Not too long ago an accreditation team spent several days studying and evaluating CA and its programs. We were once again granted accreditation and, in fact, one of the team members was so impressed that he called CA “a hidden gem in a crowd of educational options.” I appreciated his kind words but I must admit that I’m tired of hearing CA referred to as “hidden” or “the best kept secret” in the metro. I don’t want this school, and what God is doing here, to be hidden or kept secret. It makes me sad to think about families who might be truly blest at this school but aren’t, simply because they don’t know we are here. This is why we are asking you, our parents, to help us get the word out about CA. You should have received an email from me asking you to help us with our new Parent to Parent initiative. We are simply asking you to think of 3 families with school-age children that you think might be interested in knowing more about CA. Ideally, we would like you to share your experience of CA with these families and then ask them if they would mind if you gave us their contact information. I want to assure you that none of us here are into hard-selling. We simply share about CA, answer questions, and let God work in his own way to bring people to this school.

The time frame we’ve set for our Parent to Parent initiative is from Saturday, November 7 to Friday, December 4. Linked to this blog are several one-page documents that we thought might help you in sharing information about CA. These include a School Profile, Information on our College Classes, and Financial Aid Information. We also have postcards for upcoming events that you can pick up in our admissions office. Ultimately though, we realize that nothing is more powerful in getting the word out about CA than you, our parents, being able and willing to share your positive experiences with other parents. Thank you for helping us tell the secret that we don’t want kept.

Please send contact information, including if possible their children’s names and grade levels to info@concordiaacademy.com.

CA Fact Sheet.pdf

Financial Aid Info.pdf

On Campus College Classes.pdf

Proverbs 29:18 reminds us that “when there is no vision, the people perish.” On October 19 and 20, 2009, CA’s Vision4Life speakers, Joel and Casey Johnson, shared with our students a “radical” vision of what a healthy, God-pleasing, joy-maximizing relationship with the opposite sex looks like. I only call this vision “radical” because it is so radically different from the vast majority of guy/girl relationships that our students are exposed to. It is a vision that begins in, and is sustained by, a love relationship with God. “It is only in allowing ourselves to be loved by God and in turn learning to love Him,” said Joel, “that we learn how to truly love another.” Casey shared with the girls that “only God can truly fulfill us. If we don’t allow Him to do this, we are in danger of bouncing from one guy to the next, always hoping that the next guy will make us feel good about ourselves.”

Joel and Casey both shared how God first won their hearts. They then shared how this love for God informed and transformed how they dated, or how they “friended,” courted, and then married -to use their terms. In talking with the guys, Joel was very frank about his desire to honor God and Casey by not allowing lust to cloud and taint their relationships. Here Joel shared some of his most “radical,” though undeniably effective thoughts on how to resist lust in a relationship. Casey shared how she was careful to always guard her heart. A vibrant relationship with God, wise mentors, and friends to whom she held herself accountable, allowed her to experience a deep, rich and safe courtship that eventually lead to marriage.

There is of course much more that I could share about the vision laid out by Joel and Casey, a vision that I found as refreshing and encouraging as it was challenging. What I would really like to know is how your kids responded to this “radical” vision. Click below to share what you heard.

Every year students pick a theme for homecoming. I think this year’s is one of the best ever: classic board games. The freshmen made their hall look like a giant Sorry game. The sophomores did theirs up with a Life theme. Junior hall was Clue, which of course, included an outline of a body taped to their floor. And the seniors transformed their hall into a twinkling Candyland complete with giant lollipops and cotton candy. On one of the days, students were to dress up as characters from these games. Senior Marissa A. was a great Plumy the Plumpa Troll and fellow senior Samantha P. was a beautiful Princess Frostine. The juniors had the entire cast of Clue walking our halls. Sophomore James T., veering a bit from the Life theme, came as his own Battleship complete with red pegs marking where he’d been “hit.” Catherine M., a freshman, managed to bring a Sorry piece to life as she walked the halls as Green.

It was very fun to watch students being creative and having fun with these classic games. In writing about this though, I must confess that I find myself feeling a bit melancholy. I can’t help contrasting the simplicity of these games and what childhood is meant to be with what our kids are actually exposed to in this media saturated culture. We all know that kids today are surrounded by images and ideas that force them to grow up way too fast. I realize that since The Fall, childhood has never been what God intended it to be, but when I hear of what today’s kids have seen and what they know, I long for the simplicity of a Candyland. But of course Candyland isn’t real. What is real is Jesus. In leading us into childlike faith, He restores not only childhood but all of life.

Homecoming will soon end and talk about board games will give way to talk about video games. Thank God that in this school and in many of our homes and churches, our students will continue to hear the re-creating and restoring Word of Jesus.

It’s always nice when someone makes your job easier. This year a group of senior girls did just that for me. One of my priorities, in the midst of doing all that has to be done to prepare for a new school year, is to think of ways in which to make our new students -freshmen and transfers feel welcomed and comfortable. So into my office walks Breanna Pearson and Morgyn Wade, who were then juniors, asking permission to have a girls “Rock-In” before the beginning of this school year. They said they wanted to invite all the new freshmen and transfer girls in order to welcome them and connect them with the senior girls. They shared with me how when they were freshmen, the senior girls of that time invited them to a church for an overnight. “It was great,” they said, “It was so much fun, and it took away so much of the nervousness in starting a new school. We want to give the same thing to this year’s new girls.” Last Thursday they did just that.

Over 50 girls showed up with sleeping bags and pillows. From 2: 00 p.m. in the afternoon till 11:00 a.m. the following morning, these girls played games, worshiped, talked, laughed and by all accounts had a fantastic time. When I arrived for work the following morning, I was greeted by a group of exhausted but smiling girls. “It was awesome” said one. “It was so much fun,” said another adding, “Everyone was so nice.” I probed a bit further I found even more of what I was hoping for. “I was nervous about starting a new school,” a young lady shared with me, “but now I can’t wait for school to start.” Another said, “I now feel like this is really my school –and school hasn’t even started yet!” Over and over again I heard similar statements. The Rock-In was everything I hoped for and more. I’ve often said that while God has blessed this school in many ways, His greatest gifts by far are the teachers, parents and students that He continues to bring to us. In the girls Rock-In this was confirmed yet again.

Thank you, Breanna and Morgyn, for making my job easier. And what’s infinitely more significant, thank you for stepping out in service, blessing our new girls, and helping to lay the foundation for a fantastic year!

If you would like to share your thoughts on the Rock-In please comment below.

I was told by the first two people who read my blog that writing on “authoritative communities” might be a bit heavy for a first entry. Since it now appears that these two might very well have been the only two to have read my blog, I think I would do well to heed their concerns. So here is my attempt at blogging on the lighter side.

Despite its heavy sounding name, “authoritative communities” is simply a new way of describing what all of us want for our kids. We want them to experience in our schools, homes, and churches “connectedness-close connections to other people, and deep connections to moral and spiritual meaning.” In my last entry I invited your comments on how well we were doing as a school in being an authoritative community. In this entry I’d like to invite your ideas on what we as Christian parents can do to protect and improve our homes as authoritative communities. For a list of the 10 defining features of an authoritative community see my last entry. Allow me to begin the discussion…

I believe that we parents must intentionally build into our daily, weekly, and monthly routines time to connect with our kids. Many of us and our kids are so over-extended in our obligations, commitments, and social activities that we actually spend very little time with each other. And when we are together we are often so wired into the world via phones, cells phones, computers, televisions and video games that we can be in the same room and still be completely disconnected from on another. My question is this: what rules, habits and traditions have you intentionally or unintentionally built into your family’s routines that promote connectedness within your family?

In a recent column in the Star Tribune, Katherine Kersten reports on two national studies that confirm the depth of our nation’s kids’ emotional and moral confusion. The first study found that “nearly 20 percent of young people ages 19 to 25 have a mental health condition serious enough to interfere with everyday life –including antisocial conduct and depression.” According to the second study, “30 percent of U.S. high school students say they have stolen from a store, and 64 percent that they have cheated on a test in the past year.” What is perhaps most disturbing about this second statistic is that 93 percent of the students questioned in the cheating study said they were “satisfied with their personal ethics and character.”

Both of these reports confirm a dire warning, in what is proving to be a seminal report, issued in 2003 titled, “Hardwired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities.” This report, prepared by the Commission on Children at Risk -a collection of 33 prominent researchers, doctors, and specialists in youth services, documents and details the ongoing deterioration in the moral and mental health of American teenagers and children.

The commission summarized its findings with these words: “In large measure, what’s causing the crisis of American childhood is a lack of connectedness. We mean two kinds of connectedness-close connections to other people, and deep connections to moral and spiritual meaning.” The commission goes on to state that “in recent decades, the U.S. social institutions that foster these two forms of connectedness for children have gotten significantly weaker.”

After their diagnoses of the problem the commission then goes on to offer “authoritative communities” as the antidote to this crisis in connectedness. The commission says the following about its use of the word “authoritative”: “First word refers to a strong body of scholarly evidence demonstrating the value of that particular combination of warmth and structure in which children in a democratic society appear most likely to thrive. Second the word comes from the Latin auctor which can mean ‘one who creates.’ We like that. Authoritative communities don’t just happen. They are created and sustained by dedicated individuals with a shared vision of building a good life for the next generation.”

At Concordia Academy-Roseville, we are blessed to be an authoritative community. We are a community of parents, teachers, staff, alumni and friends who recognize that a truly good life for the next generation can only be found in the vision God provides for us in his Word. This is the vision in which we are united. It is a vision resulting in our kids being wrapped in a rare and precious combination of warmth and structure while nurturing close connections to other people and deep connections to real moral and Spiritual meaning. CA is an authoritative community and we are dedicated to being this to an even greater degree.

The commission lists 10 defining features of an authoritative community:
1. It is a social institution that includes children and youth.
2. It treats children as ends in themselves.
3. It is warm and nurturing.
4. It establishes clear limits and expectations.
5. The core of its work is performed largely by non-specialists.
6. It is multi-generational.
7. It has a long-term focus.
8. It reflects and transmits a shared understanding of what it means to be a good person.
9. It encourages spiritual and religions development.
10. It is philosophically orientated to the equal dignity of all persons and to the principal of love of neighbor.

This list is something we might all do well to reflect on in regard to our family, church, and school. I would specifically like to invite your comments on how well you think we are doing as a school. I would also like to know your thoughts on how we might improve on any or all of the above. Your input is valued and necessary for both maintaining what we are and for our becoming to an ever greater degree, a God-honoring, authoritative community. Let me know your thoughts.

To read more about the study, “Hardwired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities,” or to order your own copy of the report, visit http://www.americanvalues.org/html/hardwired.html.