Encouraging Faith Development: What Really Matters?
What are the step-by-step instructions for a Christian school to lead a young person to Jesus Christ? Is there a single path that works for all students? Is there an algorithm we can apply? No. Can we take each student through specific objectives, reach milestones with perfect timing, and “poof!”—a framed certificate of Christianity? Of course not. Th e Holy Spirit is in charge, and it is the Holy Spirit’s timing.
At Scottsdale Christian Academy, we realize that the path and timing to forming a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is unique to each person. Fifty years of Christian education in Phoenix has allowed us to reflect on the spiritual formation of our students. Preparation for our fiftieth year has confirmed countless insights from alumni around the world. Some gave their lives to Christ while they were students in our kindergarten class, and others nearly 40 years after graduating. While each story is beautiful in its own way, no two are alike. Likewise, our students are at varying places in their faith development, with the Holy Spirit at work in their lives. As a Christian school, we have the potential to play an important role in tandem with their churches and their parents.
Through various forms of feedback concerning spiritual influence from students and alumni, we have discovered it is not programs, classes, or chapels alone that have the greatest influence. Rather, it is relationships. It is through these venues that these relationships can form. Parents and their faith exhibited at home have the deepest impact on a student’s spiritual journey. Partnering with a good church and Christian school allows the important message of Christ to be reinforced in all major areas of the child’s life. Personal relationships with a strong Christian teacher or advisor additionally can have a profound influence, along with peers who have a deep faith and can share in their walk. In a nutshell, parents matter, teachers matter, and peers matter.
Understanding that we play a critical role in a student’s walk with Christ, it is our mission to plant seeds. Th ese seeds then germinate in a student’s life, growing and flourishing as the student turns his or her life over to Jesus Christ. Undoubtedly, we can feel an urgency to develop a student’s faith journey and “pick up the pace,” but our hope is in the Lord to provide us the encouragement and strength necessary to trust in Him and know that our eff orts may change a student’s life with the timing of the Holy Spirit. At SCA, we consider faith development our primary purpose along with our mission to enable students to impact the world for Jesus Christ. As examples, below are some “seeds” we plant in our school community to help nurture these relationships.
Starting Early and Scheduling Intentionally. What is most important to a school and a community must be reflected in their daily schedule, starting in the earliest grades. We start planting the seeds of serving and sharing God’s love early. Anything outside of the actual daily schedule will not receive the focus and attention faith development deserves. Spiritual formation is a main goal of our school and must be a part of every day. We must place these opportunities within our everyday lives at school for the Holy Spirit to do His work in the hearts of each student.
Chapels. We realize that while chapels alone may not be the key activity that brings people to Christ, they do accomplish important results. First, they educate our children on the Bible and on life application of biblical truth. Second, they introduce topics that allow students to go deeper when they are in small groups or in discussions with mentors, advisors, or peers. Finally, they develop spiritual habits of being in the Word daily, worshiping together in community, and being discursive around important worldview topics.
Students Coming Together. It is important to provide opportunities for students to interact on worldview topics, and for older students to model faith and service to younger students. In the upper grades we have a period every day set aside for intentional interactions, including small groups. Our chapels are intentionally placed early in the week. Th is way, small groups can take the chapel topic to a deeper level, allowing students to share their personal insights with each other. Our small groups are mixed grades within the high school. Student leaders, as well as an adult advisor, facilitate respectful dialogue, similar to Harkness discussions. In addition, we have an elementary Bible Buddies program to pair the younger students with middle schoolers. We also pair elementary classes with high school mission trip groups to offer prayer, encouragement, and support. Providing personal involvement with older students is one way for younger students to visualize the next steps in living lives of service.
Safe Environment for Tough Questions. As part of their faith walk, students should feel open to ask tough questions. It is often in our Bible classes where students feel open to ask tough questions in a safe place, to wonder out loud. For example, in Bible classes at various grade levels, students are encouraged to ask questions they would normally be afraid to ask by allowing them to be anonymous (questions placed in a box). Serious worldview questions can be discussed in a safe environment with a dedicated and educated adult follower of Christ. Bible is part of our core curriculum and a part of every student’s daily schedule. SCA teachers instruct from a Christian worldview with biblical integration in every classroom and subject area every day. We include this integration as part of our curriculum mapping process.
Service and Missions. An intentional dedication to service at all grade levels is an important part of spiritual formation and habits. These seeds are planted early at the elementary level by creating awareness of local and international ministries monthly. Students are exposed to a variety of needs and given the opportunity and experience of responding with acts of service. Typically, when a need arises, it is our students who are the first to ask, “What can we do to help?” We also commit strongly to a habit of service and mission work by closing our high school one week each year to devote ourselves to the mission field. Over 230 students participate in over 13 mission trips annually. Th e focus of this week is to help our students learn what a life of service means and how to disciple, and to ingrain in their hearts a passion for serving the Lord and others. Our students often return from these trips transformed, their relationship with Jesus Christ stronger, and their relationships on campus with each other strengthened.
It Starts at the Top. We invest in the spiritual nurturing of our teachers and administrators, because we believe it is not possible to effectively share what you do not have yourself. Th is influences our hiring protocols, as well as the multiple opportunities provided for our staff to grow spiritually—such as prayer groups, Bible studies, conferences, corporate worship, outside speakers, and multiple devotional times including all staff devotionals, mixed small group devotionals, and men’s and women’s devotionals. As a part of our dedication to spiritual formation, and as a part of our strategic plan, three years ago we committed to the position of spiritual life director as a full-time nonteaching position on campus. Th e spiritual life on campus is a passion for every employee of the school, and should not be delegated to a single individual. However, this position enables us to be very intentional in our programming. Our spiritual life director oversees chapel coordination, service, mission trips, small groups, student chaplains, and much more.
Student Leadership. We have found that students-leading students is very powerful in the realm of spiritual formation. We have many opportunities on our campus for students to grow in their faith and lead others. We choose two student chaplains each year in the high school to walk alongside the spiritual life director—planning student worship opportunities, chapels, campus prayer opportunities, and other ways to enrich worship, prayer, and the study of the Word.
There is no one single algorithm for successful faith development, but there are a variety of opportunities for Christian educators to plant seeds in the lives of their students. Together, we can all plant these seeds in various ways at our schools to grow the Kingdom!
Brent Hodges is the superintendent of Scottsdale Christian Academy in Arizona. He has served as a district head of schools, assistant head of schools, principal, and in other leadership positions in independent, Christian, and public schools. Brent holds a master’s in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University, a Bachelor of Accountancy from the University of San Diego, and is currently a student in a doctoral studies program at Creighton University.
