When the editors of CEJ decided to produce an issue on “The Changing Christian School,” it seemed important to start by describing that change with a snapshot of what’s happening in constituent schools. It wasn’t possible to do a comprehensive survey of Christian schools in the Reformed tradition, so we contacted over a dozen school leaders throughout North America. The following educators were able to take time out of busy schedules to meet by email, phone call, or Zoom conference and help paint a picture for us:
- W. James Armistead, head of school, Washington Christian Academy, Olney, MD
- Josh Bowar, EdD, head of school, Sioux Center Christian Schools, Sioux Center, IA
- Matt Covey, head of school, Denver Christian Schools, Lakeview, CO
- Henry Doorn, superintendent, Southwest Chicago Christian Schools, Palos Heights, IL
- Jeff Droog, superintendent, Mt. Vernon Christian Schools, Mt. Vernon, WA
- Ruth Kuder, assistant head of school, Eastern Christian Schools, North Haledon, NJ
- Jim Peterson, head of school, South Christian High School, Byron Center, MI
- Bethany Schuttinga, PhD, president, Avail Academy, Edina, MN
All the schools represented were founded by small groups of ethnically homogenous Reformed Christians—often between three and a dozen congregations. While some schools are over one hundred years old, others were founded in the 1950s, after the depression and two world wars ended and those communities could enact dreams they harbored years earlier.
But significant changes came in the 1980s and the decades following. David Zwart, associate professor of history at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, identifies two such changes: (1) lower birth rates, which meant that even schools near a number of Reformed congregations had fewer students to draw from, and (2) a decrease in ethnic and religious identity, which meant a smaller percentage of those students were enrolling in their community’s Christian school. The growth of charter schools and magnet schools, some advertising themselves as “values based,” drew some students away.
For some schools, this led to an existential crisis, and the number of Christian schools in the Reformed tradition has decreased from the 1980s to today. But other schools found ways to continue their mission by serving a broader range of students.
Growing Ecumenical Diversity
For established schools in the Reformed tradition of Christianity, the easiest way to grow was to reach out to other groups of Christians. Today, schools that once served families from a narrow group of congregations tout the number of churches their students attend on their websites. The specifics of that ecumenical diversity depend on which other Christian groups exist in each school’s region. Denver Christian sees its largest growth from non-denominational churches, while Chicago Christian sees more students from Catholic and Lutheran backgrounds. Among the schools surveyed, with the exception of some schools in Western Michigan and Northwest Iowa, the percentage of students coming from a Reformed tradition has decreased to between 5 and 30 percent. Many schools specifically noted the presence of students from Catholic families—this probably would have come as a surprise to their schools’ founders.
Covenantal versus Missional
The growth in ecumenical diversity has led some schools to redefine what it means to be a “covenantal” school (serving the children of Christian families) versus a “missional” school (reaching out evangelistically). Because the covenant between God and his people is an emphasis of Reformed theology, to be “covenantal” once meant serving families who were members of Reformed congregations. Today, being covenantal often means requiring that at least one parent “has a relationship with a church congregation”—although some schools still require a pastor’s letter or a “faith interview” with the family. Other schools have softened the expectations that come with a covenantal model, admitting students with little church background, and most acknowledged an increase in students who are, as one respondent put it, “less biblically literate.” Several schools see an opportunity in this rather than a problem. As Jeff Droog says, “We are still a covenantal school, but we have the opportunity to flex our missional muscles in ways we never have before.”
“We are still a covenantal school, but we have the opportunity to flex our missional muscles in ways we never have before.”
Jeff Droog
Growing Ethnic Diversity
In addition to ecumenical diversity, many Christian schools are experiencing and seeking out growth that reflects the ethnic diversity of their greater community. The student body of Washington Christian Academy, which shares its campus in the DC suburbs with an African immigrant church, is almost 50 percent African American and 15 percent Latinx. Eastern Christian’s roughly 45 percent students of color means that their student body “very closely reflects the racial and ethnic demographics of Bergen and Passaic counties,” where their three campuses are located.
Southwest Chicago Christian Schools’ two elementary campuses, located in different neighborhoods, each represent their location’s diversity: The Tinley Park student body is 85 percent white, while Oak Lawn’s is 45 percent African American and Latinx. Denver Christian, with a student body of about 10 to 15 percent students of color, recognizes an opportunity in serving the more diverse community surrounding their campus. Covey says, “We needed to think very carefully about the ‘why,’ and looking at the Bible and reading the verses that describe a picture of God’s kingdom, we recognized that God loves diversity. And we’re going to love what God loves.”
“We’re going to continually serve a more diverse population of students—culturally, ethnically, racially, and we need to do a better job of that.”
Henry Doorn
Welcoming students from non-white cultures also requires schools to change. Doorn and his board recognize, “We’re going to continually serve a more diverse population of students—culturally, ethnically, racially, and we need to do a better job of that.” Schools have revised curricula and reading lists to include more diverse voices. Some have examined school policies and procedures: At Eastern Christian, Kuder and other school leaders examine “attendance, standardized testing data, discipline and course enrollment to identify any patterns that might represent inequity.” The Southwest Chicago Christian Schools have contracted with the Cultural Intelligence Center to help board members, faculty, and staff develop cultural intelligence and to provide anti-bias training. Washington Christian’s annual student-run cultural festival celebrates its students’ diverse backgrounds with food, dance, and authentic dress, which Armstead says his students probably appreciate far more than the curriculum revision that happens in department meetings.
Maintaining the Core Mission
The increase in students from a variety of churches and backgrounds has posed what many schools see as their most important task: finding new ways to articulate the Reformed outlook they see as central to their mission without using language that feels exclusive to new families.
It requires what many called an “invitational posture,” characterized by Covey as “not arms crossed, but hands out: Connected to each other, connected to the past, connected to our tradition, connected to what the school was founded on, but with a real desire to share that with other people and let them feel it. . . . If you live [the worldview] a lot and say it a little, it has tremendous power.”
Each of these schools articulates this worldview as the “Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration” narrative of Scripture, and each emphasizes the importance of seeing faith as something that is lived out in the believer’s daily life. As Schuttinga says, “We try to teach our students that their best witness to the gospel is in how they treat their neighbors, and what they do when they go to the store, and how they act at work.” Sharing these emphases in a school setting has required reworking the curriculum to teach new students for whom, as one superintendent puts it, “integrating faith into their core classes is an alien concept.”
Nearly all these schools use the Teaching for Transformation (TfT) framework as a way to integrate a Christian worldview without resorting to exclusive language. As Covey says, TfT “allows people who haven’t been brought up in [a Reformed community] to embrace it on their own terms.” Peterson praised the way that TfT “asks teachers to be more intentional about how they integrate faith, which in turn makes faith integration . . . more understandable by all of our students.” One administrator specifically praised the way the framework “keeps [discussions] from getting hung up on a lot of the problem areas . . . that sometimes come with denominational differences”—which is especially helpful in schools with broad ecumenical diversity. Josh Bowar adds that TfT has allowed his school’s “faculty and staff to experience just as much growth in their faith walk and their professional skills as students have in their faith journey and learning.”
More ecumenically diverse student bodies have required schools to particularly assess their Bible curricula. In elementary classrooms, this often means accommodating students who are less familiar with Bible stories than some of their peers are. Droog says, “We just have to be okay with that—but it’s also a wonderful opportunity to see those stories in fresh ways.” In secondary classrooms, schools are trying different things. Some have gone to more general classes, like Old Testament and New Testament surveys, or general Christian theology instead of their school’s old Reformed Doctrine classes. At schools where Reformed Doctrine is still taught, Kuder says teachers have to be “sensitive to the diversity of denominations represented in the classroom. They don’t assume the same foundational biblical literacy that they might have taken for granted several decades ago.” South Christian, in Byron Center, Michigan, is “in the beginning stages of creating multiple paths through the Bible curriculum so that students with less knowledge and students with deep knowledge can both grow.”
Having a wider range of students often leads to the discussion of a wider range of topics in classrooms, including theology, race, politics, and gender. Several interviewees noticed that in recent years communities and students have become more rigid in their ideas and “more willing to disagree disagreeably.” This is a challenge that some think Christian schools are uniquely prepared to address. Droog says that “the beauty of . . . the Christian Day School is that evangelical Christians from all different traditions or paths have chosen to say, ‘You know what? Let’s have these challenging conversations together.’” Schuttinga agrees: “We have great discussions in high school about origins and human sexuality and even politics. . . . We can sit in the classroom and look around and make the assumption that everyone thinks the same ways about these things, but when we’re really honest and start having dialogue, we realize we all have these differences, and there’s something beautiful about having discussions in civil and robust ways.”
New Marketing for an Old Mission
Schuttinga acknowledges that “private education is regarded as a commodity among prospective families, whether we as educators like it or not,” and Covey points out that “we do need to compete for students so that we can do our mission.” So new ways of marketing Christian schools are both a cause and a result of their changing contexts.
An element of that marketing—one that in some way conflicts with the Reformed idea of engaging with culture—is the discomfort or anxiety some Christians feel with public or charter school options. As Droog notes, a schools’ attraction is “not only the pull of Christian education that is also excellent, but also a fear pushing people into the school.” Peterson observes that many parents who sent their kids to public or charter schools initially were “frustrated by the lack of Christian morals in those schools.” The other side of this coin—and a way of framing it that doesn’t undercut Reformed ideas of cultural engagement—emphasizes the value of a close community. Droog emphasizes the concepts of “safety” and “trust” in communications from Mt. Vernon schools. Schuttinga has noticed that one of the most valuable benefits school families talk about is the community that they experience when they are part of the school. That belonging gives a sense of safety and support.
Another attribute that understandably draws many families to Christian schools is a desire for high-quality education. As Peterson says, “People are willing to pay for quality.” Avail Academy has even changed their name from “Calvin Christian” to appeal to families comparing their school with charter schools and academies. But each schools’ focus is still on faith formation and the practice of a worldview; Covey points out that “we just do it within the context of excellent teaching and learning experiences” that “develop the whole person—physically, spiritually, creatively.”
By far the strongest message from these school leaders is that it is essential to be clear in communicating the school’s way of integrating faith, learning, and life. Droog notes that clear communication can help prevent misunderstandings with families whose experience of Christianity might bring them in the door with different expectations. “If you can be transparent ahead of time, you can save yourself a lot of trouble with families. We tell them up front, ‘Your kids may read a book with a bad word in it.’” For families that expect clear teachings about what’s right and wrong rather than discussions about discernment, “we let [them] know at the start that these are things that we’re not going to do.” This clarity about the school’s mission often ends up attracting more families than it turns off. Schuttinga says, “Families who come into our system are attracted to the Reformed tradition even though it is somewhat different than what they’re receiving in their churches. The all-of-life worldview is a very attractive one, and it’s really helped families articulate an integration of faith and life. It’s not just ‘Christian education for their kids.’” Peterson agrees: “Really, most of these families want what we offer, and in many cases they want it and understand the need for it better than some of our legacy families who at times take for granted what we are trying to do.”
Reforming Mission through Faculty and Governance
Recruiting teaching staff who can teach from a Reformed perspective can be more challenging as school communities broaden, but these schools share the understanding that this is vital. As Schuttinga says, “When you put employees in the classroom, do they understand the Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation framework? Do they understand the biblical narrative? When that understanding is a natural part of who the teachers are, it brings strength to the way that they are able to present history and English through a biblical lens.” But schools’ hiring practices are varied. Several continue to require that their teachers be “members of a church in the Reformed tradition,” but it’s easier to make that a requirement at schools in communities with more Reformed families (or where teachers’ salaries are high enough to draw more applicants). Other schools no longer have that requirement, and one interviewee acknowledged that their school’s “hiring practice [is not] necessarily reflective of what some guidelines say. There are some changes that need to be made for practical purposes.”
Schools that hire from outside the Reformed tradition provide training for new teachers to enable them to teach from a Reformed worldview. Eastern Christian has “a ‘Year-One’ orientation program for new faculty that provides a more intentional acculturation and onboarding process.” Kuder explains that, “With faculty and staff coming from an increased variety of denominational perspectives, we can no longer assume a shared understanding of Reformed perspective.” At Washington Christian Academy, new staff participate with veteran teachers in a “Faculty Institute” to share practices, and they have just begun implementing TfT.
Greater diversity in school communities has also led to changing composition of school boards. While some schools still require all or a minimum percentage of board members to come from a congregation in the Reformed tradition, others have no Reformed membership requirements at all. School leaders in each of these situations share concerns—or even frustration—about the way a board can help a school adhere to its central mission: some with few restrictions want more Reformed representation, and some with no restrictions seem to be concerned about whether future leadership of the school will be able to articulate the Christian viewpoint from which the school operates. At the very least, these educators felt it was essential that board members understand that “we’re a certain kind of Christian school” and support that mission.
Always Reforming
Culture and specific communities are always changing, and schools will continue to face challenges as they do. As changes happen and challenges arise, schools will need to continue evaluating what they do and how they do it. Schuttinga notes that one major reason that Christian organizations dwindle and die is “mission drift”: the loss of a clear understanding of the organization’s mission and values. Although it’s a sentence that, because of its historic context, might seem exclusionary, the idea that the “Reformed church is always reforming” has necessary implications for schools that practice and teach a worldview that recognizes that all the world belongs to a God who calls His people to be engaged in restoring it to His vision. As Covey says, “not sacrificing what you believe as you serve those have different experiences than you—I don’t think that challenge is ever going to go away. And it’s one that needs to be embraced, because I believe God is leading [Christian Schools] to make Him known to a larger and more diverse body of people.”
Steve Tuit is co-editor of the Christian Educators Journal. He teaches English and AP Psychology at Grand Rapids Christian High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is very grateful to the educators who gave their time to have the rich and delightful conversations about Christian education that informed this article.
