Difference Making

At a recent gathering/meeting that I was a part of, the gentleman presenting for the night introduced himself as a proud citizen of Abbotsford, and graduate of Abbotsford Christian School. His presentation was engaging, and the group that he worked with was invigorated by his leadership skills. I was proud to be associated with ACS at that moment – and this is something that happens with regularity. Our school has graduated thousands of Abbotsford citizens that have contributed positively to the people and community around them. This is not only true of Abbotsford, but also of other places in the lower mainland, the province of BC, the country of Canada and around the world. We can be proud of the fact that ACS has alumni all over that are “making a difference” in the world as they follow God’s calling in their lives.

Research will bear this “difference making” out. The Cardus Foundation, along with Notre Dame University recently released some preliminary results from their 3 year study on 24-39 year olds and the impact of Christian education in North America. There is conclusive evidence to support that people who have graduated from Christian schools have made a positive impact on society. “Christian schools seem to be producing “salt of the earth” citizens who provide the backbone of communities, are the pillars of their churches, and are living lives of purpose and hope. Fears that religious schools are the incubators of social unrest, producing a generation of culture warriors, seem to be largely unfounded.” (Ray Pennings, Senior Fellow, Cardus Foundation). For a full picture of the research done go to: http://www.cardus.ca/. We of course have known this information for years, and have been talking about it for years, but it’s nice to have a reputable outside organization, with nothing to gain in its research, say the same thing.

A Community of Grace

During a recent professional development opportunity I was given a book that has deeply affected me and had me come back to the verse that our school has used for guidance: "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ." II Peter 3:18. The book is entitled "Schools as Communities" and it is a compilation of chapters written by Christian education leaders around North America. The initial chapter of the book is entitled "Communities of Grace" written by Bruce Hekman.

On Friday, January 21st at the Staff Retreat, I again was lead to this "theme" verse as well as my reading of this book. And then again at our annual Gala event, I could not help but acknowledge the theme of our school being a community of grace. But perhaps, most consistenly - when I get to experience the learning that happens in our classrooms, and the environment that our students are engaged in - the verse echoes in my mind.

As Executive Director, it should come as no surprise that we aspire to see our school be a community of grace. But what does it really mean to aspire to be a community of grace? It sure is easy to say, and it definitely sounds profound. Interesting that the words grace and community are not all that prevalent (at least not overtly) in the strategic plan. Because ultimately, when we market our school against others; when we strive to convince people that ACS is the place to come; when we seek to be a "sought after Christian school for Christian families"; we are hoping that people will get a glimpse, just a sense of what a community of grace is all about. Perhaps we need to be more intentional?

Bruce Hekman does an excellent job of laying out some characteristics of grace-filled communities:

• places where visitors clearly see God at work in the way relationships are conducted
• the context of schooling is treated as important as the content of schooling
• it is more than togetherness - togetherness is the by-product of trying to be faithful to Jesus
• it is a grateful place that is thankful and celebrates God's blessings
• it is a place driven by its mission
• it is an inviting place
• it is an accepting place
• it is a loving place - seeing people love others authentically

To achieve a community of grace, there are not forty days of anything required, nor are there twelve step programs. There aren't even any specific initiatives in any strategic plan that will point to becoming a community of grace (as indicated above). It does however require hard, patient, and consistent work of an entire community to be committed to achieving the goal. Christian communities have Christ at the center as the members work out their commitments to be prophets, priests, and kings in the culture they find themselves in. If Christ is at the center, then grace will be the hallmark of the school.

The reason for what lead me to this theme during our staff retreat is that at the retreat we had three people lead the staff in reflective talks: one was Jack Boersma who not only was a student at the school, has also been a teacher in the secondary school for 32 years - his stories were filled with our school being that of a community of grace and how his life has been dedicated to serving our Saviour in togetherness and ultimately in community. The second talk was from parent and current board member, Monique Weir, who thanked the staff for how her family has been received into our community of grace, and how her children have truly been lead to seek Jesus at ACS. Monique told the story of how, the second she walked through the doors of the elementary school for the first time, she felt the Spririt of the Lord in the school, and she knew that this was the place for her children. Finally Julie Braun, our beloved Pre-School director spun a beautiful story about her experiences as both a staff person at the elementary school and a parent at the school. These stories gave us a clear sense that our school is a community of grace, a community that puts Christ at the center, that strives for shalom, that seeks to restore the brokenness of the world, and that aspires to the coming to fullness of the Kingdom on earth.

It is, of course, important to remember that we are all sinners saved by this grace and we have been called to serve in His Kingdom. As sinners, we often distort or fall short of a true understanding of grace and often fall into sin as we seek to provide communities of grace. Hekman again, has wise words as we sort out how to act when sin is so prevalent in our lives - and even in our school:

He says - some people replace the grace of the Bible with mercy, and let people off the hook for their sins. Some people want to see others get what is coming to them for breaking the rules. Others want to change other people by making examples of them. However, Jesus shows us a better way in the story of woman caught in adultery. Jesus turns the tables on her accusers by replacing the two categories of sinners: the woman and the righteous to two altogether different categories: sinners who admit their sin and sinners who deny their sin. And then after declining to condemn her, he demands that she "Go, and sin no more".

From my perspective, if we fail to confront people and speak the truth in love, we can ultimately do more damage to our grace-filled communities than what judgementalism can bring. This then becomes the challenging continuum that we find ourselves in, and we can only rely on the wisdom of Christ as we navigate through it.

In looking at the attributes that Hekman stated above: I would ask these questions:

• Is ACS a grateful place? Do we celebrate God's blessings to our school? Do people over-hear others talking about ACS in grateful ways? Are we grateful even in the face of challenging circumstances?
• Is ACS driven by its Mission? Are the things that you see and hear lining up with what our mission says? Are we attaining our mission like we often say we are?
• Is ACS an inviting place? When you walk into our schools do you get a sense that you are welcome or that you belong?
• Is ACS an accepting place? Do we practice love and discipline? Are we striving to restore broken relationships?
• Is ACS a loving place? Is our school characterized by God's love flowing through our relationships with one another? Do we confront people in truth and love?

I would submit that over the years at ACS we are accomplishing our desire to become communities of grace, with the full acknowledgement that we have miles to go. By God's grace we can continue to work together in attaining the Mission of our school. With 2011 still relatively new, may we re-commit to growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Julius Siebenga

Executive Director

Acknowledgments: "Schools as Communities" edited by James L. Drexler and published by Purposeful Design Publications - Colorado Springs, Colorado.

God Prints

Some of our administrators spent a couple of days in Edmonton, Alberta recently, at a Christian Schools Canada conference for professional development. The theme of the conference was “God Prints” – Stories of Leadership. One of the key concepts that was spoken about by the key-note speaker was that our stories are a part of a larger or “meta” story.
There were many examples of this in our lives that the speaker laid out for us that we could relate to. One in particular that I have heard in other settings that I have always appreciated is: the ancient Hebrews (and present day Jews) traditionally start their days in the evening – much different than most of us. We are so used to waking up to start our day. Our morning prayers are filled with words – like “bless me to begin the day”, or “use me as I start my day”. What if our prayers started with “thanks for starting the day before I woke up” or “thanks for preparing a way for me”? There would be a much different tone to our days. Our western culture spends so much time and energy focusing on individualism and we tend to think that the world is waiting for us, or on hold till we wake up. It is actually quite humbling to think that the world around us is absolutely buzzing as we sleep. It is completely busy while we rejuvenate for another day. We are created in such a way that we can’t function without our sleep. Our brains need it, our muscles need it, our nervous system needs it – we need it. All the while God is moving in the world, He is making himself known; He is revealing himself; He is preparing our paths for the day. A reminder that we are a part of a larger story, a “meta” story. These words at the conference had me thinking about our school and the context we find ourselves in. ACS has been around for a long time and its history is rich. Those of us who are a part of this particular chapter in its history are simply part of a larger story. We like to think that this is an important time in its history (and I believe it is), but we should be careful not to think that we are at the dawn of a new day and that we are preparing for something new, without acknowledging what has gone on before us. God has been at work at ACS for a long time. I am reminded of this as I meet many of the people who have been a part of the school in the past or have been involved for decades. I look forward to our annual auction which brings many people in the community from all over Abbotsford – young and old together to not only raise money for our wonderful school – but also to share in just another part of ACS’ larger story. It’s in this context that I continue to be excited for what God has in store for us this year and beyond. The strategic plan that we are in the midst of carrying out has us embarking on our dreams, and it has us boldly stepping into 21st century learning as we seek to lead our children into what God has planned for them. He has been preparing us for a time such as this and I reminded of this each day as I wander about the school and see His handiwork. I see the God-Prints of ACS all over the campuses. Because He created us in His image – I get to see God in the children that make up our school. I get to see Him as students draw a lion in kindergarten to reflect their favourite animal; I see Him as a grade four student breaks free from the group in a cross-country race; I notice Him as I help a child out of their car in the morning and they let me know that this is going to be a great day; I acknowledge Him as I notice a student high-fiving their friend in the hallway because of a shared victory in the intramural game; I see Him as I walk by a student too entrenched in their reading in the library to look up; I see Him as a student is recording a live event for a presentation of learning that they can’t wait to share with their class, I notice Him as an excited bus of students unload after spending an afternoon serving others in the community of Abbotsford. This list could go on and on. God is at work here at ACS. He has been for a long time, and He will continue to be. I look forward to how He uses both you and I to see His Kingdom come here at our school as we imprint our God Prints into His larger story. Come on out to our annual auction on Saturday, Oct 16 – a great opportunity to share in God’s story.

The Tipping Point

The summer is fading away and a new school year is dawning. The time is here for families to gear up for another year and as we do this – I am reminded of the incredible financial sacrifice that every family makes to send their children to ACS. Its times like this that we reflect on the reasons for why we believe in Christian Education and why we trust ACS with our children (and our money). Be sure to read the “Why We Do What We Do” articles in each of the messengers to find out slices of this.

With a little more time to read over the summer, I read a book entitled “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. It is a book largely devoted to the marketing of products and examining why things get “big” or why epidemics happen. An interesting read and I recommend it. The central theme in the book was focused on investigating when products or epidemics become renowned or take on epidemic status. Gladwell suggest that there are always tipping points to these phenomenon’s. The book fascinatingly portrays the research along these lines. As I read the book and was captivated by some of the stories, I wondered about new families at ACS and when the “tipping point” happened for them, and what it was that had them deciding that ACS was the place for their children. Gladwell would argue that it’s often a person (a family friend, a current or former teacher acquaintance, a pastor who knows the school well)that connects families to the school, or maybe it’s a program that people have heard about that attracts them (like music and art or athletics and drama). Perhaps it has to do with a program that is specific to the needs of individual students (like Special Education, or English Language Learning). It can also be external expertise that has painted positive pictures of our school that carry clout; for example the Fraser Institute has ranked our secondary school as the top academic high school in Abbotsford this past year (for the second year in a row), and in the top 20 in the province. Gladwell also touches on the context of people’s lives – which I tend to think (and hope) is the main driver for why people choose ACS. In our context, for the most part, we are convinced that God is calling us to a place that our children are engaged in Christian learning, and we entrust our children to the school to educate them along the lines of what the school says (see our Mission Statement on the front of the Messenger). I’m curious (especially as a new family, or a relatively new family) what was your “Tipping Point”; what was it that, had you decide that Abbotsford Christian School was the best school for your child or children? I would love to hear your responses.

For those of us who aren`t new to the school, you will recall that we canvased all school-parents towards the end of last school year to get feedback in the form of a parent survey. The end of the school year marked the end of the surveys and as such we are finalizing the results of the survey and look forward to sharing the results throughout the course of the school year, and then also communicating our responses to what parents are saying about the school and what types of changes we are implementing to be better at what we do, based on your feedback. We truly appreciate the time that was taken out of your lives to fill out the surveys and are grateful that we now have abetter sense about how our parent community feels about the school. We also did this with our staff last year and plan to do this with targeted levels of students this coming year. As you know, the surveys reflected our strategic plan and, therefore, they have been invaluable in providing feedback towards whether or not we are accomplishing our initiatives in the plan. We are also setting out to communicate with you regularly on how we are doing in regards to our strategic plan, and you will see regular updates in the Messenger along these lines. Finally, in keeping with an initiative in our strategic plan, we are seeking to become more electronic in our communication. In January, we plan to switch the Messenger to an electronic format for all parents (our Honorary Members will continue to receive a hard copy). We realize that this is a major shift for many of us, and we want to be sensitive to this change so we will also parallel the Messenger in hard copy to all parents who desire to continue to read the Messenger in hard copy format. Parents need to indicate that they would like a hard copy – otherwise we will assume that they prefer it electronically. We are confident that we have updated email addresses on file for all of our parents and look forward to using this new method of communication. We also look forward to the interactivity that electronic communication could afford (notice that this article is also a blog) and could open up new opportunity for people to correspond to articles written through blogs and wikis online. Many people have commented that not only would they like to receive the Messenger (and other school communication) electronically, but they would love a seamless opportunity to respond to articles written in somewhat of a public forum.

Please feel free to comment on any of these issues or share anything else on this blog. I will explain the name of the blog in a different blog post.
Julius Siebenga -Executive Director

21st Century Learning

Respected educator and author Heidi Hayes Jacobs, has recently published a book entitled: Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World. Much of the book focuses on the 21st century learner, our changing world, the expectations of a global economy, and the changing technological landscape the our students are finding themselves in. What she adeptly argues is that generally speaking, in North America, education was set up to serve a time of Industrialization. Yes, that’s correct Industrialization, – something that was is in its prime around 100 years ago or so. One of the largest complaints from the business world to the education world is that generally speaking, the way that we educate, the structures and protocol the we set up and follow, even the curriculum that we draw from, is not preparing our students for the future, but rather for the past. Although not written from a Christian perspective (and her work on separation of secular vs. sacred flies in the face of what believe to be true), her sentiments about preparing our learners for the 21st century rings true for us as Christians.

As a Christian educator and leader in this realm, I consider this task of paramount importance. Certainly we are not proposing that we throw “the baby out with the bath water”, but we are looking to lead our kids – your kids - into the future. As Christians we should be leading this charge! We should not wait for what others do and evaluate whether or not it fits into our worldview and slowly wade into it (half-heartedly I might add). We should be bold, authentic, following God’s Biblical blue-print, and true to our mission and vision. We should be innovative, creative, and willing to walk across the bridge as we build it. This takes courage, community support, a willingness to fail, a community open to failure, and a constant leaning on our Lord as we seek His guidance in all things.

Jacobs points out 4 keys areas that don’t just need reform in our current educational paradigms but actual “new” form. These are: 1) scheduling (short term and long term), 2) groupings of students (institutionally and with instruction), 3) groupings of staff, and 4) physical space. She claims that each of one of these areas must change or be altered if we want to see a fundamental shift in our learners today. Jacobs also pointed out that any kid of shift in any one of these areas will see minimal results if it is done in a vacuum (like most things), and that the shift has to be done in all areas across the board. These are foundationally huge and if we reflect on them have monumental consequences.

I like what Jacobs is saying, and I definitely agree with her sentiments about teaching a new learner with an old paradigm. We need to be the change that we desire.

I end with questions. Where is ACS (Abbotsford Christian School) is this discussion? Curriculum? Student groupings? Staff groupings? School buildings and structure?