In a commencement address delivered to graduates of Alliance Academy Jordan (AAJ) in Amman, the school’s director general Salam Madanat issued a sobering assessment of the cultural landscape awaiting Christian students in the digital age. Speaking on 22 May, she described a generation surrounded by communication tools yet facing what she called unprecedented threats to genuine human connection. “The mentor has become a device, the friend a screen, and the ultimate authority a book of unknown authorship,” she told graduates, in remarks later published by the World Evangelical Alliance.
AAJ was founded in 2014 by Rev. Habes Nemat under the Jordanian Christian and Missionary Alliance Church and serves students in Amman’s Al Yadoudeh neighbourhood with a model that blends academic rigour, full inclusion of students with disabilities, and Christian values. The school’s inclusive approach draws on Jordan’s 2017 Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which mandates equal opportunity in education. Madanat highlighted the story of graduate Saba Hijazin, who has severe cerebral palsy and, through accommodations arranged with the British Council in Jordan, sat his O-Level examinations using a laptop and extra time — and performed outstandingly.
Madanat questioned whether Christian educators across the world are doing enough to prepare students for a digital environment in which “moral categories have been inverted” and faith will be tested in more ways than can be imagined. She insisted that academic excellence must be paired with character formation rooted in Christian faith. For the global free church movement, where education has historically been a central channel of mission, the challenges named at AAJ — information overload, hollowed-out relationships, and faith under pressure — are not confined to the Middle East. They describe the conditions facing Christian students and their families in every region where the digital revolution has outpaced spiritual formation.
For free church formation resources including this topic, visit Worldwide Evangelical Seminary.
Source: World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) — worldea.org
