Thursday, February 26, 2009

Redemptive Leadership: Nurturing Faith in Community

Dr. Bruce Hekman, Adjunct Professor of Education at Calvin College
Posted on Nurturing Faith ~ February 16, 2009


At a workshop I attended a couple of years ago a speaker asked, “What was Jesus’ main message?” Lots of answers come to mind: the good news that Jesus has come to provide forgiveness for our sin, enabling a renewed relationship with God. While that’s true, that actually isn’t the most common message in the gospels. Jesus most often spoke of the new kingdom he was bringing into existence. “The kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe the good news.” (Mark 1:15) “…strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” (Matt. 6:33) “Jesus went through Galilee…preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.” (Matt. 4:23) In the first three gospels there are at least 114 references to the “kingdom of God,” including the Lord’s Prayer, in which we corporately pray that “…your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6: 9, 10).

This kingdom prayer is a call to redemptive leadership, to making things down here the way they are up there. Donovan Graham says, “Redemption through Christ restores our relationship with God and empowers us to once again fulfill our calling in creation as he intended. The distortions of the fall still plague us, but we are no longer bound or ruled by them. We are called to live according to the truth, and living redemptively means living by that truth.” (Teaching Redemptively, p. xiv.”)

Redemptive leadership holds up a biblically-based vision of what schools ought to be. That vision is most visible in the relationships among all members of a school community. School leaders play a major role in establishing the culture of a school, that set of often unarticulated “rules” about the way things are done. The culture of a school, its context, is a deeply influential dimension of the content of schooling for all those who participate in it. When asked what we remember most vividly about our own school experience, we most often call to mind a relationship—usually positive, but not always—that has influenced us long after we’ve forgotten what we were studying. School culture is our corporate witness of the new life we have in Jesus as a faith community.

Redemptive leadership is intentional about creating a school culture that is a community of grace.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Meet All Your Needs

Bill Stevens
Headmaster, Wilmington Christian School (Delaware)

So says the apostle Paul to the Philippians, “My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus”. This is a pretty definitive statement, isn’t it? Paul doesn’t say, “Perhaps he will”, or “Maybe if you’re good”, or even “Let’s hope for the best”. No, there is a surety in his words, both in the fact that God will and that he will by a particular promise of a sure thing . . . his Son.

My own problem is in my mental response, “Bill, do you really believe that?” As I sit here in my office, wondering about the future (hey, next week!), listening to the prognosticators & prophets proclaim, “Woe is us”, and then matching this against the words from Scripture, I wonder . . .

Last week I attended a meeting of all the private school heads in Delaware. Obviously, the focus of our meeting was on the economy, education, and how the two would become one in these “strange days”? There was quite a bit of angst in the room over the days ahead and the state of private education in our area. Then one administrator said, “Hey, perhaps this is a time for us to really take a look at what’s truly important in what we are doing?” Bingo!

A dear friend of mine from years passed used to always say, “In all conflict there’s opportunity.” While this is timeless in its wisdom, it is significantly true for this time. What may be more like a 21st century believer’s creed, I would like to state what I believe about these “opportunities” in light of the times in which we live . . .

I believe that these days are going to be ripe with opportunities for the body of Christ to stand as a light in a world that is searching in the dark, looking to others that are also in the dark, and grasping for answers with no, or at best temporary solutions.

I believe that the church, the home, and the ministries to young people are going to unite in a way never before experienced in our lifetimes, as we will be forced to work together in order to maintain our relevance in the world.

I believe that Christian education will blossom afresh in these days. As more and more folks echo, “Hey, perhaps this is a time for us to really look at what is important, particularly as it relates to our kids . . . all the kids!

I believe that there will be a “uniting of the Spirit, in the bond of peace” that will be unparalleled in recent history, as the body of Christ is challenged to stand together as a testimony to the “oneness” of the hope to which we were called.

I believe this time will cause our whole society to re-examine and re-order priorities and life-themes. We who “name the Name” will be called to stand in the gap as that living moral, social and economic compass.

I believe that Christians will be called to extraordinary giving . . . not out of our abundance, but to sacrificial giving. While the world pulls back, hoards, and safeguards, we will give. It will be giving out of the call of our faith, out of the need to give, and out of our responsibility to help those people and ministries who need it.

I believe that the world around us, as they look for that light at the end of the tunnel will see our light along the way, living and pointing to the One that meets ALL our needs. While the sun and rain rise and fall on both the righteous and unrighteous, our response to them is what sets us apart . . . (read Matt 16:1-4).

I believe our young people need to believe in these things as well. Who will we allow to teach them these eternal truths? I believe the cord of three strands will not break, even in difficult times.

When Mrs. Stevens and I were working in the Christian schools in Eastern Europe, the Christian folks in Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, and Slovakia all expressed it so well. When we would ask them why they were so committed to the Christian education of their children, they would answer, “Bill, we do not want what happened to our generation to happen to the next one!” As I listen to the news, read the paper, and talk to folks, I hear a lot of anxiety about the state of our Union. Then, I hear those words, “What opportunities await us who believe that God will meet all our needs according to his glorious riches!” You better believe it.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Are You Listening . . . REALLY Listening?

20 Qualities of Good Listeners

Originally posted by Gavin Ortland on his blog - Reflections on God (February 15, 2009)

I have been reflecting lately on how important - and how difficult - it is to listen. I am coming to understand how much conflict and misunderstanding is related to a failure to listen well, and I want to become a better listener.

I've been blessed to know many people who were good listeners. What makes them good listeners? Some observations:

1) Good listeners consider a person's statements in relation to their presuppositions (as much as possible). They are willing to ask the question "how does this make sense to them?" and genuinely seek an answer to that question in evaluating another person's opinion.

2) Good listeners are not hasty in making judgments. They are willing to think about something for a while. They don't have to categorize everyone and everything immediately. "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger" (James 1:19).

3) Good listeners pay careful attention to words. They don't assume that an idea they are hearing is identical to an idea they are already familiar with simply because it has similarities. They respect the complexity of reality and are willing to make fine distinctions and treat each person, each statement, each idea on its own terms.

4) Good listeners ask questions. Not to embarrass or attack, but to clarify and distill.

5) Good listeners are not lazy. They work hard to understand. They exert energy in listening. For example, other people can usually tell that they are listening from their body posture and nonverbal communication.

6) Good listeners don't feel threatened by not controlling the conversation. They are comfortable with silence. They give the speaker unthreatened, unhurried space in which to operate while communicating.

7) Good listeners understand that everyone has different communication styles, and adjust their listening to correspond to the speaker's communication style. For example, if the speaker is shy, they draw the person out more. If they are talkative, they interject more. Etc. They don't take a "once size fits all" approach to listening.

8) Good listeners interrupt intentionally and gently, rather than habitually and rashly.

9) Good listeners recall their own subjectivity and finitude as a listener. They make evaluations with the humility that corresponds to seeing parts, not the whole. They consider the angle and point of view from which they are listening.

10) Good listeners are willing to listen to something even if it’s hard to hear. They don't stop listening as soon as they become offended or turned off by the speaker. They can receive a rebuke.

11) Good listeners do not unreasonably question the motives of the speaker. They make a good faith assumption that, all other factors being equal, the speaker is trying to communicate clearly and truthfully.

12) Good listeners don't equate listening with agreeing. Good listeners understand that careful listening equips you to disagree well, because by listening you understand more clearly what it is that you disagree with.

13) Good listeners are not simply waiting to talk again when someone else is speaking. They actually value the contributions of other people.

14) Good listeners remember that you can learn from anyone. They realize that human subjectivity and fallenness is such that the most learned person can still learn from a little child.

15) Good listeners love people. They understand that listening is connected to every other aspect of relationships. They understand that there is simply no substitute for genuine affection for other people.

"The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere" (James 3:17).

16) Good listeners pay attention to nonverbal communication without discounting verbal communication. They pay attention to the fact that they are paying attention to both nonverbal communication and verbal communication.

17) Good listeners are willing to speak. They don't equate listening with silence. They understand that the speaker may need them to communicate in order to further the conversation.

18) Good listeners understand that every act of communication takes place in a context or setting. They consider the way the context of a communication event shapes the meaning. For example, they understand social dynamics and the way different situations call for different kinds of listening.

19) Good listeners are willing to stop listening to something that is perverse, wicked, or dangerously foolish. They understand that in a fallen world there are some things that are so evil or foolish that they should not even be listened to. They know when to draw the line. They use common sense.

20) Good listeners understand how important listening is to a relationship. They don't assume or underestimate the value of listening; they value and seek to cultivate good listening skills.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Realities and Ministry Philosophy of Full Cost Tuition

By Dan Krause , President
GraceWorks Ministries
As posted on The Christian School Journal
January 31, 2009

Try this experiment. Ask an ardent supporter of public education what’s wrong – from a philosophical, societal good point-of-view – with private Christian schools. Chances are, a top reason you’ll hear is that Christian schools “cherry pick” the wealthiest and highest functioning families in the community, leaving public schools to pick up the pieces with lower income (and therefore lower functioning) students. Of course students in private schools do better, they’ll say; these same higher functioning students would do well - if not better - in public schools. Ipso facto, it’s not what private schools do that makes them successful, it’s the students private schools attract. Public schools, by societal decree, have to service everyone, and therefore cannot achieve the same stellar results as private schools.

Let’s evaluate this argument two ways:
(1) as a statement of reality, and
(2) as a statement of philosophy.

Click here to read the rest of the post! Complete with charts and graphs!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Can We Keep Up with Our Competition? Should We Care?

Dr. Barrett Mosbacker
Originally posted on The Christian School Journal
January 31, 2009

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.

Topics discussed in this post include:
  • The Explosion in Distance Learning
  • Distance Learning Is and Will Disrupt the Traditional Classroom and School
  • The Stimulus Plan is to Include $1 Billion for Ed Tech in Public Schools
  • Competition from an Unexpected Source-Virtual Christian Schools: The Challenges and The Opportunities

Click here to read the FULL TEXT of the post on The Christian School Journal.


Click here to read the rest of the post on Dr. Mosbacker's blog.