Lutheran Schools Week: Day Three

Well, it has been an interesting beginning to National Lutheran Schools Week.  By interesting I simply mean I have not been in my Lutheran high school all week.  Apparently, the polar vortex has no regard for National Lutheran Schools Week. I'm sure my students think this might be the best way to celebrate being a student in a Lutheran school.  I don't blame them.  We have been in school for three long and grueling days this quarter.  They needed a break.

Lutheran schools matter because Christ crucified for our sins matters.  Lutheran schools matter because the teachers in these Lutheran schools, those that are synodically trained, have taken an oath to uphold God's Word and the Lutheran Confessions.  

What exactly is that oath, why does that oath matter and how does that bring comfort to students in Lutheran schools and parents that send their children to Lutheran schools?

I discussed those questions in a post back in August.  Here are some excerpts from the original post.

As Lutheran school teachers we vowed that we...

• believe in the canonical books of the Old and New Testament to be the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. 
• accept the three Ecumenical Creeds, namely, the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds, as faithful testimonies to the truth of the Holy Scriptures, and that you reject all the errors with they condemn. 
• believe that the Unaltered Augsburg Confession is a true exposition of the Word of God and a correct exhibition of the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church; that the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Small and Large Catechisms of Martin Luther, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Authority and Primacy of the Pope, and the Formula of Concord - as these are contained in the Book of Concord - are also in agreement with this one scriptural faith. 
• solemnly promise to faithfully serve God's people in the teaching ministry in accordance with the Word of God, the Ecumenical Creeds, and the Confessions, or Symbols of the Church. 
• trusting in God's care, seek to grow in love for those you serve, strive for excellence in your skills, and adorn the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a Godly life. 

The work of Lutheran teachers is crucial. Lutheran teachers cannot be cavalier about the importance of this vocation, God's Word and The Lutheran Confessions. 

  And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. - Ephesians 4:11-16

Lutheran schools that possess effective Lutheran educators who understand, value and teach Lutheran theology are why Lutheran schools matter today, this week, and for eternity.