The RenewaNation Review 2018 Volume 10 Issue 2 | Page 44

which KINGDOM are you BUILDING? By Ron Gordon - Executive Vice President & COO of Renewanation T HREE YEARS AGO, a pastor, passionate about providing a biblical worldview to the children in his community, wrestled with this dilemma: “We can’t stop our Christian school at eighth grade, but we’re also not providing a solid education to the dozen high schoolers we are currently shepherding.”   When he assumed his pastoral role, he additionally inherited a school which had been in existence for twenty years. Unfortunately, it had continually struggled to offer a competitive Christian education past the eighth grade. Year after year, he witnessed students depart and pursue a secular education at a most critical time when young adults begin to grapple with worldview ideas and require guidance in solidifying the defense of their faith with impactful logic and reasoning skills.   This same issue plagues many Christian schools. While administrators seek to have a greater impact in their community and grow their enrollment, Christian parents are simultaneously targeting a complete educational program: one which embodies spiritual discipleship for their students, a professionally developed faculty, sufficient course offer- ings, ample opportunities in athletics and the arts, and an overall program that provides validity for future college and career plans. Meeting these expectations, especially in the high school grades, can be both challenging and costly. Christian school administrators and boards attempt a “build it, and they will come” approach, only to find themselves in a downward financial spiral they can’t overcome. On their own and with limited resources, a small Christian school’s journey to legitimacy often fails prematurely. 44   Collaborative partnerships can be a powerful path for growing the impact of Christian education. Unfortunately, the myopic views of most Christian schools and churches hinder their ability to recognize the more significant oppor- tunities available to them through partnering. The church in Corinth also struggled to see the big picture of God’s King- dom when they became divisive around different ministers. Paul reminded them in 1 Corinthians 3 that “we are God’s fellow workers” in His Kingdom, based on the same foun- dation, and working toward the same goal of growing and strengthening the body of Christ. Christian schools often fall into this same trap of being too hyper-focused on grow- ing their own organizations. We must not view each other as competitors but as co-laborers to provide as many children as possible a biblical worldview education. By supporting one another, sharing resources, and developing a collabora- tive plan, Christian schools can claim much more ground in the fight for His children.   The aforementioned pastor reached out to the Renewana- tion team for support in determining a path to keep these students connected to Christian education throughout their high school years. Renewanation had already been helping another small Christian school 30 minutes away. With an enrollment of fewer than 50 students, we had encouraged them to partner with local homeschool groups and other small Christian schools to strengthen their capabilities and offerings. By combining their resources with these like-minded believers, they would jointly be able to provide additional offerings such as special electives, technol- ogy integration, spiritual emphasis events, and athletic