Evidence-Based Approach to Student Faith Formation
By Kent Ezell, M. Ed.
Looking back on my students over the past 25 years, I often reflect on those who professed a love for Jesus while in my classroom but later turned away from their faith. While many former students are still following Him, a significant number are not.
Research from George Barna, Pew Research, and other sources reflects what I’ve observed anecdotally. According to NPR, “When Americans are asked to check a box indicating their religious affiliation, 28% now check ‘none.’ A new study from Pew Research finds that the religiously unaffiliated—a group comprised of atheists, agnostics, and those who say their religion is ‘nothing in particular’—is now the largest cohort in the U.S., more prevalent than Catholics (23%) or evangelical Protestants (24%).”
I’m also deeply concerned about the gap between what students and adults know about the Bible in theory and how they actually live out their faith. Although this disconnect can’t be measured directly, it’s one we can’t afford to ignore. My high school Bible teacher referred to individuals who show their faith only when it’s convenient as “closet Christians.” They would bring out Jesus when it suited them, then set Him aside whenever unbiblical desires took over. God’s grace is free, but true discipleship comes at a significant cost. Seeing this disconnect saddens me and compels me to consider what I can do differently to nurture genuine faith formation in my current students.
Inspired by Jim Collins’ Good to Great, I aim to outline a leadership framework that can guide your school from good to great in the area of spiritual formation. For me, greatness means that teachers are teaching Christianly (pedagogy), resulting in students who live out a Christ-centered worldview. I believe God is calling the Christian education community to pursue deeper impact—to shape more students into fully devoted followers of Jesus.
As John Van Dyk states in The Craft of Christian Teaching, “The purpose of our classroom efforts is the whole-person equipping of our children for knowledgeable and competent discipleship in a hurting world.”
My personal journey in Christian education has been deeply motivated by a desire to see students live out their faith in tangible and enduring ways. Reflecting on the successes and struggles of past students, I’ve come to understand that effective faith formation requires more than my passion—it demands a thoughtful, systematic approach. Out of this realization came a desire to develop frameworks that help educators intentionally design learning experiences that invite students to engage their faith. One such framework is the Faith Formation Flywheel, which offers a powerful tool for understanding how interconnected practices can create lasting momentum in faith formation.
Bringing systems thinking to faith formation: The flywheel concept
The flywheel concept, initially popularized by Jim Collins, comes from the world of business. At its heart, the flywheel represents a set of interconnected elements that must work together in a cyclical and reinforcing way to achieve an organization’s mission. Over time, these elements build momentum; eventually, faith formation in the classroom becomes self-sustaining.
For example, during my undergraduate studies, I set a goal to avoid student debt. To achieve this, I started a lawn care business. The success of my business relied on four key components: customer acquisition, reliable equipment, quality service, and customer feedback.
These components were interdependent. Without acquiring new customers, there would be no lawns to mow. Without reliable equipment, I couldn’t provide consistent, quality service, a problem that would result in unhappy customers. And without customer feedback, I wouldn’t have the input to improve or meet the needs of my clients.
The process formed a cycle: As customers provided feedback, I could better meet their needs. When customers were satisfied, they referred me to others, bringing in new business. With additional customers, I could buy better equipment. With each referral, the system began to generate momentum, and what started as endless hard work eventually became a self-sustaining operation. Over time, the flywheel gained speed, requiring less effort to maintain and continuing to drive growth.
This concept extends beyond business. In Christian education, the flywheel can be applied to the essential components of faith formation. Initial efforts to integrate these elements may feel challenging, but as they align and build on one another, the process takes on a life of its own. The flywheel gains momentum with ever-increasing efficiency and impact, propelling the development of faith formation. The Faith Formation Flywheel is not a checklist but a rhythm—each component feeding the next in a cycle of continual growth.
The flywheel offers an important lesson: while the initial work for administrators and teachers may feel overwhelming, persistence pays off. Once the system gains momentum, it begins to generate its own energy—but sustaining that momentum requires ongoing attention and reflection. By continuing to refine, align, and learn from evidence, schools can keep the cycle of faith formation strong and growing over time.
Applying the flywheel concept to the Christian school classroom
When applied to Christian education, the flywheel concept illustrates how three essential components—planning, implementation (teaching Christianly/pedagogy), and evidence—form a self-sustaining system that nurtures faith.
Each of these components requires equal attention and intentionality from both teachers and administrators. When planning, teaching, and evidence work together, they form a rhythm—a continuous, reinforcing process that drives faith formation forward. The Faith Formation Flywheel diagram illustrates how these elements connect, showing how momentum builds as each part strengthens the others.
Before we go further, it’s worth clarifying what I mean by faith formation. When I speak with teachers about using Faith Journey, a web and mobile application designed to collect evidence of faith formation, I sometimes hear a fair concern: “Aren’t we trying to capture the work of the Holy Spirit?”
They ask a good question. True faith formation—the transformation of a person’s heart and life—is indeed the work of the Holy Spirit. No digital portfolio or classroom practice can fully measure God’s work.
What we can plan for and observe, however, is faith engagement—the part entrusted to us. Faith engagement happens when teachers intentionally reveal God’s truth within their content and invite students to respond. Students don’t naturally see “God in all things.” It is our role to help them connect what they’re learning with God’s Word and His world, creating space for the Spirit to work.
Our calling as Christian educators is not to cause faith formation but to create rhythms and opportunities for faith engagement—in every subject, every day.
And that’s where planning matters. Through intentional preparation, faith engagement moves from theory to lived classroom rhythm—the daily cultivation of soil where faith can take root.
Indeed, planning is the first movement of the Faith Formation Flywheel. Planning is where faith formation begins to take shape—not just in what we teach, but in how we frame the learning so that evidence of faith can emerge
There’s no shortage of research or resources on effective lesson planning, but in Christian education, planning carries a distinct purpose: it must prepare students to see God’s presence in their learning and respond to it. Christian school teachers must plan not only for academic growth but also for spiritual formation.
You can see how I’m applying this approach in my 5th-grade math curriculum map. Each unit identifies both the conceptual focus and the faith engagement opportunity—how students might encounter God’s character or truth through the content.
The map is still very much a work in progress—an example of the flywheel at work. Like faith formation itself, it’s something I’m continually refining—learning from what resonates with students, adjusting essential questions, and improving how I help students connect faith and learning. My hope is that this curriculum map serves as a living example of what intentional planning can look like, even as I keep investigating and growing in the process.
Stephen Covey’s phrase “begin with the end in mind” from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People translates perfectly to faith-based planning. As we plan, we must ask ourselves—
- What kind of spiritual response do I want my students to have?
- What evidence would show that response taking shape?
- How do I want students to think, feel, or act differently because of this lesson?
These questions add a dimension to planning from content-driven to formation-driven.
I’ve heard many teachers say they prefer to “let faith conversations happen naturally.” While those spontaneous moments are often beautiful and Spirit-led, relying on them alone is not an effective strategy for shaping lifelong discipleship. Planning ensures that faith formation is not left to chance—the spiritual connections become an intentional, expected part of classroom life.
The Role of Essential Questions in Producing Evidence
One of the most effective tools for generating meaningful, illustrative evidence of faith formation is the use of essential questions. Like guardrails on a country road, essential questions keep the learning and faith journey focused and purposeful. Essential questions point students toward what truly matters and help them process their learning through a biblical lens.
The purpose of an essential question is not just to guide instruction, but to elicit answers from students—not always with a right or wrong response, but with personal reflection, insight, and growth. These responses become the evidence of faith formation: written reflections, artwork, projects, or oral presentations that demonstrate how faith and learning intersect.
In 5th-grade math, while studying decimals and fractions, we anchor the learning with the essential question: “Does God care about small things?” This question opens the door to biblical connections like Luke 12:7: “Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.””The resulting reflections show how students begin to see even mathematical precision as part of God’s orderly design and intentionality.
In Bible class, during a unit on Jesus’ early ministry, our guiding essential question is—
“When the storms of life come, why trust in Jesus?” This question leads students to reflect on both the biblical narrative and their personal experiences, forming a bridge between biblical truth and lived faith.
Essential questions like these enable students to make meaningful connections between faith and content, reinforcing a biblical worldview and providing authentic evidence of spiritual growth.
Teaching Christianly
I once told my students that teaching Christianly is like holding up a lantern in a dark room. The light doesn’t create what’s in the room—it simply reveals what was already there. In the same way, God is in all things—present, active, and sovereign—even when we don’t see Him. Our role as Christian educators is to reveal His presence, helping students recognize that every subject, every idea, and every moment of learning belongs to Him. Students don’t naturally see God in all things; they need teachers who help them look for His truth woven through the content they study. Each lesson becomes an opportunity to uncover what God has placed there all along.
When we plan and teach with that mindset, frameworks like Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration shape how we reveal God’s presence—helping students see His story unfolding through every subject and experience.
Resources for Teaching Christianly
There are many faithful approaches to teaching Christianly—such as Teaching for Transformation (TfT); the Creation–Fall–Redemption–Restoration (CFRR) framework; Head, Heart, Hands; and Christian worldview standards. Each offers valuable pathways for helping students see God’s truth in all things. Through my experience with Faith Journey, I’ve seen how these frameworks can come to life in classrooms—producing authentic evidence of students engaging deeply with their faith.
Evidence
For the flywheel to be effective and enduring, evidence must receive the same level of attention as the other two components (planning and implementation) from both administrators and teachers. This commitment includes devoting time in professional development sessions, actively observing evidence of faith formation in the classroom, and collecting documentation. To illustrate the importance of evidence, I turn to the concept of a closed-loop control system, a concept borrowed from engineering.
A closed-loop control system is one where the control action depends on the system’s output. According to GeeksforGeeks website, the primary objective of such a system is “to enhance its stability, accuracy, and overall performance.” The classic example of a closed-loop system is a home thermostat. If the temperature (output) is too low, the thermostat (control action) activates the heater to bring the temperature up to the set point. The system continually monitors and adjusts based on feedback from the thermostat’s sensor, ensuring that the desired temperature is maintained.
For faith formation to thrive and remain effective, it must function as a closed-loop system. From what I’ve observed in many Christian schools, faith formation often operates in an open-loop system. Administrators and school resources tend to focus on guiding teachers in lesson planning and effective teaching practices with the hope that good outcomes will follow. Classroom observations primarily monitor the classroom environment, but little attention is given to the evidence of faith formation.
Can Faith Engagement Be Caught?
Can faith formation truly be seen or caught? I believe it can. Consider a 5th-grade teacher using the book Wonder. While the story itself doesn’t mention God, the teacher invites students to consider: “When we read Wonder, we see how Auggie is treated by others. How would Jesus want us to treat him? What makes you think so?” Students then reflect on this question in writing. The resulting responses provide tangible evidence of faith engagement; students are not just reading a story but also processing it through a biblical lens.
When high school students watch Just Mercy and are asked to reflect on the biblical ideas of mercy and grace, they’re not just analyzing film—they’re discerning God’s character in real-world stories of justice and compassion. When teachers intentionally design for these kinds of moments, faith engagement is not only possible—it’s observable.
Revealing God’s Presence in Every Subject
Evidence of faith formation should capture the whole child as image bearers of Christ. To help teachers recognize meaningful evidence, I use what I call the Four I’s Framework—four characteristics that distinguish evidence of spiritual formation from ordinary student work.
- Individualize: Evidence should be collected for all students, not just a few exemplary cases. The goal is to assess whether a teacher’s lesson is effective for each student, not just a subset of the class. Evidence should represent the diversity of learners and their unique responses to the lesson.
- Intersect Faith and Learning (Revealing God in All Things): Evidence should demonstrate how God reveals Himself through the learning. For instance, when studying a literary work, how does the narrative reveal God’s master story—Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration (CFRR)? Teachers should ensure that students see God’s sovereignty and presence in every lesson.
- Illustrate: Evidence should be shared beyond the classroom, extending to parents, grandparents, and others who care about the students’ faith. Faith formation should be celebrated with family, giving them a tangible way to engage with the student’s spiritual growth.
- Impact: Evidence should show the lasting impact of lessons. Do the lessons and activities stay with students after they leave the classroom? Is the faith formation evident in the way students live out their beliefs in the world? The goal is to deliver outcomes that will resonate with students in the long term.
Teacher Collaboration for Faith Formation
I believe teacher groups are the most effective way to ignite the Faith Formation Flywheel in your school. While administrative engagement is crucial, teachers must be a close second in their commitment to this initiative. As teachers, it is our duty to be the drivers of faith formation in our daily practice of teaching Christianly. True faith formation cannot simply be imposed from the top down; it must emerge from the passion and practice of the teachers themselves.
In Richard Dufour’s book Learning by Doing, he writes, “The most powerful strategy for improving learning is to create a collaborative culture in which educators work together to achieve common goals.”
In Always Becoming, Never Arriving, David J. Mulder talks about the four “loves” of a teacher:
- A teacher must love students (who).
- A teacher must love content (what).
- A teacher must love pedagogy (how).
- A teacher must love “grappling with how their faith impacts and influences their work” (why).
Within Faith Journey, I facilitate a professional learning community (PLC)where teachers regularly review and discuss one another’s faith-formation evidence. It’s an “iron sharpens iron” approach—creating a safe, non-threatening environment for reflection, encouragement, and growth. I don’t have space here to unpack the full program I use to guide this collaborative process, but the framework centers on helping teachers reflect together, share evidence, and grow in their practice of “grappling” with teaching Christianly.
Your role as administrators is to guide teachers with their four loves. Having teachers work together to teach more effectively to impact a student’s faith should be a driving force for all Christian school administrators.
Conclusion
One of my favorite coaches is Pete Carroll, who is widely known for leading football teams to both a college championship (USC) and an NFL championship (Seattle Seahawks). One of his central teaching concepts is to focus on the learner. On the Brock and Salk Podcast (1-12-24), he shares this insight:
It’s not about how well you teach. It’s how well they learn from you. It doesn’t matter if you have a great presentation. What matters most is, do they walk out there and know exactly what you’re talking about? Can they go out on the practice field and get it done, and then take it to the game and execute it?
This quote is a powerful reminder that the ultimate goal of Christian teaching is not just to deliver content well, but to equip students to understand, live out, and apply God’s truth in the world. What matters most is that through their education, students are empowered to recognize the brokenness around them and become change agents for Jesus. As Jim Collins reminds us, “Good is the enemy of great.” In Christian education, greatness comes when we move beyond good intentions to intentional evidence—when teachers and schools continually reflect, refine, and reveal God’s work in their classrooms.
When we collect and reflect on evidence, the Faith Formation Flywheel completes its cycle and begins again—stronger each time. Our shared goal is to reveal God’s presence in all things so that our students learn to see and live out that truth in every part of their world.
This article was originally on the CACE.org blog.
Kent Ezell and his wife Reba are the founders of Faith Journey. Faith Journey provides Christian schools with an easy-to-use web and mobile application that captures moments that help shape students’ faith. Students, teachers, and parents are then able to reflect on these experiences. Kent is currently a 5th grade teacher at Dutton Christian School.
He has served in a variety of educational roles, including middle school math and Bible teacher, university professor, admissions director, donor officer, school administrator, and CSI curriculum consultant. He and Reba have two children, Carolyn and Joshua.
