Almost Obnoxious - Part 5 - To Impact Their World for Christ

For the past month, I have been writing about the mission statement of my school.  Just in case you need to be reminded, here it is (with links to the previous posts).

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

Today, let me address the most important part of the mission - "to impact their world for Christ."

Their World:

My students will enter different worlds from each other.  That's a good thing.  They aren't all going to be business leaders or engineers, although some will (and have) become those things.  In the twenty years I've been teaching, some of my students have become musicians.  Others have become nurses.  Some have been stay-at-home moms.  Some have become teachers.  Some have become dancers.  Some have become fashion designers.  Some have gone into the military.  Others serve on the police force.  They have all entered different worlds.  The way in which one impact their world will be different from the way some else impacts theirs.  My hope and prayer, as a Christian educator, is that they have been prepared in my classroom for whatever world they have chosen, whether by the academic content or the spiritual modeling of their teachers.

For Christ:

Mark 8:36 is clear that our focus needs to be on eternal matters rather than temporary definitions of success.  "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"  If my students become millionaires but do nothing to glorify Christ, I have not fulfilled my mission.  If their name is on the news every night, but they don't use their platform to advance the gospel, what will their Christian education have been about?  I am far more proud of my student, Liz, who teaches her children (and the children of others) in her home about the grace of God than I would ever be of a student making a fortune from taking advantage of clients in any field.  

I love the mission of GRACE.  I believe in it, even when I find it difficult to fulfill.  I carry it around with me, not just on a laminated sheet of paper, but in my heart.  As long as God gives me a classroom, I will endeavor to carry it out, even if it means being almost obnoxious about it.