Looking for Education …. finding God Reflections on the logistical potential for Keller’s porch metaphor in the Australian Christian School Context
Dr Fraser Douglas Hannam
Abstract
In response to Keller’s 2023 post, Lemonade on the Porch: The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society, Smart revisited the metaphor specifically for Australian Christian Schools (2023). Keller’s metaphor contains 3 elements: The ‘Road’ (the secular world), the ’House’ (the church) and the ‘Porch’ (Christian Schools) a safe third space at the interface of the world and the church where non-Christians might comfortably engage with Christians at a time when church attendance is in decline. The burden of this paper will be to correlate any patterns in church attendance with school enrolment demographics across time. As such it will endeavour to identify the requisite feasibly of Smart’s invitation in terms of the existence of a minimal audience for his evangelical ‘porch’.