New Mission - unpacked

As promised, I am going to spend some time 'unpacking' the richness that exists in our new mission and vision statements.  I'm going to do that today with our mission statement by starting in the middle - love, learn, and lead….

As the vision & mission committee and board looked at pages and pages of what parents, teachers and students valued about Christian Education, and specifically about NACE, three themes surfaced.  The first was that NACE schools were places where students and staff show love, and are loved.  From scripture, we read that the law is summed up as:  "....love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.' And, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Luke 10:27)   At our core, as a Christian School, inspiring students to love God is our starting point for everything else.  We also know overwhelmingly from educational research that a safe and caring environment is crucial for learning to occur.  A school in which love for God is lived out in love for others is a school that is seeking to follow God's law.

Learning needed to be central to our mission as a school.  Once loved, we can learn, grow, and develop which is central to our purpose as an educational institution.

Leading was a third theme that revealed itself as our community looked for and desired for our students to lead, to take ownership and begin to show others their faith, their knowledge, their growth in wisdom.  It isn't enough to simply be consumers of education, but students need to become co-creators. This speaks deeply to our desire as Christians to affect culture and to answer God's call on our lives to share the good news and develop His creation.

At the beginning of our mission statement, we see students, and at the end, we see together in God's world.  As an educational institution, our core service is to students, and we find ourselves squarely placed together in God's world.  As a community, we work intentionally together; not as individuals each seeking their own way forward in isolation or for self-promotion.  Our relationships are central to our work.  That we are in God's world is a testament to the fact that we state unapologetically that everything we study belongs to God.  It isn't our world, it isn't just the world.  It belongs, every square inch, to our Creator.  We are also not an island protected from the world but belong and act intentionally in it.  Our mission is not for ourselves, but for the world.

Finally, back to the beginning:  Inspiring.  God's work and world cause us awe and wonder.  Our teaching and learning need to do the same.  If we are learning to love, learn, and lead together in God's world, it needs to be inspiring if it is to be honouring to God.  

Inspiring students to love, learn, and lead together in God's world.

New Mission and Vision

After three months of work, the board is ready to communicate the first step with respect to its strategic planning work this year:  NACE's mission and vision statements.

It became clear after a few attempts over the years at re-writing these statements to reflect our current reality, that a board table is a lousy place to draft wording.  A separate committee was needed to delve deep into this work.  This past fall, a group with representation from administration, board, teachers, current and past parents, and even a prospective parent were invited to explore our mission and vision.

A mission statement needs to do a few things:  1) Tell people what you do (and why you do it!)  2) It needs to be simple, memorable, and 3) needs to reflect something about you as an organization, be specific, but not too specific...... 4) It needs to inspire and guide your organization.  In other words, it needs to be everything.  A tall order, for sure!

A vision statement is a bit different.  A vision statement should not state your current reality but projects a future desired state.  What do you want to be in the future?  If we state what we are now already, then the vision may be nice to read but does nothing to spur us forward.

Using data from the past couple of years of research in this community, specifically the 'Why' survey

The committee, over a month, worked through exercises to generate two mission statement and two vision statement proposals for the board to consider and work with.  In November, the board convened it's annual visioning meeting to discuss our past, present, and future, and to review the work of this committee.  After two months of feedback, tweaking, and re-working, the board approved the release of its new vision and mission statements.  Next week, in this space, I will unpack these statements and their story a bit more.

Until then, I'm excited to 'unveil' the NACE board's newly approved Mission and Vision statements:

Mission

Inspiring students to love, learn, and lead together in God's world.

Vision

To be the leaders in education by inspiring a diverse and unified student body to love, learn, and lead with God's grace, bringing Christ's love to the world.

Wisdom through Listening

This past week I was able to rejoin head-of-school colleagues and faculty from the Van Lunen Center for Executive Management in Christian Schools in Scottsdale, Arizona.  I am honoured to have been one of twenty chosen for this intense program to learn from peers, faculty, and presenters who are at the leading edge of their field.  I am taking away more than I can quantify in this space here and would love to talk with you about it in more detail sometime. One of the more poignant 'learnings' from this past week was not in a formal learning session but came from an experience outside of the classroom at the encouragement of one of my mentors. 

The setting in Arizona is a retreat centre behind which lies a labyrinth, among other prayer chapels, settings, and stations of the cross.  The labyrinth is a physical setting that has been used for many hundreds of years and has been designed to lead people into a time of intentional prayer, not only speaking to God but listening for His words and direction.

Too often my (our?) prayer lives consist of time where we speak our praise, thanks, confession, and bring forward our requests, as God has commanded. (Philippians 4:6).  We do a lot of talking, but not a lot of listening.  I'm guilty of this.  The book of Proverbs is filled with advice to the wise: to listen (1:5, 12:15, 19:20....)  Confession time for me:  I like to talk and need to try to stop to listen.

My time in contemplative prayer at this retreat centre in the labyrinth, seeking God's guidance was a reminder of how easy it is to NOT hear God's voice if we aren't listening.

Life is busy.  Sometimes it seems too busy to stop and listen.  Let me encourage you to stop, to listen, to be open to God's words.  He may speak to you, as he has to me, with words you don't expect.  As I walked in the labyrinth in prayer and praise, God was able to cut through the noise that is often in my life to speak... because I was listening.  It is crucial that as a leader of a school association that I spend that time seeking wisdom from God by listening.  In your leadership roles whether at work, at home, at church, it is important for you as well.

May God continue to speak to us, and may we as a school community, listen intently for wisdom that only He can give!

People and Passion

I want to use this space to give you another quick update on our strategic planning initiative.  Already this year, a sub-committee has worked hard to re-think and re-state our mission and vision for NACE.  A number of new proposals have made their way through, along with a re-examination of our core values.  We could have begun just strategizing new projects, but without a re-commitment and statement of who we are, and what we are doing, these projects would lack the focus that they need to be really effective.  Very soon, the board hopes to approve a Mission and Vision statement.

We are also identifying people within our community that can help with strategic planning.  These people will need to have a heart for NACE and Christian education.  Alan Pue, in "Rethinking Strategic Planning for Chrisitan Schools" states that they must be people of 'Character, Commitment, Competence, Compatibility, and Chemistry'.  Essentially, they need to be excellent Christian character, have 'skin in the game', have gifts and abilities to offer strategic planning, be cooperative in a team and be able to work well with multiple perspectives even if they disagree.  Sounds like a big qualification list.  We know that we have people in our community who are gifted in this way and that God will use them to help uncover His plans for NACE in the future.  How will we know we have the right people?  They will display passion.  A Passion for Christ and a passion for the work put before us as a school.

If you know of someone who displays these characteristics, please pass their name on to me for submission to our nominating group.

Above all, please continue to pray for our planning work that supports and builds schools that seek to inspire students to love, learn, lead in God's world.

Uncovering God's Vision

In our family devotions, we are following a series that has us work through a yearly cycle of the church calendar.  During each season, there are different ways in which we prepare ourselves for a time of devotion.  During the Advent season, we pull an extra chair or set an extra place at the table in anticipation of the coming King.  He hasn't arrived at our devotion time.... yet. 

I wonder what it was like for the people of Israel to continue to wait for the long-promised and longed for Messiah.  I ordered something on Amazon the other day and was forced to wait 48 hours for its arrival.  Clearly, many of us have lost what it means to wait.  We can have what we want or need generally right now.

Not so with the coming of Christmas.  I enjoy talking with our students about the coming of Christmas, and no matter what age (JK through grade 8), there is a shared sense of longing and waiting (sometimes patiently, often not) for the coming of the holiday.  

In the same way, we continue to wait and long for Christ's return.  We are broken, we experience pain, suffering, sin in a multitude of ways.  While Christ has not yet returned, we still prepare.  In our home, we have put up the Christmas tree, we work through advent devotions, we shift to Christmas music.  Although Christmas is not here yet, we live in such a way as to both anticipate it and also to celebrate its arrival.

What are we doing in the advent of Christ's return?  It will take perseverance, compassion, and integrity to wait and work as His servants, but we know that we do and will experience JOY in the knowledge that our world is in God's hands, and that He entrusts us to continue His work.

Make Room

It's busy.  Really busy.  Some of it is good busy, some of it not-so-good-busy, some of it just necessary busy.  I'm sure most of you can relate.  So many things that we need to do for upcoming events (and Christmas programs!!!), family visits, planning for the new year, etc etc etc.

It's almost as if we were in the hustle and bustle of Bethlehem so many years ago.  I've had the privilege of visiting various re-enactments of the Christmas setting at churches over the years (an excellent one at Calvary Gospel Church in Beamsville, if you get a chance to go).  What I appreciate at these events is the reminder that Bethlehem at that time was CRAZY BUSY.  They were not normally equipped to have all of the line of David come into town at the orders of the government at the time.  They were doing all they could just to meet the demand, the necessary, the good busy, and the not-so-good-busy.  Sound familiar.

Along comes a couple in rather desperate need of a place to stay with nothing but apologetic looks at best, or annoyance at worst.

Now, in 2017, almost 2018, how am I receiving the coming Messiah?  Who is at my door asking to please have a place to stay?  Is it Christ himself asking for space in my life?  Is it someone in physical or emotional or spiritual need just asking 'Do you have room for me/us?'.

Who am I saying 'no, sorry' to?

Ignatius Loyola scripted a prayer for just such a time as this - a reminder to me, a reminder to you.... to make room this season:

Lord, help me to make room for you this Advent. Help me to clear out every nook and cranny of my heart and soul and to let go of all things that are not of you. Come into my heart. Give me the grace to respond to you freely and trust you completely. Fill me with your love and your grace. I know that you are all I really need, so please help me to choose you—every time. Let every movement of my heart and soul bring greater glory to you, Lord. Amen.

I pray this for me, and for you as you work with your own 'busy' and ensure that you make room for the Saviour of the world... God in the flesh who became one of us to bear our burdens and our sins.

Waiting

In our family devotions, we are following a series that has us work through a yearly cycle of the church calendar.  During each season, there are different ways in which we prepare ourselves for a time of devotion.  During the advent season, we pull an extra chair or set an extra place at the table in anticipation of the coming King.  He hasn't arrived at our devotion time.... yet. 

I wonder what it was like for the people of Israel to continue to wait for the long-promised and longed for Messiah.  I ordered something on Amazon the other day, and was forced to wait 48 hours for its arrival.  Clearly, many of us have lost what it means to wait.  We can have what we want or need generally right now.

Not so with the coming of Christmas.  I enjoy talking with our students about the coming of Christmas, and no matter what age (JK through grade 8), there is a shared sense of longing and waiting (sometimes patiently, often not) for the coming of the holiday.  

In the same way, we continue to wait and long for Christ's return.  We are broken, we experience pain, suffering, sin in a multitude of ways.  While Christ has not yet returned, we still prepare.  In our home, we have put up the Christmas tree, we work through advent devotions, we shift to Christmas music.  Although Christmas is not here yet, we live in such a way as to both anticipate it and also to celebrate its arrival.

What are we doing in the advent of Christ's return?  It will take perseverance, compassion, and integrity to wait and work as His servants, but we know that we do and will experience JOY in the knowledge that our world is in God's hands, and that He entrusts us to continue His work.