Our Vision
Who of us has ever understood the agony and suffering our Lord went through as, alone with God, His Father. He agonized until sweat, as great drops of blood, fell from His face to the ground. Alone He passed through these hours of agony, while His disciples slept a short distance away. They could not watch with Him even for that last short hour.
How many of us, the elect of God, are sleeping, drifting into error or into indifference. How many who are engaged in His work, are taken up with their weariness or with their own interests! How few are girding their loins more firmly with Truth, trimming their lamps, and making sure that the vessel is filled with oil; how few are longing and watching for His Coming, ready to suffer the reproach of the cross. Are you and I among the few who are watching with Him this last hour of darkness, before His return?
It was in the garden of Gethsemane that Jesus chose that the will of the Father should be done and nothing else. "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." Despite the fact that Christ came to die, He still had a choice, and that choice was made with great suffering. Would He beseech God the Father to let the cup pass from Him (at the same time choosing the will of God) if there was no choice? Would He sweat great drops of blood if there were no suffering? In His choice our Lord gave everything, and that choice determined whether you and I could be saved or not.
In the Song of Solomon 4:12 The Holy Spirit speaks of "A spring shut up, and a fountain sealed." The spring was the Fountain of life the source of living water. Jesus Christ was the spring shut up, and the fountain sealed. Only through His death and resurrection could that Fountain be opened, and the universal cry be sounded, "if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink." For a man to have life, he must drink at this Fountain, and the cost of opening that Fountain cannot be computed.
"But how can they believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?" So, in this "final hour," another "choice" must be made, not by Christ, He made His Choice, now, we the "elect," must make ours. In His choice Christ opened up the Fountain that all men might be saved, in our choice we will determine whether or not those perishing millions will hear the good news that the fountain is open.
The vision and goal of the School of Christ is to train men who will train others. This was Paul's method, and is how he reached the known world of his time. He trained (made a disciple) Timothy and sent him forth with this word; "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (II Tim 2:2). The School of Christ International, following Paul's example, in fifteen short years has made disciples in over one hundred and forty countries. I invite you to be a part of one of the greatest missionary movements of history. Write me today, together we can finish the course and disciple all nations.
The Mission of the School of Christ
"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15
The Goal of the School of Christ
Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15) This one verse sets forth the ultimate goal of the School of Christ, but the constituents of meeting this goal, of attaining what with the natural mind is impossible, are many.
The Constituents
- The manifested life of Christ
- Living the life of another
- An effective plan of reaching every creature
- Cooperation and assistance of the body of Christ
- An outpouring of Pentecost upon the students that through them the Holy Ghost may life the life of Jesus
The Manifested Life of Christ
The School of Christ is about life. Though knowledge and doctrine are included in our learning, these are nothing without the manifest life of Christ in the believer. The school proceeds from the principal that the creature is here to contain and manifest the Creator.
T. Austin Sparks wrote, "The Lord Jesus did not say, I give you a volume of teaching to feed upon." He said, "I am the bread of life." Before we can profit by the bread, we must know and have a vital relationship between the feeder and the food. A natural intellectual acquisition of knowledge of the Bible is no substitute for spiritual food. The disciple must become a manifestation of what he learns.
The aim of the School of Christ is not to send the disciples forth with a notebook full of notes, but rather to send them forth pregnant with the Life of God. No student can graduate without being filled with the Holy Ghost. We have witnessed hundreds of times over. As these students go forth into the cities and villages where God has called them, and continue in the discipline of prayer and the Word of God, they will birth this life and a church is born. Life comes to that community.
