Pastor's Corner - February 2012
Education at the elementary, secondary and college levels has been a strength in the Adventist church from early in our history as a denomination. The Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Roman Catholic Church are unequaled in running educational systems capable of competing with the public school systems of the world.
In speaking of Christian education, Ellen White wrote: “Our ideas of education take too narrow and too low a range. There is need of a broader scope, a higher aim. True education means more than the perusal of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.” (Education, p. 13)
The Adventist education system in North America seems to be struggling in several ways – enrollment, finances, qualified teachers, purpose of education etc. This can be said of public and other private and parochial school systems as well.
To address some of the concerns, a national summit on Adventist education, “Crossroads of the Peril and Promise,” was held on the campus of La Sierra University October 20-23, 2010. A major report of this summit was written by Gilbert M. Valentine, chair of the Department Administration and Leadership at La Sierra’s School of Education, and printed in the Spring 2011 issue of La Sierra Magazine. I will quote extensively from that article.
“To say that there was a palpable sense of alarm among the participants attending the summit . . . would not be an overstatement. Although the atmosphere was not one of panic, there were definite hints of it in the air right from the outset.
“The data cited repeatedly during the conference was not necessarily new, but it was stark. During the last two decades more than 400 Adventist elementary and secondary schools in North American have closed. Enrollment dropped more than 40%, even as church membership climbed 20%. Competent leaders to head up schools and academics were increasingly scarce. Leaders for some of the largest academies were being called out of retirement to fill the gaps. The leadership vacuum was alarming.
“The church was changing, and summit participants heard that the changes were having a compound effect on Adventist education. With the average size of younger families in the church steadily shrinking, the pool from which Adventist school enrollments have traditionally been drawn was evaporating. And while there are new growth areas in church membership in North America, the growth is occurring among people groups that either do not value Christian education in the same way as previous generations or are financially unable to afford it.
“Almost 300 participants attended the summit, surprising the organizers who had initially hoped for 100.... The plethora of diagnoses and remedies, often conflicting with one another, certainly gave participants much to think about..... Dale Twomley, who has developed a well-deserved reputation as a specialist in rescuing endangered academies from extinction and turning them around, spoke of the systemic problems that put the system at risk of demise.
“Lack of leadership is a key issue, Twomley said, largely because the system lacks an adequate remuneration system that encourages capable leaders to commit to the rigors and challenges of educational leadership. He warned that unless there was a change in the remuneration system to reflect community rates there would be no correction of the downward trend.
“Shane Anderson, pastor and author of the book How to Kill Adventist Education and How to Give It a Fighting Chance, identified the lack of strong leadership as a critical issue. He argued that the declining system could be turned around if educators would only recover a passion for the ‘unique mission and message of the Seventh-day Adventist Church ... that we believe that Jesus is coming sooner rather than later.’ Both teachers and staff needed to be ‘strongly Adventist personally,’ and educators need to link up anew with pastors because ‘they are the gatekeepers of Adventist education.’
“This ‘reformation solution’ to the system’s ills was a distinctive strand of thought at the conference. Other speakers, while affirming the view that spiritual vitality must ever lie at the heart of the system, did not agree that ‘reformation’ would of itself fix the problems. Monte Sahlin’s video-recorded response to Shane Anderson pointed out the inevitability of the demographic shift taking place in the church. The church was aging, families were smaller, and the number of Adventist children was shrinking. This was happening in spite of spiritual vitality and renewal and needed to be factored into any solution.”
As you continue to read through the report from the summit you sense the urgency of the issue. Our school board is attempting to address these issues locally. Our school struggles with enrollment and finances, but overall our numbers are much better than similar schools in our conference. Each of us as church members need to pull together with spiritual and financial support to see our school continue to function at the high level at which it now operates. If you would like a full copy of the article quoted here, copies will be available at the Resource Center in the church foyer. I would also urge each of us as members to pray for our school and ask the Lord to direct us in our thoughts and actions regarding it. I firmly believe that a strong and growing church has a strong and committed school as part of its ministry to the church and community. I urge you to stop by our school and pray for the board, staff and students at McMinnville Adventist Christian School.