Almost Obnoxious - Part 1 - GRACE Christian School

In a recent meeting, the head of school said that we should be almost obnoxious about carrying out our mission.  I like this phrase and kind of want it on a T-shirt.  I would put the mission statement on the back; it would be great.  Since that would be pretty expensive, I'll have to be almost obnoxious in other ways, like having the mission statement displayed in my classroom in three places (every wall seemed obnoxious, so three seemed almost obnoxious) and using my blog to really dive deeply into our mission by dissecting it into phrases and discussing how each one plays out in the classroom.  Let me begin with the following disclaimer:  I have not run any of this by my administration.  These thoughts are completely my own.

Our mission statement says, "GRACE Christian School is a loving community that spiritually and academically equips, challenges, and inspires students to impact their world for Christ."

Let me start with the first phrase - GRACE Christian School.

Grace is often defined as getting something good that you have not earned and, therefore, do not deserve.  It's difficult in modern culture to know when you are receiving grace because you are told that you deserve good things a hundred times a day.  If you won't believe me, watch daytime television for a couple of hours; the phrase "you deserve" is in almost every commercial.  Students at GRACE get unearned blessings every day in the form of their teachers, their friends, their education, field trips, and a variety of other things.  

Our school is distinctly Christian in staff, goals, and methods.  Someone at an open house asked us to break down our emphasis on the Bible and academics into a percentage balance - "like is it 70/30? 50/50?"  I was pretty shocked when I heard about this because I don't believe I can separate the two.  The percentage breakdown is 100/100 because every teacher at GRACE is a Christian all day long and carries that with them into everything, whether it is being stated verbally at each moment or not.

We are a school.  We are teachers, not camp counselors or youth group leaders.  A student will receive a solid education from me and my colleagues.  We will make decisions that are in their best interests, not those that are easiest for us or them.  

In the coming weeks, I will discuss our loving community and how we carry out this statement, which is, on our own and outside of Christ, impossible to fulfill.  It is far too much for one post, so stay tuned.