Entrepreneurs find ways to build, grow, and expand schools.
Educators develop infrastructure and the necessary systems
to ensure that quality education is taking place.
There is always a tension between these two types of
leaders, but it is a necessary tension. Entrepreneurs left to
themselves will have a growing school but may not have a
strong school internally. Educators left to themselves will
have all their ducks in a row but will have little understand-
ing of how to attract new students and cast vision for the
future.
Jerry Falwell and Elmer Towns are excellent examples of
this unique blend of entrepreneur and educator working as
a successful team. Liberty University would not exist today
if Jerry Falwell had not received the vision for it and had
not taken huge leaps of faith to build and grow the school.
However, without educators like Elmer Towns and many
others, Liberty would not have made it to its current state
of immense success.
I experienced this same dynamic when I started Parkway
Christian Academy in Roanoke, Virginia. I had a vision
and passion for growing a Christian school. The educators I
hired built the infrastructure. Together we were able to build
a vibrant school.
"Is it really possible to understand the human
condition if one does not even believe in sin or evil?"
Vibrant
Christian Schools:
Many Christian
schools are led by
Are serious about
good Christian people
biblical integration
who do not possess a
strong biblical world-
view. They have been
trained in secular schools
and have developed a secular
worldview in spite of the fact that they are born-again
Christians. Many of these secular-minded Christian school
leaders and teachers do not see the need to make biblical
integration a primary focus. Vibrant CHRISTIAN schools
teach from a biblical worldview in every subject.
The best way to insure that biblical integration is taking
place is to train teachers consistently in biblical worldview
and to use a curriculum written from a biblical basis.
Vibrant
Christian Schools:
Have a passion for
evangelism and
discipleship
The presuppositions of a biblical worldview and a secular
worldview are light years apart. For example, a textbook
writer with a secular worldview will not take sin into account
as they write. Is it really possible to understand the human
condition if one does not even believe in sin or evil? A
secular writer will not believe that the Bible is a resource for
the answers to life’s problems. Therefore, they are prescrib-
ing solutions that are not based on the absolute truth of the
Bible. If a textbook writer does not believe in sin and or in
the authority of God’s Word how can they possibly lead
their students to the knowledge of the truth? Their secular
worldview bleeds through in what they write in the text.
Academically excellent, biblically based curriculums are
available today. When a school uses these textbooks, they
are in reality helping to train their teachers who may not yet
possess a fully developed biblical worldview.
There is a serious debate in the Christian school move-
ment about whether or not a school should be a covenant
school (open only to children from Christian homes) or
open enrollment school.
I will not try to settle that debate in this article, but I will
say this. All Christian schools are in the business of evan-
gelizing and discipling their students. At Parkway Christian
Academy, we had an open enrollment policy. As a matter
of fact, we committed to giving scholarships every year to
students from non-Christian homes. Why? We wanted to
lead children and their families to Christ, and it worked!