Listen in on the conversations of friends who lead Christian schools, dialogues that happen over coffee, during late-night calls, and in ongoing virtual discussions about this uniting mission we call Christian education. What you will find is that these conversations keep circling back to the same questions: Where are we going? What’s in store for our future?
We’ve come so far. Our practices, policies, and professionalism have taken momentous steps forward. But are we living out the mission we claim? Are we building the future together or operating in increasingly siloed organizations? As leaders, what master are we serving?
Without a doubt, these conversations would be fruitless and dispiriting if not for friends who spark each other’s imaginations, helping us to imagine a beautiful future while staying grounded in the goodness that preceded us. Steven Vryhof and his team gave us Affirmations, a vision of what Christian education could be at its best. The Mindshift authors challenged us to ask hard questions about whether we’re preparing students for a world that no longer exists. These aren’t just books; they’re invitations.
If you’re reading this CACE blog post, you, like us, probably care deeply about Christian education. You may be a head of school wondering if your strategic plan is bold enough. You may be a board member wrestling with tuition increases. You may be a teacher sensing the gaps between what we say we value and what we actually do.
Are we living out the mission we claim? Are we building the future together or operating in increasingly siloed organizations? As leaders, what master are we serving?
Whoever you are, we’re glad you’re here. We invite you into this series of writings, not because we have all the answers, but because we believe the answers emerge when we wrestle with the questions together. This is an invitation to join the work, to contribute to this beautiful story God is writing, to steward the unfolding chapter before us. Together.
Before we go further, let’s step back to where this series originated.
“Let’s imagine the future of Christian education.”
This invitation gathered hungry, humble, thoughtful leaders and practitioners from across the United States through Baylor University’s Center for School Leadership. Twenty Christian school leaders from coast to coast met monthly via Zoom, drawing on principles of Networked Improvement Communities and Collective Leadership. The goal: to reflect on the movement of Christian education, to imagine what it looks like in 2035, and to encourage others to join us as a cohort of brothers and sisters who engage each other and this work in an honoring, generous, and curious way, providing energy, assurance, and courage to ourselves, each other, and Christian school communities.
These weren’t theoretical conversations; these were practitioners sharing real data, wrestling with genuine tensions, and engaging with research across the Christian education landscape. The work was prayerful and collaborative, grounded in both research and lived experience. While the focus of our work was based on the Christian school experience in the United States, we hope these conversations might spark productive discussions with our fellow Christian educators around the globe.
Three discoveries shaped our work from the start. First, accessibility and sustainability weren’t just operational challenges: they were the most urgent concerns keeping Christian school leaders awake at night. Second, beneath these practical issues lay deeper identity questions around authenticity, mission clarity, and purpose in a polarized culture, with deep differences expressed even among Christians. Third, and most important: we couldn’t build the future by fixating on present problems. The question that propelled the work forward was, “What does thriving Christian education look like in 2035?”
What thriving Christian education looks like
Following months of prayer, conversation, and collective discernment, six interconnected themes emerged, not as problems to solve, but as pathways toward this primary vision:
Excellent Education for Each Child. Every theme that follows assumes and requires that Christian schools provide both deep biblical integration AND outstanding learning outcomes for all students. Excellence means that each child, regardless of learning profile, background, or ability, receives instruction that challenges appropriately and celebrates growth.
Theme 1: Communities of Courageous Hospitality. Christian schools will become places that are both safe and brave, where students learn to engage differences with conviction and compassion.
Theme 2: Radical Accessibility and Deep Belonging. Christian schools will pave roads to wide accessibility and welcome for students underrepresented in the past. We will overcome barriers of money, race, politics, and disability that prevent families and students from becoming part of our beloved school communities.
Theme 3: Human Flourishing in a Digital Age. Christian schools will teach students to navigate the digital world with wisdom and confidence, discerning truth from deception, creating work that serves God’s kingdom, and using technology for human connection rather than isolation.
Theme 4: Collaborative Christian Education Ecosystems. Christian schools will cultivate ecosystems, not defend silos. We will not measure success by individual school performance but rather by how the entire movement flourishes.
Theme 5: Faithful Community: Unity, Partnership, and Shared Mission. School communities (leadership, staff, parents, and students) will be centered and partnered around the gospel, not around political leanings, behavioral standards, or consumer expectations. This unity, which genuinely allows for difference, is the countercultural witness Christian schools must model in a polarized world, even among Christians.
Theme 6: Strategic Excellence: Teaching, Leading, and Innovating with Purpose. Classrooms will be places where daily embodied learning invites every student to imagine a world renewed in Christ and to innovate for human flourishing, with community as the living context for deep growth.
An Invitation to Join Us
Our students, and the Kingdom work they’re called to, need schools that are deeply Christian AND academically excellent, both accessible AND sustainable, rooted in tradition AND responsive to the future. The question isn’t whether Christian education will change in the next decade; the question is whether we’ll prayerfully join the Lord in shaping that change intentionally or allowing it to happen to us reactively.
Over the coming weeks, our cohort of Christian school leaders will be diving deeper into each of these six themes. Teams have been researching, writing, receiving feedback, refining, developing practical pathways forward, and identifying metrics of success. Soon, these insights will be shared with you.
But this series isn’t just about sharing the thoughts of these professionals. It’s an invitation to the broader Christian education community. We hope you’ll add to this work, sharing examples from your school, offering feedback on what resonates or what we’ve overlooked, linking us to others pioneering these visions in their contexts, and joining the conversation through comments, emails, and connections.
The next chapter of Christian education won’t be written by any one school or leader. Ultimately and thankfully, we do this work not in our own strength but in dependence on the Holy Spirit who has sustained Christian education for generations. This chapter will be written collectively as we learn from one another, challenge one another, and build toward a future that honors both our rich heritage and God’s continued call to make all things new.
The work ahead is challenging. The vision is ambitious. But as one member of our cohort reminded us in our very first gathering, “Jesus already sees where we are going. He is not only present in our schools today but also preparing the way for tomorrow. What a joy and privilege that we get to join Him in this work.”
Onward.
