture.
She calls on Christian families to stand firmly on the authority of Scripture in a confused and rapidly changing culture.
Her organisation Firmly Planted Family is one of the biggest supporters of the booming US homeschooling business.
She’s known as The Busy Mom whose podcasts have been downloaded more than 32 million times.
Heidi has also written a dozen books including the best-selling Becoming MomStrong: How to Fight with All That’s in You for Your Family and Your Faith.
She has been in Australia as part of the Gospel Reset Tour led by Ken Ham, founder of the Answers in Genesis ministry.
HEIDI ST JOHN’S WARNING TO PARENTS ABOUT ‘CHRISTIAN’ SCHOOLS
During her time here she noticed something missing in Australian Christian schools.
She told Vision Radio: “It’s interesting to me to note that what is happening in the United States in our government education system is also happening here.”
“Although I would say it’s happening to a greater extent, and it’s happening in Christian schools.”
“That’s what’s so fascinating to me. And I think parents need to be very, very aware.”
“Just because a school has the name ‘Christian’ on it does not make it a Christian school.
PARENTS TEND TO GO ON AUTO-PILOT WHEN SENDING THEIR KIDS TO A ‘CHRISTIAN’ SCHOOL
“Christian schools should stand on the authority of scripture. And what I’m hearing from a lot of parents here is that that is the exception rather than the rule.”
“I think that is what is sorely missing in Christian schools here in Australia.
“I went to a Christian school from kindergarten through to 12th grade, and I would say 80% of the kids I went to that school with are no longer walking with the Lord.”
“When we put our kids into these Christian schools, we tend to go on autopilot, right? “
“CHRISTIAN PARENTS ARE NOT DOING THEIR DUE DILIGENCE ON THEIR KIDS’ EDUCATION”
“Because we just think, well, they’re doing the job. They’re teaching our children to have a Biblical worldview, but then they’re not the parents.”
“The parents are not looking at the curriculum. A lot of the curricula is teaching evolution and not affirming God’s design strongly for the family, for marriage, for male and female.”
“So parents need to be proactive instead of sitting on the sidelines and assuming that a Christian teacher or a Christian school is teaching their children.”
“They need to do their homework, interview the teacher, find out what their worldview is, talk to the principal.”
“Don’t just go to a website and assume that because they say they’re Christian or because they maybe have a 35, 40 or 50 year history of being a Christian school, that they’re teaching the authority of the Word of God and standing on that authority in their classes.”
FIND OUT WHERE SCHOOLS STAND ON THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE
“Parents need to know that the authority they have was given by God — not by a government or school”
“You need to go to those teachers and to those administrators, and even sometimes to the governing boards in these schools and say: Let me ask you a question about the ethos of the school.“
“Where do you stand on the authority of Scripture? Where do you stand on the creation account that’s God given to us in Genesis?“
“When parents really understand the power of education, they’ll recognise you cannot ever put yourself on autopilot as a parent.”
“Your children need you to stand on authority of Scripture.”
WHY HEIDI IS A STRONG ADVOCATE FOR HOMESCHOOLING
Heidi St John prefers to advocate for a home school curriculum which has this Biblical foundation for life and for marriage and for family.
“You’re literally setting almost like the concrete of their thinking.”
“We get our children as babies and their thinking is not formed and they don’t have an opinion about anything.”
“It’s kind of like wet cement and over the years what we’re doing through homeschooling is making an imprint into that cement.”
“So when we teach our children to analyse what’s going on in the world I have no trouble talking to my children about evolution.”
HOME SCHOOLING EQUIPS CHILDREN WITH GOD’S WORD ON ALMOST EVERY ISSUE
“I want them to be able to argue from a Biblical point of view.”
“So we expose them to these ideas and then we teach them what God’s Word says.”
“And as you do that, you’re giving that child the ability to articulate these ideas, and recognise we don’t need to be afraid.”
“God’s Word can stand up to all of the arguments that will come at them from culture, whether it’s about creation, whether it’s about marriage and family,or whether it’s about government.”
“99.9% OF WORDLY ISSUES ARE ADDRESSED IN GOD’S WORD”
“The Bible actually has a lot to say about government and the issues we’re dealing with as a culture.”
“99.9% of the issues that your kids are gonna deal with in this world are addressed in God’s Word.”
“So we want to teach them God’s Word as the foundation from which they can argue every other thing as they grow into adulthood.”
“And when we do that, that worldview is solidified as they grow.”
INITIALLY HEIDI WAS A RELUCTANT HOMESCHOOL MUM
“I never planned on being a homeschool mum,” Heidi confessed to Vision Radio.
“I couldn’t understand why a woman in her right mind would want to stay home with her kids all day long, for those 12 years per child.”
“But God really got a hold of my heart when our oldest daughter, who’s now 35, was in second grade in a public school in Oregon.”
“I realised that she was being taught lots of things throughout the day that I was not aware of.”
“And they got the best hours of her day.”
“IF I CAN BE A HOMESCHOOL MUM, ANYONE CAN”
“I had no apologetic for homeschooling, no frame of reference for it.”
“When it was suggested to me, I thought, I can’t do that. I don’t have a teaching certificate.”
“I’m here to tell you right now about Heidi St. John, who can’t keep house plants alive.”
“If Heidi St. John can homeschool seven children, who by the way are all doing wonderfully as adults, it is a misnomer and a myth that homeschooled students can’t socialise with other kids, that they won’t know how to adapt to the ‘real world’ whatever that is.”
“It just simply isn’t true. I try to tell parents, you need to ask the Lord to show you what really matters.”
“WHAT GOD GIVES PARENTS IS AN OPPORTUNITY”
“The one thing that the school system takes away from parents that they never get back is the gift of time.”
“I want parents to know, they don’t have control. You learn that very quickly when your children turn 18, 19, 20, and they go off to college or university or wherever they’re going, we don’t control.”
“What we have is an opportunity. I’m trying to get parents to make the most of the opportunity that God has given them.”
“WE NEED TO KNOW WHO’S TEACHING OUR CHILDREN”
“When Jesus was talking to the Pharisees in Luke 6:40 He said: Everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher” (NIV).
“I would venture to guess that upwards of 90% of listeners whose children are in a government school and many whose kids are in Christian schools, don’t know who’s teaching their children.”
“They don’t really know them. They don’t really know their worldview, they don’t know how they feel politically, they don’t really know how to feel doctrinally, and this is the problem.”
“We need to know who’s teaching our children so that they are being given the right information to form the foundation that will carry them into their adult lives.”
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