Knowing GodCome to faith and grow in faith

Knowing God is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian. As one comes to know Jesus as Lord and Saviour, their heart is changed and they are reborn into eternal life. Jesus’ death pays the price for their sin and they are declared righteous through his sacrifice. When someone comes to know God they repent of their sin and turn to follow Jesus, who saves them from sin and death.

The subject 'Knowing God' helps our students to focus upon God himself, as revealed through his word. The words of God written for us, by those carried along by his Spirit, show us who our God is. And these words point us to ‘the Word’, Jesus, who fully reveals the Father to us. This is the wonder of the Bible, God’s revelation of himself. Reading and considering the Scriptures together are the primary activity of our classes, as we seek to know God more and more. The aim of our 'Knowing God' program is that each student will come to genuine faith in the Lord Jesus.

Students growing in their relationship with God is not something that we want to happen only in ‘Knowing God’ classrooms. All our staff at Covenant play a part in helping our students to know God or grow in their faith. "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). Students will come to a greater understanding of God in all their classes at Covenant. Each class, from Prep through to Year 12, is taught from a biblical perspective. In this way, ‘Knowing God’ is like ‘English’, both as a name for a course and as a foundational element in other courses.

Understanding the Christian Worldview

Optical lenses are a wonderous invention. Each lens allows us to see the world in a unique and powerful way. Telescopes allow us to see far away worlds, microscopes give us access to the miniscule, and glasses correct vision, allowing us to see clearly. Every lens changes the way we see. How we understand the world is shaped by the lenses we use to examine it.

This is a useful analogy for understanding the concept of worldview. Just as we all see the world through our own eyes, we understand it through our own unique perspective. This unique perspective is our worldview. Like a lens shapes everything we see, a worldview shapes everything we think. Just as the right lens in our glasses will help us accurately see the reality of the world around us, the right conception of our worldview will help us accurately understand the reality of the world around us.

Christ shows us that reality. As we come to know God, he shows us who we really are, and what the world really is. As we know him as creator, we see that this is his creation. As we know him as judge, we see the tragedy of our sin. As we know him as Saviour, we see the joy of eternal life. As we know him as Lord, we see the goodness of his way.

One of the great joys of Christian education is that we present Christ and his worldview to our students all the time. All our staff are working together to show how the world is brought into focus when seen through the lens of Christ. As we teach English, science, history, health and more, we look at the world through the Christian lens. We see how the Christian worldview is compelling, how it makes sense of the world. We seek to know God more in every aspect of school life, as we look at the world through knowing him.

‘Knowing God’ classes are one place where we intentionally spend time looking at Christ. We focus on him as he reveals the Father to us by the ministry of his Spirit. We consider our worldviews and why we see the world the way that we do. We consider Christ, and his call to follow him, to know him, to know true life.