October 2, 2018 Show with Rev. Aaron Anderson on “Love Can Heal Urban Education: The Challenge of Educating Urban Students Within the Context of Poverty, Trauma, Abuse & Other Overwhelming Socio-Economic Factors”

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Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

Now here's our host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on the second day of October 2018, and I am delighted to have for the very first time on the program at the urging and the highest recommendations of a previous guest,

Nancy Snyder, who is a Christian author focusing her literary work on Christian education.

She strongly urged me to interview my guest today, Reverend Aaron Anderson, and he is the

CEO of Logos Academy in York, Pennsylvania, and we are going to be discussing

Love Can Heal Urban Education, the challenge of educating urban students within the context of poverty, trauma, abuse, and other overwhelming socioeconomic factors, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Reverend Aaron Anderson.

Yeah, thanks, Chris. It's great to be able to join you, and Nancy's too kind.

She is a treasure for sure. Amen, and by the way, if anybody wants to hear my interview with Nancy Snyder, you can go to ironsharpensironradio .com,

click on past shows podcast, and then you could type in Nancy Snyder in the search engine, and her last name is spelled s -n -y -d -e -r, and you'll have two, actually, interviews, at least two, with Nancy on the subject of raising children and education and other related topics, but it's so great to have you on the program,

Reverend Anderson, and why don't you tell our listeners before we move on to your personal testimony, as we have typically first -time guests on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, give us a summary of their salvation testimony, what kind of religious atmosphere, if any, they were raised in, and what providential circumstances rose up in their lives that drew them to Christ and saved them.

So before we do that, let us know about Logos Academy, York, Pennsylvania.

Yeah, that's a topic I love talking about. So Logos Academy is a

Christ -centered classical school in York, Pennsylvania, that's been around since 1998, started by two ladies named

Tracy and Connie, who had a passion for wanting to do something about what they saw, you know, they saw the crisis in urban communities across the country, and then they, you know, they were actually ready to move to Chicago to do something about that, and God showed them that right in their own backyard, there was significant need.

York, Pennsylvania is an interesting place, historic place, but there is, so in York City, Pennsylvania, there's just a great poverty, there's like your typical, what you'd see in typical cities in America, great, great challenges with the public education system, and so these ladies were moved 20 years ago to start a classical school, which, you know, typically is, classical schools are typically not affordable to people who are living in poverty, and so they started an urban classical school, and we were, so we're probably one of the earlier schools in that, in the urban classical school movement.

We've been around now for 20 years, we're K -12, 275 students, and you know, by God's grace, we're doing, seeing some neat things.

Last year, our senior class had the highest, we had highest SAT scores in York and Adams County, in two counties, and that's, you know, and that's given the fact that we're serving about two -thirds of our kids are kids that live in poverty, so very diverse student population, both in terms of racial diversity and in terms of socioeconomic diversity, so yeah, by God's grace, we're seeing some great things 20 years later, and we're growing and expanding, and just started a campus in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as well.

Yeah, so that's, I'm sure we'll be talking more about that, but that's a high -level overview.

We, let me just say the last thing, Chris, is that we raise over two million dollars a year to scholarship kids to come to Logos, so a bit last year, we raised about 2 .3

million, and that's so, so, you know, the average kid that's going to Logos is spending, you know, a thousand to eighteen hundred bucks to go there for a

Christ -centered, you know, private classical education. Wow, that's a lot less than probably even the tuition of the private

Catholic school that I attended back in the early 60s,

I'm sorry, the late 60s and the early 1970s. It probably wasn't much different back then.

Well, yeah, it's a pretty amazing reality. I mean, that's part of why we're so humbled and grateful to see what

God has been able to do, you know, that we really believe that a

Christ -centered high -quality education should be affordable and accessible to anyone, and so we're really, and we're not offering this just to Christian kids.

We don't have a faith requirement for students to come, and so, you know, we're serving kids from all over the community, and God has been able, it's just a really beautiful picture of the gospel that the offers out there, you know, it's not the full gospel picture because it's not free.

We do require parents to engage and to pay something, but it's pretty unheard of to find a private classical school that you'd spend, you know, you might spend as little as $500 a year to get your kid there.

The private Christian school that is operated by the former church where I was a member on Long Island, New York before relocating to Pennsylvania, Grace Christian Academy, which was founded by Grace Reform Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick, New York, they had a slogan.

I don't have it in front of me, so I hope that I don't ruin the slogan too much, but it was something to the effect of, we don't just teach children what to know, we teach them how to think.

Would that be a similar motto in some way for classical education in general?

Yeah, you know, classical, the classical education movement is very much about helping students not only to become really solid critical thinkers, which is why we teach logic, but also effective communicators, which is why you'll find they teach, the classical schools teach

Latin, you're going to, my kids, I have six kids, all of them have either been through Logos or going through it, and so you'll find early on they're learning

Latin and Greek, roots of language, because we're trying to teach kids to not only be good critical thinkers, but really effective and winsome communicators, because good heavens don't you look around our world and see, we need thoughtful Christians, thoughtful people who can engage with the difficult issues that our world is facing, and so, and we just,

Logos is really built around this idea of building intelligence and character, and we just said that model can't be only accessible to people who have money, we have to go into places where people can't afford it and offer it there, and that's what

I love about Logos Academy. Well praise God, and now let us hear something about, as I mentioned just moments ago, something about your childhood, your upbringing, what kind of religious atmosphere you were raised in, if any, what kind of providential circumstances the

Lord raised up in your life that drew you to himself and saved you? Absolutely, I'd love to love to share that, so I grew up as a child of Christian parents who had probably been only a few years prior to my birth had been, had come to know

Christ in the Baptist Church, you know, had their own salvation experiences, and so I was born and raised there by young Christian parents, but people who very deeply loved

Jesus and loved the Church. I can remember what, probably like many kids, being five years old, sitting in a

Sunday school class, and an invitation was offered, you know, and I can remember resisting it for a couple weeks, and then finally, you know, yielding it to it, and funny story,

I can remember, I can still picture running upstairs from the basement of that church, and finding my mom and dad, and telling them that, you know,

I asked Jesus to come into my life, and I told them that I would, I can't remember how

I said it, but that I had to change the trajectory of my life plans, and I said

I had wanted to be a, I had wanted to be a beer drinker and a truck driver. You'll get yourself barred from the

Supreme Court if you keep talking. And so I remember,

I remember, you know, that anyways, I came to Christ at a young age, and you know, just over the years,

I've always, yeah, through my teen years and then into college, very much just sensed

God pursuing my own heart, and you know, like that hymn says, you know, prone to wonder,

Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. I remember very just moments in my life where I very strongly sensed the goodness, the love, the grace of God that He's shown to us in Jesus, and you know, it's probably the teen that actually began feeling some sense of call into some kind of ministry.

I ended up, I ended up going to, you know, I ended up attending Liberty University. I went to,

I went to seminary, you know, after working several years in business, graduated from Reformed Seminary, and am actually an ordained

PCA, you know, Presbyterian Church in America minister, and pastored for, pastored for 12 years and still ordained of the

PCA, and by God's providence, God's strange providence, I was on the board of Logos Academy as a pastor, supporter, and the school went through some transition, and the path opened up for me to, for me to come into leadership.

The board asked me to take over the role as CEO and head of school, and it's been a really wonderful, it's been a really wonderful transition, because it brings together so many parts of my own background, being a pastor, you know, my experience in business, various entrepreneurial ventures, and yeah, so that's, so it's an interesting weaving of my, weaving of my story, how

God's brought me to this point. Well, if you could tell us something more about the church where you pastor. Yeah, well,

I'm not currently, I don't currently serve as a pastor in the church. When I moved to Pennsylvania, I moved from North Carolina to Pennsylvania, I pastored as an assistant pastor at a

PCA church called Providence Presbyterian. I came there and led worship and did small groups and, you know, young adults ministry, and then the church sent me and a group of people to plant a congregation in York City, Pennsylvania, a church to reach the urban community, and we planted,

I planted City Church with a group of people, pastored there for about five and a half years, and that was, that's where I made the transition out of City Church and into Logos Academy, and so now

I'm still ordained. I still preach in lots of churches throughout the area as I'm asked to speak in different places, but it gives me a lot of opportunity to be in lots of different places, but I'm trying to run a school and a school network, and pastoring at the same time would probably be a recipe for disaster, so I'm currently serving the

Lord by running Logos Academy. Great. Well, I'm going to give our listeners our email address if they have any questions of their own to ask you.

My email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, c -h -r -i -s - a -r -n -z -e -n at gmail .com.

Please give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the

USA. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Well, if you could, a very intriguing theme of our show today, you can heal urban education.

Before we even go to the subtitle of that theme, tell our listeners what you actually mean by that, healing urban education.

We don't often hear of healing being connected with something like education, but tell us about what you mean by that.

Yeah, you know, so I've lived in both the suburbs and in cities, and it's very clear, not only from the, you know, the research we see regarding public education, but just specifically urban education.

Urban education is in the middle of a crisis. I mean, if you were to look across the country, you would see significant failure rates of urban schools.

And so it's not, this is not just a Pennsylvania phenomenon. I think this is very much something we're seeing across the country.

So our urban schools are in deep, deep crisis. And part of that is there are a lot of reasons for that.

I don't, you know, I believe poverty, urban poverty is a significant, significant issue that obviously cities are dealing with, but it has a very significant impact on the ability of educators to be effective in their communities.

And so that's, I think, the starting place. As I began doing some research and just trying to build on our own experiences, it's just that recognition that our city schools are really, really struggling.

For instance, there are, and I want to be very clear and very careful, there are some really, really wonderful folks doing their best in public education to serve kids.

There are a lot of school leaders and educators who are trying, you want to love kids and want to serve them well.

So as I talk about public schools, I don't intend to be pejorative or, you know, in any way malign them for the work that they're doing.

But the reality is that in our, in Pennsylvania alone, Pennsylvania has 500 school districts, which is an amazing number, first of all.

In the community where we live, York City, York City public school system, that again has many, many,

I really appreciate the friendship with the superintendent and many of the folks there. York City schools were ranked, have been ranked somewhere between number 495 to 499 in Pennsylvania and are considered one of Pennsylvania's failing school districts.

And again, the issues there tend to be very high poverty rates. So York City public schools have a 55 % abject poverty rate, so very, very high poverty rates.

Significant issues obviously around related to poverty, such as family, overall family decay, and anyways, all that just leaks into the schools and creates a very, very challenging environment, which is where, which is why you see in your urban schools high dropout rates, you know, low attendance rates of students, you know, violence in the schools, you name it.

And, and the reality is kids are just bringing in all the brokenness that's connected to poverty, they're bringing it right into the schools.

And, and our nation is really struggling with figuring out how we, how we reach these kids.

And so that that's kind of the starting ground for the, you know, the topic of my research. Now, what do you mean, this is a very oxymoronic statement on its surface, the power of hopelessness.

What do you mean by that? Yeah, yeah. So, so, so obviously hope, right, when you think of hope itself is an extreme power, right?

The power that we as Christians know, because of the hope of the resurrected

Christ that's in us, that's in that work in us, right? Well, hopelessness also has, has an extreme, you know, some extreme power.

And, and you see it, you see that very clearly. I've seen it now,

I've lived almost 15, well actually I've lived almost 13 years in New York City. So my family,

I've raised my family in an urban context, and we have firsthand just witnessed the real power of hopelessness and despair.

It's very easy from what, the power that I've seen, it's very easy to, to be in an urban context, to come in with energy, to change and transform a community and realize just how deep -seated hopelessness and despair are in communities.

And you see that, not, it's not just in our schools, it's in the streets. You spend a little bit of time and you look at the violence, you look at the cycles of violence, revenge, more violence, you look at the drugs, the opioid crisis, you name it, all those things, they have a very serious, a very, they carry a very serious influence and power over a community.

And so when I think of the power of, the power of hopelessness, it just seems to hold a sway over a community and it, and it almost says, you know, don't even try to change things because we've been there and done that and, and, and, and you're not going to be able to change what's been, what's happened for generation after generation.

And, and that's, I think, that's, I think ultimately the sad part is that so many of the things that we've seen that, that are perpetuated in urban communities have existed for generations and generations.

And, and it would look to the outsider, like we can't really even change those things.

And that's, I think that's what I would say, the power of hopelessness. Now, if you could tell us something more about the adverse childhood experience studies, the

ACE studies as they're used or called with an acronym, I should say. Yeah.

Well, let me, let me start by, let me start by with a story. I think that will lead into that.

You know, back in 2000, I believe it was 2007. My neighbor girl was a little girl named

Jerizabel Bias. She was two years old, used to play at our house. You can still picture her, you know, hanging out our window.

She was, she was beaten to death by her mother's boyfriend. Wow. With an Xbox controller.

And. Well, what was the last thing that you said about an Xbox controller? Xbox, an Xbox controller.

Yeah. She, she had a, she had a dirty diaper. She unplugged, she was walking around, she unplugged his

Xbox controller and he, he lost it. She had already been, she was, she was being abused.

And so he lost it. And I mean, just, she died of multiple blunt force trauma.

Wow. You know, a two, two year old and. Because an adult man was playing a child's game.

Adult man was playing a child's game. So, so here's the cycle, you know, the power of hopelessness.

You know, I'll tell you, Chris, I've never actually wanted to murder somebody, but I mean, sitting and watching his trial, you know,

I thought like, just give me a few minutes with that guy and I will, you know, and I had to check my own,

I had to check my own heart on that. Right. His mother spoke at his trial and, and pardon the expression,

I'll just, I'm just going to say it. I mean, she said, you know, she said she used to beat the hell out of him when he was a kid with, with iron, with, with hot wheels, with hot wheels, you know, toys.

She locked him and his brother, you know, locked Harvey and her brother and his brother in a bedroom over Christmas, over a couple of periods of days, because she couldn't face him because she didn't have

Christmas presents. And so she locked him away over Christmas. Punished the child because she could not give the child gifts.

Right. So what you have is, is, you know, the abused, these kids that are abused and, and traumatized, what we're seeing are patterns that repeat themselves.

Right. And this actually shouldn't be that surprising for the Christian. And we talked about generations, you know, like generations repeating the sins of their fathers.

And, and so here's Harvey Johnson, who's severely abused as a child. He grows up to be a man and ends up traumatized, not only abusing, but murdering this little girl.

Harvey Johnson is now on death row. He had three daughters of his own. They're now growing up without dads.

And you can begin to picture just go ad nauseum generation to generation.

And of course, just quickly to interject, people, even though people use as an excuse their own childhood as for the sins that they commit, people who have been the victims of abuse should be the least likely because they know what it's like to be the victim of such horrific treatment.

So we just want to make sure that, that although it is a, a tragedy of sins being passed down generation to generation, it is not, it is not an excuse for that to be any kind.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Correct. Yeah. Never.

I don't believe for a second that anyone can just simply blame their childhood and say, you know, that I have no responsibility.

I have no culpability. We, you know, I think the, what you'll see as I talk about the

ACEs studies, I think you'll see that there's, there's some neuroscience research that begins to explain, explain some of the behavior.

It never justifies it. We can never, you know, as I, as I can even humanize

Harvey Johnson and, and sympathize with him, it never justifies what he did to that little girl.

Yeah. So I think that's an important point to be clear on. And that led to the

ACE studies. Yeah. So the ACEs, yeah, the, the ACE studies, the adverse childhood experiences studies were done in 1998.

And I, I became exposed to these studies. I ended up on the board of prevent childhood, prevent child abuse,

Pennsylvania, a statewide board focused on ending child abuse because of this, because of Derisabelle.

The ACEs studies are pretty new. I mean, they're only, they're only 20 years old. They were, they were done surprisingly around the time that Logos Academy started.

And they've, they've really now in the last few years started to get a lot of traction. People are paying attention to the

ACE studies now. So you can go look, look up, you know, go look up ACE studies and you'll find that there in 1998, a group

Kaiser Permanente out in California looked at, they did a, they did a two things simultaneously.

They took a group, they took a group of 9 ,500 adults and they did a, they did a health screening, a full health screening on these adults.

And then they gave these adults a survey and the survey asked about a variety of different childhood traumas that they would have experienced from everything from physical, sexual, emotional abuse.

It looked at living in the home with somebody who was suicidal, living around somebody that had some, you know, the substance abuser.

There were basically like seven factors that they looked at. And it also interestingly looked at children who grew up around, grew up in a divorce, in homes of divorce, you name it.

They, they looked at these and what they did was they, in this health screen, they did a health screening and then they did the survey.

And what they found was really, really telling in that 1998 study. They, they found that, that, that first of all, lots of, oh and by the way, the people that they surveyed predominantly were white middle class suburban people in California.

So what they found is that when these people experienced these adults, when they, when they said that they had experienced at least four experiences of some kind of childhood trauma, four experiences were the tipping point.

At, at, at four, at four instances of trauma, their adult behavioral outcome suddenly, their behavior and their health outcome changed radically.

And so here's what they, here's what they found. They found, for instance, that, that these, these people who had experienced four or more were, were four to 12 times more susceptible to alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, and suicide.

They were two to four times more susceptible to, to have very risky behaviors, such as greater than 50 sexual partners.

They found high rates of obesity, higher rates of cancer, higher rates of heart disease, you name it, across the board.

So that was the connection, the tipping point. Once they had experienced four traumatic events of the child, their adult health behavior and behavioral outcomes were very significant.

So what they found in that, that important number that I, that I want to make sure people catch is that in that, in that white middle class suburban population, they found that about 6 % of the population had experienced four or more

ACEs or adverse childhood experiences, about 6%.

So in 2012, another study was done on an urban population that was done in Philadelphia by the

Children's Hospital. And what they found in, in a much more diverse urban context was that 37%, 37 % of the people that they surveyed had experienced four or more

ACEs. So, so the, what was really telling to the research that I was doing was that obviously the rates were, were significant in the suburbs at 6%, but in the cities we were seeing rates as high as in the 30s of kids who were highly, highly traumatized.

And so, so the, so that's the reality,

I think of, you know, the kids are showing up to school are these kids who are highly, highly traumatized.

And I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll stop for just a second because there's a whole nother connection that I, that I think is worth exploring.

In fact, if you have to do, in fact, if you could bring up that other connection after we return from our first station break, that'd be great.

Great. Just don't, don't forget where you left off there. No, that's great. And if anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. Please give us your first name, at least your city and state and your country of residence.

If you live outside the USA, please only remain anonymous. If your question involves a personal and private matter, don't go away.

We'll be right back with Aaron Anderson and more of our discussion today, not only on Logos Academy in York, Pennsylvania, but Love Can Heal Urban Education.

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Why the Reformation Still Matters, and the speaker is Mike Abendroth. Mike is the senior pastor at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts, and the author of Jesus Christ, the

Prince of Preachers, the Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus, Sexual Fidelity, and Evangelical White Lies.

The conference will be held at the Grace Bible Fellowship Church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Saturday, October 6th, and Sunday, October 7th.

If you want more details, go to gracebfc .com forward slash conference. That's gracebfc, which stands for biblefellowshipchurch .com

forward slash conference. You could also call 717 -652 -5229, 717 -652 -5229, and we thank

Grace Bible Fellowship Church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for being a new sponsor here on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

And now we are back with our guest and theme today. Our guest today is Reverend Aaron Anderson, CEO of Logos Academy in York, Pennsylvania, and we are addressing

Love Can Heal Urban Education, the challenge of educating urban students within the context of poverty, trauma, abuse, and other overwhelming socioeconomic factors.

Our email address, if you'd like to join us on the air with a question for Aaron, is chrisarmson at gmail .com,

c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n, gmail .com. Please give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence if you live outside the

USA. And if you could, Reverend Anderson, pick up where you left off. Yeah, absolutely.

I was suggesting that, you know, one of the challenges that urban schools face specifically are just the numbers of highly traumatized kids, specifically the percentages.

And before we went to break, I said that city schools are seeing, based on these

ACEs studies, that, you know, in Philadelphia, they were seeing 37 % of their kids that had been, had experienced four or more traumatic events in their childhood.

And so, the place that I left off was that we were talking about, one of the challenges is the kids are showing up to school and the trauma, what neuroscientists have found is that one of the things that's happening when kids are highly, highly traumatized, something is happening to their brains.

You know, we know from brain science that, you know, brains develop very, very early. In the first five years, actually, the brains are forming healthy, hopefully healthy pathways, so on and so forth.

And trauma can be really disruptive on that front, specifically. And so, the kids that are highly, highly traumatized, their brains are literally, you know,

God's made us very interesting as, you know, like we're fearfully and wonderfully made. And through science, we're learning some wonderful things about our bodies, you know.

We know our brains, they have to, our bodies regulate things like the chemicals, like cortisol and testosterone.

But one of the things you see in highly traumatized kids is that their brains can be flooded with these chemicals, with cortisol and testosterone when they're abused.

And the regulatory systems that regulate those chemicals actually, basically, they become broken through repeated abuse.

Chris, what I think is so, here's what I think is so to cut kind of right to the chase on this topic.

One of the things that makes a difference for a highly traumatized kid, as I did the research, as I looked at all the brain research, looked at the

ACEs studies, there was one thing that really made a difference that helped kids build resiliency and help these kids have the ability to move forward in healthy ways.

And that one thing was one, they just needed to have one loving relationship with an adult who could help them walk through the trauma.

And that's the big difference is one loving relationship. So what brain researchers call, brain researchers call stress where there's no buffering relationship, where there's no loving relationship, they call that stress toxic stress because it basically loads the brain up with chemicals.

And then kids come to school in fight or flight mode and they're just, they're ticked off, they're angry, they're explosive.

But the difference, the big difference the researchers have found is really profound in that it's very simple.

It's that the kids who have adults who love them and care for them that can walk with them through the trauma, those kids build resiliency.

And they don't have to, they don't have to walk that path toward the behavioral problems that are predictable or the health problems.

It's really amazing when you look at the research at what the difference just one relationship makes the life of a kid.

Amen. We do have a listener, Arnie in Perry County, excuse me,

Perry County, Pennsylvania, who asks, you spoke of earlier the recidivism of crime and violent behavior that is passed down from father to son or mother to daughter or parent to child.

And because of that, I was wondering how safe the

Logos Academy may be in the inner city, what kind of violence may occur there and how do you deal with it?

So this is one of the things I think that people are most surprised of when they show up to a

Logos Academy. I think people in general and you see media and you see your expectations are going to come to a school and it's going to be crazy and violent and there's going to be fights and the reality is from the moment people walk in the school, they sense that something's different.

Our mission statement says that we're a school that's grounded in the love of Christ. And so from the moment you walk in the building, like we want people to sense that the love of Christ is really palpable in the way that they're treated, the way they see students being treated, you would see students respectful.

I mean, our code of conduct we talk about says, our code of conduct says, I show respect, I take responsibility,

I seek to repair. And so what I think what you'd find is one is in my almost five years now, my fifth year, we don't have fights in a school.

That doesn't mean kids don't mess with each other and so on and so forth, but we don't have violence in our school.

We don't have, I mean, yeah, I would shudder to say never in the sense of like, you get middle school students who will act like typical middle school students.

We don't have violence. We don't have metal detectors in our building. We don't have, last year,

I mean, last year we went an entire week, your kids don't have locks on their lockers. The only reason we added locks to their lockers this year is because we don't let them have their smartphones out during a school day because it's a distraction.

And so they can lock up their lockers, but we have not historically had locks on lockers. And so everyone who walks in the building is really blown away at how warm the interactions are, how respectful the students are, what would happen.

Like, so today we had a community partner day. You know, you'll have kids that will walk up to you and greet you and shake your hand, look you in the eye and smile and say, welcome to Logus Academy.

So I think, and anyone who's in our area, you know, obviously I'd be glad to pass along my contact information,

Chris, who wants to come and see what, you know, what a Christ -centered urban education can look like.

I'd be glad to show them around. I mean, I've often toured people and had people in tears as they see what they're seeing, and they just can't believe that this actually exists.

Now, I can understand how an atmosphere that you've created and a structure that you've created could transform a child that might be otherwise violent or have other tendencies that would be inappropriate for a school setting, but how about the period of acclimation when a child comes in from a school of less quality or an atmosphere that has made violence perhaps even commonplace in his life, and he's being introduced into this student body there.

How come you, it seems remarkable that you have no violence that you can even think of mentioning, even when it comes to an acclimation period of someone, you know, who finds your surroundings foreign to their own experience?

Yeah, so what you typically have, you know, one of the things to keep in mind is when you have kids coming in from other schools and it happens frequently, they're often, they also want out of an environment where violence and chaos are the norm, and so there is, you're right to pick up on the acclimation period.

There is, especially with older students, there's always an acclimation period where they come in and they have to learn sort of the

Logos way, if you will, and so it does take, we have to walk very patiently with those students, but one of the things is when you see, when you walk into a building and you see that, oh wait, kids, it's not normal for kids to be disrespectful here.

It's not normal for kids to not pay attention in class. The expectation here is that, you know, we're going to sit together in a

Socratic circle and we're going to talk, we're going to read a great work of literature, and I'm going to actually,

I'm going to actually have to work and engage to stay up with my peers. You know, when you begin to set different standards and you show,

I really believe when you show kids a better way, it becomes very attractive to those kids, and so in an environment where, like I said, violence and chaos are not the norm, kids come in and they see a different norm.

They see a different way. It's attractive, and I'll tell you, I'd say the majority of the time, we're able to make it work with kids.

There are occasions where, you know, where a kid doesn't acclimate, but it's pretty, it's pretty rare,

I'll tell you, because part of that is we try to make sure on the front end when we're meeting with families that as they're coming in that they understand the expectations.

We don't, we don't just try to pick the best and brightest. We want to be welcoming to as many kids as we can, but we make the expectations very clear, and part of that is not just with the kids.

Part of it is we're expecting some parent or some family member to also be willing to make some investment and to walk with us in partnership together to educate this child.

We are going to our midway break now. Our midway break is longer than normal because Grace Life Radio in Lake Sadie, Florida, 90 .1

FM, they require of us a longer break because they air their own commercials and public service announcements to localize

Iron Sherp and Zion Radio to Lake City, Florida. So please take this time to not only write down questions for our guests and send them to chrisarnson at gmail .com,

chrisarnson at gmail .com, but also take the time to write down information provided by our advertisers so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize them, because we rely upon our advertisers to exist because the advertising dollars are crucial to our survival.

So therefore, write down all the information that you need so that you can patronize them. But once again, if you'd like to send in a question to our guest

Aaron Anderson, the CEO of Logos Academy, on the theme, Love Can Heal Urban Education, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com,

chrisarnson at gmail .com. Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

USA. I have a question that I'd like to pose to you now and you could answer it when we return, Reverend Anderson.

The question is that since the theme of our show today is Love Can Heal Urban Education, I want you to define what you mean by love because love has many different definitions.

I don't think it has many true definitions, but it has many definitions with which it is used.

Some might think that that just means that you are heaping and instilling upon children the idea of self -esteem and other things that many

Christians, especially Reformed Christians, find very problematic and unbiblical. But if you could explain exactly what you mean by love.

And we'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors, so don't go away. Tired of box store

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.nyc. Have a great day. James White here, co -founder of Alpha and Omega Ministries, and occasional guest on Iron Sharpens Iron radio.

I'm so delighted that my friend Chris Arnson will be heading down to Atlanta for the next G3 conference from January 17th through the 19th, 2019, where I'll be joining a very impressive lineup of speakers on the theme,

A Biblical Understanding of Missions. Speakers include John Piper, Steve Lawson, Bode Baucom, Mark Dever, Conrad Mbewe, Phil Johnson, Josh Bice, yours truly, and many more.

I hope you all join Chris and me for this phenomenal event. For more details, go to g3conference .com.

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S's in the middle. I hope to hear from you soon. God bless you. And welcome back.

We have just a few more announcements before we return to Reverend Aaron Anderson, the

CEO of Logos Academy in York, Pennsylvania. Once again, we want to remind you about a conference being held by our latest sponsor,

Grace Bible Fellowship Church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They are having a Reformation conference on October 6th and October 7th, which is a

Saturday and a Sunday. In fact, it's this Saturday and Sunday. And the theme is going to be why the

Reformation still matters. Their guest speaker is Mike Abendroth, who is a pastor and an author of a number of books and a popular conference speaker.

He's also been a guest on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio a number of times. And if you would like to register for this free conference, go to gracebfc .com

forward slash conference. That's gracebfc, which stands for biblefellowshipchurch .com

forward slash conference. You can also call Grace Bible Fellowship Church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at 717 -652 -5229.

717 -652 -5229. Also, our friends at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, want to remind you that if you order $50 or more worth of merchandise and mention

Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, you will not only receive free shipping on your order of $50 or more, but you will also get the book, the journalable

Psalm 119, published by Reformation Heritage Books. That's the journalable

Psalm 119. You'll get that absolutely free of charge while ordering $50 or more worth of merchandise and mentioning

Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. You can not only order online at cvbbs .com,

cvbbs .com, but you can also call Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service Monday through Friday between 10 a .m.

and 4 30 p .m. Eastern Time at 800 -656 -0231.

800 -656 -0231. Then, coming up, we have some more important events that we want you to attend that I, in fact, am planning to attend.

Not only am I planning to attend the Reformation Conference I just mentioned in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at the

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals annual Quaker Town Conference on Reformed Theology.

That's going to be held at another Grace Bible Fellowship church, that one in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania.

The theme is the glory of the cross and the speakers include David Garner, Ray Ortlund, Richard Phillips, Timothy Gibson, and Carlton Winn.

And that's November 9th and the 10th. If you would like to join me on November 9th and the 10th in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, go to AllianceNet .org,

AllianceNet .org, click on events, and then scroll down to Quaker Town Conference on Reformed Theology.

Then, coming up in January, the G3 Conference returns to the

Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, Georgia, which is a suburb of Atlanta.

And this January, the theme will be the mission of God, a biblical understanding of missions.

I'm so excited about this conference as I am every year. This will be my third year in a row and the event is being held

Thursday, January 17th, through Saturday, January 19th. There will be a Spanish -speaking edition of the conference on Wednesday, January 16th, so please tell your

Spanish -speaking and bilingual friends about that special edition, which will be in its entirety in the

Spanish language. But the English -speaking conference has an enormous lineup of speakers, always extremely impressive speakers, including

Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries, John Piper, Stephen Lawson, Votie Balcombe, Mark Dever, Conrad Mbewe, who

I think is the most powerful preacher on the planet Earth. In fact, I would highly recommend that my guest today, who is discussing

Christian education in the inner city of York, Pennsylvania, Aaron Anderson, I would strongly recommend that one day we get together and work on getting

Conrad Mbewe to speak to the students there. He is a remarkable man, pastor of Covata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa, a

Reformed Baptist congregation there, and he's also the chancellor of African Christian University. He's one of the speakers.

In addition to Conrad, we have Tim Challies, Phil Johnson, the executive director of John MacArthur's Grace to You ministry,

Todd Friel of Wretched TV and Wretched Radio. We have Stephen J.

Nichols, the president of Reformation Bible College, the college founded by the late

R .C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries, and many more speakers are on that roster. For more details, go to g3conference .com,

g3conference .com, and I strongly urge you to also register for an exhibitors booth if you have a church or parachurch ministry or business that you want to promote at this conference, because they are expecting between 4 ,000 and 5 ,000 people.

I know firsthand that having an exhibitors booth at the G3 Conference can have a wonderful, powerful effect on your ministry or business, so I hope to see you there with an exhibitors booth right near the

Iron Trip and Zion Radio exhibitors booth. That's g3conference .com, g3conference .com,

and that acronym, by the way, where that name, G3, I should say, is, it stands for Gospel Grace and Glory, just in case you're wondering.

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Click support and click, click to donate now. If you want to advertise with us, send me an email to chrisarensen at gmail .com,

chrisarensen at gmail .com, and put advertising in the subject line.

As long as whatever it is that you want to promote is compatible with what we believe here, we would love to help you launch an ad campaign.

You do not have to believe identically with me, but whatever it is you're promoting needs to be at least compatible with what we believe here.

It's chrisarensen at gmail .com, chrisarensen at gmail .com. That's also the email address where you can send in a question to our guest,

Reverend Anderson, Aaron Anderson. It's chrisarensen at gmail .com,

chrisarensen at gmail .com. Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

USA. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. And before we go to any more listener questions,

Reverend Anderson, please define what you mean by love when you are referring to the love that heals urban education.

Yeah, so anytime at Logos Academy where we're talking about love, it's obviously connected to going back to our mission statement, which talks about how we're a school that's grounded in the love of Christ.

So love has this context for us that is a love that's rooted in the gospel, right?

And that love that we've seen from Christ is a love that's sacrificial. It's relational.

It's very personal. And so it's a love that is willing to, you know,

Christ himself, the incarnation is this wonderful mystery that God became a man.

He became one of us to experience, you know, to experience our humanity and then take that humanity and offer himself as a sacrifice on the cross for us.

So when we think about what it means to love kids, I mean, that's the mindset that we're striving to come out of, right?

So that love is very relational. We want kids from the moment they walk in the door of Logos Academy, they may be coming out of a context where they're at home.

Their home context may be one in which, you know, who knows what kind of trauma they've experienced.

Have they experienced physical, sexual, emotional abuse? You know, are they living with somebody who's depressive or suicidal?

Are they watching and witnessing mom, you know, being beaten at home?

Or, you know, we have no idea what kids are coming out of it. So when they come in, we want these kids to know that they're loved, that they have value.

They have, you know, they are made in the image of God. So many of these kids may be coming out of context where they're, you know, if they're a kid that's being emotionally abused and they're being told, you know, they're garbage, they're useless, they'll never become anything.

We want these kids to know that God loves them, that they're not trash.

They are made in the image of God, and their Creator loves them, and He loves them even in the midst of their brokenness and their own sin, right?

Because sin has a way of begetting sin, and you know, Christ gave His life for them. And so that's what we're trying to model.

That's the atmosphere we're trying to create from the moment they walk in the door to in their classrooms as they're sitting there.

We're trying to model that. We're trying as best as we know how to show that. But it is ultimately very relational.

We want these kids to be known. I mean, we're not trying to sweep their problems under the rug.

We want to hear what's going on in these kids' lives because they need somebody to walk alongside of them and to be there for them.

I mean, I could tell you, and Nancy could tell you, Nancy Snyder from her work with our students, just utter horror stories of what kids these days are going through.

When I think of stories of sexual abuse, when I think of, you know, our own kids who've had fathers who've been murdered, you name it.

These kids need adults who are compassionate, who are going to walk alongside of them and show them the love of Christ.

And we believe that that's what the research actually shows, is that it's those relationships that can be so healing and so powerful.

We have Bebe in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and she says,

Chris mentioned earlier the very bad phenomenon that has existed in the church for decades, known as the self -esteem movement.

And I was wondering how Logos Academy counteracts that phenomenon and that methodology and that ideology, where children are being taught that they can do anything their hearts desires.

At the same time, how do we contradict or counteract to that lie with the truth that their gifts and talents can be cultivated and nurtured, and that there are many opportunities available to them?

We do not want to crush their spirits, but we don't want to give them false hope. How do you approach this subject with children?

Yeah, that's a great question. And I think that even that question is so contextualized to each child and the type of community that they're being raised in.

There are communities, like I'm very aware, that in suburban communities, specifically wealthier communities, that's very prevalent where kids are hearing, you can be and do whatever you want, you know, in ways that there are ways that we can push into.

I wouldn't even call it self -esteem. I think there are ways that we push kids into unbiblical ways of thinking about who they are and who

God's created them to be. And then I would say, based on what we're talking about, when you talk about child trauma, the other side of that equation are kids who are experiencing heavy trauma and who are not hearing.

They're hearing the exact opposite of that message, which is, you're a mistake. I wish you were never born.

Maybe they're being abused. And on top of that, they might not have role models in their own family or in their community that gives them any hope that they can be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, or whatever it is their dream, maybe.

Yeah, exactly. And I think the message for both the ones that are being pushed toward, you know, maybe call it a sense of arrogance or self -inflation, and then those that are deflated and living in despair,

I think the answer is that we need a good, what

I would ground it in the fact that, you know, we are, as human beings, we are created in God's image, both male and female, created in God's image, and yet we have the reality of our human story that says that we also are broken, that sin and the fall are real realities, and yet God is redeeming that, and God loves

His creation. I mean, that's the other thing we're going to be, you know, where kids are hearing over and over in Logos Academy is that you are loved by God, you were created by God, we are broken, sin is a reality, and yet God loves us so much that He gave us

His only Son to buy us back and to bring healing into our world, and so what we're really eager for kids to hear is that there's the hope of healing, that there is a way forward, that life, you know, that they have purpose and that they have meaning, and I would say for the other kids, and the kids that might struggle with self -righteousness or self -inflation is that, you know,

I mean, that the cross says the same, that your value is not based exclusively in your abilities, your talent, your intellect,

I mean, your values, you're a child of God made in the image of God, and you have value there because of that, and yes,

God has given you these wonderful gifts, and you can use these gifts, you can cultivate these gifts to be tools of good and tools of good for the world and for blessing of the world, or you can cultivate these tools in very ungodly ways that are destructive and that are selfish and greedy, but yeah,

I think that's the way we would approach that. Yeah, it's, assuming a difficult hurdle to overcome,

I know that you said that many of these kids are being taught that they are dirt and garbage, but at the same time, the hip -hop culture, the rap culture, and this is not a dig to the intrinsic nature of rhyming in music or anything like that, but there are trappings that accompany much, if not most, of the hip -hop culture, and that would be vanity, pride, arrogance, that kind of thing, and that is drilled into the,

I see the littlest of kids acting in a very haughty and proud and arrogant manner because of the fact that they're listening all day long, well,

I'm not sure that that's why they're thinking that way, but it's being aided by what they're listening to all day long in the area of hip -hop and rap, but do you have any comments on that?

Well, I would say, I would probably go beyond just hip -hop and rap, Chris, I would say if you, and you know, like having six kids,

I listen to a variety of music, I think those themes are pervasive in multiple genres of music, you know,

I hear it in just general pop music in general, you know, and as I sit and listen to songs and I have time, opportunity to talk with my own kids, you know,

I'll say, do you hear, have you picking up the message in this song, you know, do you see the arrogance, do you see the, you know, do you see the selfishness and the greed that's here, so that,

I think that's my read, I think I see that, I think I see it in pop culture, in our music,

I think you see it in media, and obviously in social media,

I mean, social media is a tool that lends to, you know, a great deal of narcissism, so I think it's really the reality is, lest any of us think it's isolated to urban communities, the reality is, it's the waters we're all swimming in.

We have Harrison in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, who says, you touched earlier upon the idea of cultivating the gifts and talents that have already been demonstrated by children and directing them towards those gifts as far as using them for their future and so on, what about how does

Logos Academy draw out of children gifts that they might not even have discovered themselves?

Yeah, I think part of that is, part of it is human, like learning is a human, a process of human formation.

I think that's a, I think it's a great question because I think it's not just, it's not just seeing what children are showing us, but it is also that process of cultivating and seeing what can we draw out of these kids, so that happens, first of all, we would say that that happens, that education is not just the impartation of academics to their brain, right, that's what we tend to think, education is sort of opening the brain and just pouring in academics.

That's not, we are bodies, soul, mind, like we are complex beings that God has made us and so education is really about the formation of the whole human being, right, and so that's going to happen in a variety of ways, you know, in our classrooms, right, we're going to try to make sure that we're helping students become holistic people, right, to not just think academically, but learn to think emotionally, to think spiritually and, you know, and all obviously in ways that are infused with, you know, like with gospel and a

Christ -centered way of seeing the world, so a lot of that's going to happen just by virtue, we would suggest, the formation of time,

I mean, if you think about kindergarten through 12th grade, you've got 13 years of time that you're working with students, you're getting to know, and that's why relationships with staff are so important, with a faculty, we want these kids to be known and so I think as you have, as you have, as the students are experiencing their own learning, they're learning about the world, they're learning about God, they're learning about themselves,

I think that's a formative process, that's a give -and -take process, and then as you have people, you know, as you have people who are

Christian teachers who are working with these students over years of time, getting to know them, getting to know their families, and as they go through a variety of courses,

I know I teach a personal finance course where I do personality testing and then teach every high school student who's going to go through a personal finance course, and I talk about careers and things like that, there's going to be a variety of experiences, hopefully, that these kids would have over the course of their education that will help them, again, learn themselves, learn who

God is, learn how they're created, and then hopefully we can get them on a path, on a good path of discovering what great things

God has in store for them. We have Stephen in Atlanta, Georgia, who says,

My name is Stephen. I live right outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Though I didn't grow up in the city,

I did grow up experiencing homelessness and familial abuse and other sad stories.

However, by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ, I've been saved. I've been able to forgive and I've been able,

I'm sorry, I've been given the ability to learn and break out of the cycle of sins that my family has fallen into.

And it was thanks to God who used people to love me unconditionally, shared the gospel with me, and walked with me to teach me how to be a godly man.

So I'm very thankful for this kind of program that Logos Academy offers. Could you ask

Aaron to give an example of Christ working through one or some of the students that stuck out to him that reminds him that all this work is worthwhile?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, thanks for that. Thanks, first of all, for that testimony.

That's so encouraging to hear, and in many respects, you know, reinforces the conversation we're having today that, you know, that people can change.

I mean, that is, God can change people. That's the beauty. It's not, the science says that, you know, that resiliency, the human brain is valuable.

It can change. But what's even cooler is to hear, when I hear stories of how

God reaches hearts and can change and transform, that trajectory that seems almost, almost nihilistic, almost like it's inevitable.

You know, Jesus has the power to change that trajectory. That's very, very encouraging to me.

I think there's numerous stories at Logos where we've seen that to be the case.

You know, one story that I love is our first graduating class. So we've been around 20 years.

We originally were created to be a K -8 school, but then we added, we began adding grades because we realized we needed to get kids through high school.

Our first valedictorian, a young woman named Estephania, and Estephania came to Logos as an immigrant, and she, in kindergarten, did not speak

English, and her teacher loved her, worked with her. I can't even imagine, you know, how she did.

She taught her English. That little girl came to faith in Christ. She's in college now, and she's got this wonderful trajectory to her life.

You know, I see what she's becoming, and it's those kind of stories, when

I see those things, that give me, you know, real hope for what we're doing.

It's the stories of kids coming into our school who were, you know, who felt hopeless.

In other schools, they weren't academically performing because they were being picked on. They were being bullied.

They were distracted, and they came into Logos Academy, and their moms or their grandmas came back to us and said,

I can't believe my daughter is doing, you know, she's doing so well in math. She used to, she never did well in math before.

She couldn't. She's, I mean, I love hearing the story, Jim. She's not a Christian.

You know, we're not Christians, but she feels so loved and so safe in your school.

Those are the things that remind me that the work that we're doing is really, really important. Well, thank you,

Stephen, and I believe you are a first -time questioner, so please give us your full mailing address in the

Atlanta, Georgia area, so that we can ship out to you a free New American Standard Bible, compliments of the publishers of the

NASB, and also compliments of Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, who will actually be shipping it out to you at no charge to you or to Iron Trouper and Zion Radio, so please send that over to us at chrisarnsen at gmail .com

and cvbbs .com. We'll have that shipped out to you, God willing, within the next few days, and we're going to our final break right now, and if you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own, please do so now, because we're rapidly running out of time.

Our email address again is chrisarnsen at gmail .com. chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence. If you live outside the

USA, please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

Don't go away. We'll be right back after these messages, and by the way, Stephen, I hope you're still listening, and I hope that you come to the

G3 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, or at least in College Park, Georgia, which is nearby

Atlanta, at the Georgia International Convention Center, and please introduce yourself if you come.

Introduce yourself to me at the Iron Sharpens Iron Exhibitors booth during a break, and for more details, go to g3conference .com,

g3conference .com. In fact, here's Todd Friel of Wretched TV and Wretched Radio to tell you more about the

G3 Conference. Got to tell you, for my money, Chris Arnsen's radio program is just the best.

Iron criticizing iron. I think that's what it's called.

This is Todd Friel of Wretched Radio and TV with Phil Johnson of Grace to you, inviting everybody to come to the

G3 Conference, which has almost instantly become one of the best conferences in the country. And it is.

It's a great conference. I love it. And Chris Arnsen was there last year. He's been there, I think, every year.

It's great to see him there. You and I actually did some recordings in the lobby at that place, which is a highlight to me.

Tons of stuff going on. Tons of great speakers. And no matter where you are in the building, you will hear Chris Arnsen's laugh.

And that's worth the price of admission alone. If you would like to join Phil, me, Chris, and a cavalcade of great preachers, it should be a cavalcade of great preachers and me, g3conference .com,

g3conference .com. Paul wrote to the church at Galatia, For am

I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man,

I would not be a servant of Christ. Hi, I'm Mark Lukens, pastor of Providence Baptist Church. We are a

Reformed Baptist Church, and we hold to the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. We are in Norfolk, Massachusetts.

We strive to reflect Paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how God views what we say and what we do than how men view these things.

That's not the best recipe for popularity, but since that wasn't the apostles' priority, it must not be ours either.

We believe, by God's grace, that we are called to demonstrate love and compassion to our fellow man, and to be vessels of Christ's mercy to a lost and hurting community around us, and to build up the body of Christ in truth and love.

If you live near Norfolk, Massachusetts, or plan to visit our area, please come and join us for worship and fellowship.

You can call us at 508 -528 -5750, that's 508 -528 -5750, or go to our website to email us, listen to past sermons, worship songs, or watch our

TV program entitled, Resting in Grace. You can find us at providencebaptistchurchma .org,

that's providencebaptistchurchma .org, or even on sermonaudio .com. Providence Baptist Church is delighted to sponsor

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on Long Island, New York, by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following Christ.

Long Island Youth for Christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959. We have a world -class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around the world.

Help honor our history by becoming a part of our future. Volunteer, donate, pray, or all of the above.

For details, call Long Island Youth for Christ at 631 -385 -8333, that's 631 -385 -8333, or visit liyfc .org,

that's liyfc .org. Lynbrook Baptist Church on 225

Earl Avenue in Lynbrook, Long Island, is teaching God's timeless truths in the 21st century. Our church is far more than a

Sunday worship service. It's a place of learning where the scriptures are studied and the preaching of the gospel is clear and relevant.

It's like a gym where one can exercise their faith through community involvement. It's like a hospital for wounded souls where one can find compassionate people in healing.

We're a diverse family of all ages enthusiastically serving our Lord Jesus Christ in fellowship, play, and together.

Hi, I'm Pastor Bob Walderman and I invite you to come and join us here at Lynbrook Baptist Church and see all that a church can be.

Call Lynbrook Baptist at 516 -599 -9402, that's 516 -599 -9402, or visit lynbrookbaptist .org,

that's lynbrookbaptist .org. Hello, my name is James Renahan and I'm the president of IRBS Theological Seminary in Mansfield, Texas.

The Word of God says, if a man desires the office of an overseer, he desires a good thing.

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Master of Divinity degree. This is IRBS Theological Seminary. We believe that the scriptures of Old and New Testaments are the inspired and inerrant

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S's in the middle. I hope to hear from you soon. God bless you. My name is

Steve Lawson, founder and president of One Passion Ministries, as well as teaching fellow for Ligonier Ministries.

I serve as professor of preaching and oversee the doctor of ministry program at the Master's Seminary in Los Angeles.

I would like to recommend the church where one of my preaching students, Andy Woodard, serves as the pastor.

It's called New Covenant Church, NYC. They are a Reformed Baptist church that meets in Midtown Manhattan.

You can find their service times and location on their website, which is www .ncc .nyc.

They believe in a sovereign God who commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel.

If you're looking for a church that believes in expository preaching, which is simply biblical preaching, in New York City, I'd like to recommend that you visit

New Covenant Church, NYC. Again, their information can be found at www .ncc

.nyc. Have a great day. Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, inviting you to tune in to A Visit to the

Pastor's Study every Saturday from 12 noon to 1 p .m. Eastern Time on WLIE Radio, www .wlie540am

.com. We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you, and we invite you to visit the pastor's study by calling in with your questions.

Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull. Join us this Saturday at 12 noon

Eastern Time for a visit to the pastor's study, because everyone needs a pastor. Dan also has a master's degree in theology.

Dan handles serious injury and medical malpractice cases in all 50 states. He represents many

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He wrote the test for the National Board of Trial Advocacy, and currently his firm has over 100 cases that have settled for one million dollars or more, and in approximately 10 different states.

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Dan Buttafuoco's number is 1 -800 -669 -4878, 1 -800 -669 -4878, or email me for Dan's contact information at chrisarnson at gmail .com.

That's chrisarnson at gmail .com. Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai of the

Gospel of Sovereign Grace. Spread the word about firstloveradio .org.

Welcome back. This is the last segment of our interview today with Reverend Aaron Anderson, the

CEO of Logos Academy in York, Pennsylvania. If you'd like to join us on the air, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com,

chrisarnson at gmail .com. Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

U .S .A., and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal or private matter. We are discussing Love Can Heal Urban Education.

And if you could, Reverend Anderson, if you could let us know the high cost of ignoring love.

Yeah, I think that's what we're seeing. That's what the ACES research is showing.

So, you know, going back into that, looking at these studies, you know, I think these studies originally were done to look at something like the problem of obesity, and it's as though they stumbled onto this reality that the kids who are highly traumatized, when these kids are highly traumatized in situations where there's no loving relationship, and that's the key, where there's no buffering relationship, these kids, it's not just that they're highly traumatized, it's that physiologically their brains are damaged, right?

They're flooded with dangerous chemicals, and therefore these kids are showing up to school, again, and they're in fight or flight mode, and you see that they're either aggressive or they're kids that are withdrawn, they're depressed, and ultimately the high cost of not loving these kids is that these kids end up with very predictable adult behavior and health outcomes, things like, again, you know, high rates of obesity, high rates of suicide, of drug use, high rates of the numbers of sexual partners, typically greater than 50, you name it.

The one data I didn't say, Chris, is that these kids that experience four or more traumatic events with a child when it's toxic, they have a life expectancy reduced by 14 to 20 years.

It's really staggering data when you look at the neuroscience and research, so the high cost is, you know, these are people, you know, these are kids that God loves, and the solution is really simple.

It says, you know, the data says, which our scriptures, right, and the gospel proves, is that loving human relationships can make a world of difference.

Praise God. Let's see here. We have RJ in White Plains, New York, who wants to know,

I tuned in late, and I was wondering if your school happens to be modeling the

Christian classical school model, and how, in your opinion, is that different or even superior to the more traditional forms of education that exist today?

Yeah, so we are, you know, we're a classical school. We're a really unique classical school, though, in the sense that we were started, we are a classical school that was started in urban context and not just started in, you know, we could be a school in, say, downtown

Manhattan or downtown Chicago and still be a school that's very wealthy, that's predominantly serving kids that are, you know, upper income.

Our tuition could be $20 ,000, $30 ,000 a year, and that's not who we are. We're a school that was specifically created for kids that are, kids that are living in or near poverty, and so that's part of the thing that makes us really, really unique.

When you look down, obviously, when you look at philosophies of education, we're obviously, the classical method and the classical model is obviously, it's obviously very, it's very different in many respects from a modern public education system, and what

I'd say, Chris, to that is that I think the big difference is that classical education isn't so much about the emphasis on curriculum.

It has its curricular differences, but it really starts with the belief that we believe education is about human formation.

It's not just about dumping academic content into kids' heads, and so our approach is very holistic.

We're paying, we want to pay attention to kids, not only academically, but spiritually, emotionally, physically, otherwise.

Now, I'm just referring to the only experience

I have had, not that I've had a lot of experience, because I was not on the faculty, nor did

I ever attend a classical Christian school, but the classical Christian school of my former church, again,

Grace Christian Academy in Merrick, Long Island, New York. I don't know if all classical education resembles this, but they would include in the curriculum, not only

Christian literature and so on, they would include in that classical secular literature,

Greek, Roman literature, you know, things such as the classics of literature that have spanned the centuries, that do not have any definitive religious or Christian connection, and other things that are outside of the orbit of Christianity, like they would expose the children to evolution, not because they taught it as true, but they wanted to teach children how to respond to that.

Is that something that Logos does, and if so, why?

Why would a classical Christian school include a lot of things that are not innately

Christian? Well, so the answer is yes, and depending on the content, we're obviously paying attention to covering topics at age -appropriate levels, right?

So, first of all, I think we would start with a place, it would be theological in nature, we believe that all truth is

God's truth, right? And that beginning from a doctrine, beginning from a healthy doctrine of common grace, that where we find truth, we can look at truth and say, you know, this is

God's truth. Of course, we believe not only in the value of general revelation, but also the importance of, you know, the special revelation, specifically as it's made known in Jesus Christ.

But yeah, we would want kids to, those great enduring works of human authors, artists, you name it, that have shaped cultures, shaped the way we think, we believe we want kids to understand those, we want kids to understand those things because they tell us something about the human story.

And so, yes, kids would get exposure to that, that'd be the great works, and then we're obviously also even trying to engage modern works.

So our kids are engaging on, you know, our nation, you know, we're in the middle of some deep, deep racial tensions in our country, and here in Pennsylvania we are as well.

Our kids are engaging and reading on topics, you know, of various people who are engaging on topics of race and the challenges there.

You know, from a science standpoint, like we want kids, not from science in every other subject, we want kids to be able to engage the world as God's made it, and also to be able to understand, you know, why people think the way they do.

You know, our kids are learning logic throughout school, they're actually taking formal logic.

We want to help kids become great critical thinkers, and so ultimately I believe that means at some point you've got to engage and interact with the world around you, and not just the world in its modern context, but also in its historical context.

And so we think that's part of what makes for a robust Christian education, is not hiding from the world, but engaging, and where we find truth, you know, call it praiseworthy, and where we see falsehood, we've developed the critical skills and logic to be able to call it out.

Yeah, even the Apostle Paul who, before coming to faith in Christ, was a

Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, and yet he was familiar with Greek philosophy and so on.

He was a man, he was a cultured man who understood how to engage people outside of his own orbit.

Exactly. We have Bobby in Hartsdale, New York, who asks,

I have heard that classical Christian schools very often incorporate

Latin classes into the curriculum. I was wondering why this is the case, especially regarding Protestant schools.

Yeah, so yes, we do as well. Our kids are going to take a Latin that's typical of the classical school movement.

One is the, when you look at the etymology of the English language, Latin obviously has a significant impact on the etymology of the development of the

English language, and so there's plenty of research out there that would show that kids actually perform better on their

SATs when they've had, when they understand the Latin roots of words.

And so that's part of it, it's language development, part of it is that long Western culture.

The funny thing is recently I've seen actually secular research showing that in public schools like there's a kind of a return to beginning to get back to the roots of our

English language, looking at the Latin and the Greek Latin and Greek roots.

And so I think there's a lot of academic value. We think also that just the cultivation of learning languages in general is also just good in terms of, for a whole host of reasons, in addition to those academic ones.

Well, I'd like you to have five minutes at least of uninterrupted time to really instill upon our listeners the uniqueness, the benefits, the superiority of what

Logos Academy has to offer. Yeah, I mean, we're,

Chris, we're, Logos Academy is at an interesting time, where our board just went through some strategic planning, where we're looking at, we've been around for 20 years now, serving in an urban context, our school is very diverse, you know, two -thirds of our school, two -thirds of our kids are kids that live in poverty.

We have significant racial diversity in our school. I think one of the things that you're seeing across the nation is a crisis, not only in urban education, but also there's a,

I think there's a crisis in Christian education. And I would say in Christian schools, traditional

Christian schools, and in many Catholic schools, there are literally hundreds of schools across the country every year that are closing that are faith -based in nature.

And I think there's a host of reasons why that's happening. Part of it's the rise of educational choice in charter schools, more people homeschooling.

But also, I believe it's the rising cost of sending your kid to a private school.

It costs typically, on average, over $10 ,000 a year to send your kids to a private school.

That model is broken. I would also argue that I think the model of the traditional

Christian school, and I went to a couple when I was younger, or the Catholic school, these schools are schools that exist only to serve their tribes.

And part of the value, I think, of Logos Academy that's drawn to Logos over the years is that we don't exist to serve our own tribe.

We exist to offer a Christ -centered education to any kid and any family that wants it, that means

Christian or otherwise. And so we're very excited to be able to see, for kids to be exposed to a high -quality

Christ -centered education. So the other thing about our model is it's eminently affordable.

And we believe, in that strategic planning that we just did, that this model can be replicated in other places.

In fact, I'm having conversations with people from different spots around the country, even right now, who are interested in starting

Logos Academies in their own cities. And so we believe that this model of accessible, affordable

Christ -centered education can be done because we, ultimately, I think what makes the Logos model so compelling is that it flips the values of the world upside down.

The values of the world say that a high -quality education is only available and accessible to people if you live in the right zip code, or if you have the money, the north of $10 ,000 a year to send your kid to a private school.

Logos Academy says, no, we're going to create a system that offers that education to any child and family that wants it.

And as a matter of fact, we've built a model that has built the ability to raise a significant amount of money each year, over $2 million just in York, Pennsylvania alone each year, to make a

Christ -centered education available to that kid whose mom is a single mom, whose dad is in prison.

That kid, we're able right now, in some cases, to offer that education to that kid for $500 a year, in some cases.

Wow. You know, a sliding scale payment. I mean, that kid, we're going to invest in that kid from kindergarten through 12th grade.

We're probably going to spend over $100 ,000 that we're going to raise so that that kid can have a shot at success in this country by having a high -quality,

Christ -centered, urban, classical education. We think that this model works.

We think it's a model that's been able to bring lots of Christian groups together. We didn't get into that.

We have lots of different denominations that are working together. We don't all agree theologically all the time, but we're centered around the fundamentals of the

Christian faith and centered around our mission. So we think we've got, in the midst of a crumbling private

Christian model across the country that's struggling, we think we've got a model that really can make a difference in urban communities.

And so, you know, we're eager to see not only in central Pennsylvania, but to see this model go other places, wherever the board will open the doors.

We have, let's see here, Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, who says, you said early in the show that there is no faith requirement behind enrolling your children at Logos Academy.

Isn't there some kind of agreement that needs to be made by parents that they will at the very least submit to the fact that you are teaching them

Christian truths, and that they must expect that their children will abide by that according to what they are taught, according to tests and projects and other things, and that no complaints should be expected on those basis for the instruction of their children in a uniquely

Christian environment? Yeah, that's correct. We look for a, we call it a parent covenant, that we're very explicit about the fact that we're not going to shy away from the fact that we're a

Christ -centered school. We're thrilled to have your kids at our school, whether they're from a

Christian home, they're not Christian. We've had family, we've had children of atheists, we've had children of Muslims. We're glad to have them there.

We are not going to shy away from the fact that we're a Christ -centered school. We also, though, Chris, try to be very winsome in how, in representing

Jesus, you know, we believe that this is, you know, His school, and so we want to make sure that we're showing these families, winsomely as possible, the love of Christ, showing them the gospel, but yeah, we're unashamed about the fact that we're

Christ -centered, and families should expect that, you know, there's going to be, there's going to be chapel, there's going to, we're going to, we're going to have round table in the morning, we're going to pray together, you know, do those, we're going to have those practices, and so, you know, and we have no problem saying, if that's not a, if that's not the environment you want for your kid, then

Logos Academy is probably not the school for you. Right, just in the same way, and not that these two institutions are the same, but I happened to be voluntarily, years ago, enrolled in an alcohol rehab facility, a

Christian ministry that was an alcohol and drug rehabilitation or recovery ministry in Boone, North Carolina, Hebron Colony Ministries, and this was an unwaveringly and outspokenly

Christian organization, but they welcomed men who were from any background.

You could be a Muslim and go to Hebron Colony Ministries, but you had to submit to the fact that this was going to be coming from a

Christian perspective, you had to go to chapel services, you had to interact and do a, fill out a workbook throughout the entirety of your stay there that was

Christian in nature and so on. Right, basically on the same premise. That's, yeah, that's absolutely right.

Well, you have a minute to just wrap her up and summarize what you want to leave our listeners with before we go off the air.

Yeah, you know what, I think the encouraging thing is, for your listeners, that I would say, you know, the neuroscience research and our scriptures corroborate.

One life can make a difference. You can make a huge difference in the life of a kid.

Maybe you've got somebody in your own community. Maybe you live near an urban community. It doesn't really matter, urban or suburban.

People who are hurting need people who can come alongside them and love them.

We never know what kids are experiencing, but it's a pretty amazing thing to realize that love can make that kind of difference.

And in doing that, I mean, isn't that a powerful way that we get to show the world what our

God and what our Savior is like by coming alongside of them in the midst of their suffering? I think that's really powerful for the church.

You know, it's obviously powerful for Logos Academy. So I think I'd leave people with that sense of hope.

Amen. And the website, again, is LogosYork .org, Logos, L -O -G -O -S,

York, Y -O -R -K, Y -O -R -K .org. And don't forget about the

Reformation Conference being hosted by the Grace Bible Fellowship Church or,

I'm sorry, the Grace Bible Fellowship Church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, featuring Mike Abendroth this

Saturday and Sunday on Why the Reformation Still Matters. Go to gracebfc .com, gracebfc .com,

forward slash conference, or call 717 -652 -5229, 717 -652 -5229.

I want to thank you so much, Reverend Anderson, for being our guest today. I want to thank everybody who listened, and especially those who wrote in questions.

And I hope you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.