Mountain City Christian School stands on the corner of Park Avenue and Mountain Street in Forest, a suburb of Mountain City. The school was founded in 1912 and for its first fifty-one years was located in the city. By the early 1960s it became clear that most of the supporting school community would soon have moved to Forest and other surrounding suburbs so in 1963 the school relocated.

Presently there are approximately six hundred students in kindergarten through grade twelve. Kindergarten and the first five grades are housed in the lower level of the original building that stands along Park Avenue. On the second floor are grades six through nine, which have recently come to be called "middle school." During the 1970s, the original building became crowded and a building for the high school was constructed facing Mountain Street.

In the late 1970s there was a decline in school enrollment because people were having smaller families. In addition, in the mid-1980s a number of younger parents had moved back into the downtown area of Mountain City and after a few years had started a middle school campus, to the relief of those board members who had become weary of their push for change. To offset this decline in enrollment the school was making an effort to attract students from backgrounds other than that of the traditional supporters of the school. Enrollment is up again with 60 percent of the students being from four churches of the denomination that had originally started the school and the other 40 percent from a variety of denominational backgrounds.

These people of diverse backgrounds bring with them different ideas and expectations concerning Christian education and the school association meetings reflect those differences. Some of the board members remember with nostalgia the times when there seemed not to be so much turmoil; others see this as a new opportunity to examine and clarify the mission of the school and how it applies to the present day.

Central Station Christian School is in the heart of Mountain City in the old railroad station that was recently renovated. The parents who had moved back into the city quickly became aware of a need for Christian schooling not only for their children but also as a service to the inner city, where the children came from a wide range of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. With some help from grants from businesses and at great personal expense they worked to implement their dream for what a Christian school should be. They decided to begin with a middle school partly because that was where most of their own children were; mostly, however, it was because they realized the strong influence school and peer relationships have on children as they move through their middle and high school years and are no longer quite so strongly influenced by their families' values. Presently in its fourth year of operation, the school has seventy-five students in grades six through nine and the parents are hoping to add the high school grades year by year. The business community of the central city has contributed to the endowment fund that allows children of lower socioeconomic families to attend. They view the school as an important way of bringing life back into the center of the city of 150,000 inhabitants.

As Ken Heard pulled away from the curb in front of Central Station, his face wore a puzzled frown. Were the teachers in that small middle school correct when they claimed that the attitudes of students toward each other toward school life, and toward their own calling as students are influenced as strongly by the structure and curriculum of the school as they are by relationships with the teachers and with each other? School structure and curriculum were pretty much the same in most of the schools with which he was familiar. If you changed either of them, would that really change student attitudes and behavior?

The board had gone along with the teachers' request that the renovation of the old railroad station include a large open activity area surrounded by small individual work cubicles just off the learning center, and he could see that the renovation provided an unusual and attractive educational setting. Rob Boonstra, the architect who served on the Central Station school board, had really caught the vision of the teachers when he designed the school. But arranging the curriculum so heavily around integral units and keeping the students actively involved with the museums and libraries of the city created a completely different learning environment than the one Ken was used to. He had been relieved that their design included a few classrooms such as those he was familiar with at Mountain City Christian, the larger suburban school for which he was also responsible.

As he drove through the tree-lined streets, past the old firehouse with its attractive boutiques and the gabled Warehouse Condominiums, Ken remembered how this area of the city had looked five years ago. The younger professional people who had moved back into the old city at the beginning of the restoration argued that Christian education was needed for their children as well as for the children of the lower-income families in the area adjacent to Station Park, across the street from the front entrance of the school. They decided to begin small, with a school for grades six through nine. The Mountain City board thought the plan was a good one and Ken was enjoying the experience of being involved in the development of a new school in spite of the time it took to travel between the two campuses.

In all fairness Ken had to admit that he had learned more about the possibilities of what Christian education could be during the four years of Central Station's existence than during all of the rest of the twenty-five years he had been involved with schools. Head teacher Karla Hubbard and the other three teachers on the staff were constantly discussing (rather heatedly at times) issues concerning how the structure and curriculum of the school related to their beliefs about schooling as expressed in their mission statement. All of them seemed convinced that the way instruction and learning took place was central to the task of the school but could not be separated from the larger structural issues.

Ken thought Central Station's staff was interesting. Ted Pakula, with his background in science, math, and computers, seemed to serve as the team conscience concerning ecology. Emmy Perez, although only in her second year of teaching, contributed much from a social studies perspective. Sam Freeland's expertise in music, art, and communications brought the community together in wonderful ways. And Karla Hubbard, as well as teaching herself, provided instructional leadership in addition to keeping the school running smoothly.

Since the beginning of his teaching career Ken had thought of a Christian school as being an orderly place where students were taught to have a Christian point of view, to act like Christians, and to be successful in the work that was assigned to them. He knew that was what the parents expected and he saw his task as principal of a parent-controlled school as one of making certain the parents were pleased with their children's schooling. He really believed that in a Christian school the teachers should teach from a Christian perspective and he made sure that at least once a year he had someone, usually a minister or a professor from a Christian college or a coordinator from a Christian school organization, talk to them about what that meant. Some of the teachers got a little tired of such philosophical speeches but he thought it was good for them. Still, Ken wondered whether more than this was needed. Simply talking about a Christian perspective didn't really seem to change anything unless the structures were in place to allow change to occur.

Ken recognized that in some respects the teachers at Central Station had a more difficult task when it came to pleasing parents because the students were from such diverse backgrounds. On the other hand, Karla and the others had insisted from the beginning that the school must be one where the emphasis was on parental involvement and direction rather than parental control. The constitution was clear that teachers were hired to exercise their professional judgment within the guidelines established by the purpose of the school. Parents who chose to enroll their children in the school were required, with their school-age children, to be interviewed by a committee that consisted of a teacher and a board member. They had to attend sessions in which they discussed the meaning of the mission statement and were encouraged to ask questions about the purpose of the school. Prior to enrollment the students were expected to sign a statement describing the expectations the school had concerning their participation in the school community. All of these expectations had to be met by every school family, whether they paid the regular tuition or qualified for the reduced fees for lower-income families.

The idea of reduced tuition for lower-income families was important to Ken because he was concerned that Mountain City Christian was excluding families who could not pay for it. Christian schooling should be available for every family who wanted it rather than just for those who could afford it. A school that provided education for only middle- and higher-income families would have great difficulty teaching for responsive discipleship.

This engagement of parents in understanding the purposes of the school seemed to make a difference in the expectations the parents had of the school. Ken had attended the association meetings of Central Station and couldn't help noticing that the atmosphere there was rather different from his own school where some of the parents interpreted "parent control" to mean that the parents could tell the teachers and principal what to do whenever they felt like it. In certain ways, the parents at Central Station seemed to view their teachers with greater respect than the parents at Mountain City Christian did.

Just last Wednesday Ken had listened to Karla and her staff explain to the parents why, to as great an extent as possible, the curriculum should be integrative and why efforts must be made to have the students interact with each other while they learned. Karla said that the integral curriculum begins with the belief that life is already full of meaning before we separate it into subject areas and that this fullness of meaning can only be found in Jesus Christ. An integral curriculum does not reject the academic disciplines; rather, it gives them a less dominant role in the content and structure of curriculum. The explanation had helped him as well as the parents see schooling in a new light.

Privately, Ken was surprised by the large turnout for the meeting and suspected it was because of the requirement that parents with children enrolled in the school must participate in specified activities, which included attendance at school goal setting meetings. He wondered how such a requirement would work at Mountain City Christian with its eighty-year tradition of being the school where most people of his denomination sent their children. Parent teacher conferences were very well attended but the school association meetings drew a poor crowd. The P.T.A. had disbanded because of lack of interest, although there still was a fund-raising committee that planned the Harvest Festival held every September. Some parents never darkened the door of the school and others came only when they had something to complain about. To require such parents to attend school meetings and to suggest that they would want to be actively involved with their children's learning, as Central Station did, would not meet with widespread approval, Ken was certain. Too many of them thought they had fulfilled their responsibility when they had paid the tuition.

At an earlier meeting Ted Pakula and Emmy Perez had described the concept of responsive discipleship. They said that the Christian school has the particular responsibility of fostering discipleship in greater depth and breadth and with more encompassing response than either the church or the home. The school provides a social-educational setting whose structures enable children and young people to respond to God's call in all aspects of life.

Responsive discipleship, as Ted and Emmy had explained it, covered every aspect of schooling. It is extremely important to a Christian school because the tendencies students develop during their school years to think and act in certain ways, to a great extent, determine how they will think and act as adults. Ted and Emmy described the goals of Central Station School as being to help students and teachers learn to unwrap their gifts, share each other's burdens, and seek God's shalom. The students would respond to their calling as students by developing the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and willingness to take responsibility for their own learning as far as it was possible for them to do so.

They explained that students would learn to respond as disciples of Jesus Christ Wing and working in community by learning to unwrap the gifts God has given them. Students would learn to willingly take responsibility for each other's learning, care, and nurture and, together with the teachers, would try to build a community in which they rejoiced over each other's successes and carried each other's burdens, showing respect, compassion, and concern for one another. They would learn to respond as disciples who are obedient to the cultural mandate to care for all aspects of God's world, and the calling to seek God's justice and peace in all areas of life.

Emmy had explained that the students would be expected to live as responsive disciples while they are in school as well as learn what discipleship means for the future. She described the school as a place where students and teachers would build a community for seeking God's shalom. But she made it clear that an important part of the students' learning these aspects of responsive discipleship was in the way the parents and teachers would work together to reinforce these ideas and activities in the home and in the school.

She said that many parents think being involved in their children's' education meant going to school to help in the classrooms or on the playground. The staff at Central Station School understood that, given present-day society, such involvement could no longer be expected. However, she pointed out that whether or not both parents are employed outside the home, they know they have a role in their children's education. School learning is only one part of the great amount of learning children are constantly engaged in. Parents will want to provide a learning environment which will enrich and reinforce school-related learnings and will provide opportunities for new experiences.

That will mean knowing which themes and topics are being studied in school so they may at times be talked about around the dinner table. That will mean making certain the television set and radios are off so that the family will be engaged in reading for enjoyment and talking about what they have read. Sometimes it will mean doing service activities together as a family and talking about those who are in need. It will mean reinforcing the school's teachings concerning environmental issues by living in ways that protect the physical world. Sometimes it might mean helping their children with a particular subject-related activity. Emmy said the staff recognized that parents of students enrolled at Central Station School wanted to be involved in their children's learning and the teachers would make certain to keep them informed about the school so that such involvement could occur.

Ken had to admit that the staff at Central Station presented their ideas well but he was a realist and wondered to what extent the Central Station teachers could pull the whole thing off. It bothered him that Karla and the others seemed to think that their goals for Christian schooling ought to be the goals for every Christian school. It was all so much more difficult when the school was larger and had a long-standing tradition in the community. How would the Mountain City School teachers and education committee react to such ideas? Well, they would find out when they discussed the mission of the school at the staff orientation sessions which would start on August 15.

He turned onto the expressway and could see the empty building that had housed Barker Shoe Manufacturing Company before its move to the suburb of Forest. The parents of the six hundred students in the K-12 school in Forest owed Tom Barker a debt of gratitude for his years of financial support. In fact, Barker Shoes had provided a good-sized grant for the renovation of Central Station as well. As he entered Forest and headed for Mountain City Christian, he noticed with relief that the trip had taken only thirty minutes. He pulled into the school parking lot and looked around at the neat buildings that architect Rob Boonstra had called "billowing bland boxes of beige bricks." The elementary and high school buildings with the recently completed connecting gym might not please Rob's aesthetic sense but Ken felt a sense of pride about it all. He entered his office to get ready for the first orientation session,

"One of the things we have tried to do at Central Station School," said Karla Hubbard in her presentation of Station's mission statement, "is to keep the statement before the teachers, the students, and the parents. We are trying to live in the spirit of Deuteronomy 6 in which we are told that we are to impress God's commandments on our children and write them on the door frames of our houses and on our gates."

"In that spirit we are trying to keep our mission in constant focus in the school, We have commissioned a sculpture representing our mission for the entrance of the building. Our students have made wonderful posters and banners representing phrases from the statement. You will find it on our report cards and on our newsletters. We use it for a focus for all that we do."

The mission statement committee had met for two hours each week during the last month. "I can't believe how much I have learned about what the goals for Christian schooling ought to be if they are in keeping with biblical guidelines, " said Mark Wever, the father of a fourth grader. "I am truly grateful to the teachers on this committee for so carefully introducing the articles we were assigned. Having you people point out the central issues of each article before we read was helpful to those of us who generally read in areas other than education,"

"I must admit that preparing for these discussions and listening to your points of view concerning what Christian parents expect of schools has helped renew my focus on the task at hand, " answered Joan Fisher. "It would be great if every parent, teacher, and board member had the opportunity to participate in discussions like these."

Ken Heard nodded. "We will have to think of ways to make certain that happens. As we move forward in our discussion and writing we must involve the entire community, or at the very least we must make certain to keep everyone informed concerning each stage of our work."

"Perhaps we could try a strategy used in my company," board member Betsy Merrick proposed. "We presently have a committee of nine. Consider dividing into three groups for the purpose of involving the larger community in discussions. Each of our groups will consist of one parent, one board member, and one teacher. We have already decided on a series of tasks we must accomplish. Each small group might be assigned one or two tasks and it would be the goal of that group to think of a way of involving the larger community in completing that task."

"An interesting idea, " said Ken. "But we will have to undertake each task with as efficient a use of time as is possible. Otherwise we run the risk of exhausting the community with meetings."

Nick Muff it looked up. "That's true. I also think it's important that, to as great an extent as possible, our group involvement always includes teachers, parents, and board members rather than separating them into categories. There is a natural overlap in the groups, anyway, because teachers and board members often either have been or will be parents. But our discussion plans must demonstrate that our entire community is working together on this project."

"Do you mean that for the teacher group, also?" asked Joan. "We were planning to ask them to work on goal statements,"

"I still think they should be an important source for ideas for goal statements but when they work together I would like to have parents and board members participate. The school is the responsibility of all of us."

After listening to a presentation by the teachers and Education Committee of Central Station concerning how they had developed a mission statement, the board members of Mountain City concluded that going through this process would be good for their own school. They appointed a committee of two board members, two teachers, and two parents to lead the community through the process. Next they divided into working teams with each team consisting of a board member, a teacher, and a parent. They then decided on the tasks each team would complete and agreed on a date for completion. They spent some time discussing how the teams would go about working at their tasks.

Joan Fisher's team had the task of involving the teachers in articulating the mission statement. She was to conduct the meeting with the teachers, and the other team members had promised to invite a few parents and board members and also to lend support in any way possible.

The day of the meeting arrived and Joan was well prepared. "I would like to begin by reminding you of why our committee was assigned this task. For a long time we have had a constitution that pretty much tells how the school will be organized. It describes the qualifications of the principal and the teachers, and tells who has what responsibilities. It tells what will be required of parents who send their children to this school."

"However, the board and some of the teachers felt that we needed a statement concerning our reason for being. The staff at Central Station School has worked hard at developing its own mission statement and the teachers there said that the process was very worthwhile. We need such a statement because there are parents who come to us and say they are looking for a school for their children and ask what we are about. We also need a statement that will provide direction for us so that we are not pulled around all the time by arguments concerning what our school ought to be doing." With that introduction, Joan began her report on the work of the committee.

"Because the committee recognizes that the articulation of a vision for a school is the work of representatives of all parts of the school community, they really would like to know what the teachers think the purpose of this school should be," Joan continued. "In preparation for our work today, you were asked to read the article sent to you. We are going to use that paper as a focal point in our discussion concerning the mission of this school and the result of our work today will be given to the committee."

"That sounds like a huge waste of time," said Glenn Prince, as he stood up and looked around the room, "I don't know about the rest of you but I've got too much on my plate as it is. I understand that Christian Schools International has just published a statement. I suggest that we adopt that one and get on with our work. Or otherwise, why not call around and try to get mission statements from other schools and use one of those?"

Ken Heard spoke from the back of the room. "At a later point in their work the committee will surely want to study that document and will also look at statements from other schools. However the committee members feel strongly that the process of reflecting on these matters will be beneficial to all of us, especially to those of us involved in the day-to-day activities of school life,"

"To help us with our task we have asked Joe Morris to lead us through the activities of the day," Joan continued. "You all know Joe well. He is from the Education Department of Bethlehem College. Joe, we are in your hands."

Joe had been listening to the dialogue up to this point and, although he was aware that there was some tension in the group, he decided to ignore that fact and get to work. He began with a brief introduction concerning why a Christian school community should commit itself to creating a mission statement. When he had finished his introductory remarks he asked everyone to write three to five statements answering the question, "What are some of the issues facing your school?" For fifteen minutes the only sound in the room was the rustling of paper.

When most of the teachers had completed the task, Joe said, "At this point I would like you to form groups of three. It would be better if each group has one elementary school teacher and one from the high school, with the middle school teachers spread throughout the groups as much as possible. The task of each group will be to share the individual ideas. Don't discard any of them if some of you have similar ideas you may combine them, if everyone agrees." The chairs scraped and creaked as the teachers redistributed themselves around the tables.

Joe watched the groups carefully and when he saw that most of them had completed their task he said, "Now I would like to have each group join with one other group so that we have groups of six. Again, your task is the same. Share your ideas but don't discard any. At this point, list the issues on a large sheet of chart paper. You may combine those that are similar."

The work continued and Joe was grateful that the tension of the earlier discussion seemed to have disappeared. He admired Ken Heard's ability to participate in the discussion of one group while keeping an eye on the way things were going in other parts of the room. Joe had led workshops such as this for schools in which principals either chose not to participate or else they did so while ignoring the working of the other groups. Ken had a wonderful way of showing that he thought the work they were doing was extremely important and Joe was grateful for this. He knew that the success of a day such as this depended greatly on the attitude and participation of the principal.

When the groups of six appeared to have completed their work, Joe had them form groups of twelve and repeat the process. After about ten minutes, he called everyone back together. He then presented to them a framework for articulating a vision for Christian schooling. He explained why it was important that they begin with trying to understand what they and others on their staff think are the issues facing Christian schooling today. He then invited the groups to explain the issues listed on their chart paper.

As they broke for lunch, Joe could hear the continuing discussion of the issues that had been listed. Kate Ladder, one of the secretaries, collected the chart papers; she had promised Joe that she would have typed copies of each group's list for use in the afternoon session.

Joe began the afternoon session with a brief presentation on the importance of building a core of shared values in a school community. "Our basic question for this afternoon is, 'What guides our work here at Mountain City Christian?' In order to answer that I would like to have each of you begin by listing from three to five statements that complete the stems I will show you."

Joe turned on the overhead projector.

"Mountain City Christian School should be a place where…"

"The steps we should take to achieve that purpose are…"

After fifteen minutes Joe said, "Will you now again organize yourselves into groups of three making certain that your group contains one elementary teacher and one secondary teacher and also making certain that you are not working with anyone from your original morning group. Your discussions will be better that way. Your task is first of all to share and celebrate each other's ideas. After that, come to a consensus concerning five statements that present your group's vision for Mountain City Christian,"

After some scuffling around and refilling of coffee cups the groups settled down to work. Joe knew that coming to a consensus was a difficult task for any group of teachers but he was delighted with the willing spirit that seemed to pervade the room. He was also pleased to see that Glenn Prince was taking a leadership role in his group.

The groups worked until it was time for a short break. They seemed eager to get on with things in spite of the fact that they had worked hard all day. After the break, Joe asked each group to present its goals.

After the presentations, Joe gave them the task of combining similar statements. When the lists had been reordered as much as possible it was time to rank the goals in order of their importance. "When you move back into your groups," said Joe, "make a list of the sixteen goals that are left. Using a total of sixteen pennies, assign pennies to each goal in order of importance. You do not have to assign pennies to every goal but you may not assign the same number to any two goals. " After the number of pennies assigned to each goal had been added together the group discussed the priorities that had been set. After they had made a few adjustments, the general feeling was that they had accomplished a great deal. Joe then led them through a discussion of the final goals they had set.

Joan brought the meeting to a close. "I know that some of you are wondering where all of this is leading," she said, "The mission statement committee will review the goals we present to them. The faculty members who are part of the committee will be there to answer any questions concerning our work. This information will become part of the puzzle that the committee is putting together in order to come up with a statement that will reflect the vision of Mountain City Christian School. Joe, we could have gone through these steps without you, but having someone from outside our group and particularly someone with your expertise helped us work our way through the task. Thank you for coming."

Memo from Ken Heard in the parents' newsletter: