Christine Chiner in podcast: Christian schooling is a big struggle in France
Christine Chiner. Photo Radio Essentiel
European Union
The French city of Lyon is comparable to Jerusalem in the days of the prophet Nehemiah. Both cities are ruins, Jerusalem a literal one, Lyon a spiritual one, school leader Christine Chiner says in the CNE podcast.
Chiner leads an Evangelical school in the southern French city of Chrysalide. The school started ten years ago and has grown to 160 pupils aged 3-14.
Although “everything is a struggle in France”, Chiner is not pessimistic. “It is not our struggle that matters, but what God can do for this generation.”
The motivation to start the school is not that the Christians in Lyon were unhappy with secular institutions. “But the challenges are so huge now that only Jesus, only faith, only the Bible can change something in the children’s life”, Chiner says in the podcast. “So, we want to give it a try to help them with Biblical teaching.”
The result is a school that starts with an open Bible every day. “We begin the days in the presence of God. Nothing spectacular, just five, ten or fifteen minutes, but we read the Bible and pray.”
This influences the children. “God has a plan for them. That plan can change everything.”
Almost half of the school’s population does not come from Christian families. “It is 50-50 at our schools”, according to Chiner.
Some young children come to a personal faith in Jesus Christ at the school. The school is spreading the seed, she says. “I believe in a great harvest.”
Inspection
One of the school’s aims is to be the door to the church. “A lot of people come to school, and then they want to go to church. Therefore, it is very important for us to be open to non-believing children.”
According to Chiner, the state’s school inspection is very keen on this too. “It is important to prove that we are not just a church or just the same people together. We open the world to the pupils. We want to form their thinking to give them the tools to analyse and then make a choice.”
Chrysalide is a private school, so the French state pays almost nothing. That’s why Chiner’s biggest enemies are the bookkeepers. “Surviving is our biggest challenge. And we pray for a second location.”
Other challenges include finding the right Christian teachers who accept being paid less than in a public school. Chrysalide can only pay “a little more” than minimum wage.
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Regarding curriculum, the challenges sometimes involve sensitive discussions like creation and evolution. “Our pupils need to know both of them.” Another issue is sexual education, which is mandatory at French schools from kindergarten onwards. “We are happy to start with the Christian program Wonderfully Made in the new school year,” she says.
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