How do we 'make it right'?

Since 2010, NACE schools have been on a journey towards being schools of restorative practice.  Those words pack a lot of meaning, especially as the rest of society is beginning to learn more about this movement, and react to it.

"When hurtful behaviour occurs, the restorative mantra of talking about what has happened, looking at who has been affected or harmed and how, and what is needed to make things right, is similar in the Christian context to acknowledging our sin, confession, honest contemplation and reflection on the impact of our actions, reconciliation, and healing." (Bruce Schenk in "Restorative Practice in the Christian Context" - Christian Educators Journal, October, 2010)

This difference of approach is a departure from what many of us have grown up with. I certainly did not have the experience of restoration in my Christian School experience. Offenders were given punishments, the harm would continue quietly, the persons involved (victim and offender) were shamed, victims were silenced, and rarely was the situation 'made right'.

Mark VanderVennen (in the same journal issue of CEJ cited above) points out that "The shift to a restorative paradigm begins by asking this question:  when we are in the midst of conflict, how do we image God?  We are not permissive; we insist on accountability for behaviour and standards of relational practices..... Instead we are restorative; we hold people accountable in the context of nurture and support.  We honour them in their journey towards healing relationships."  Often this requires more work of those involved than a simple punitive approach.  It is work well worth the result, and certainly well worth the result for those affected!!

In community, that is our step toward making things right. 

I have made a number of copies of this issue of the CEJ available for NACE parents who wish to read more about how Restorative Practices align well with our mission as Christian Schools.  Please let me know if you would like to have one. 

And We're back....

After numerous destinations last week, we as a staff and learning community are now back to 'normal' to do the busy work of teaching and leading and learning. And by 'normal', I mean that we are running all separate ways from our 'centre' at Covenant to Pioneer camp (grade 7/8 trip this week Wednesday-Friday), hockey practices and games, basketball practices, field trips, preparing for fine arts festival, and the list goes on.  After viewing inspirational and innovative learning we return to ice rinks that need flooding, boilers that need repair (or replacement!), minor repairs, information evenings, committee work, planning work.......

It can be a difficult task to balance vision and the day-to-day needs of a school community.  What is our centre?  I've been struck again by this question as there are so many competing interests for our students, teachers, associations....

God's story is what pulls it all together and gives meaning to our work.  Unless we do our daily work, unless we look to the future, unless we manage our resources, unless we interact with one another with God's story in mind, we are left with a school that simply strives to grasp at great things in all directions.

So we return to our centre.  God is who formed and made us as image bearers of Him.  How now will we live in light of his promises?  It is this centre that gives all of the above meaning once more.  We are a school that can hang our hopes, dreams, ideas, work, teaching, learning, and growing all on Christ.

And that is worth coming back for!!

Big kids helping little kids

I've written about this in the past, and some of you will notice the above title "Big Kids Helping Little Kids" making its way into some posts on Facebook if you follow us there.

Covenant is a school that, even in name, seeks to make good on a promise.  God promises to be our God, just as he did with Jacob at Bethel.  As parents, we refer to our dedication or baptismal promises... we acknowledge that our children are covenant children.  I witnessed this again just a few weeks ago, and watched as a congregation affirmed their part and responsibility in raising that child up.  They promised to love, care and encourage them and to help them follow Christ.

Much of the research on moral education of children, of those who live out their faith, points to the importance of leading by example.  We can teach children why and how to follow Christ, to love our neighbour as ourselves, but unless they have that modeled for them, it does not always 'take'.

Practice is necessary in any discipline and lifestyle.  It's why at Covenant we ask, encourage, (and even require) our big kids to help little kids.  Without the practice of 'doing for others', we will not know how to live out our faith in a very real way to others.  Even the act of receiving help from others is important in community building.

Today was the first day of skating on our outdoor rink!  Skates are a difficult thing for young children to put on, to tie, and they need help.  For our big kids to come over and help little kids as a matter of necessity is one small step in building community and in having them practice the love of Christ in a real and practical way.  A few years from now, our little kids will be big kids - asked to tie the skates of others.  Our big kids will be adults, asked to love, care and encourage children and to help them follow Christ.  At that point, they'll know what that means, and how to go about it!!!

A new year, a continued story...

Happy 2015, and welcome back to the routines of this school year.  It's amazing how quickly we adjust and settle back in to classroom routines.  We are back to 'normal' here at Covenant.

New Year's celebrations come with their share of stories.  Stories of how the past year was with all of its high- and low-lights.  As time passes, so do people, events, relationships, institutions, hopes, and dreams;  realized or foregone.  The perspective that an entire year gives can be encouraging or bleak.  It's the same perspective, though, that can help us see God's faithfulness through it all.  A friend of mine, wrote the following as an introduction to this school year in his OACS blog, and it was as fresh to me today as it was when he wrote it then:

"...my prayer for all of us is that following the story comes with potent moments of joy in addition to the moments of suffering that we also know so well. I pray that our experience of the story is powerful enough to make meaning even out of suffering, and by doing so also allow us to experience unspeakable joy. We use vocabulary like shalom, culture-making, image-bearing, covenant, kingdom; and Christ's coming is concretely realised in Kingdom metaphors of feasting, vineyards, gardens, glorious cities, still waters… We want tastes and sights (spiritual fruit!) of his presence here and now; we want it to be tangibly experienced as we gather together: camping with friends, eating with our families, singing in church and school, coming together in June graduation ceremonies and August staff retreats. How do we personally and communally "hear the story?"..."

Blessings to each of you as we continue to 'Take Hold of God's Story' forward into 2015.

The Rhythm of the school year...

OR  "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

We are winding up, or gearing down around Covenant, depending on who you talk to.  As I walked through the school this morning as classes were gathering for devotions, there was a lot of chatter around sharing for prayer.  Stories of Christmas traditions were excitedly shared: what had happened at church on Sunday, whose house they had had dinner at, and what they were looking forward to doing as the week progresses toward and into Christmas break.

This time of year and the anticipation of some time off is reminiscent of the creation story where God stopped and rested after declaring his creation 'very good'.  In the advent season we work slowly toward the culmination of our time of preparation for Christmas - another 'creation' story.  Just as in the creation story, where the world is spoken into being (Psalm 33:6), we are met with his rescue of His creation:  the Word became flesh. (John 1:1)    It is not a rest where we kick off and just stop because we feel we deserve it....  it is a pause to re-focus and intentionally gather ourselves in the realization that we have been saved from sin and find rest in God's grace.

For God so loved the world...... may you find rest in those words, and as you depart from regular routines to celebrate our Saviour, ponder the words of St. Augustine: "Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee."

In habit, word, and deed...

This morning we ran through one of our final full school rehearsals for our Christmas program later this week.  Students worked through their lines, their spoken word recitation of scripture, sang their songs both as class groups and as a full school, and our tech crew and directors attempted to keep everything focussed and audible.

A few months ago, Dr. James K.A. Smith spoke to Canadian Christian education leaders about the importance of school as a re-habit-uation, re-form-ation project. Telling the story, and living it out in habit speaks to our minds and bodies in ways other methods cannot.  No one can drive a nail successfully the first time they pick up a hammer... it takes practice and habit - in fact hundreds, if not thousands of nails need to be placed and hit before driving a spike becomes second nature.  But, once it becomes second nature, it becomes near impossible to shake or unlearn.  The habit forms ability.

The expression of our faith in the songs of Christmas have been practiced hundreds of times at school to a point where they are becoming a part of each student participating.  I hear it in classrooms, hallways, school yard, staff room, and yes, even in the washrooms.   It is our prayer that as our habits in words and melodies have become a part of us, that you will leave our Christmas celebrations humming or singing along with the reminder of "the Word became flesh...."; that:

Love came down at Christmas,  Love all lovely, Love divine;

Love was born at Christmas;  star and angels gave the sign.

Advent... We Wait

We've entered Advent, a time of waiting. What a counter-cultural message Advent is. In a time when waiting is shunned, doing with less or slowing down are frowned upon, it can be difficult to wait!  I remember as a child watching each of the candles of Advent being lit, week after week.... the waiting was almost painful. As almost anyone can tell you, though, the waiting can make the actual event that much more poignant. 

Waiting allows reflection, anticipation, and hope. In the classic series by C.S. Lewis, the Land of Narnia in which it is "...always winter but never Christmas"  is transformed when a prophecy about two daughters of Eve and two sons of Adam appearing comes true and when the King, the Mighty Aslan returns. Spring, a warming up of the land, returns to Narnia.

In our knowledge of the prophesy, we are blessed by hope, fed by joy as we know of Christ's coming. That knowledge is a blessing to pass along so that others may join us in hope.  At CCS, we cultivate that hope by teaching our children that the King has come and is coming again, by sharing that hope through Christmas programs and parade floats, and by reflecting and waiting once again. Christ will come to redeem his creation.

Blessings to you this Advent season as you reflect, share, and hope in the gospel.