Can We Keep Up with the Competition?

(Reposted from Goggle Blogger)

We are in danger of becoming increasingly irrelevant and non-competitive. If we do, we will lose students.

Historically, our competition has come from free public schools, charter schools, and homeschooling. Our new competition is coming from technology enabled courses offered by public schools, colleges and universities, and virtual schools, including virtual Christian schools. This development is changing the educational landscape and the school market. The current recession is likely to accelerate this change.

Public schools are adopting interactive technology and distance learning (D.L.) at an accelerating pace. Moreover, there is an increasing number of online virtual schools in higher education and in K-12 education. These options make virtually (pun intended) any course available to any student anytime, anywhere. Students and their parents are no longer restricted to brick and mortar traditional schools to have access to high quality fully accredited courses.

The Explosion in Distance Learning

Alabama, not historically known for innovation or high quality education, is leading the nation in connecting every public school in the state to online asynchronous courses and synchronous courses offered through video conferencing and other interactive technologies. Every student in the state now has access to a wide range of courses, including honors and AP courses that have historically been only offered to students in larger schools in wealthier school districts. The image below shows some of the courses offered through Alabama's Access Program.

To view a short news clip from Fox News about the Access program, click here.

As reflected in the Alabama Access Program, distance learning is exploding. According to Drs. Horn and Christensen (authors of Disrupting Class1) of the Harvard Business School, public education enrollments in online classes have skyrocketed from 45,000 in 2000 to roughly 1 million today. It is projected that by 2020 over 50% of high school classes will be available online1.

The Florida Virtual School (FLVS) reflects this explosion in D.L. Founded in 1997, FLVS currently enrolls 63,675 students in grades 6-12. Enrollment is open to public, private, and home school students.

FLVS offers more than 90 courses—including core subjects, world languages, electives, honors, and over 10 Advanced Placement courses. FLVS courses are accepted for credit and are transferable. Florida Virtual School is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and courses are NCAA approved. FLVS also offers AP Exam reviews in April, even for students who did not take the course through FLVS.

Drs. Horn and Christensen outline four reasons why distance learning will continue to grow:

1. Distance learning technologies will keep improving.

2. Distance learning provides the ability of teachers, students, and parents to select right learning pathways for differentiated learning thus customizing the education to the learning preferences and needs of each child.

3. The looming teacher shortage caused by the retirement of baby boomers will propel schools to move to distance learning to gain access to hard to hire teachers in math, science, and other subjects.

4. The cost of distance learning will fall significantly.

Distance Learning Is and Will Disrupt the Traditional Classroom and School

I highly recommend Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Drs. Christensen, Horn, and Johnson. For a good overview, click on the play button below to watch a video podcast interview with the author, which runs approximately four minutes.

The short video below from Harvard Business School provides useful background context to Dr. Christensen's book. A key concept in this video is winning not by doing it better but doing it differently.

The key concepts in the video sound very familiar in our schools.

The Stimulus Plan is to Include $1 Billion for Ed Tech in Public Schools

According to Edweek2, the Obama Administration plans to spend $1 Billion for Ed Tech. The House Democrats' "American Recovery and Reinvestment" plan includes "$1 billion for 21st century classrooms, including computer and science labs and teacher technology training."

The House Democrats' plan overall includes $41 billion to local school districts, including $1 billion made available through the Enhancing Education Through Technology (E2T2) program, which last year was just $263 million. From the House Democrat's proposal:

We will put people to work building 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries to help our kids compete with any worker in the world.

Such developments have the potential to make public schools more competitive with Christian schools.

Competition from an Unexpected Source-Virtual Christian Schools

I can already hear the rejoinder "but we provide a Christian education in a Christian environment. This type of education cannot be replicated by technology."

It is true that neither distance learning nor any other technology can perfectly replicate the experience of community that one finds in a brick and mortar school. Warm human interactions, prayer in the classroom, chapel services, the excitement and lessons learned through athletics and fine arts are life changing and life enriching experiences that can only occur through face-to-face human interaction.

However, it is naive to assume that these rapidly developing technologies do not pose real challenges to our schools--and real opportunities.

The Challenges

1. The number of parents theologically and philosophically committed to Christian education is relatively small. Given the growing shallowness of Christianity in the U.S. and the evangelical church in particular, this number is likely to grow smaller.

As I noted in a previous post, for many parents, the "Christian" in education is not as important as "quality" in education. Many of our parents enroll their children in our schools for reasons other than the development of a biblical worldview, which frankly, most of our parents do not understand because their entire educational experience was secular, not Christian. They may have a Christian heart but most have a secular mind.

Once having experienced the benefits of Christian education, some of our parents come to a deeper understanding of and commitment to the philosophy of Christian education. Most, however, do not start with this understanding and many never acquire it.

Based on formal and informal surveys that I have conducted with parents over the years, I find that parents enroll their children in our schools for the reasons outlined below. Although survey results vary, in general the order provided below reflects the priorities of parents when deciding to enroll their children in a Christian school.

• A sense of security and safety
• Christian atmosphere (meaning good values, nurture, and protection from the "world")
• Academic quality
• Relatively small sizes
• Christian worldview

The essential question for us is "can distance learning replicate the above benefits of Christian education?" I believe that it can--at least partially and most importantly--well-enough for many of our parents. I believe this will become increasingly true for several reasons:

• Younger parents will be much more knowledgeable and comfortable with online learning (many will experience it first hand in college). Online learning will not have the stigma that it does for many of our current parents, administrators, and teachers.

• The notion of community is changing due to social networking sites like Facebook.

• Rising tuition may make Christian education increasingly unattainable for many.

• Technology will continue to improve resulting in enhanced synchronous interaction through high speed embedded video-conferencing technologies like Wimba.

Moreover, it is interesting to reflect upon how many of the reasons cited by parents for enrolling their children in a Christian school can be at least partially met through online classes.

• Security and safety is provided when students are at home with parents taking coursework online.
• Christian students interacting live with a Christian teacher does provide a Christian atmosphere, albeit in a more limited fashion. Moreover, our students view social interactions differently than we typically do. For them, interaction through social networks and other technologies IS social interaction and quite natural. As evidence, all you have to do is watch a group of teenagers together. They spend as much time texting their friends as they do interacting with those directly in front of them.
• Academic quality can be maintained when highly qualified teachers are teaching using interactive asynchronous and synchronous technology such as video-conferencing, chat rooms, Skype and similar programs. In fact, sometimes the quality can be better! It is now possible and relatively inexpensive for students to take online courses from instructors with Masters and Ph.D.'s, e.g., from India. For an example, click here.

To put this into perspective, consider the following information provided by one online provider of tutoring services.

• The small class size speaks for itself.
• A Christian worldview can be taught by using Christian teachers and Christian material. Sitting in a traditional classroom is not necessarily required. For example, Reformed Theological Seminary offers theological degrees through distance learning. As I was researching material for this article I discovered a video that I did not know existed by my own pastor outlining the benefits of distance learning for theological training.

To the extent that parents believe that they can provide their children most of what is available in a traditional Christian school by combining distance learning, homeschooling, and extra-curricular programs through community programs, we run the risk of experiencing enrollment declines. As technology improves, our younger more technology savvy parents may choose options other than the local Christian school. They will make a cost benefit assessment something like this: "I am willing to get 80% of the benefits of a traditional Christian school for 50% of the cost." The graphic below, which I developed for a workshop I recently conducted, illustrates the calculation being made by parents.

This leads to the next development in the market--the Virtual Christian School.

2. There are a growing number of Christian Virtual Schools such as Sevenstar Christian Academy. Schools such as Sevenstar offer online classes taught by Christian teachers, primarily to students of Christian parents. This is a new development that adds another player in the Christian school market.

As an experiment, I did a simple Google search for "Christian school distance learning". Here is what came up (note there are more than 10 pages of search results):

3. The recession is creating significant challenges for our parents. These challenges may affect parents' decisions regarding the enrollment of their children in a Christian school.

• Many of our families will experience job losses for one or both spouses.
• Many families will receive little or no pay increases, some will experience reductions. On the other hand, most of our schools will raise tuition.
• Employers are shifting health insurance premiums to employees and increasing co-pays thus reducing family disposable income.
• Families have lost wealth making paying for college more difficult or impossible. Some parents will decide to forego paying K-12 tuition to save money for college.
• Families are worried about retirement. Some may reallocate tuition to retirement accounts.
• Grandparents may have less disposable income to assist with tuition.
• Many families will focus on reducing debt and saving money.

4. The availability of high quality academic courses through both Christian and public schools, along with the recession, may encourage more parents to homeschool their children.

The Opportunities

Although the explosion in distance learning poses challenges, it also presents a significant opportunity. Consider the potential benefits of D.L. for our schools:

• Distance learning provides a vehicle for extending our school ministries by enabling our schools to offer Christian education to students who do not have access to quality Christian schools or whose parents cannot afford it. Distance learning provides the opportunity to expand the Christian school market in ways hitherto not possible.
• We have the opportunity to form strategic alliances to offer courses to our students that we otherwise could not afford to offer as individuals schools, e.g., Chinese, astronomy, etc.
• A new revenue stream is created by enrolling new students but without the added cost of new facilities and auxiliary services.
• Extending our educational ministry impact to international students along with the opportunity to connect our classrooms with classrooms in other countries thus fostering cross-cultural understanding and deepening our students' interest in world affairs and missions.

These are just a few of the potential benefits of this revolution in technology and learning. The question is "how are we going to respond?" As I see it we have three options:

1. The proverbial ostrich approach--deny the reality of what is already occurring. Adopting a smug, but in my humble opinion misplaced, confidence that D.L. is a fad or at most a niche phenomenon that will not materially affect the educational marketplace or our schools.

2. Adopt a theological superiority complex that in effect relegates distance learning to a sub-Christian status because it lacks the traditional definition of community. I call this the "Christian Luddite Syndrome" or CLS.

3. Prayerfully and creativity determine how we can redeem this new technology for God's glory, the advancement of His kingdom, and for the benefit of our schools and students. In short, we don't have to throw out the baby with the bath water. Whatever the shortcoming of D.L., we can and should work to redeem the technology to make it all that it can be in service to the mission of Christian education.

Can we keep up with our competition and should we care? I believe the answer to both questions is an emphatic YES. We face both a challenge and an opportunity. Our response will determine which it will be for our schools.

An African Proverb provides an insightful summary of where we may find ourselves as Christian schools:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

You Are Invited

I am currently working on a major distance learning initiative that will involved several Christian schools in the U.S. and overseas. If you would like to learn more about this initiative and your possible involvement, please email me (christianschooljournalblog@gmail.com) for more information.

References

1. Christensen, C., Horn, M., and Johnson, C., Disrupting class (2008): How disruptive innovations will change the way the world learns, McGrawHill, p. 91

2. Source: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2009/01/1_billion_for_ed_tech_in_house.html

Technorati Tags: Distance Learning,market,Christian school,Christian education,Technology,Ed Tech,Educational technology,innovation,disruptive technology,disrupting class,educational reform,enrollment

“Tell Me Again, Why are We Doing This?”

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

New training course provides inexpensive, flexible professional development that boosts teachers’ enthusiasm for life-on-life influence.

We are Christian educators because in our hearts we know that it changes lives—and can ultimately change the culture. It is in this spirit that I want to alert you to a new professional development program that can reenergize your team and reinvigorate their sense of “why we do what we do.”

This new resource is from Dr. Jeff Myers’ Passing the Baton International (PTBI). In the last three years PTBI has equipped the faculty of 500 Christian schools to rediscover the ancient art of discipleship and help students become world-changing leaders.

PTBI just released its training on DVD with a bevy of teaching resources that make it simple—and inexpensive—to offer a full-bodied professional development program worth two CEUs. You can find out more at www.passingthebaton.org

How Passing the Baton Ignites Teachers’ Enthusiasm for Life-on-Life Influence

PTBI says that its new course “provides dynamic, proven professional development to renew teachers’ sense of joy and equip them to reconnect spiritually with students.”

It does this by showing teachers how to mentor, coach and disciple students in a biblical, natural and fun way—whether their interactions with students are 30 minutes or 30 seconds.

The evidence is impressive. PTBI conducted pre-test/post-test studies of 3,000 participants and found that its training makes a statistically significant difference in teachers’ understanding of and preparation for discipleship, as well as their motivation to become disciplers.

Can Passing the Baton Lead to Long-Term Change in How Teachers View Their Mission?

Renny Scott, Headmaster of Christian Heritage School in Dalton, GA is one of many fans of Passing the Baton. “You could feel the difference in the spiritual atmosphere at the start of the school,” he enthuses.

Does this mean that Passing the Baton is a miracle cure? Myers says it depends of the leader’s commitment to life-on-life influence: “This workshop is only a catalyst, but when an enthusiastic leader implements it, the breakthroughs can be incredible.”

Cynthia Greer is one of those enthusiastic leaders. After guiding her faculty at Westbrook Christian School (Rainbow City, AL) through Passing the Baton, she helped her faculty establish goals and plans that she says have “had dramatic results in the lives of students."

A year after hosting the training for his faculty and staff, Dr. S. L. Sherrill did a spiritual formation audit at North Raleigh Christian Academy and was pleasantly surprised to see “mentoring” show up on students’ radar as one of the things they appreciated about their school.

Paula Moore, Early Childhood Director at Providence Christian School in Cape Coral, FL tells of how one teacher got so excited that she called three meetings to discuss how to turn their school into a more encouraging, uplifting place. Paula says, “I personally have three children in our school and can attest to the huge transformation that has taken place.”

How PTBI’s New DVD Course Can Help You

In the past the Passing the Baton workshop was only available with a live speaker in an inflexible one-day format. It was expensive. With the DVD course you have the flexibility to offer Passing the Baton as a one-day training, a two-day retreat, or as a once-a-week program for 12 weeks. And the price is surprisingly affordable (more on that below).

Terry Broberg, principal of Cascade Christian High School in Puyallup, WA has previewed the course and says, “It’s money well spent for anyone who works with young men and women.”

In fact, pilot schools actually seem to prefer the DVD course over Dr. Myers’ live presentations (no offense, Jeff).

What You Get With the Passing the Baton DVD Course

The new course consists of 12 45-minute lessons, each of which includes a 20-minute video segment and follow-up discussion. A simple facilitators guide makes it easy to use on-the-spot (although, ahem, we would never admit that we didn’t prep for it).

The CDROM includes reminder cards and handsome posters for each session. There’s even an attendance-building guide with skits, brochures and bulletin inserts. Come to think of it, this thing would be a cinch to teach as a church-based Bible study.

The cost for the whole package is an easy-on-the-budget $127. Each teacher needs a “participant kit,” but these are reasonably priced at $20 each and include a 72-page study guide, a copy of Jeff’s hardcover Handoff book and a relay baton.

You can save $30 instantly by using the coupon code “baton” when you order on-line at www.passingthebaton.org. The coupon code is good until midnight April 22.

The bottom line: now you can host the Passing the Baton training at your convenience for just over $20 per person and grant your teachers two CEUs from ACSI. That’s as close to a “no brainer” as I’ve seen for a long time.

For years you’ve piled up kindling. It’s time to light the match.

The need to have a strong godly influence on students won’t wait around until the economy gets better. If you think that Passing the Baton could springboard your faculty toward greater influence, you can check out www.passingthebaton.org. Or you can call 423-570-1000 and talk to Sean Bevier who, as a long-time Christian school dean of students, can answer your questions and coach you in how to help your school become a nerve center for developing the next generation of leaders.

Technorati Tags: Leadership,Staff development

How To Deal Effectively with Conflict and Difficult People

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

Dealing with difficult people can be very uncomfortable!  Despite 20 years of experience, my stress level still rises whenever my administrative assistance informs me that: 

Mr. and Mrs. Jones want to see you.  They are upset about .....

One would think that by now I would have learned to be more sanguine but alas, I still feel my gut tighten in anticipation of an unpleasant conversation.

Although I have not yet learned how to reach a “state of nirvana,” I have learned a few things over the years that may be helpful to you.  I offer the following tips with the prayer that you will find them helpful the next time you face that angry email, phone call, or the unscheduled “do you have a minute?”

Conflict Cannot and Should Not Be Avoided

If two godly men like Paul and Barnabas, who ministered and faced persecution together, could not avoid conflict (Acts 15:39-40) then there should be no illusions about our ability to avoid it. Conflict is inevitable.  It is also an integral part of our ministry to students, parents, and staff.

I often tease parents during our Parent Orientation sessions.  When asking for their prayers I quip:

My job is relatively easy--"I only deal with people's children, money, and religion!

Parents laugh at this statement because they quickly realize just how difficult leading a school can be. Most of them would not want the job for any amount of pay!  Upon reflection, they become a bit more empathetic when assessing the school's response to a given situation.

A Little Humor

As illustrated by my quip, humor is a natural and effective way to reduce tension, demonstrate humility, and foster empathy--provided it is used appropriately and in the right context.  Misused or inappropriate humor can do more harm than good. Well timed and thoughtful humor, on the other hand, can relax a tense situation and put it into perspective.  Consider the following non-school examples (source: How to Use Humor to Diffuse Conflict, by Carla Rieger).

Time Deadline

Our manager was pushing the IT technician to fix a huge computer breakdown in under half a day. The technician was getting frustrated at the unreasonable request, but rather than push back with resistance, he said, "Actually, I only need two hours. The other two I'll be using to cure world hunger." They both laughed and the manager mellowed out.

Smaller Budget

A client kept returning our budget proposal saying it needed to be smaller. No matter how much trimming we did, the client kept pushing for "Smaller, smaller!" I finally took the proposal to a copier and had it reduced to two inches in size. I sent it to the client and said, "This is about as small as I can make it. Tell me what you think." He called me saying it got a huge laugh in his office and that he would now accept the proposal as soon as he could find his magnifying glass.

Again, be careful.  Humor can be very effective but it can backfire if it is poorly timed or inappropriate.

To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is! (Pro 15:23)

To Disciple and to be Discipled

When I know that I am about to be confronted with an angry or upset parent, or when confronted unexpectedly, I remind myself that every conflict "is an opportunity to disciple or to be discipled."  The objective is not to avoid conflict, it is not to deny that there is a problem, and it is not merely to "tolerate" the other person or the meeting.  Instead, conflict is a providentially appointed opportunity to disciple and minister to others or to be discipled by others (Rom. 8:28). 

When dealing with someone who is upset, don't ask yourself "how can I avoid this situation or how can I get through it as quickly and painlessly as possible."  Instead, ask yourself this,

How can the Lord use me in this situation to minister to Mr. and Mrs. Jones and how can the Lord use upset Mr. and Mrs. Jones to instruct me or to make the school better?

You will be surprised how much easier it is to deal with difficult situations and people when you adopt this biblical attitude.  I remind myself of the following verses when facing a difficult situation:

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety. (Proverbs 11:14)

Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. (Pro 27:5-6)

The upset parent or staff member can be our instructors!  Only pride would keep us from freely acknowledging our need for correction--even if not given in an appropriate manner.

Humility

Relax!  You and I have clay feet.  We make mistakes.  We sin.  Unlike our teenage children, we don't know everything. 

We don't have to pretend otherwise to be effective leaders. In fact, acknowledging our frailties reflects genuine humility, fosters listening, reduces defensiveness, and in general reduces tension.  It also puts us in a state of mind to learn from the situation while fostering respect for those who are upset. 

Admit mistakes.  Do not be defensive.  Own the poor decisions.  Doing so models Christian character, is instructive to those who are upset, and leads to the development of stronger schools.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Pro 16:18)

Listen!!

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. (James 1:19)

This verse reminds me of Steven Covey's statement that one of the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People is that they seek first to understand and then to be understood.  In our pride or defensiveness we often seek to justify more than we seek to understand. We want to defend more than we want to learn.  This attitude is both wrong and counter-productive.

Even if the other person is out of line or just plain wrong, we can often learn something of value from the confrontation.  This requires that we talk less and listen more. 

Sometimes people just need to vent.  Have you ever been in a meeting where the other party keeps repeating the same grievance over and over?  You got it the first time or certainly by the second rendition but they keep going? 

Take a deep breath (quietly!), be patient, and give them ample time.  Doing so shows respect, gives them time to vent, and may reveal something important to learn.

Speak the Truth--In Love

Humility does not mean that we ignore sin or false accusations.  It is sinful to ignore the truth in order to avoid conflict.  Sometimes we need to confront the parent or the employee with their sinful behavior.  For example, the dad who is acting inappropriately during an athletic event, the teacher who responded disrespectfully to a student, or the parent who was verbally abusive to a teacher must be confronted and corrected.  Ignoring sinful behavior in the school corrupts the school's culture.

HOW we speak the truth, however, is extremely important.  We should be clear and candid but gracious even if we have to confront the sinful behavior of others. 

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. (Eph. 4:15)

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. (Pro 15:1)

The wise of heart is called discerning, and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness. (Pro 16:21)

Turn the Other Cheek, Go the Extra Mile

Remember, LIFE AND MINISTRY ARE NOT ABOUT US!  When we remember that we are to "be living sacrifices" (Rom. 12:1-2) it is easier not to take personal offense when dealing with conflict.  Every action we take and every response we give, or don't give, reflects upon God's glory, His kingdom, the testimony of the Gospel, the reputation of our schools, and our leadership. 

When dealing with angry or unreasonable people, it is helpful to remember Jesus' instruction:

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mat 5:41-48)

We can demonstrate going the extra mile in our schools with a strong bias for "yes."  In other words, unless the request violates an important policy or foundational principle our bias should be to say yes.  While it is not always possible to agree, it is possible to agree to requests more often than we like to admit. 

One of the keys to saying "yes" is to avoid the "convenience" trap.  That is, if we are not vigilant we can too quickly say no because saying yes would require sacrifice and inconvenience.  Remember, sacrificial service not convenience, is Christ's example for our lives and ministries.

Take a moment to reflect on the following verses.

But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter." And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given. He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.

And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus. Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.

When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves." But Jesus said, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." (Mat 14:6-16)

Note several things:

1) Jesus has just been told about the beheading of John the Baptist.  His natural human response upon hearing this terrible news is that he sought solitude, perhaps a quiet place to grieve the loss. 

2) Jesus is inconvenienced.  The inconsiderate and insensitive crowd follows Jesus--demanding more of his time and energy--notwithstanding his own desire for solitude. 

3) Jesus does not feel sorry for himself, he does not ignore the needs of those around them, and he does not complain--instead--he gives of himself yet again in order to serve them.  Rather than feeling sorry for himself he has compassion on them!

Responding versus Reacting

 Stop!  Pray! Think!  When confronted by an upset parent or employee, when reading a brusque or mean-spirited email, or when listening to an angry diatribe on the phone, do not immediately react.  Wait.  An immediate  emotionally driven response does not reflect the Fruit of the Spirit and will be counter-productive.

Rather than responding immediately take a moment to say a silent prayer.  Then reflect on the issue before responding to it. 

For example, I will often compose a response to an email and then set it aside for several hours or for a day.  Inevitably I find myself revising the email being careful with the words I choose to ensure that my response is not emotional, is clear and gracious, and deals with the facts, not the emotions surrounding the issue.

I often employ Paul’s “sandwich” style as found in  his Epistles.  You are probably familiar with his style.  He starts out with a compliment or praise, moves to instruction/correction, and closes with praise or positive acknowledgment.  Here is an example from I Corinthians.

Opening:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge-- even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you--(1Co 1:3-6) …

Instruction/Correction:

… But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ … (1Co 3:1) …

Closing:

… The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. (1Co 16:23-24)

Follow-up

Do not ignore the matter!  It will not go away.  Whatever the issue—address it.  Dr. Kynerd, our current Chancellor and former Superintendent, has given me very wise advice.  He counsels, “Under promise and over deliver.”  Reflect on the benefits of this statement for a moment.  What are the potential benefits if we under promise, over deliver, and always follow-up?  Conversely, what are the consequences if we over promise and under deliver?

Fruit of the Spirit

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Gal 5:22-23)

When dealing with conflict, ask yourself the following questions:

• How will my response reflect love?

• How can I find joy in this situation for myself and for the one who is upset? (“count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Jas 1:2-3)

• How can I show kindness EVEN if I am being “abused”?

• What good deed/work can I perform in this situation?

• How can I use this situation to demonstrate faithfulness to my Lord, to my calling and to my students, parents, and staff?

• How am I reflecting gentleness in my response as I seek to “speak the truth in love?”

• Am I demonstrating self-control or am I reacting?

Keeping Authorities Informed

With the exception of gifts, people do not like surprises!  If you are dealing with an issue that is likely to come to the attention of a board member, the pastor, or others in positions of authority—inform them in advance of the situation.

I routinely give my board chairman and/or the pastors a “heads-up” on situations that may percolate.  Doing so is a courtesy to them so that they are not caught off guard.  It also fosters trust and gives you the opportunity to seek advice.  There is NO DOWNSIDE to this proactive communication!

Likewise, if there is bad news share it with the school board forthrightly.  Don’t sweep things under the rug, don’t pretend everything is fine if they aren’t.  You owe it to your board and others to keep them fully informed of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Making the Hard but Necessary Decisions

Sometimes an effective response may be require a parting of the way.  For example, an employee may have to be dismissed or a parent may have to be told that the school can no longer serve him or her.  This should be a last resort measure but it may be necessary. 

Over the years I have had to make the unpleasant decision to terminate an employee or to tell a parent that his behavior is such that the school can no longer effectively serve his family.

Such decisions should only be made after much prayer, hard work, and longsuffering.  The highest levels of integrity must be maintained.  But failure to make these hard decisions is a failure of leadership. 

 When you make these hard decisions remember that you do not have the liberty of defending yourself to others.  With the exception of those with authority over us, we must not share information regarding the circumstances of our decision with others in order to justify ourselves.  We also do not have the liberty of gossiping (sharing something that is true is still gossip!).  The Scriptures are clear—“Love covers a multitude of sins.”  This does not mean that sin is swept under the rug—it means that we protect the reputations of our protagonists even if doing so causes others to question our leadership and decisions.  Again, this is NOT about us.

In Summary

• Conflict cannot and should not be avoided

• Use humor to diffuse anger

• See conflict as an opportunity to disciple and/or to be discipled

• Be humble

• Listen

• Speak the truth in love

• Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile

• Respond—don’t react

• Follow-up

• Demonstrate the Fruit of the Spirit

• Keep the appropriate authorities informed

• Make the hard decisions

Why You’re Not So Special-Generation Me

Reprinted from Newsweek (April 27, 2009) By: Raina Kelley

Growing up, my literary heroines were those who, like me, struggled to be good: Jo from "Little Women," Harriet the spy, Laura Ingalls and Pippi Longstocking. A strong-willed (and loud) child, I craved examples of unruly knuckleheads tethered to a loving family that encouraged us to be our best selves despite our natural inclinations. Precocious but naive, I thought of myself as an ugly duckling—misunderstood in my youth but destined for a beauty and stature completely impossible for my loved ones to comprehend. I shudder to think what a monster I would have become in the modern child-rearing era. Gorged on a diet of grade inflation, constant praise and materialistic entitlement, I probably would have succumbed to a life of heedless self- indulgence.

Perhaps, one day, we will say that the recession saved us from a parenting ethos that churns out ego-addled spoiled brats. And though it is too soon to tell if our economic free fall will cure America of its sense of economic privilege, it has made it much harder to get the money together to give our kids six-figure sweet-16 parties and plastic surgery for graduation presents, all in the name of "self esteem." And that's a good thing, because as Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell point out in their excellent book "The Narcissism Epidemic," released last week, we've built up the confidence of our kids, but in that process, we've created a generation of hot-house flowers puffed with a disproportionate sense of self-worth (the definition of narcissism) and without the resiliency skills they need when Mommy and Daddy can't fix something.

Indeed, when Twenge addressed students at Southern Connecticut State University a couple weeks back, their generation's narcissism was taken as a given by her audience. The fact that nearly 10 percent of 20-somethings have already experienced symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder, compared with just over 3 percent of the 65-and-over set? Not surprising. That 30 percent of college students agree with the statement: "If I show up to every class, I deserve at least a B"? Didn't get much of a rise either. When they're faced with the straight-out question—do you agree with this research, that you guys are the most narcissistic generation ever—there are uniform head nods and knowing grins to each other. "At the end of the day I love me and I don't think that's wrong," says Sharise Tucker, a 21-year-old senior at Southern Connecticut State, a self-professed narcissist. "I don't think it's a problem, having most people love themselves. I love me."

But as Twenge goes on to illustrate, all that narcissism is a problem that can range from the discourteous—residential advisers at Southern lament students disregarding curfews, playing dance music until 3 a.m., demanding new room assignments at a moment's notice and failing to understand why professors won't let them make up an exam they were too hung over to take—to the disastrous—failed marriages, abusive working environments and billion-dollar Ponzi schemes. Seems that the flip side of all that confidence isn't prodigious success but antisocial behavior.

Armed with a steady influx of trophies just for showing up, "I Am Special" coloring books and princess parties, it is hard for kids to understand why an abundance of ego might be bad for them. Hot off their own rebellions in the late '60s, my parents struggled to give me the freedom to be me while also teaching me generosity, compassion and humility. I didn't make it easy on them. I was the kind of kid who threatened to drink Drano if asked to load the dishwasher. "Don't get cocky, kid," was the response from my dad when I declared my grades too good for my behavior to be monitored. "Pretty girls are a dime a dozen," my mother would remind me when I came up with the brilliant idea that school was getting in the way of my social life. My mom would also trot out fables to keep me in check. Ever read the original ending to Cinderella? The evil stepsisters get their eyes plucked out by pigeons and end up beggars. But it worked, mostly, and "Don't believe your own bulls––t" became my mantra. Of course, I still hate to be told what to do, dislike following rules and will waste hours trying to get out of the simplest household task; but hey, I'm a work in progress.

But no matter how you were raised, the handiest cure for narcissism used to be life. Whether through fate, circumstances or moral imperative, our culture kept hubris in check. Now, we encourage it. Pastors preach of a Jesus that wants us to be rich. The famously egocentric wide receiver Terrell Owens declares at a press conference that being labeled selfish is fine with him. Donald Trump names everything he owns after himself and calls his detractors "losers." We live in a world where everyone can be a star—if only on YouTube. The general sense among students on that New Haven campus is that with the world being such a competitive, cutthroat place, they have to be narcissists. Well, you may need a supersize ego to win "America's Next Top Model" or to justify your multimillion dollar bonus. But last I checked, most of our lives don't require all that attitude. Treating the whole world as if it works for you doesn't suggest you're special, it means you're an ass. As an antidote to a skyrocketing self-worth, Twenge recommends humility, evaluating yourself more accurately, mindfulness and putting others first. Such values may seem quaint, maybe even self-defeating, to those of us who think we're special, but trust me: it gets easier with practice.

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/194640 

Technorati Tags: Narcissism,Selfish,Self-image,Culture,Self-Esteem

The End of Christian America?

Reprinted from Newsweek (Apr 13, 2009). Jon Meacham

The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades. How that statistic explains who we are now—and what, as a nation, we are about to become.

It was a small detail, a point of comparison buried in the fifth paragraph on the 17th page of a 24-page summary of the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey. But as R. Albert Mohler Jr.—president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the largest on earth—read over the document after its release in March, he was struck by a single sentence. For a believer like Mohler—a starched, unflinchingly conservative Christian, steeped in the theology of his particular province of the faith, devoted to producing ministers who will preach the inerrancy of the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the only means to eternal life—the central news of the survey was troubling enough: the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990, rising from 8 to 15 percent. Then came the point he could not get out of his mind: while the unaffiliated have historically been concentrated in the Pacific Northwest, the report said, "this pattern has now changed, and the Northeast emerged in 2008 as the new stronghold of the religiously unidentified." As Mohler saw it, the historic foundation of America's religious culture was cracking.

"That really hit me hard," he told me last week. "The Northwest was never as religious, never as congregationalized, as the Northeast, which was the foundation, the home base, of American religion. To lose New England struck me as momentous." Turning the report over in his mind, Mohler posted a despairing online column on the eve of Holy Week lamenting the decline—and, by implication, the imminent fall—of an America shaped and suffused by Christianity. "A remarkable culture-shift has taken place around us," Mohler wrote. "The most basic contours of American culture have been radically altered. The so-called Judeo-Christian consensus of the last millennium has given way to a post-modern, post-Christian, post-Western cultural crisis which threatens the very heart of our culture." When Mohler and I spoke in the days after he wrote this, he had grown even gloomier. "Clearly, there is a new narrative, a post-Christian narrative, that is animating large portions of this society," he said from his office on campus in Louisville, Ky.

There it was, an old term with new urgency: post-Christian. This is not to say that the Christian God is dead, but that he is less of a force in American politics and culture than at any other time in recent memory. To the surprise of liberals who fear the advent of an evangelical theocracy and to the dismay of religious conservatives who long to see their faith more fully expressed in public life, Christians are now making up a declining percentage of the American population.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey that got Mohler's attention, the percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 percentage points since 1990, from 86 to 76 percent. The Jewish population is 1.2 percent; the Muslim, 0.6 percent. A separate Pew Forum poll echoed the ARIS finding, reporting that the percentage of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith has doubled in recent years, to 16 percent; in terms of voting, this group grew from 5 percent in 1988 to 12 percent in 2008—roughly the same percentage of the electorate as African-Americans. (Seventy-five percent of unaffiliated voters chose Barack Obama, a Christian.) Meanwhile, the number of people willing to describe themselves as atheist or agnostic has increased about fourfold from 1990 to 2009, from 1 million to about 3.6 million. (That is about double the number of, say, Episcopalians in the United States.)

While we remain a nation decisively shaped by religious faith, our politics and our culture are, in the main, less influenced by movements and arguments of an explicitly Christian character than they were even five years ago. I think this is a good thing—good for our political culture, which, as the American Founders saw, is complex and charged enough without attempting to compel or coerce religious belief or observance. It is good for Christianity, too, in that many Christians are rediscovering the virtues of a separation of church and state that protects what Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island as a haven for religious dissenters, called "the garden of the church" from "the wilderness of the world." As crucial as religion has been and is to the life of the nation, America's unifying force has never been a specific faith, but a commitment to freedom—not least freedom of conscience. At our best, we single religion out for neither particular help nor particular harm; we have historically treated faith-based arguments as one element among many in the republican sphere of debate and decision. The decline and fall of the modern religious right's notion of a Christian America creates a calmer political environment and, for many believers, may help open the way for a more theologically serious religious life.

Let's be clear: while the percentage of Christians may be shrinking, rumors of the death of Christianity are greatly exaggerated. Being less Christian does not necessarily mean that America is post-Christian. A third of Americans say they are born again; this figure, along with the decline of politically moderate-to liberal mainline Protestants, led the ARIS authors to note that "these trends … suggest a movement towards more conservative beliefs and particularly to a more 'evangelical' outlook among Christians." With rising numbers of Hispanic immigrants bolstering the Roman Catholic Church in America, and given the popularity of Pentecostalism, a rapidly growing Christian milieu in the United States and globally, there is no doubt that the nation remains vibrantly religious—far more so, for instance, than Europe.

Still, in the new NEWSWEEK Poll, fewer people now think of the United States as a "Christian nation" than did so when George W. Bush was president (62 percent in 2009 versus 69 percent in 2008). Two thirds of the public (68 percent) now say religion is "losing influence" in American society, while just 19 percent say religion's influence is on the rise. The proportion of Americans who think religion "can answer all or most of today's problems" is now at a historic low of 48 percent. During the Bush 43 and Clinton years, that figure never dropped below 58 percent.

Many conservative Christians believe they have lost the battles over issues such as abortion, school prayer and even same-sex marriage, and that the country has now entered a post-Christian phase. Christopher Hitchens —a friend and possibly the most charming provocateur you will ever meet—wrote a hugely popular atheist tract a few years ago, "God Is Not Great." As an observant (if deeply flawed) Episcopalian, I disagree with many of Hitchens's arguments—I do not think it is productive to dismiss religious belief as superstitious and wrong—but he is a man of rigorous intellectual honesty who, on a recent journey to Texas, reported hearing evangelical mutterings about the advent of a "post-Christian" America.

To be post-Christian has meant different things at different times. In 1886, The Atlantic Monthly described George Eliot as "post-Christian," using the term as a synonym for atheist or agnostic. The broader—and, for our purposes, most relevant—definition is that "post-Christian" characterizes a period of time that follows the decline of the importance of Christianity in a region or society. This use of the phrase first appeared in the 1929 book "America Set Free" by the German philosopher Hermann Keyserling.

The term was popularized during what scholars call the "death of God" movement of the mid-1960s—a movement that is, in its way, still in motion. Drawing from Nietzsche's 19th-century declaration that "God is dead," a group of Protestant theologians held that, essentially, Christianity would have to survive without an orthodox understanding of God. Tom Altizer, a religion professor at Emory University, was a key member of the Godless Christianity movement, and he traces its intellectual roots first to Kierkegaard and then to Nietzsche. For Altizer, a post-Christian era is one in which "both Christianity and religion itself are unshackled from their previous historical grounds." In 1992 the critic Harold Bloom published a book titled "The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation." In it he cites William James's definition of religion in "The Varieties of Religious Experience": "Religion … shall mean for us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they consider the divine."

Which is precisely what most troubles Mohler. "The post-Christian narrative is radically different; it offers spirituality, however defined, without binding authority," he told me. "It is based on an understanding of history that presumes a less tolerant past and a more tolerant future, with the present as an important transitional step." The present, in this sense, is less about the death of God and more about the birth of many gods. The rising numbers of religiously unaffiliated Americans are people more apt to call themselves "spiritual" rather than "religious." (In the new NEWSWEEK Poll, 30 percent describe themselves this way, up from 24 percent in 2005.)

Roughly put, the Christian narrative is the story of humankind as chronicled in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament—the drama of creation, fall and redemption. The orthodox tend to try to live their lives in accordance with the general behavioral principles of the Bible (or at least the principles they find there of which they approve) and anticipate the ultimate judgment of God—a judgment that could well determine whether they spend eternity in heaven or in hell.

What, then, does it mean to talk of "Christian America"? Evangelical Christians have long believed that the United States should be a nation whose political life is based upon and governed by their interpretation of biblical and theological principles. If the church believes drinking to be a sin, for instance, then the laws of the state should ban the consumption of alcohol. If the church believes the theory of evolution conflicts with a literal reading of the Book of Genesis, then the public schools should tailor their lessons accordingly. If the church believes abortion should be outlawed, then the legislatures and courts of the land should follow suit. The intensity of feeling about how Christian the nation should be has ebbed and flowed since Jamestown; there is, as the Bible says, no thing new under the sun. For more than 40 years, the debate that began with the Supreme Court's decision to end mandatory school prayer in 1962 (and accelerated with the Roe v. Wade ruling 11 years later) may not have been novel, but it has been ferocious. Fearing the coming of a Europe-like secular state, the right longed to engineer a return to what it believed was a Christian America of yore.

But that project has failed, at least for now. In Texas, authorities have decided to side with science, not theology, in a dispute over the teaching of evolution. The terrible economic times have not led to an increase in church attendance. In Iowa last Friday, the state Supreme Court ruled against a ban on same-sex marriage, a defeat for religious conservatives. Such evidence is what has believers fretting about the possibility of an age dominated by a newly muscular secularism. "The moral teachings of Christianity have exerted an incalculable influence on Western civilization," Mohler says. "As those moral teachings fade into cultural memory, a secularized morality takes their place. Once Christianity is abandoned by a significant portion of the population, the moral landscape necessarily changes. For the better part of the 20th century, the nations of Western Europe led the way in the abandonment of Christian commitments. Christian moral reflexes and moral principles gave way to the loosening grip of a Christian memory. Now even that Christian memory is absent from the lives of millions."

Religious doubt and diversity have, however, always been quintessentially American. Alexis de Tocqueville said that "the religious atmosphere of the country was the first thing that struck me on arrival in the United States," but he also discovered a "great depth of doubt and indifference" to faith. Jefferson had earlier captured the essence of the American spirit about religion when he observed that his statute for religious freedom in Virginia was "meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindoo and infidel of every denomination"—and those of no faith whatever. The American culture of religious liberty helped create a busy free market of faith: by disestablishing churches, the nation made religion more popular, not less.

America, then, is not a post-religious society—and cannot be as long as there are people in it, for faith is an intrinsic human impulse. The belief in an order or a reality beyond time and space is ancient and enduring. "All men," said Homer, "need the gods." The essential political and cultural question is to what extent those gods—or, more accurately, a particular generation's understanding of those gods—should determine the nature of life in a given time and place.

If we apply an Augustinian test of nationhood to ourselves, we find that liberty, not religion, is what holds us together. In "The City of God," Augustine —converted sinner and bishop of Hippo—said that a nation should be defined as "a multitude of rational beings in common agreement as to the objects of their love." What we value most highly—what we collectively love most—is thus the central test of the social contract.

Judging from the broad shape of American life in the first decade of the 21st century, we value individual freedom and free (or largely free) enterprise, and tend to lean toward libertarianism on issues of personal morality. The foundational documents are the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, not the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament (though there are undeniable connections between them). This way of life is far different from what many overtly conservative Christians would like. But that is the power of the republican system engineered by James Madison at the end of the 18th century: that America would survive in direct relation to its ability to check extremism and preserve maximum personal liberty. Religious believers should welcome this; freedom for one sect means freedom for all sects. As John F. Kennedy said in his address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in 1960: "For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew—or a Quaker—or a Unitarian—or a Baptist … Today I may be the victim—but tomorrow it may be you—until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped."

Religion has been a factor in American life and politics from the beginning. Anglican observance was compulsory at Jamestown, and the Puritans of New England were explicitly hoping to found a New Jerusalem. But coerced belief is no belief at all; it is tyranny. "I commend that man, whether Jew, or Turk, or Papist, or whoever, that steers no otherwise than his conscience dares," said Roger Williams.

By the time of the American founding, men like Jefferson and Madison saw the virtue in guaranteeing liberty of conscience, and one of the young republic's signal achievements was to create a context in which religion and politics mixed but church and state did not. The Founders' insight was that one might as well try to build a wall between economics and politics as between religion and politics, since both are about what people feel and how they see the world. Let the religious take their stand in the arena of politics and ideas on their own, and fight for their views on equal footing with all other interests. American public life is neither wholly secular nor wholly religious but an ever-fluid mix of the two. History suggests that trouble tends to come when one of these forces grows too powerful in proportion to the other.

Political victories are therefore intrinsically transitory. In the middle of the 19th century, the evangelist Charles Grandison Finney argued that "the great business of the church is to reform the world—to put away every kind of sin"; Christians, he said, are "bound to exert their influence to secure a legislation that is in accordance with the law of God."

Worldly success tends to mark the beginning of the end for the overtly religious in politics. Prohibition was initially seen as a great moral victory, but its failure and ultimate repeal show that a movement should always be careful what it wishes for: in America, the will of the broad whole tends to win out over even the most devoted of narrower interests.

As the 20th century wore on, Christians found themselves in the relatively uncontroversial position of opposing "godless communism," and the fervor of the Prohibition and Scopes-trial era seemed to fade a bit. Issues of personal morality, not international politics, would lay the foundations for the campaign for Christian America that we know as the rise of the religious right. The phenomenon of divorce in the 1960s and the Roe decision in 1973 were critical, and Jimmy Carter's born-again faith brought evangelical Christianity to the mainstream in 1976.

Growing up in Atlanta in the '60s and '70s, Joe Scarborough, the commentator and former Republican congressman, felt the fears of his evangelical parents and their friends—fears that helped build support for the politically conservative Christian America movement. "The great anxiety in Middle America was that we were under siege—my parents would see kids walking down the street who were Boy Scouts three years earlier suddenly looking like hippies, and they were scared," Scarborough says. "Culturally, it was October 2001 for a decade. For a decade. And once our parents realized we weren't going to disappear into dope and radicalism, the pressure came off. That's the world we're in now—parents of boomers who would not drink a glass of wine 30 years ago are now kicking back with vodka. In a way, they've been liberated."

And they have learned that politics does not hold all the answers—a lesson that, along with a certain relief from the anxieties of the cultural upheavals of the '60s and '70s, has tended to curb religiously inspired political zeal. "The worst fault of evangelicals in terms of politics over the last 30 years has been an incredible naiveté about politics and politicians and parties," says Mohler. "They invested far too much hope in a political solution to what are transpolitical issues and problems. If we were in a situation that were more European, where the parties differed mostly on traditional political issues rather than moral ones, or if there were more parties, then we would probably have a very different picture. But when abortion and a moral understanding of the human good became associated with one party, Christians had few options politically."

When that party failed to deliver—and it did fail—some in the movement responded by retreating into radicalism, convinced of the wickedness and venality of the political universe that dealt them defeat after defeat. (The same thing happened to many liberals after 1968: infuriated by the conservative mood of the country, the left reacted angrily and moved ever leftward.)

The columnist Cal Thomas was an early figure in the Moral Majority who came to see the Christian American movement as fatally flawed in theological terms. "No country can be truly 'Christian'," Thomas says. "Only people can. God is above all nations, and, in fact, Isaiah says that 'All nations are to him a drop in the bucket and less than nothing'." Thinking back across the decades, Thomas recalls the hope—and the failure. "We were going through organizing like-minded people to 'return' America to a time of greater morality. Of course, this was to be done through politicians who had a difficult time imposing morality on themselves!"

Experience shows that religious authorities can themselves be corrupted by proximity to political power. A quarter century ago, three scholars who are also evangelical Christians—Mark A. Noll, Nathan O. Hatch and George M. Marsden—published an important but too-little-known book, "The Search for Christian America." In it they argued that Christianity's claims transcend any political order. Christians, they wrote, "should not have illusions about the nature of human governments. Ultimately they belong to what Augustine calls 'the city of the world,' in which self-interest rules … all governments can be brutal killers."

Their view tracks with that of the Psalmist, who said, "Put not thy trust in princes," and there is much New Testament evidence to support a vision of faith and politics in which the church is truest to its core mission when it is the farthest from the entanglements of power. The Jesus of the Gospels resolutely refuses to use the means of this world—either the clash of arms or the passions of politics—to further his ends. After the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the dazzled throng thought they had found their earthly messiah. "When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone." When one of his followers slices off the ear of one of the arresting party in Gethsemane, Jesus says, "Put up thy sword." Later, before Pilate, he says, "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight." The preponderance of lessons from the Gospels and from the rest of the New Testament suggests that earthly power is transitory and corrupting, and that the followers of Jesus should be more attentive to matters spiritual than political.

As always with the Bible, however, there are passages that complicate the picture. The author of Hebrews says believers are "strangers and exiles on the earth" and that "For here we have no lasting city, but seek the city which is to come." In Romans the apostle Paul advises: "Do not be conformed to this world." The Second Vatican Council cited these words of Pius XII: the Catholic Church's "divine Founder, Jesus Christ, has not given it any mandate or fixed any end of the cultural order. The goal which Christ assigns to it is strictly religious … The Church can never lose sight of the strictly religious, supernatural goal."

As an archbishop of Canterbury once said, though, it is a mistake to think that God is chiefly or even largely concerned with religion. "I hate the sound of your solemn assemblies," the Lord says in Amos. Religion is not only about worshipping your God but about doing godly things, and a central message of the Gospels is the duty of the Christian to transform, as best one can, reality through works of love. "Being in the world and not of it remains our charge," says Mohler. "The church is an eternal presence in a fallen, temporal world—but we are to have influence. The Sermon on the Mount is about what we are to do—but it does not come with a political handbook."

How to balance concern for the garden of the church with the moral imperatives to make gentle the life of the world is one of the most perplexing questions facing the church. "We have important obligations to do whatever we can, including through the use of political means, to help our neighbors—promoting just laws, good order, peace, education and opportunity," wrote Noll, Hatch and Marsden. "Nonetheless we should recognize that as we work for the relatively better in 'the city of the world,' our successes will be just that—relative. In the last analysis the church declares that the solutions offered by the nations of the world are always transitory solutions, themselves in need of reform."

Back in Louisville, preparing for Easter, Al Mohler keeps vigil over the culture. Last week he posted a column titled "Does Your Pastor Believe in God?," one on abortion and assisted suicide and another on the coming wave of pastors. "Jesus Christ promised that the very gates of Hell would not prevail against his church," Mohler wrote. "This new generation of young pastors intends to push back against hell in bold and visionary ministry. Expect to see the sparks fly." On the telephone with me, he added: "What we are seeing now is the evidence of a pattern that began a very long time ago of intellectual and cultural and political changes in thought and mind. The conditions have changed. Hard to pinpoint where, but whatever came after the Enlightenment was going to be very different than what came before." And what comes next here, with the ranks of professing Christians in decline, is going to be different, too.

Read more about NEWSWEEK's poll on religion in America here .

Technorati Tags: America,Christianity,Culture

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

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