Lent: road or intersection?

Lent is a difficult road... It is a road that we know ends well, and we live in hope of a risen saviour who pays for our sins.  It begins, though, with the acknowledgement of sin and of needing Christ.  The practice of 'giving up' something has its roots in meditation and focus on purification and enlightenment as we rededicate our lives in very real ways to Christ.

"Making things right" is a focus of reconciliation... "Reconciliation with God and forgiveness for our wrong-doings are major themes of Lent, but the focus during this season needn't be confined to our relationship with the Divine. In our heart of hearts, most of us yearn for a world where all human beings are reconciled to each other. We yearn for a healing of rifts, for lasting, deep-down, unshakeable shalom - Peace."  (taken from: http://goo.gl/iFRhzi)

Can we be productive when we continue to carry our burdens in the form of grudges?  Can we be productive when we continue to carry our burdens in the form of pain?

Taking hold of God's story becomes possible when we take hold of his forgiveness.  Taking hold of God's story becomes possible when we let go and forgive the wrong done to us.  Taking hold of God's story happens at the intersection of who God has made us to be, and the good works he has prepared in advance for us to do.  It's a cross-roads.  Perhaps lent isn't so much a road as an intersection.  

I pray for God's lasting, unshakable peace for you and for this learning community as we journey through the intersection of Lent.

On Display

Much of what we do at school seems to happen behind closed doors... the school day starts, students rush to their classes, and the day begins.  Each class has its own set of expectations and curriculum that it must discover, and often times that happens to the joy of those in the classroom, but not to the eyes of others.

My recent time spent in California and digging deeper into educational research has drawn attention to the fact that this is one of 'the problems' with education. Often, learning and the projects students put their hard work and efforts are 'for the teachers' eyes only'.  This needs to change.  Students need to do more work that has a real audience (and meet a real need... but more on that later).

This week is a time when we see more 'on display' than we do normally, and the results are evident in the student work.  When students know that their work will have an audience, their efforts and engagement increase exponentially.  

• Last Saturday's boys basketball tournament and the coming Saturday's girls basketball tournament are opportunities students get to test their skills in a real situation in front of real opponents, and a real crowd. Excellence results.
  
• This Tuesday is our annual science fair.  Grades 7 and 8 put their work out in front of judges for evaluation, but also to the public for browsing through that evening.  Top notch work is produced.
• This Thursday is the annual Fine Arts Festival.  Students put their best performance forward in front of a new audience to have them delight in spoken word and drama.  Beauty is created.

Be a part of our students' audience as we celebrate their learning. Encourage their efforts to uncover and develop their God-given gifts.  Applaud them for taking the risk to put their learning on display.  Give praise to our Creator who has blessed us with opportunity to image Him, and for the gift of growth and development of talents. Look for more work on display in the future as we transform the traditional educational models that hide our lights under a bushel.....

Good (mental) health in grace-shaped community

This Thursday evening, we will be joined by Andrea Groenewald, a partner counsellor with Shalem Mental Health Network (http://shalemnetwork.org/).  She will speak with us and whomever wants to join us about anxiety in children.  As parents, one of our greatest fears is the peril of our children, whether that be an injury, trauma, or stress.  It is near impossible to shield our kids from these, so our tactics need to focus on prevention and setting them up to meet risk and challenge in life and develop good coping skills for when they do experience hardship.

Dr. Syd Hielema is no stranger to stress in children and families having worked for many years as an educator and chaplain supporting students and families through difficulty.  He believes that Christian educational institutions, as communities shaped by grace, are positioned to develop the needed response to the crisis of increased mental health struggles.  "We need holistic treatment regimens that combine the wisest guidance we have for chemical, psychological, relational, and family history issues.... a touch of heaven arrives on earth when all of the above are enfolded within communities being transformed by grace." (CEJ, Feb 2015, p 4-6)

So what is a grace-shaped community?  He outlines two dimensions:

1) a community with an enhanced capacity for respect.  
This means seeing one another not in their present form, but as works in progress - as new creations in which Christ is at work... confident that He will 'bring it on to completion until the day of our Lord Jesus' (Phil 1:6)

2) a community that practices disciplines that unlock the 'Image of God'.   These practices include being transparent, noticing one another, giving voice to one another (listening well), and encouragement.  These four practices, Hielema says, begin to form a community that 'smells' like the aroma of Christ (2 Cor. 2:14-15)

Pray that Covenant Christian School, in its daily activities, and in the activities of its parents and supporters, may become a grace-shaped community.

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.