Grandview Park Baptist School closing ... Grand View Christian School launching

I am an alum of GPBS and have two children who attended the old school who will continue with the new school. Excited to see what God will do as this ministry moves forward!

This is really a thrill. You can see this was a step of principled-faith on the part of the founders. God bless you all as you lead this new ministry. We don’t see as much of this as we did years ago. Christian Education is as much a step of faith as pulpit ministry. It also has it’s own unique challenges. It sounds as if this ministry can be a major blessing to local churches and Christian families in the Des Moines area. God bless and Straight Ahead!

jt

• From article: “The school which has operated since 1972 is the only preK-12 Christian school in the Des Moines Metro area operated by a single church.”. Opinion: CDSs operated by a single church are not the preferred way to go. Some churches like 4th Baptist have the resources for this, but this is not common. What I see in Minneapolis are CDSs that are small and struggling. I know of one in Rochester that has only 20 students and the church is less than 50. A better option (generally) than single church is a multi-church sponsored school.


• I applaud the parents and alumni who are starting this new school

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/education/2014/05/12/grandv…

[Jim]

From article: “The school which has operated since 1972 is the only preK-12 Christian school in the Des Moines Metro area operated by a single church.”. Opinion: CDSs operated by a single church are not the preferred way to go. Some churches like 4th Baptist have the resources for this, but this is not common. What I see in Minneapolis are CDSs that are small and struggling. I know of one in Rochester that has only 20 students and the church is less than 50. A better option (generally) than single church is a multi-church sponsored school.

It is generally true that single-church operated Christian schools in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St Paul metro area) are small, but there are notable exceptions:

1. The 2nd-largest CDS (with approx. 800 students) in the Twin Cities is New Life Academy in the St Paul suburb Woodbury: http://www.newlifeacademy.org/index.aspx

It is ultimately under the governance of the Elder Board of Woodbury’s New Life Church.

2. The 3rd-largest CDS (approx. 700 students) in the Twin Cities is Brooklyn Park’s (a suburb of Minneapolis) Maranatha Christian Academy: http://www.mca.lwcc.org/

It is under the governance of the senior pastor & board of Living Word Christian Center, a large megachurch.

3. The 4th-largest CDS (approx. 525 students) in the Twin Cities is Heritage Christian Academy, in the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove: https://www.heritageweb.org/

It’s website states, “Heritage Christian Academy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Grace Free Lutheran Church.” (The school is nonetheless affiliated with the ASCI.)

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From the information I have, Fourth Baptist Christian School is currently the 11th-largest CDS (of any/all governance types) in the Twin Cities, with about 205 students.

In addition to the three Christian schools I mentioned (which are 2nd, 3rd, & 4th in the Twin Cities by enrollment), it occurs to me that 9 of the 10 largest CDSs in the Twin Cities have the word “Academy” in their names. (Calvin Christian School, in 6th place, is the exception.)

Is the lesson that if you want to increase enrollment in a CDS that labeling it an “Academy” doesn’t hurt? =)

As I observed above, “Academy” seems to be the current trend in naming a Christian school, at least in the Twin Cities. Some of those 9 out of the 10 largest have changed their school names in recent years to incorporate the word “Academy.” For example, “Legacy Christian Academy” (the 5th largest CDS in the Twin Cities) used to be “Meadow Creek Christian School.”

How a Christian school is named is an important consideration. A school’s name can inhibit or limit growth. Getting back to the school in the OP, they are changing “Baptist School” to “Christian School,” which opens up new possibilities for growth. It’s simply been my experience over the years that many non-Baptist Christians are deterred to various degrees by what they see as needless sectarianism in denominational Christian schools.

In practice, this often means that an Evangelical Covenant or a E-Free couple (as examples) will wind up enrolling their kids in the local “Christian School” rather than the local “Baptist School,” other considerations being equal.