Faith Formation: A Leading Priority
Faith formation and character development is a team effort among family, church, and school. As a school, we provide development in faith in multiple ways from formal classes and gatherings to informal avenues through day to day teacher interaction and encouragement. In regards to the organized and more formal methods, chapel is still every Wednesday for all grade levels. Bible class time has increased in Kindergarten and stayed the same through elementary compared to previous years. In Junior High, Bible class meets two days a week, and in High School, Bible class is five days a week, which is an increase from previous years.
Our high schoolers take a Public Ministry course, our 9th graders have Worship Band, and our 9th and 12th grade fine arts classes are centered on music and public ministry — service and worship, not just performance. Faith formation isn't taking a back seat anywhere in this school — it's a priority.
We also protect time for our students’ spiritual, social and emotional learning every single day. Our K-2 students start every morning with 20 minutes of homeroom built around social-emotional learning and Bible; 3rd through 8th grade get that same rhythm in a focused 10 minutes and this doesn’t include their bible classes. As mentioned, HS has bible classes every day.
As many of you already know, we have teachers who have a heart for showing students how to live out our calling as God’s children. Our teachers are biblically educated, wholly committed to Jesus. Students have the privilege of being built up and instructed by people who filter their education through a biblical lens. It’s how we teach through a biblical worldview.
Our hope as a school is to provide discipleship for students to know how to exemplify the character of our Lord both here and in the world. I love the story of when Jesus went to school for three days and gave his parents a bit of a “heart attack” because they couldn’t find him. The story concludes saying that, ”And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Our hope for our students is that very thing: to grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. As I said before, this is a team effort, and we’re thankful to do our part in our students’ lives to teach faith and wisdom.
