Kingdom Differences
Why Kingdom Differences?
The word “diversity” sweeps through nearly every social media forum and news outlet on a daily basis, yet the term itself can lead to confusion. At Southwest Christian School we choose to focus on how the word of God describes diversity through the lens of Jesus Christ. At SCS we strive to ensure we are taking the proper steps in advancing God’s Kingdom by building bridges that span our differences and lead people to Christ.
Kingdom Differences Mission
To provide a biblical approach to building bridges between people while embracing the differences God created.
We desire to cultivate an environment that maintains a deep commitment to the promotion of Kingdom diversity, striving to reflect God’s love, and welcoming all image bearers of the most high God into our Christ-centered community.
Kingdom Differences, God's Plan:
Evidence abounds of God’s desire for all people to know Him and have a relationship with Him. The Word of God tells that story from beginning to end.
Genesis 1:27
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.” The Lord created all people to bear His image and reflect His light in the world.
Genesis 9:1 and 11:9
God intended for mankind to be spread across the globe experiencing different geography, weather, customs, etc. He commanded Noah and his sons to “fill the earth.” However, Noah’s descendants decided to ignore that charge and to cluster together and “make a name for ourselves” by building a tower. Note that God himself scattered them and gave them different languages. “That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”
Psalm 22:27
Yet God’s plan included an opportunity for all people to know Him. King David sang, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.”
John 3:16 and Romans 5:8
Of course, God sent a Savior to redeem the lost, regardless of their condition. John wrote: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life…” and Paul reminded us that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Matthew 28: 19-20
Matthew recorded Jesus’ explicit command to reach diverse peoples so that they could have a relationship with God: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” We have emphasized “nations” in this passage because the Greek word used here is ethnos, from which we derive the English word ethnicity.
Acts 11:26
The apostles ultimately embraced this approach. Luke relates that “the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch,” illustrating that cultural diversity has been a feature of the body of believers from the earliest days of the Church. Antioch was a thriving city with stark divides separating ethnically diverse populations. Yet people came from all over the city to see and hear the Word of God being preached–Jews, Romans, Greeks, Syrians, Egyptians and more. How was one to describe this hodgepodge of new believers? What united them? Christ. Therefore, the term “Christian” was born out of this unity amid diversity.
1 Corinthians 12:12-14
Paul made it abundantly clear that God’s plan included people who did not necessarily look, think, or act exactly alike. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he explained: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.”
Revelation 7:9-10
Of course, in Revelation, John paints a picture of heaven that reflects the diversity of peoples that God ordained. “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
How embracing Kingdom Differences is expressed at SCS
As a school devoted to its mission to equip Christian leaders in the world, SCS strives to incorporate instruction, discussion, and action in ways that prepare our students to represent Christ in all environments. We have a Director of Culture and Community who serves on the school’s Senior Leadership Team, and his work is supported by staff members and teachers on both campuses. Teachers receive regular training on important topics and current issues facing our students and families, always through a biblical lens.
Interestingly, the high school club with by far the greatest average attendance over the past three years has been the Multicultural Club, where all students are invited to hear from speakers who bring both interesting perspectives and who profess Christ.
Our students also serve a wide variety of ministries and other non-profits that impact communities locally, nationally, and internationally. Many of these local opportunities are the result of partnerships with SCS, while our minimester travel programs have bought students to the nations–Honduras, Jamaica, Brazil, Argentina, India, Nepal, China South Africa, Kenya, Spain, and more.
Whether engaging with others on campus, impacting our local community, or spreading out across the globe, we hope to reflect the unbounded love of Christ and to serve as His ambassadors to the world. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old is gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us a ministry of reconciliation…We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”
Spiritual Life
