Key Components Necessary to Successfully
Start a Christian School
1. A passionate, called, effective leader who
possesses a biblical worldview
2. Committed, sacrificial teachers who are able
and willing to donate a majority of their
salaries (if necessary) in the first three years
of the school’s existence
3. A church or organization willing to allow the
use of their facilities at a minimal cost
4. A willingness to start small
5. Startup cost given by a church or group of
donors
Let’s break down each of these components in
more detail.
1. A Passionate, Effective Leader
In the 1960’s and 70’s, most Christian schools were started
by a visionary pastor. These pastors were motivated by the
removal of prayer and Bible reading from public schools
and were spurred into action. In most cases, the church the
pastor was leading became the startup-funding source as
well as the facility host for the school. Most of these schools
were started on a wing and a prayer. There were many weak-
nesses in most of these schools, but at the end of the day,
their students were not secularized, and many of them are
the church leaders of today. I am one of those leaders.
Today, we hear less from pastors but more from strong
parent leaders and Christian public school teachers who
sense the call to start Christian schools. They realize that
16,000 hours of K-12 secular education is not helping their
children develop a biblical worldview and in reality, is
helping them develop a secular humanistic worldview. I am
confident that one of the greatest motivations for my father
to start a Christian school in 1976 was the fact that he had
eight children (nine by 1978) he was determined to raise for
Christ. Eight of those nine children have been in full-time
Christian ministry for most of their adult lives.
This passionate, effective, called leader can be a business-
man or woman, an educator or simply someone who is
skilled in leading others to accomplish a significant mission.
They need excellent people skills, a high level of energy,
and a strong inner makeup that does not quit in the face of
adversity. They also need to be an excellent team builder. We
have seen pastors, parents, and even grandparents be this
key leader in starting Christian schools.
2. Committed and Sacrificial Teachers
As leaders in this movement to give children a biblical
worldview education, we must recognize that our cause is
so critically important that we must do whatever it takes
to be successful. In most cases, we start out at a financial
disadvantage. Unlike the public school, we receive very little
financial assistance outside of student tuition and gifts from
donors. If our Christian school ancestors from the 1960’s
and 70’s had been unwilling to sacrifice greatly, millions of
American Christians today would likely not exist. Though I
am often disgusted with people from both sides of the politi-
cal spectrum, the Christian schools started in the 1960’s and
70’s produced millions of voters with conservative values.
Government schools are mass producing future voters with
values inconsistent with a biblical worldview.
If it had not been for teachers who were willing to sacri-
fice financially, at a tremendous level, the Christian school
movement would never have been birthed in America. My
high school algebra teacher had a master’s degree in math
from a prestigious university. He made algebra come to life.
He was a fantastic teacher! However, at night I would see him
working in a department store to supplement his income.
This always bothered me, and I didn’t fully understand why
he had to work this second job. Now I understand and have
a deep sense of gratefulness to him for his willingness to
sacrifice and provide me with a biblical worldview education.
Let me make it very clear that I believe every school
should be able to grow to the place where teachers make
a livable wage. This should be a passion for every school.
However, if we are going to start thousands of new schools,
it will require teachers who are willing to sacrifice deeply in
the early years.
As we were building the Christian school we launched
in 2002, we were blessed to find qualified teachers who had
another source of income. Some were recently retired from
public education and were eager to teach in a Christian
environment. Others had a spouse with a strong income
and benefits or were willing to teach in order to receive
the tuition benefit we provided our employees. The one
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