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T WAS THE FALL of 2001, and God
began to stir in my heart a desire to start
a Christian school at the church I was pastoring in
Roanoke, Virginia. Starting a Christian school had not been
high on my priority list coming out of college. However, as
I pastored an inner city church in Hollywood, Florida, and
we started to lead many children and teenagers to Christ, I
began to see the need for more involvement in their lives
than just the 2-3 hours per week we had them at church.
We would lead a teen to Christ, and they would be doing
great, but then they would be thrust back under the influ-
ence of their local school, and too many of them would be
swept away. I remember two teens confiding in me that they
had made a commitment to sexual purity, now that they had
been saved, but that every day at school their commitment
was ridiculed and made fun of. I know, it should have just
made them stronger, but for far too many teens it had just
the opposite effect. As hard as we tried, we kept losing many
kids to the lies of the culture. I started to dream about what
difference it would make if we could have these kids under
our influence for seven hours every school day.
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By Jeff Keaton
Founder of Renewanation
I was never able to see that dream real-
ized for most of our kids in Florida, but here I
was in the fall of 2001 contemplating if we should take
the leap into Christian education at our church in Virginia.
One night, the Lord led me to the home of a young couple
who had educational experience and background. They had
been feeling a pull towards ministry for more than a year. As
I sat across from them in their living room, the Holy Spirit
spoke to me about asking them to help start a school. As
soon as I asked, they said yes! Nine months later we opened
the doors of Parkway Christian Academy with 37 (K-8
grade) students. Over the next seven years, we took a wild
ride as we watched the school grow to 388 students.
You might ask, did starting a Christian school have the
impact you expected on the lives of your children and teens?
The answer is an emphatic yes!
If you’re asking whether or not all the kids met all of
our expectations, the answer is an emphatic no! Educating
students is one of the greatest challenges known to mankind.
Our students faced the same physical, spiritual, emotional,
and intellectual challenges all students face. However, in