This final post completes the Evidence-Based Approach to Student Faith Formation series. The first post talked about the Faith Formation Flywheel. The second post highlighted planning and teaching for faith formation. This final post focuses on the crucial third component: collecting evidence of faith formation—and why it matters. Evidence For the flywheel to be effective and enduring, evidence must receive … Read More
Evidence-Based Approach to Student Faith Formation, Part 2: Planning and Teaching Christianly
In my last post, I introduced the Faith Formation Flywheel—a system for aligning Planning, Teaching Christianly, and Evidence so that faith formation becomes sustainable and visible. 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, … Read More
Evidence-Based Approach to Student Faith Formation, Part 1: The Faith Formation Flywheel
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 … Read More
Adapting Faithfully: Christian Education in a Changing Landscape
Christian education is standing at one of the most dynamic crossroads in its history. The COVID-19 pandemic may be behind us, but the ripple effects include enrollment surges, teacher shortages, new funding opportunities, the growth of classical and hybrid schools, and the rapid advance of artificial intelligence. All of these forces are reshaping how we educate. Back in 2020 I … Read More
Glorious Finitude, Part I: Worldview Matters
In his bestseller Outliers, Malcomb Gladwell popularized the “10,000-hour rule.” Gladwell’s belief is that it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated and intentional practice to master a complex skill such as playing the violin or designing architecture. Generally, Gladwell is on to something: we all recognize the dedication and commitment needed to become an expert. Greatness, however, comes only from the … Read More
Beyond the Walls of the Classroom
This essay was originally published on the In All Things blog on June 10, 2025. This is the second part of a two-part installment examining how a school community responds to student needs and promotes flourishing both inside and outside the classroom. It’s been ten years since the Every Student Succeeds Act has replaced No Child Left Behind. I was serving as an … Read More
Leading in an AI World: Discussing Discerningly
“You’re just trying to keep kids in the dark ages!” “Well, better that than have them live their lives on a laptop!” It was one of the most heated debates I’d seen, and it was only 11 minutes into a full day of professional development I was leading at a Christian school. Artificial Intelligence has changed many of our assumptions … Read More
Schools that Inspire: Do you Belong?
A Short Review of 2024-25 This year’s Schools that Inspire series showcases an extraordinary array of Christian schools around the world, each deeply rooted in its cultural context yet unified by a common mission to nurture students in faith and learning. From Memphis to Ghana, England to Indonesia, and Guatemala to British Columbia, the featured schools exemplify innovative approaches to … Read More
Leading in an AI World: Adapting Appropriately
This is the third in a four-part series that looks at the theological foundations for a faithful response to AI in Christian schools. This post is an excerpt from Paul Matthews’ book A Time To Lead. Let me give you the bottom-line up front: the world we are teaching in now is radically different than it was three years ago. We … Read More
Scientific Storytelling, Part 4: Science Fiction and Fictional Science
In the first three parts of this series on scientific storytelling, we explored how students bring their own stories into the classroom, how the history of science reveals subtle but important elements of how science works, and how stereotypes can limit whether students feel they belong in the story of science. In this fourth and final part, we’ll look at … Read More