What Do Good Coffee and Good Teaching Have in Common?

 By Jason A. Van Bemmel (Headmaster, New Covenant Christian School)

In our School Business class this summer, Dr. Mosbacker had us read “The Peanut Butter Manifesto” by a VP from Yahoo! I was inspired by the title to do some reflection on the connection between good coffee and good teaching. My reflections then became “The Coffee Manifesto.” I shared this with our teaching staff at an in-service a few weeks ago, and they loved it. It humorously serious, and I thought you might find this enjoyable.

The Coffee Manifesto: Will it Be Starbucks or Sanka?

I love watching old Andy Griffith shows on DVD from the library. They are a perfect way to unwind after a long day. The DVDs from the library have the original sponsor spots which closed the shows when they aired. These old commercial spots are fun to watch, but one thing really bothers me: Andy Griffith pitched Sanka.

I love Andy Griffith.

I hate Sanka.

Sanka is an example of what should never be done to coffee. Sanka has two nasty qualities, which make it barely qualify as coffee:

1. Sanka is chemically decaffeinated.
2. Sanka is instant coffee.

Coffee should never be robbed of its stimulating effect. This is why most sensible people drink coffee. Rob coffee of its caffeine and you have lost the essence of what coffee is. The only worse thing you can do is to then freeze-dry the coffee so people can make it in an instant.

Coffee is meant to have caffeine. Coffee is meant to be brewed right before you drink it. Sanka is an attack on the essence of coffee. As much as I love Andy Griffith, it pains me to see him hawking this rubbish that no human being should be forced to drink.

Teaching is like coffee, and the same kinds of critical elements that make for good coffee also make for good teaching. The essence of coffee is to stimulate. The essence of teaching is the same.

John Milton Gregory says that the essence of teaching is to stimulate the mind of the student for self-activity. “The true stimulant of the human mind is a question, and the object that does not raise any questions will stir no thought.”

Compare for a moment the stimulating effect of Sanka with a more excellent coffee – Starbucks. Drink Sanka and you are ready to fall asleep. Drink Starbucks and you’re ready to take on the world.

What is the effect of your teaching on your students? Does it call for action, stimulate thought, excite the mind, get the life ready for response?

Good coffee takes time to roast and brew properly. Starbucks roasts their beans until the bitterness is gone and the complexity of flavors can be fully tasted. If the beans are not roasted as long, the bitterness of the raw bean remains and the complex and more subtle flavors of the bean cannot emerge. Yet even properly roasted coffee beans must be ground and brewed properly, too. BUNN coffee makers can brew a pot of coffee in just 2-3 minutes, but coffee grounds need to be exposed to hot water dripping through them for 6-6.5 minutes for ideal results.

Like good coffee, good teaching cannot be rushed. It takes time to stimulate the minds of our students to inquire, discover, know, understand, appreciate and apply the complex truths we have to teach them. The bitter flavors of a rush to judgment, a quick and dirty answer, will dominate teaching that is rushed. The more subtle and complex flavors of contemplation, genuine understanding, appreciation, delight, discrimination, and transformation take much longer to emerge and can be overwhelmed by cheaper and easier and much less transformative elements if teachers do not have patience with the teaching process.

Good coffee is roasted and brewed carefully, with attention to detail and discrimination. Roasted coffee has over 1,000 flavor and aroma compounds. Only 30 of these make the best-tasting coffee.

Likewise, good teaching must be careful and discriminatory. The world is full of thousands of ideas. Most of them will not make our students think God’s thoughts after Him. They will poison, rather than enhance, their ability to live a life that pleases God. The teacher must be careful and pay attention to detail so as not to confuse, overwhelm or dishearten students.

Good coffee can stand on its own or can be enhanced and enjoyed with a variety of flavors added to it. Starbucks comes in different roasts and brews and adding flavored syrups and creamers makes it taste even better without obscuring the essence of what makes the coffee excellent. Cheap coffee, on the other hand, needs flavor enhancers to try to mask the cheap and bitter quality of the coffee.

Quality teaching also speaks for itself. It can come in a variety of subject areas (or “roasts”) – history, English, math, languages, etc. Each of them, while varying from each other, can still be recognized as excellent teaching with the same core essence – stimulating the mind of the student to self-action, discovery and understanding with patience and discrimination. Teaching can be flavored with field trips, feasts, celebrations, videos, games, etc. These additions make excellent teaching even more enjoyable. Poor teachers try to mask poor teaching with videos, games, and field trips (often meaningless ones), trying to compensate for poor teaching by adding lots of flavorful fun. This may amuse some students, but it cannot really make up for the fact that the teaching itself in its essence is poor and does not stimulate the minds of students to quality thinking and acting.

Good coffee must be properly strong, as even quality coffee is not very good when it is too weak. The more coffee grinds you use, the more complex and robust the flavors you can produce. Of course, you can also make coffee that is too strong.

Good teaching must also be delivered at the appropriate strength. Teachers need to be assertive, bold, joyful and confident. They should lead and guide their class from a position of strength, not weakness. Of course, a teacher can be overbearing – too strong – and overwhelm their students and keep them from being able to properly express themselves, ask questions, discover the truth for themselves and exercise dominion over their piece of God’s creation. So teaching, like coffee, must be properly strong but not overly assertive.

Finally, when good coffee is brewing, it is enticing. The aroma of good coffee draws people to it – even people who don’t drink coffee. In fact, I have heard many people smell good coffee brewing and say, “I wish I drank coffee.”

So also, good teaching should be enticing. It should attract students to the truth. It should make them want to have a drink from the fountain of knowledge. As our teaching entices students, we can then equip them to be life-long learners because they will want to learn and to love to learn.

God has given us the highest privilege – to stimulate the minds of our students to know God’s truth, to embrace His goodness, to love His beauty. We have been called by God to entice our students to the highest truths, the greatest goods. We have the opportunity to make an eternal difference in the life of a child made in the image of God. Our students are looking for something to believe, for someone to follow. They want to be stimulated. The real question for us, as educators, is simple: What will we offer them – Starbucks or Sanka?

Technorati Tags: Teaching,Coffee,Starbucks,Sanka,Andy Griffith,Engaged,Effective Teaching,Education,Reform

"Daddy, Is That the Bad Man?" Election 2008

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

Depending on your political views you will react to Barack Obama's election with excitement as in "Hurray, our country can now move forward with much needed change!" or with dread and resignation as in "Oh no, his election portends our country's continued moral, political, and cultural decline!" Given that most of my readers are evangelical Christians, I suspect the latter reaction is more common.

Be careful. Your children/grandchildren are watching, your students are watching, and an unbelieving world is watching.

Let me share a story with you. When my oldest daughter was about seven or eight years old I remember walking past the den and hearing my daughter pointing at the TV and asking with big saucer eyes, "daddy, is that the bad man?!" She was anxiously pointing at President Clinton.

A piercing pang of guilt shot through my soul. I realized that through my verbal editorializing during news casts that I had taught my daughter to fear and dishonor the President of the United States in direct violation of what the Scriptures teach: "Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor." (1Pe 2:17)

When Peter wrote those words, Nero was the emperor of Rome.

(To those inclined to cynicism, I AM NOT equating President Elect Obama with Nero.)

My point is that if Peter could encourage the early Christians to honor the man that was feeding them to lions and impaling them upon poles and burning them alive to light his gardens, then surely we can pray for and honor our new President notwithstanding our political views.

Let me suggest that we have a wonderful opportunity to bear a great testimony to the transforming power of the Gospel in how we respond to the election.

1. Pray for our new President and mean it.

(I Peter 2:17; Romans 13:1) The Scriptures do not differentiate for whom we pray.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior... (1Ti 2:1-3)

2. Pray for our country.

Although the structures and policies of government have a profound impact for good or evil, it is the character of individual citizens that ultimately determines the character of any country. More than a good president, we need powerful faithful pulpits, godly families, and strong Christian schools. Pray that the Lord's Spirit will blow throughout our land bringing with Him revival and deep rooted reformation.

3. Verbally express due honor to the Office of the President and to the man who occupies it.

It is perfectly legitimate, in fact necessary, to express opposition to those values and policies that are clearly in violation of biblical teaching. It is not legitimate to hurl vindictive and mean spirited abuse at anyone, including the President Elect.

I can think of no better example than David. Even though King Saul was pursuing David to imprison or kill him, David responded by honoring his persecutor because of the office he held.

And the men of David said to him, "Here is the day of which the LORD said to you, 'Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.'" Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

And afterward David's heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD's anointed."

So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul ... Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, "My lord the king!" And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage ... Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the LORD gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, 'I will not put out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD's anointed.' ... As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul ... Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, "You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. (1Sa 24:4-17)

Notice the impact of David's response on Saul. David's demonstration of trust in God and respect for the authority that God had sovereignly appointed had a profound impact on Saul. David's response gave great testimony to the power of God's Spirit and was used by God to instruct the King.

David's example comes down through the millennia to instruct us on how we should respond. As a Christian community we have the same opportunity. Instead of moaning, complaining, predicting the apocalypse, the end of civilization as we know it and verbally assailing and demeaning the President Elect, we have the opportunity to show watching students and a watching world that Christians can disagree without being disagreeable. We can oppose bad policy and evil without being vindictive, mean-spirited, and disrespectful.

4. Use the election to teach your students (and faculty?) how to work through the various policy issues from a biblical perspective--not from a Democratic or a Republican one.

On a survey we once conducted, a student wrote the following: "Republican = Christian? Where does that come from?" That thinking student understood that some teachers where implicitly teaching that Republican political philosophy and policy were equivalent with biblical Christianity.

That is false. There are points of Biblical connection with both Republican and Democratic policies. Neither Party has a corner on truth or virtue.

Sound doctrine transcends political ideology, party affiliation, and cultural and ethnic identification. In this sense, Christianity is always trans-political and trans-cultural.

5. Instead of always protesting what is wrong, offer solutions and prepare our students to do the same.

Several years ago I edited and co-authored School Based Clinics and Other Critical Issues in Public Education (Crossway Books). Here is a portion of what I wrote that I believe applies to how Christians should be responding to public policy issues in a constructive Christ honoring fashion--regardless of who occupies the White House.

… Unfortunately, much of our cultural dilemma results from the failure of Christians to cultivate a Christian mind, and the result has been the abandonment of most fields of knowledge to those with a secular mind. This abandonment takes two forms: either withdrawal from public debate as it concerns the formation of public policy because we are ill equipped to offer an effective and relevant alternative; or worse, Christians who are involved in public debate are so secular in their thinking that their recommendations represent only slight modifications to secular proposals. In other words, instead of the Christian evangelizing his culture, he has been evangelized by it. Because many Christians have failed to cultivate a Christian Mind (in part due to a lack of instruction from church leaders), many believers are unaware of just how secular their thinking has become.

This is a particularly relevant point in light of the increased political activity of the religious right. In reaction to the rapid erosion of ethics and morality in our country, many Christians have taken up the call to be salt and light by active involvement in the political process. This is a good and vital part of any effort at cultural reform. But a note of caution is in order. As Christians, we must not confuse Christian principles with conservative Republican (or Democratic) politics. They are not the same thing. We must be careful not to confuse theology with ideology, as biblical theology always transcends any particular ideology. Although it can be reasonably argued that portions of the current Republican platform reflect biblical principles-for example, its opposition to abortion-this does not mean to think Christianly is to think like a conservative Republican. There are instances where elements of biblical truth can be found in the platform or the candidates of either party.20

Thus, the Christian who wishes to function as salt and light in his culture must devote himself to the study of Scripture and seek through that study to properly interpret all of life. Once having achieved a measure of understanding, he is better prepared to make application of what he has learned to his home, his church, his vocation, and to his civic responsibilities. It should be added that this is not to imply that his knowledge must be exhaustive or that each believer must be a scholar.

Nor does it mean that he refuses to participate in public discourse until he believes he has a complete comprehension of his theology or of any given issue. Learning is a lifelong task. Since we are created as finite beings, exhaustive knowledge is beyond our grasp. Although certain knowledge is possible, exhaustive knowledge is not. Therefore, the challenge of the believer is to seek to simultaneously increase his knowledge while diligently applying that which he already knows. This is then the theological component of our Christianity, and it is the foundation upon which the relational component is built …

Moreover, the absence of viable alternatives puts the Christian in the position of always criticizing, attacking and tearing down. For example, when school based "health" clinics are proffered as the solution to teenage pregnancy, the Christian community finds itself aggressively opposing their implementation-and rightly so. Unfortunately, criticism in the absence of alternatives creates an atmosphere in which the Christian community, instead of being viewed as a constructive force in the community, is viewed as a bunch of uncaring obstructionists who do not care about the health of teenagers. We protest such accusations as unfair, but such attitudes are in part understandable if all we have to offer is criticism. It is here, at the policy level that Christian scholars from every discipline can contribute in a tangible way to the reclamation of the culture. Frequently, Christians who are seeking to arrest the implementation of harmful and immoral programs often find themselves at the mercy of a secular establishment armed with research, which "proves" their position. Although much of the research is less than conclusive or is even faulty, it nevertheless adds credence to whatever policy is being proffered.

Consequently, the Christian community finds itself in a noncompetitive position in the marketplace of ideas and by default relinquishes policy formation to the secular establishment. A case in point is provided by the necessity of this writer relying almost exclusively on secular research to demonstrate that as currently constituted, "values-free" sex education and family planning programs are ineffective and inappropriate responses to escalating rates of teenage pregnancy. Fortunately, some of the researchers within the family planning establishment itself have cited the failures (on solely pragmatic grounds), thus giving us a fighting chance. This is not always the case.

As a practical point, the development of distinctly Christian think tanks, which combine the skills of theologians from various orthodox persuasions, the expertise of Christian scholars from many different disciplines, and the practical insight of the policy analyst and those experienced in the "realities" of the political process would be of inestimable value in assisting the Christian community in its role as salt and light.

To read the two chapters I authored, click here. (PLEASE NOTE: the first chapter deals with teenage pregnancy; the second chapter addresses the Christian community's response to public policy.) Also note that you will notice what appear to be typos. These are not typos. The chapters were scanned into a PDF file and the OCR program misinterpreted some of the text.

Rather than bemoaning what is wrong, we are responsible to teach our students how to think biblically and how to apply biblically informed thinking to specific policy issues. This should be an exciting and very positive endeavor with the goal of working to see "God's will done on earth as it is in heaven."

6. Celebrate the moral progress that his election represents.

"What, moral progress with the election of a President who aggressively supports abortion rights and gay marriage?" Yes.

Although by most measures the United States is in moral decline, the election of an African-American president reflects significant moral progress on the racial front. Christians should celebrate this achievement and recognize it publicly, not withstanding other legitimate moral concerns.

Celebrating progress on one moral front does not imply endorsement of the President Elect's positions on other social issues.

As Christians, we should, we must, be intelligent and thoughtful enough to celebrate the good while addressing the wrong. The fact that our country has elected an African-American president should be an occasion to celebrate this momentous achievement with those with whom we may disagree on most every other issue. We should model this attitude for our children, our students, and a watching world.

Imagine, if you will, how this must feel to millions of African-American families and to their young children. African-American mothers and fathers can now turn to their children and say, "In America, you can be anything you wish to be if you are willing to work for it." Is that not something that we would want every parent to be able to say to every child?

7. Remember that "for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose."

The church of Christ is the focal point of history, with Christ being preeminent. God superintends the affairs of men in such a way as to establish genuine free moral agency and personal responsibility, for the good of His people, and for His glory. Ultimately, this election is for our good and God's glory. This does not mean that everything that occurs will be good but God promises to work all things together for the good of His people.

Pray, rest in God's wise providence, respect those in authority, work for what is right, model dignity in word and deed before your students and teach them how to think, how to love, and how to Glorify the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Technorati Tags: Obama,Election,Prayer,Pray,Authority,Dignity,Worldview,Biblical wordlview,Politics,Republican,Democratic,Racism

Leading Your School In Uncertain Economic Times: Practical Suggestions

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

Many experts predict that we are headed for a recession. A recession in and of itself is not particularly worrisome. Like breathing, expansions and retractions in the economy are normal and keep the economy healthy and vibrant over the long-term.

What is of concern is that this recession may be deep and long. According to the Wall Street Journal:

The bailout plan was needed but more needs to be done to fix things, and we're not even sure a rate cut will be enough," a trader at GFT Global Markets says. To many Wall Street veterans, a painful, long recession unlike anything the U.S. has suffered in decades seems increasingly likely. (WSJ: Today's Markets, Oct. 6, 2008)

Given the turmoil on Wall Street and words like "crisis", "recession", "bank failure" and "depression" circulating in the media, it is not surprising that consumers have dramatically cut back on spending, The New York Times reports that:

Cowed by the financial crisis, American consumers are pulling back on their spending, all but guaranteeing that the economic situation will get worse before it gets better ... But in recent weeks, as the financial crisis reverberated from Wall Street to Washington, consumers appear to have cut back sharply ... Recent figures from companies, and interviews across the country, show that automobile sales are plummeting, airline traffic is dropping, restaurant chains are struggling to fill tables, customers are sparse in stores. Graph from the WSJ Business Section, Oct. 6, 2008-click on the graph to go to the article.

Whether the predictions of gloom and doom come true or not, it seems clear that we are in an extended economic slowdown, which may affect many of our schools. As school leaders, it is our responsibility to assess the situation and then to provide prayerful, faithful, and steady leadership.

My good friend Zach Clark, Westminster Christian School (St. Louis), put it this way:

1. We should have an attitude of gratefulness for the strengths we have as a Christian school like increased enrollment and strong budgets, freedom to make changes, talented staff, etc.

2. Be steady during this time when everyone is looking for a reaction. Be realistic but confident in our ability to act.

3. Be sure that our focus is on keeping our attitudes positive, and encourage each other to stir each other up to love and good deeds.

4. Look for opportunities to be effective and efficient NOW.

5. Become an expert in engaging and developing others, especially volunteers to improve our stewardship of resources and human resources.

6. This is an opportunity to turn people’s focus to the substance of our work. To not only allow, but also enable others to determine the value of a Christian education.

7. Wait and watch what the Lord will do, trusting in His faithfulness.

Preparing Our Students and Our Schools

So how do we prepare our schools for economic turndown, or even a possible prolonged recession? The role of the leader is not to react but to respond prayerfully and strategically. If the economy spirals into a long recession it will affect our families and in turn, our schools.

I offer the following series of possible contingent responses for your prayerful consideration if, as seems inevitable, there is a sharp economic downturn. Obviously, every school and local market is different, but perhaps one of these suggestions will be helpful.

1. Pray faithfully for your families and for your school ministry. As I indicated in a previous post, I do not encourage prayer because it is the expected thing to say or because it is the politically correct preamble to a real solution. I say pray because in the final analysis it is the Lord who grants wisdom and who will provide for our needs. Remember, your school ministry is the Lord's!

2. I refer you to my article Economic Crisis, Globalization, our Students, and our Mission (Era of U.S. financial dominance at an end: Germany) on possible ways to prepare your students for an economic downturn.

3. As much as possible, move toward zero-based budgeting or at least look at your budget from that perspective. Investopedia defines zero-based budgeting is "a method of budgeting in which all expenses must be justified for each new period. Zero-based budgeting starts from a "zero base" and every function within an organization is analyzed for its needs and costs."

This contrasts from the usual method of simply adding a percentage increase to existing budget categories or departments. This requires a strategic approach to school leadership. For more information, see my previous post: Are You Spread Too Thin? How to Thrive and Not Merely Survive as a Christian School.

4. Smaller schools need to assess the number of students per class to ensure that each class is at break-even on a contiguous basis. Depending on the school's expenses and tuition levels, break-even is usually 16-18 students/full-time teacher. If you have classes that are not at break-even you have built financial losses into the school's budget, which is never a good practice but is particularly problematic in during an economic downturn.

If you are losing money in any class consider how you can consolidate classes. For example, if you have two third grade classes, both of which are not at break-even, consider combining them and then hiring a full-time teacher and a full-time academic aide (and laying off the other teacher or making him/her the academic aide but at a lower salary (I know this is hard, but it may be the right thing to do).

Doing so will permit a larger financially viable class without sacrificing academic quality while reducing cost IF the teacher and academic aide are experienced and very effective. Obviously, this could present some PR issues so great prudence must be exercised. But if you have classes of say 13 each, combining them into a single class of 26 with a teacher and academic aide will cut cost without negatively affecting academic quality.

5. Increase financial aid. This is, of course, easier said than done, but increasing financial aid may be essential. There are several ways to increase financial aid; 1) allocate/earmark a certain dollar amount from tuition specifically for financial aid. For example, $50/student x's 300 students produces $15,000 in additional financial aid. 2) Approach parents with financial resources to contribute specifically to the financial aid fund. 3) If your school is a church ministry, ask the church in contribute (or increase contributions) for financial aid.

6. Stay on top of your accounts receivables. This is one of those areas that is hard but ESSENTIAL. Do not allow parents to keep their children in the school if they are not keeping their accounts current. I would not, however, dismiss a student mid-year if avoidable as this can be harmful to the student. However, re-enrollment should not be extended unless and until accounts are current. If the family has a history of slow payment, require at least a half-year of paid tuition before permitting re-enrollment.

Be patient, understanding, and creative in working with parents. "Do unto them as you would have them do to you." This does not mean that you are obligated to provide them a free education. You have no ethical obligation to do so. Doing so jeopardizes the long-term viability of your school (which is poor stewardship) and is unethical because tuition paying parents are subsidizing the non-paying parents. Schools are not banks.

7. Think of ways to expand your market. For example, consider running a bus to "outlying" neighborhoods to increase enrollment. Keep in mind that you need parents with the financial means to pay tuition so target neighborhoods accordingly.

8. Work on your retention rates! It is far easier to keep students than to recruit new ones. The key to retention is value, which is a function of price and quality.

Remember, if your community (market place) is blessed with a large number of high quality public and private schools, parents have a smorgasbord of quality educational options.

If parents perceive the local public schools to be safe, high quality learning environments, they are more likely to consider enrollment in the Christian school to be a discretionary “luxury” purchase. THIS IS PARTICULARLY TRUE DURING AN ECONOMIC DOWNTURN!

Only the most diehard adherents to a Christian philosophy of education will consider enrollment in the Christian school a necessity. We can make all of the theological and philosophical arguments about why Christian parents should have their children in a Christian school but this will affect the decision-making of only a small group of Christian parents.

The Archdiocese of Chicago provides a compelling example of this principle. Faced with declining enrollments and a school deficit of $20 million, the Archdiocese commissioned a study to determine how to boost school enrollment. Boffetti (n.d.) reports that researchers discovered that:

Struggling schools, at the very least, needed to fill every available seat with tuition-paying students. Surprisingly, many inner-city parents, both Catholic and non-Catholic alike, did not know that Catholic education would only cost them $1,000 a year, with the diocese picking up the rest of the tab. When they learned the facts, many said they would eagerly pay to get their children out of the awful and dangerous public schools they were in.

Suburban parents were more sanguine. Parents who believed in the importance of Catholic education already sent their children to Catholic schools. The rest of the parents did not think it would be worth the added expense because they felt that their suburban public school system was at least equal to, if not better than, the Catholic schools in terms of academics and amenities [emphasis added]. In other words, the “Catholic” in Catholic education was not worth an extra $1,000 per year to them. (pp. 7-8)

Increase the value of your school by improving quality (teachers are most important here), adding high-impact courses/programs, leveraging technology, reducing costs, and moderating tuition increases.

9. Consider merging with other Christian schools. This poses theological and philosophical challenges. However, merging Christian schools can reflect very wise stewardship through economies of scale, the ability to pay higher salaries, cutting costs, consolidating programs, and building larger fine-arts and sports programs, to name a few. Unless there are mutually exclusive theological and philosophical principles at stake, it makes little sense to have several small, struggling schools within a few miles of each other, particularly in a harsh economic environment.

Before considering a merger, keep the following in mind:

• You may need to create a transportation system. Convenience and cost (given current gas prices) are two high values for parents. If one school merges with another, one school will lose some students. This loss can be reduced by providing a transportation service for parents whose school closed.

• Emphasize the advantages the merger will create for students.

• Differences in preferences can be overcome and the schools can merge. However, fundamentally incompatible differences in theology or philosophy cannot and should not be compromised (e.g. a protestant school combining with a catholic school would reflect an unbiblical compromise, or the proposed merger of a fundamentalist school with a school committed to a reformed theology would be inherently incompatible theologically, culturally, and practically). Be careful to distinguish between policy and pedagogical preferences and fundamental theological differences. They are not the same but are often confused. The challenge is to determine what is preference versus what are genuine theological and philosophical differences and core tenets.

• One school must take over the other--a house divided cannot stand. One school board and administration must be taken over by the other. Seldom should board members or administrators be absorbed into the new school. More often than not this will be a recipe for conflict and failure. However, the personnel (support staff and teachers) of the school that is being merged/absorbed by another should be carefully interviewed and given priority for hiring provided they meet the absorbing school's standards. This is fair and just but the absorbing school is not ethically obligated to hire the staff of the merged school. Likewise, where there are redundancies in staff resulting from the merger, and there will be, only the best staff of either school should be retained. This seems harsh, I know, especially for Christian leaders. However, as leaders it is our responsibility to staff our schools with the best available personnel, which may mean in a merger that some staff from either school may be let go. If so, generous and fair severance packages should be provided and good staff who are laid off due to redundancies should be rehired if positions become available.

• Pride must be crucified! There is great pride of "ownership" by the leadership and founders of any organization, including Christian schools. However, our schools belong to the Lord--not to us! It is His glory and His kingdom that matters--not the sweat equity that we have invested in the schools we lead. Since the schools we lead belong to the Lord there should be no pride of "ownership" and no shame if one school must be merged with another. The merger may simply reflect faithfulness and wise stewardship for God's glory and the advancement of His kingdom. Pride should never prevent two weak struggling schools from combining if doing so ultimately benefits students by creating a stronger and more stable Christian school.

10. If you are a Covenantal school (a school that only enrolls children born to at least one confessing parent (1 Cor. 7:14), consider enrolling the children of non-believers. If the school's founding charter or theology/philosophy is covenantal, this will be controversial for leadership and for some parents. More so if your school is sponsored by a church, in which case approval by church leadership will probably be required.

I started out in Christian education as an ardent advocate for the covenantal model of Christian schooling but I have modified my position based upon theological considerations and personal experience (I have been founder and head of a covenantal school (Covenant Day School) and head of two non-covenantal schools, including my current school, Briarwood Christian School.

Great prudence and much prayer must accompany any discussion of this decision. The goal is to clearly discern the Lord's will in this matter. He has called some school ministries to serve only the Covenant community. Other school leaders and churches believe the Lord has called them to minister to BOTH the believing and non-believing communities. It could be that the Lord will direct you to change your ministry focus. Only prayer, study of God's word, and wise counsel will help you discern His will in this critically important matter.

Here are some things to consider as you prayerfully ponder this possibility.

(NOTE: This blog article is already too long so I cannot go into all of the details of why I suggest this possibility. If you have questions please contact me directly and I will be happy to speak with you.)

• I believe the decision as to whether the school is Covenantal or non-covenantal is a matter of Christian liberty. There is room for disagreement here based on the leadership's sense of God's calling, but I believe either model can be biblical, can advance the kingdom, and can glorify our Lord.

• I have been surprised to find that when a school is well-run with good leadership that there are no more problems in the non-covenantal school than in the covenantal school. This was counter intuitive to me until I gave this more thought. The short version of my thinking is this: non-believing parents who choose to send their children to a Christian school tend, by common grace, to share the same high standards for external behavior and academic achievement as many Christians (provided the school does not have a reputation as a reform [small r] school for troubled students). I find many Christians, on the other hand, to be antinomians (at least when it comes to their children) who, when confronted with a disciplinary matter, respond "I thought this was a Christian school--where is the grace!" Translation, grace means "no or only mild discipline, at least for my children."

• The admissions process is essential for ensuring a healthy school culture. I have found that having a "pooled" admissions process for grades 7-12, in which NEW prospective students are enrolled ONLY after they have interviewed with an admissions committee, is a very effective way to protect the school because only students who are deemed as good fits are enrolled. Frankly, sometimes the children of non-believers can be better fits then the children of some believers.

• The school must have strong caring school leaders who wisely and consistently enforce policies. When this is the case, I have found that enrolling the children of non-believes creates no more problems than those found in covenantal schools. On the other hand, when the school does not have good policies or when leadership fails to wisely and consistently enforce them, there will be problems resulting in an unhealthy school culture in both covenantal and non-covenantal schools.

• As a practical matter, the non-covenantal model greatly expands the school's marketplace. This has several advantages including larger enrollments and stronger finances. Under wise leadership, this translates into higher teacher salaries, improved instruction, expanded and higher quality programs, higher retention rates, and financial stability. This in and of itself is NOT sufficient reason to move from a covenantal to a non-covenantal model but if school/church leadership believe that either model, when done properly, can be biblical and that the Lord is leading them in that direction, then this model offers significant practical and financial advantages.

We may be facing difficult years ahead. Now is the time to prayerfully plan ahead. How are you going to position your school to not only survive, but thrive in uncertain times?

One of my favorite verses refers to King David's leadership:

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation... (Act 13:36, ESV)

We are called to serve the purpose of God in our generation, which includes providing godly, biblically informed, steady, and strong leadership for our schools during times of uncertainty. May the Lord grant us the grace to be beacons of light and steadfastness for our brothers and sisters and before a frantic and watching world.

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Economic Crisis, Globalization, our Students, and our Mission (Era of U.S. financial dominance at an end: Germany)

In view of the current financial crisis surrounding the U.S. economy, I sent the following email to my staff. I am sharing this with you in the hope that you may find it of some small value to you or your staff.

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

___________________________

September 25, 2008

Dear Staff:

As you know, over the last several years, I have made a point of emphasizing the new realities of the global economy, its impact on our students, and what this means for our teaching and our academic standards. I would encourage you to take a minute to read the Reuters’ article at the end of this email even if economics and finance are not your “thing.”

I am obviously not an economist so I cannot assess the accuracy of every assertion in this article. What seems clear are the following:

1. The world our students are inheriting is vastly different than the world we have known

2. As was noted in the movie 2 Million Minutes, the U.S. no longer enjoys the economic monopoly that was ours after WWII

3. International competition in all sectors of society is increasing rapidly with the rest of the world catching up and poised to surpass the U.S.

4. All of the above adds up to greater economic uncertainly for our students

The question is, what does this mean for us and our students? I would like to suggest the following:

1. We need to remind our students that we are responsible for our decisions but God is sovereign so anxiety is not an appropriate response. Prayer, humility, trust, and obedience are the appropriate response to this or any crisis.

2. We must continue to enhance our ability to give our students a thoughtful, intelligent biblical worldview. Simplistic responses to complex scientific, social, moral, political, and economic issues will not prepare our students to be salt and light in this world. I am reminded of Dr. Machen’s insightful observation:

The missionary movement is the great religious movement of our day. Now it is perfectly true that men must be brought to Christ one by one. There are no laborsaving devices in evangelism. It is all hard work. And yet it would be a great mistake to suppose that all men are equally well prepared to receive the gospel. It is true that the decisive thing is the regenerative power of God. That can overcome all lack of preparation, and the absence of that makes even the best preparation useless. But as a matter of fact God usually exerts that power in connection with certain prior conditions of the human mind, and it should be ours to create, so far as we can, with the help of God, those favorable conditions for the reception of the gospel. False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. We may preach with all the fervor of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the world to be controlled by ideas which, by the resistless force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion. Under such circumstances, what God desires us to do is to destroy the obstacle at its root. Many would have the seminaries combat error by attacking it as it is taught by its popular exponents. Instead of that they confuse their students with a lot of German names unknown outside the walls of the universities. That method of procedure is based simply upon a profound belief in the pervasiveness of ideas. What is today a matter of academic speculation begins tomorrow to move armies and pull down empires. In that second stage, it has gone too far to be combated; the time to stop it was when it was still a matter of impassioned debate. So as Christians we should try to mould the thought of the world in such a way as to make the acceptance of Christianity something more than a logical absurdity …

Furthermore, the field of Christianity is the world. The Christian cannot be satisfied so long as any human activity is either opposed to Christianity or out of all connection with Christianity. Christianity must pervade not merely all nations, but also all of human thought. The Christian, therefore, cannot be indifferent to any branch of earnest human endeavor. It must all be brought into some relation to the gospel. It must be studied either in order to be demonstrated as false, or else in order to be made useful in advancing the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom must be advanced not merely extensive but also intensively. The Church must seek to conquer not merely every man for Christ, but also the whole of man. Machen, J. G. (1987). Education, Christianity, and the State. Jefferson, MA: The Trinity Foundation., pg. 50

3. We need to teach our students that the violation of God’s law leads to temporal and eternal loss. Although there are many interrelated causes for the current economic turmoil, it seems clear that materialism and greed are major contributing factors.

On the subject of materialism, did you realize that one of the major sins of Sodom was materialism and failure to care for the less fortunate? I believe this is a sin on Wall Street and Main Street (To whom much is given, much is required).

Eze 16:49-50 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. (50) They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.

4. Our students need to be made to understand that the opportunities and relative prosperity of their parents may be much harder to realize in their lives.

5. There will likely be little job security for most.

6. Working hard and learning are not optional. They face global competition for university entrance and jobs and must prepare themselves if they are going to care for themselves and their families and have resources to share with the less fortunate.

7. We must teach our students to think and HOW to learn. Although this can be a cliché, our students will have to be life-long learners.

8. Our teaching must be active and engaging. Students need to master information/skills but they also must learn how to assess, analyze, synthesize, and present information. They have to be problem solvers, not just good test takers.

9. We will continue to develop our understanding and application of 21^st century skills in our classrooms.

Please join me in praying that the Lord will:

· Use current events to spark a reformation in our country.

· Enable us to use current events as an instructional opportunity to develop our students’ sense of justice, charity, and a deeper understanding of economics and other disciplines from a biblical perspective.

· Be particularly merciful to the poor who suffer disproportionately during economic downturns.

Thank you for your commitment to excellence in Christian education—the Lord is using you to impact many lives! Barrett Mosbacker

Technorati Tags: Economics,globalization,Wall Street,Greed,Materialism,Excellence,Worldview

Doing A Great Job on the Wrong Things?

By: Scott Mayo

I had the distinct pleasure of reading Dr. Donovan Graham’s Teaching Redemptively: Bringing Grace and Truth Into Your Classroom in manuscript form during my Master’s program at Covenant College. It was subsequently published by Purposeful Design and is now a required reading for ACSI teacher certification. By definition, then, it is getting a wide reading in Christian school circles. That being said, I am having a hard time believing that there hasn’t been a great outcry, in that I found it to be a very troubling book on several fronts. His central premise is that the Gospel, the central element of the Christian Faith, does not permeate our schools in a manner commensurate with our profession of its importance. Sadly, our Christian schools seem to rival our secular counterparts in the area of focusing on the temporal, superficial, and measurable. In fact, because we have great kids and wonderful teachers, we tend to produce even better results, albeit results measured on the same secular yardstick.

What to do then? Well, I asked Dr. Graham that very question over lunch one day in the cafeteria. His good-natured response was that the working out of his thesis was “our job” as Christian school administrators and teachers. That answer was more profound than I originally understood. The outworking of the Gospel into daily life, including school life, does not lend itself to a recipe-like approach. The seasoning of grace will produce as many flavors as it finds sinful, hurting, difficult situations. Once I began to grasp that I didn’t have to figure out how to bring grace and truth into every classroom in every school, that freed me up to start to discern how to bring the Gospel to bear on our little school with our unique set of dreams and aspirations hindered and clouded by the site specific effects of the Fall.

Initial implementation began in the conventional way; we read the book as a faculty and then discussed sections of it throughout the year during in-services. The content of those discussions varied widely, but the structure stayed very consistent. We were always finding ourselves at “Yes, but…” moments. The “yes” was in reference to the claims of the Gospel and the necessity for all our actions to be guided and covered by grace. The “but” was the pragmatic, mundane reason why we couldn’t accommodate the Gospel in a particular school situation. Instead of acting as a conjunction, we had turned the “but” into an eraser, effectively eviscerating our “yes” to the Gospel of any real meaning. It was evident that we had good intentions, a great desire to make positive changes, and a long way to go!

We are now completing our second year of school-wide attempts to move from a place where our students derive their worth from their performance and instead find it in Christ. This has involved changes in content and process. We still teach, test, discipline, perform service projects, and field athletic teams. It’s just that we are striving to have God’s grace make a difference in each of those elements of school life. Those efforts have not always been understood, especially by the parents. We’ve been accused of giving our students a license to sin (behaviorally) and fail (academically). While not claiming to be infallible in our efforts, it is noteworthy that we had never been accused of granting license before. As Paul made clear in Romans 6:1, grace will always be misunderstood by those who measure ultimate worth and merit by performance (especially outwardly visible performance). Interestingly enough, most of the consternation was not voiced by parents concerning their own students, but was centered on how our actions with other students was somehow not “fair” to their students. During those conversations, Christ’s parable of the workers in the vineyard from Matthew 20 always echoed in my mind. It’s easy to want grace for ourselves. It’s also easy to resent grace when other receive it.

We truly believe that the image of God in our students coupled with the power of God’s grace can be used to roll back the effects of the Fall in a way unattainable by behavioristic, manipulative methods, methods that often seem to produce desirable results in the short term. In the face of all the difficulties, we are still convinced of and committed to the ideas delineated in Teaching Redemptively. To continue to make this the reality at our school, several things working together are needed. First, we must model this as well as teach it. So many times schools try to plant something at the classroom level that is choked out by the overall school atmosphere. For instance, as an administrator it makes no sense for me to expect the faculty to discipline in a relational way while I treat the teachers bureaucratically. Next, we need to continue to research, instruct, and experiment. While grace-based instruction should be situational and should never be enacted mechanically from a checklist, that certainly doesn’t mean we can’t learn great things from other schools. For instance, in Dr. Gene Frost’s Learning from the Best: Growing Greatness in the Christian School, his chapter describing the approach to discipline enacted by Lutheran High School North in Macomb, Michigan was both inspiring and useful. So much of what they are attempting to do in moving from Law to Grace is transferable in essence to any school.

Finally, as leaders we must constantly paint the big picture for those on the front lines. Sometimes that takes the form of visionary speeches. At other times, we just need to take the small, teachable moments to show how a philosophy can inform practice. Recently, I began our morning meeting by reading Luke 14:12-14 aloud. This passage is where Jesus instructs those giving a feast to invite the poor, the crippled, and the blind, i.e. those who couldn’t pay them back. I then distributed an assignment. The teachers were to reread the passage. Then, to drive home the point, I required a few written paragraphs within a week reflecting on how this story applied to their classrooms. The twist was that they had to name names in the reflection. I wanted them to realize how easy it is to reward those who are rewarding but to only tolerate those who aren’t. It’s an even greater leap to love those students who are needy in an academic or behavioral sense. It’s easy to admit that in general. It can be painful to admit that when there is a face attached.

The results were wonderful. In their written responses, the teachers were very honest about how theory and practice diverge on a daily basis. When they would mention Little Johnny by name, describe how they normally reacted to him, and then record how he should be the object of their love especially because he had less to “offer” them compared to his peers, it was evident that the desire to be gracious was making a tangible difference. For closure, I read aloud excerpts of the reflections in our morning meeting the following week. That was helpful in that various teachers identified varying ways in which teaching particular students exhibited that lack of inherent reward along with heartfelt regret for not pursuing more diligently those same students in love. If nothing else, we intentionally took time to examine our practice in light of the Gospel. While no one-shot panacea, I do believe exercises like this can aid in the process of changing the culture of a school.

Technorati Tags: Worldview,Christian Education,Assessment

Stressed Out Students

By Mitchell Salerno, Secondary Principal, Statesville Christian School

Are you stressed? Overworked? Tired? The evidence suggests that our students are. Many American high school students are reportedly overworked and pressured to produce wonderful grades, compete in athletics, and participate in clubs. What is the pot at the end of the rainbow? Getting into a great college!

However, getting into America's best colleges is certainly becoming more competitive. Consider the following article from the New York Times (click here for the article). Acceptance rates are very low. I recently learned of a school that received over 35,000 applications and accepted 7,500 students with the intention of welcoming 2,500 freshmen on campus in the fall. This pressure has produced high school environments that are competitive and cut-throat.

There are several organizations that are concerned about the stress that high school students are facing. One of them is at Stanford University, called Stressed Out Students or SOS for short (click here to visit the SOS website). This organization works with high schools to reduce the amount of stress placed on students. The following article from the Washington Post (click here for the article) and video from CNN (click here for the video) highlight the program at Stanford and provide information regarding the amount of stress that schools, parents, and others place on our young people.

The SCS faculty recently read an article by Pope (the founder and director of the SOS program) and analyzed it from a biblical worldview. In particular, we were interested in why so many of our students were seeking admission into a "great" college. In this sense, our students are no different than the average American high school student.

Recently, I was the substitute in one of our senior courses and I asked eight seniors if they felt stress. For the most part, they answered that they did. Furthermore, I asked them if grades were important and they suggested that they were. When I asked them what good grades would deliver they suggested that good grades led to a good college which led to a good job which led to money which led to happiness and being comfortable. I finally asked them what their ideal life would look like and they replied that they would have a great family, earn enough money to provide for their needs, and live in a safe neighborhood.

Before you get too excited, I would suggest that you examine your own heart. Personally, I must admit that I have had the same thoughts. Yet, is this God's ideal? Does he call us to comfort or to service?

The SCS faculty has been wrestling with our role in inculcating a biblical worldview in our students such that they seek to develop their talents for God's glory and His service. The SOS program at Stanford seeks to reduce stress by altering schedules, teaching Yoga, reducing homework, etc.; however, these are merely temporary and fleeting attempts to mediate the humanistic and materialistic foundations that undergird the real issue. As Christians, we understand that reducing stress lies not in techniques but in the One that produces peace (Read Romans 8, considering it light of the current discussion).

I have challenged the faculty to consider how we can better instill a biblical worldview in our students and how we can create an environment that is developmentally appropriate. Interestingly, I have noticed that the gospel is not congruent with popular culture. At some point we will need to address what a Christian values compared to what the world values. I would contend that the "great" college is not the most prestigious, but the one that God has providentially chosen.

I invite parents, students, and faculty to chime in on the discussion. These types of worldview discussions are uncomfortable because they challenge the world within us. I am truly interested in your thoughts.

Technorati Tags: Stress,Students,Grades,Success,Happy

Re-Defining Best Practices: A Disciplined Approach to Christian School Development

By Zach Clark, Director of Advancement at Westminster Christian Academy, St. Louis, MO

The latter half of my childhood, I lived in Arkansas, half a mile from an immense wetland called “The Black Swamp.” This is a vast stretch of thousands of acres of ancient timber springing out of thick mud and deep floodwaters of the local network of rivers. Growing up boating around the Black Swamp hunting and fishing, I learned the hard way how difficult it is to advance to a destination without getting lost. One of the key concepts of traveling, especially in a vast territory of trees and water, is that you have to know where you are going, and how to get there.

This is common sense right? And, what does this have to do with Christian school advancement…what most people refer to as “development” or “fundraising?”

I believe it is time to redefine best practices for development in the Christian school. This could be a call to go “back to basics,” but I find that rather than going back, we need to move forward with a clearer approach that requires disciplined action. For the school leader interested in advancing the organization and the resources needed to fund vision, it is crucial that we know where we are going, and how to get there.

So what is the destination of advancement? I believe that Christian School development is simply the process of helping others see what God is doing in the lives of students and families we serve, and enabling them to have an impact through giving. But, the actual end goal or destination of advancement should be:

Every potential donor engaged face to face in a consistent manner as they develop their vision for having an impact on the future of the Christian school.

Now here’s the problem with this as our final destination, for most Christian schools it is virtually impossible to get there. How could we ever have the human resources to engage every potential donor face to face? While it may not ever be completely achievable, I find it important to keep this end goal in front of us at all times.

So, now that we have clarified our destination, we need to know how to get there or advance in that direction. Dr. Byrle Kynerd, chancellor of Briarwood Christian School, impressed one of my core values upon me. I’ve often heard Dr. Kynerd say,

“How we do what we do is what God uses to bring about change in the lives of people.”

So, I believe that in Christian school development in particular how we do what we do is critically important and matters to God.

Unfortunately, many of the so-called “best practices” applied at Christian schools are simply those typical methods and programs every other organization uses (ministry or not.) While there is certainly no need to recreate tactics just for fun, I do believe that the time has come to apply a new set of best practices that keep in mind the above destination of engaging every person face to face.

Allow me to present several redefined “best-practices” that we are working hard to implement. Each concept is followed by a list of implications resulting from this approach. Each of these has been defined through our own process of thinking through best practices that advance us toward the right destination.

Perpetuate an organizational distaste for programs.

Instead, apply a disciplined approach to engaging people. I believe if you resist programmatic approaches to raising funds, it does help keep the focus on people.

Implications:

1. Reduce the number of or eliminate any events that have fundraising as the goal. Keep only those programs or events that result in engaging people in a stronger understanding of your Christian school. For instance, we now only have one fundraising event, a golf tournament. Our tournament has a proven track record of not only strengthening a sense of community among some of our strongest supporters, but also enabling supporters to engage new and increasing numbers of individuals to learn more about the school. If your event doesn’t accomplish a personal connection and engagement to the mission of the school, get rid of it.

2. Instead of launching new fundraising events, turn the focus of development toward the current events and community builders your Christian school already has in place. Don’t use these events as fundraisers, instead seek opportunities to make these events even more mission appropriate. Make each of these events a place for people to engage more fully in the mission, vision, and values of your school.

Meet people where they are.

Most of us, when trying to raise money, put in place goals, needs, or programs that will surely result in people coming in line and lockstep with our opportunities to give. The problem with this is that as you cast a vision for moving forward in the future, you still have to meet people where they are today. Think of it this way: it is virtually impossible to convince someone to drive you from Alabama to California when they are not convinced that they like you enough to buy more gas money to drive you to the nearest corner. Especially if they are already paying tuition for the pleasure of having you ride in their car.

Implications:

1. We do something completely different. Instead of just telling them where we want to go, we start asking them how to get there. We ask questions. We get input. We do surveys. We do interviews. And, when we think we are doing too much, we find we still have tons of people that haven’t taken the opportunity to give their input, so we keep asking.

2. We pay attention to where they are already engaged in the school. What events do they attend? What do they give money toward? What programs are their children involved in? What are they passionate about? It’s hard to meet someone where they are if you don’t know the answers to these questions.

3. We start providing people with opportunities to impact the Christian school where their heart may be stirred. Will someone give to help you buy a computer, when they are really interested in growing your financial aid? They might give to a degree, but will it be giving that is fueled by a passion for your mission?

Each individual is on his or her own road toward the vision.

This means we stop treating people as if they were all the same. Sure, you have your “groups,” I know. But, does it really make sense to have all your 10^th grade families grouped together? Do they all have the same interests? Do they have same commitment level to the school? Can a person really be known and understood just because of the age of their child or the year they graduated? A particular video of Malcolm Gladwell confirmed our thinking on this issue.

Implications:

1. We keep digging deeper down in our efforts to organize and communicate with donors, working toward the dream that each individual would own their own vision to impact the Christian school. We group people in the normal ways: giving, not giving, used to give but don’t anymore, etc. But, we also group them according to: what they are interested in, when during the calendar year they like to give, how they like to be asked, how they like to be thanked, how they like to be reported to.

2. Instead of a constant barrage of requests to give, we take steps toward them. If they don’t respond to ten different requests to give, shouldn’t we find out why? Let’s move closer to them: call them, invite them to coffee, or schedule a tour of the school. Do the hard work and connect with the person, rather than the name on the mailing list.

3. Instead of constantly asking, we constantly thank and highlight results. I find that many people, especially Christian school parents, have a list of other things they do to contribute to the school, outside of giving. We start with the assumption that they already are investors. This means we keep much of our communication focused on thanking people and highlighting the impact of giving. This raises the level of awareness of the importance and impact of giving without wearing them out as quickly.

4. We seek creative ways to structure development around the donor, rather than our needs. If this sounds crazy, consider the example of the scheduling of requests to give. If you learn, overtime or through dialogue, that a family always does their giving during the month of June, no amount of letters sent to them asking them to give during the months of July-March will result in a gift. We should time our efforts, our requests, and our follow-up on what we know about the donor, not what we know about our needs.

There is a difference between doing things the easy way, and the right way.

I know I sound like a curmudgeon, but take a moment to think about this. As a Christian school with major capital campaign ongoing and annual giving goals out in the public eye, we see a lot of promotional materials for seminars and giving programs. It seems that most of the time, these are “easier, faster, better, cheaper” methods to raise funds. Our Head of School received a phone call one time about the “goose that laid the golden egg,” and the caller eagerly shared the news of how our school would see many new funds come our way through this easy approach. In the 21^st century it is virtually impossible to calculate all the methods and ideas available for our consideration as we seek to improve and raise more money. The real challenge is how to apply an organizational discipline that will consistently implement the concept of doing the right things, the right way, treating people rightly.

Implications:

1. We apply creativity within a clear framework that honors the principles outlined in this article. This means the challenge is twofold: implementing strategies in a disciplined manner, while at the same time engaging the creative power of our teams in articulating new tactics and methods.

2. We study the implications of new technologies and experiment, but we remember that the need to perfect our ability to engage people face to face doesn’t change. If the tool moves us toward the individual person and enables them to grow in their understanding of who we are as a ministry, then we will consider it.

3. Even as the world changes, our calling to love people will never change. If the program or latest and greatest idea doesn’t demonstrate that we love people and a true desire to see them get involved in what God is doing through the ministry of the Christian school, then it is worthless, at least for us.

Technorati Tags: Development,fundraising,money,capital campaign,Christian School

How to Get Your Ideas and School Philosophy to Stick with Parents and Donors

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

How do we get parents to understand and buy into Christian education? How do we get them to understand what developing a biblical worldview means and why it is important? How do we get our staff to catch the vision of what is possible? How do we get more people to give and donors to give more?

I recently read the book Made to Stick, which I found to be excellent. The authors, one of whom is an educator, outline the essential ingredients for getting our ideas to stick with others so that they both understand and care/act. These principles are:

• S--Simple (Short compact proverb)

• U--Unexpected (Break the expected pattern)

• C--Concrete (Put the message in language connected to everyday life, avoid abstractions)

• C--Credibility (Appeal to authority and passing the Sinatra Test)

• E--Emotions (People will only act if they care)

• S--Stories (A story is powerful because it provides the context missing from abstract prose)

An easy way to remember these principles is to put them into this sentence: Put your ideas into a "Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story."

This sounds a lot like the way Jesus taught.

Each of the chapters explores each of the principles outlined above. I found the book to be very informative, well written, and practical. I highly recommend it.