Boards routinely talk about setting tuition as being the hardest decision to make each year. The reason is not hard to discover. Board members are compassionate and loving people who know the hardships of families in their communities and desire to make it as easy for them as possible to be a part of the Christian School community. Keeping tuition … Read More
Leading as a Steward
If Christian schools require their leaders to act as stewards, it is useful to think about what exactly a Steward Leader is. It is easy to think that Steward Leadership is just a Christian version of Servant Leadership, a concept familiar to many of us. However, once explored, one can see significant and fundamental differences. What anchors Steward Leadership is … Read More
Now is the time to think about Denver!
I am excited to draw your attention to the third annual Christian Deeper Learning conference February 27 and 28! Who is this conference intended for? This is for anyone interested in deeper, meaningful, biblically informed teaching and learning for students in Christian schools! Just like at our previous two conferences, we will have presenters and attendees from around the world … Read More
Under Pressure: The Heart in a Culture of Cool Things
In science our students learn that Pressure = Force / Area. Essentially, pressure is calculated by measuring a particular force as it is applied to a particular area. And as you might imagine from looking at the equation, Pressure increases in two ways. First, if the Force increases. Imagine standing on a chair to reach a lightbulb. There is some pressure on … Read More
Church-Home-School: The Three-Legged Stool
As many of you know, Dordt University takes its name from the historic Synod of Dort held in Dordrecht, the Netherlands in 1618-1619. Arising from that six-month assembly was the Canons of Dort, one of the major confessional statements of Reformed churches. The Canons of Dort were a response to controversial theological statements made by the followers of Jacob Arminius; … Read More
Our Resistance to Accountability
The resistance to accountability goes back a long way–perhaps to the Garden of Eden with the passing of blame from Adam to Eve and from Eve to the serpent. Each evaded taking responsibility for his or her actions. These problems persist to the present day as a result of this original brokenness. To whom am I accountable and to whom … Read More
Creating Moral Ecologies for Benevolence
As I write this, the middle schoolers at my local church are about to embark on a week-long gauntlet chock-full of opportunities to serve our city. You can check out some of the organizations that they will be partnering with here, here, and here. My church professes the mantra “In the city, for the city,” and we hope that our … Read More
Legal Audit: An Exercise That Does a School Good
About 14 months ago, a good friend and fellow Christian school leader posed a great question: “How’d you like to join a few other schools in California who are doing a legal audit of their school documents?” “Legal audit” was a new concept to me. At that point, I was finishing up a Head of School (HOS) position in the … Read More
Good Tired
The blog post below is a beautiful devotional given by Dr. Jay Ferguson, Head of School at Grace Community School in Tyler, TX. This message was recently shared at Baylor University’s Academy for Transformational Leadership. We hope that it is an encouragement for school leaders as you exhale from the 2019-20 school year and continue preparations for the 2020-2021 school … Read More
Friends Who Wrote Books You Might Enjoy
Writing a book is a labor of love. Publishing one in the education sector, and to go a step further, publishing in the Christian education sector, is an even greater labor of love with little hope of any financial return. Recently a number of my friends have done some really good work authoring books, and it is my joy to … Read More