Engineering with a Biblical Worldview
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5 (NIV)
In the fall of 2024, a group of courageous and inspired souls departed Westlake Village, California, to travel across the world to Sierra Leone with a strong determination not only to provide access to clean water, but also to help establish the means through which communities could generate their own clean water for generations to come. This group consisted of student engineers, artists, entrepreneurs, artists, and filmmakers—a collaborative team united behind one purpose: to be the hands and the feet of Jesus. (If you are interested in hearing more, the story is beautifully captured in a student film, Engineering Hope, created for our OCS Annual Film Festival.)
This story is one of many unfolding at Oaks Christian School, not by accident, but by design. Such endeavors are rooted in a Biblical worldview and strengthened by a robust liberal arts education. At Oaks Christian, we see the liberal arts as part of the world of cohesive exploration of the creativity God has given us and the responsibility we have to lead students toward character and contribution.
Purpose-Driven Engineering
In 2018, a pet food warehouse adjacent to our campus came available. Our leadership saw it as an opportunity to design the empty space into a state-of-the-art engineering center. That was the origin of what would eventually become our Ross Family IDEA Lab and home to our Institute of Engineering, directed by Mr. Greg Smith. The 14,000 square foot building gives students access to a metal shop, a wood shop, countless hand tools, lathes, saws, computers with CAD software, a Haas CNC mill typically reserved for industrial companies and colleges, and other advanced industrial-grade Tools.
From the beginning, the purpose of the IDEA Lab was to provide them with distinct opportunities, inspiration, training, and tools to design with purpose, to serve individuals and their communities. They weren’t there just to tinker, but to be difference-makers. In addition to the fresh water initiative in Sierra Leone, other engineering projects include a go-kart made for an elementary student who couldn’t walk while they recovered from surgery, a home design for a person who is deaf, a firefighting robot, a “buddy table” for our new elementary school, or a unique concept for stucco that is more fire resistant and lighter in weight (obviously applicable here in Southern California). Rather than competing in robotics competitions, our students are creating projects that serve individuals and communities.
Portrait of a Graduate
Ultimately, the chief aim of Oaks Christian is not just focused on what our students can do by the time they graduate, but who they are becoming—the men and women God has designed them to be. Created in 2018 through a schoolwide collaborative process, our Portrait of a Graduate articulates the values and characteristics we long to see embodied in our students.
Rooted in a Christ-centered Biblical worldview, we intentionally teach these characteristics while also providing authentic opportunities for these virtues to be lived out. We desire our students to be humble, innovative, collaborative, curious, courageous, purpose-minded, sacrificial, and loving. As we developed our engineering program, these values were at the core of our thinking and our planning.
An Act of Worship
As CESA schools model so beautifully, our students are constantly reminded by our faculty and staff that they are not accidents. They are reminded that each of them is designed by our Creator with purpose. Each student possesses inherent worth and value because of the One through whom all things were made.
This theological conviction provides the grounding for everything we build—literally and figuratively. Engineering, design, and innovation are not merely technical disciplines; they are expressions of stewardship. When students understand that their gifts originated in their Creator, their work can become a beautiful act of worship.
Engineering AND Liberal Arts
I love this quote from the late Steve Jobs: “It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.” Unfortunately, many schools and school systems around the world continue to separate the STEM disciplines from the liberal arts. At Oaks Christian, we believe this to be a false dichotomy. A strong liberal arts education helps nurture men and women with intellectual breadth, analytical rigor, strong communication skills (writing, speaking, and listening), moral reasoning, and a sustained appetite for lifelong learning. Conversely, a strong STEM education equips students with a solid foundation in innovation, empirical thinking, problem-solving, mathematical fluency, scientific reasoning, and engineering design.
These are not competing paradigms, but instead models that will shape graduates with both depth and breadth of understanding—innovators with discernment, problem-solvers who are also meaning-makers, thinkers who are both ethical and technical, reflective and practical. This type of integration allows students not only to construct solutions, but also to ask whether those solutions ought to be constructed, and to whom they ultimately will serve.
When these two models co-exist within a learning community, remarkable synergy emerges. In 2012, Andy Ellwood wrote an article entitled The Dream Team: Hipster, Hacker, and Hustler. Ellwood posits that thriving organizations require three complementary profiles: the “hipster,” who generates creative vision, the “hacker,” who brings the initiative to reality, and the “hustler,” who communicates, packages, and advances the vision strategically. As Ellwood states, this is a “combination that is hard to beat” (Based on these principles, we were thankful to be highlighted in 2020 by Rod Berger in his Forbes article, California School Reimagines The Education Model). While we don’t adhere to strict labels for students based on natural proclivities, we do seek to draw various strengths and giftings into one community of Biblically-minded thinkers who welcome differences as “God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:10).
Living Curriculum
Lastly, we can design perfect philosophies and provide world-class facilities, but nothing happens without a strong faculty. At Oaks Christian, we fondly call our teachers the “living curriculum.” Our teachers are not merely transmitters of needed content; they are the living exemplars of what it means to be faithful followers of Christ. They not only preach with their words, they preach with their lives, applying not only the science of teaching, but also the art of teaching as well.
The Hands and Feet of Jesus
This blog begins with a powerful passage of Scripture from the first chapter of John. It is packed with truth.
In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and was God. Through the Word, all things were made. In the Word is life. Darkness will not overcome the light.
Pause. Reflect. Just dwelling on this for a moment can only encourage our hearts!
The word for Word in these verses is logos which is the expression of divine logic. It is what constitutes and sustains reality. John identifies Jesus as the Logos, the divine Word. He is the tangible presence of the eternal God who animates, organizes, and sustains all we experience and understand. Education, at its most fundamental level, is an exploration of this Logos. Our desire as a school is to provide quality, meaningful conversations that pursue an understanding of the relationship between Logos and learning. We want students to consider ideas that are fundamental to an educational experience that cultivates humanity in them, that gives them the best ground possible to grow into flourishing, contributing people.
Viewed in this light, education’s purpose comes into focus. Logos is the foundation of all study that leads to sound thinking about the relationship between ideas and expression, between abstract and concrete, between divine and human. To learn is to understand the relationship between the reality God created and our understanding of it and responsibility for it.
Engineering, innovation, and design find their origin in Him. When we invite students into the work of building, designing, and problem-solving, we are not introducing something foreign to their faith. Instead, we are inviting them to participate in the ongoing stewardship of creation, co-creating with Christ!
To be the hands and feet of Jesus is not a metaphorical sentiment. It means our classrooms, labs, studios, and makerspaces become places where light shines, whether in a village without access to clean water, or in a culture searching for meaning and hope. It means that we are not just preparing students for college, but for life and beyond.
Our aim remains consistent. That our students would reflect the Word made flesh. That they would build what is good, design what is just, and pursue what is true and beautiful.
May the light of Christ Jesus bring life to our campuses, to our country, and to our broken world.
Dr. Matt Northrop serves as Associate Head of School at Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, California, where he leads academic strategy, innovation initiatives, OC Online, and advancement for grades 4–12 (soon to be TK-12). With nearly 30 years of experience in independent Christian education and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Pepperdine University, he is passionate about cultivating strong teams, cultures of excellence, as well as spiritual and character formation.