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One of the most tender and fragile relationships in Adventist education is the relationship between a school and its local church. Both yield much power, and yet, often times these relationships are dysfunctional or stifled by conflicts of interest. In this episode, we open this box to lay out contributing factors on the table and explore tried and tested ideas for promoting a stronger church-school relationship.
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THANK YOU
Special thanks our insightful guests on the show: Betty Bayer, Shane Anderson, Dave Gemmell, Lon Grusbeck, Ruben Escalante and Bill Keresoma.
We are especially indebted to our friends at Review & Herald, the NAD Treasury Department, Oregon Conference, principals and pastors who contributed valuable perspectives and our generous sponsors.
Episode Sponsor: The Wedgwood
Book Giveaway Sponsor: Review and Herald Publishing Association
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LEARN MORE.
AUDIO.
To learn more about any of our interviewees, listen to the uncut footage in our Full Interview Archive.
To learn more about studies and articles mentioned in the podcast, just click on the links below.
TEAM–Pastors and Schools. An article explaining the Southeastern Conference’s new initiative to assist in pastor-educator collaboration.
Pastor and Teacher: Cooperating for Success. An article published in a 1985 issue of the Journal of Adventist education. Provides practical strategies for collaboration between church and school.
Timeline for Adventist Education. A walk down memory lane, published by the Journal of Adventist Education.
FEATURED ON THIS EPISODE…
TOP 10: IMPROVING YOUR CHURCH-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIP
(a compilation of tips featured in this episode):
- Hold weekly staff meetings between pastor and principal
- Encourage a pastoral presence on campus. Staff worships, etc.
- Spend time building a relationship with the leaders of the local church or school. Play golf, grab lunch, pray together, listen.
- Invite the neighboring pastor or principal to add agenda items for every upcoming board meeting
- Share important info freely; keep each other in the loop
- Get active in the local ministerial association
- Get invited to board and staff meetings
- Hold a planning session before the start of each school year to recenter on the mission, vision and long-term goals of both the school and church.
- Make your school an indispensable service to the local church(es). Youth rallies, open gym nights, outreach/ministry group meetings, musical concerts, evangelistic seminars, cafeteria usage, office space, etc.
- Pray for each other’s life ministry
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
- What has worked for you in building and maintaining a solid bridge between church and school? Defining the vision for collaboration?
- Is it fair to expect church subsidy underwrite the cost of school operations?
- Does the school exist for the church or the church for the school?
Listen to this Episode!
This is an extremely important topic. Many of the issues resonated with my intimate involvement as senior pastor in a PreK-12 school in N Dallas for over eight years.
Building a good working relationship between pastor and principal can be enormously challenging, especially when basic theological and philosophical differences can exist. Additionally, principals are more frequently reassigned today than pastors – making relationship building, school stability and momentum real challenges. In reality, both educators and pastors are not generally sensitized or formally trained to understand the basic nature and purpose of the Adventist educational system and its critical symbiosis with the local church. It’s a shocking disconnect, considering how important Adventist education is to our future. We are over a century old as a global organization, perhaps a renaissance of our fundamental purpose is needed? We have a wonderful educational product, but often lose sight of its purpose and the role of pastor and principal to fulfill it – together. This is a vital discussion.
I’m thrilled to find a very well handled treatment of the topic. This site is a great asset to the SDA educational community… Kudos!
Just discovered this site today!! Excited that there’s innovation and constructive look at the future of Adventist education!! What’s the reality of integrating students with special education needs in our schools?
HI Nina-
I remember your name, although I cannot completely place you. Andrews in the 70?? A book/graduate class that helped me tremendously is “Teaching the Gifted Child in the Regular Classroom”. Susan Winebrenner is the author, and she has several very pracitical suggestions for reaching this overlooked group of students. INterestingly, she also writes on strategies for incorpporating needs on the other end of the spectrum. I’d love to chat with you about how that has worked in our school. We have many gifted children in our school as a result…many from our local community and not SDA.
Thanks for the ideas.
Daniel Graham
11425 NW 60th Terr
Alachua, FL 32615
I think these ideas are excellence. I know that Adventist Education can be revitalized. I believe it will happen.
Thanks again.
Dan Graham
I have listened to three of the podcasts so far, and appreciate the insights provided. A suggestion for a future podcast(s) that would be of interest is one that does answer the question on how does Adventist Education system work for churches involved with establishing K-8 or K-12 type schools. What are the roles and responsibilities? I have downloaded and read through a lot of the material provided by the Unions, presentations, and other resources. However, I have not found a good training presentation that describes how this all really works, clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
Is there a best practices guide for operations or a school with one / two teachers? Skills, reports, etc..
I think the Pilot Light Podcast is a very excellent idea. It helped my school and I to realize that the constant fighting between the principals and the pastors are mostly over trivial things that can be easily resolved if people would try walking in the other persons shoes.
I think that the laptop program is a good idea. Yes it will cost money, but it might just be worth all the money. May God bless this production and i await future episodes of the PLP.
I think one of the biggest problems that makes this issue sticky is having a proper understanding of the purpose of Adventist Education. I was reading Ellen White’s article, “Proper Education” (which you can find beginning on page 131 of Testimonies for the Church vol. 3), and found the reasons for beginning Adventist Education. The church wanted a place to train people to be missionaries – to work for God. Granted, this was referring to higher education, but I think that is some of what makes things fuzzy.
What is the purpose of Adventist Education, especially at the elementary and secondary level? Is it to train children from a very young age to be missionaries? Is it to give our children a Biblical world view? Is Adventist education an evangelism tool to reach out to the community as a way to bring families into the church? Is it to provide an alternative to the public school system? These (and many more) are all explanations of the purpose of Adventist Education. It seems that until we know the true purpose and goal, it will be difficult to stand together.
As I’ve mentioned, we have great support from our church, but I nottice that there is, even there, a lack of full consensus about the purpose for our church school. Is it primarily an outreach? An in-reach? A hybrid? Etc.
Hi Laura-
Send us your address and we’ll send you a free copy of “How to Kill Adventist Education and give it a fighting chance” by Shane Anderson.
You can email Melanie at melanie@alumniawards.com
Thanks for your comment, and blessings to you!
-Rika Gemmell
Host/co-producer
Pilot Light Podcast
Pilotlight…wow…good job! This is a topic which needs to be spotlighted (pun intended!)and you did it! Thanks for the post card with the topic listed. The church-school relations caught my attention.
I like the fact that you give a balanced view from both the church and school. There is way too much time and energy expended in trying to point fingers and determine who should be giving more…more money. Money is not the issue. Commitment is the issue. We finance whatever we want. We find a way.
Thanks for putting the emphasis on practical ways the pastor and teacher can work together. The point of praying together in regular meetings is so vital. The pastor and teacher who meet together begin to have the same goals. I found as a principal that going out to eat together was a great way to spend time together. When I could not leave campus, the pastor eating on campus with me and the students was a plus. Then we could work in some conversation and prayer. Doing this when there was no “agenda” or crisis helps to build relationships.
In the Atlantic Union we are having a Union Wide Convention August 2-5…all Pastors/Teachers are invited and expect to attend. One of the our comes is a Pastors/Teachers Manual to address in length the topic which you have started us talking about. I am so glad that so many people in our church see the importance of this dialogue…Thanks….Jerrell Gilkeson, Associate Director of Education, Atlantic Union.
We on the Big Island of Hawaii are blessed to have as our pastor a young, enthusiastic couple, so we believe we have the makings of a great team. The economy has hit us especially hard and has forced a “crisis” on us. I use crisis in quotes as really we believe that the Lord has led us into this “crisis” to make us take a good hard look at what we are doing with our church school. Shane’s book (the reason why crisis is in quotes) has been a tremendous catalyst for what and how we are looking at our school. Also it has been a great confirmation that we are on the right track. If the Lord should tarry longer, I really think that we will come out of this stronger and better than ever before and really the reason will be because of the Lord’s blessing. He has blessed the school in the past but I see even better things ahead as we seek to embrace the counsel we have been give.
Mahalo.
Hi Dale,
Send us your address and we’ll send you a free copy of “How to Kill Adventist Education and give it a fighting chance” by Shane Anderson.
You can email Melanie at melanie@alumniawards.com
Thanks for your comment, and blessings to you!
-Rika Gemmell
Host/co-producer
Pilot Light Podcast
An excellent comment from Principal Brent Baldwin on the church/school preview post:
Yes there is data that would suggest that there are pastors/churches who do not support Adventist education. There are schools that are not run well. However, I believe the biggest concern is that MHA’s constituent churches are tapped out. In good conscience, I can not ask my constituent churches for more. With tithe dwindling and more Adventist schools opening, it means less fiscal support for the current schools.
This year MHA’s Board voted a 25% increase in tuition. Fortunately the constituency recognizes that conference financial support has gone down (more schools = less subsidy, not a situation of lack of support of MHA) and that the school needs to be run as a business (can’t keep running deficit budgets).
Unfortunately we are in system that was designed in the early 40’s & 50’s. Unless we are willing to have an open discussion and place all options on the table, Adventist education will continue to struggle. Adventist education is no longer affordable for many of our newest members and (if Southeastern California Conference is any indication) a majority of our pastors have not attended Adventist K-12 schools.
P.S. – the pastor’s of MHA’s constituency are extremely supportive of the school
Brent Baldwin
Principal
Mile High Academy
I enjoyed the podcast and will let members of the school task force for Hilltop Christian School in Antioch, CA to visit this website. We are in the middle of severe financial and enrollment challenges.