A High Calling

by Charles R. Swindoll
excepted from The Finishing Touch
Word Publishing, 1994

Ephesians 4:11-16

Many professions draw public attention like warm watermelon draws flies. Those who practice them are constantly in the news. If it isn’t the money they make, it’s the company they keep or the trends they set or the controversy they spawn. Their notoriety is somewhere between amazing and appalling.

There is one profession, however, that is neither notorious nor controversial. Although essential to our future as a nation, being inseparably linked to the home as few other professions are, it has been treated like a stepchild.

Those who make their living in this field press on against overwhelming odds. They live with criticism they usually don’t deserve. They invest extra hours for which they are never compensated. They maintain a standard of excellence regardless of resistance. They remain enthusiastic in spite of daily discouragements. They apply creativity and every motivational technique they can muster without applause or thanks from their recipients.

Fueled by hope, these brave men and women shape minds, stretch imaginations, challenge thinking, and model consistency. They have one major enemy they fight with tireless energy: ignorance.

Who are the relentless, courageous heroes I’m describing? By now you know. They are those who teach.

The tools of their trade may not seem that impressive—a piece of chalk, a book, an overhead projector, a homework assignment, a smile of encouragement, a nod of affirmation, a strong word of warning, a question to answer, a problem to solve. How powerful are those adept with such tools!

Teachers. Tough-minded, clear-thinking, ever-learning educators who gave me their time and their attention, who early on overlooked my immaturity, who saw raw material behind my boredom, overactivity, and mischievousness, who held my feet to the fire and dared me to grab the challenge, who had enough wisdom to drop the bait in just the right places to hook me for life.
So to all of you who teach, hats off. Yours is an invaluable profession, a calling sure and high and noble, a model we cannot live without if we expect to remain strong and free.
Don’t quit. If ever we needed you, we need you today.

MACSA Convention - Workshop Notes

For All Generations: A Legacy of Faith . . . A Future of Hope

WORKSHOP NOTES:

Several of the workshop leaders have submitted notes of their workshops – and those notes have been posted online.

Additional notes will be posted as they are received. Click here to view the available notes!

Listen Up!

For All Generations: A Legacy of Faith . . . A Future of Hope
One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. Psalm 145:4

Click on the link below to listen to the Keynote Addresses at the 2008 MACSA Convention which was held November 6-7 in Lancaster, PA.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Crawford Loritts. Dr. Loritts is a nationally known Bible speaker, author, and senior pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, Georgia. Crawford and his wife, Karen, have four children and live in Georgia.

Click HERE to listen to and/or download the files. The files are in MP3 format and vary in size.

Thursday Morning - Stewardship of a Generation
Thursday Afternoon - On Assignment from God
Friday Morning - The Anatomy of Pressure

See You Soon!

60th Anniversary Convention - November 2008

For All Generations: A Legacy of Faith . . . A Future of Hope
One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. Psalm 145:4

A note from the MACSA Convention Director, Dr. Don Dawes:
We are planning an exciting MACSA convention celebrating our 60th year of supporting Christian Education in this area. We look forward to honoring men and women who were involved with this ministry for decades and have a wealth of history to share about our movement. Over 150 workshops planned and a special track for our office staff. Don’t miss this historical event.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Crawford Loritts
Speaking Thursday morning, Thursday afternoon, Friday morning
Dr. Crawford Loritts is a nationally known Bible speaker, author, and senior pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, Georgia. Crawford and his wife, Karen, have four children and live in Georgia.

Special Workshops:
Education CEU and Graduate Course: Integrating Children’s Literature (Dr. Sheryl Vasso, Philadelphia Biblical University)
Bible CEU: Lessons from the Life of Jonah (Dr. Gary Gromacki, Baptist Bible Seminary)
Philosophy of Christian Education: ACSI CEU (Dr. Jack Layman, Columbia International University)

A Sampling of Workshops:
Cyber Savvy School Policies
Training the Heart: Developing a Biblical Philosophy of Discipline
Fresh Ideas for a Stale Classroom
College Planning from A-Z
Beyond Smiley Stickers: Assessing Beginning Writers

Good Coffee - Good Teaching

By Jason A. Van Bemmel (Headmaster, New Covenant Christian School – Abingdon, MD)
As posted on Christian School Journal

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?

Is Your School an "Authentic" Christian School?

The following reflection/challenge was posted by Arthur Bennett, Superintendent of Arkansas Baptist School System and was based on a brochure entitled What Is an Authentic Christian School?, written in 1996 by Dr. Carl Herbster, President of the American Association of Christian Schools.

Click here to read the original post.

Dr. Bennett reviews several areas of school ministry to help determine the authenticity of Arkansas Baptist . . . so, substitute YOUR SCHOOL NAME where you read "Arkansas Baptist" as you examine the authenticity of your ministry.

The first few sentences [of the brochure] read, “The sign over the front entrance of a Christian school does not necessarily serve as proof of a Christian school inside. Neither does the American nor Christian flag hanging in the corner or a Scripture verse displayed on the classroom wall. It is impossible to identify an authentic Christian school solely from its appearance.”

So, I asked myself, “Is Arkansas Baptist an authentic Christian school?” Honestly, I am convinced we are, and I’ll tell you why:

• Every single decision that is made about the operation of the school is backed by Scripture.
• The Bible is taught each day and is a major part of the curriculum.
• The Bible is integrated within all subject matter.
• The Bible is central to guiding students in developing character, attitudes, and values.
• All classes are taught by Christian teachers who are willing to share their faith with the students.
• Students not only develop their faith, but actually put it into action daily.
• Students and teachers have the freedom to pray with and for each other at any time.
• Servanthood is gained through numerous mission opportunities.
• Academic mediocrity is unacceptable.
• Our students learn in a disciplined atmosphere.
• We value not only the students, but parents, too.
  

At a time when some Christians have a hard time agreeing on what it means to be a “Christian”, our school is known for its integrity and pursuit of truth in order to honor and please God. Our staff and faculty are caring, genuine, real and trustworthy. Arkansas Baptist is an authentic Christian school.

Leading Your School In Uncertain Economic Times: Practical Suggestions

Dr. Barrett Mosbacker
Superintendent, Briarwood Christian School (Alabama)
Full article posted on The Christian School Journal

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.

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.

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.

• Pray faithfully for your families and for your school ministry.
• Look at possible ways to prepare your students for an economic downturn.
• As much as possible, move toward zero-based budgeting or at least look at your budget from that perspective.
• Smaller schools need to assess the number of students per class to ensure that each class is at break-even on a contiguous basis
• Increase financial aid.
• Stay on top of your accounts receivables.
• Think of ways to expand your market.
• Work on your retention rates!
• Consider merging with other Christian schools.
• 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.
  
  

Click here to read the full post, including detailed information on each of the above suggestions.