Chancellor's Challenges: A Different School Year

Another year begins! The start of school usually brings images of kids standing at the bus stop, moms taking their kindergarteners to school and crying, and excitement in students for a new year to begin with new friendships and new things to learn.

This year, all that might be a bit different – but for us at Immanuel Christian School, we know that Christian education provides for the things that might be missing. Here is what I mean: When you think about Christian education, what do you get? You get a school that is concerned with helping students think about the world and all that is in it – including a pandemic – through the lens of absolute truth found in God’s Word. Practically, that means not only holding out doing their best and overcoming their own propensities toward being excited about learning until it becomes “too hard” or “boring,” but holding those things out with God’s gracious kindness and mercy. It means that teachers will show students the grand patterns that God has established in math and language and at the same time listen to their expression of hurt from classmates with empathy and compassion. It means that the administration will learn all of the students' names, and the office staff will also be an encouragement to them. It means that students will hear about George Washington, Booker T. Washington and Washington Irving, as well as the wonder of a God who made those men and ordered the times in which they lived. And it means that students will hear about that same God who values them and is ordering their days, even in the midst of a pandemic, so that they will hear of the life-giving relationship they can have with Him through Jesus Christ.

This year, school may look a bit different. Perhaps the school bus is not going to be the main form of transportation. Maybe there won’t be the same schedules or activities that we’ve come to love and look forward to. (I am fairly certain there will still be mothers who will cry when they bring their kindergarteners to school!) But one other thing is certain: God is in control of our days and can be trusted to make this year full of excitement of learning and new friendships. We can count on Him.