Schools as Communities of Grace

This resource is a "must read" for every Christian school administrator and has valuable information for many others who are interested in the value of Christian Education and the details of quality christian school administration. Read a summary here...

An excerpt from the Introduction:

Educational leadership for the Christian school is an acknowledgement, an attitude, and an ambition:

1. Christian education is an acknowledgment about God's world. He created it, He holds it together, He rules it, and His children have an obligation to learn all they can about it. Students are not simply learning about math, science, and history; they are learning about God's world. Christian education seeks to produce competent graduates who know the world - and the one who created it.

2. Christian education is an attitude toward God's Word. Studying God's world from the perspective of the Word is critical. Life can be understood only as it is viewed through the "spectacles" of Scripture. "For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light" (Psalm 36:9). Seeking to bring all throught and activity under the lordship of Christ, Christian school students must be passionate about their God, their lives, and their call to service.

3. Christian education is an ambition to do God's will. Because it is a lifelong process of transforming minds, Christian education spans "the cradle to the grave." Students must not be satisfied with this world but instead must be instructed to see the sin in themselves and in the world, and to commit their lives to the pursuit of justice, compassion, and integrity.

   "We want to serve our culture," writes Harry Blamires in The Secularist Heresy, "we want our civilization to work - not because it is the only good we can conceive, and not because we are finally and securely at home in it - but because it is a great drama that we have been staged in, and it is good that we should play our parts well" (1956, 155).

   The drama of educational leadership that unfolds in the following pages is at once provocative, frustrating, daunting - yes, even impossible for one to do alone - yet a thrilling and immensely rewarding call from God.


Schools as Communities of Grace is published by Purposeful Design Publications, a division of ACSI, Colorado Springs, CO 80962 (USA). It includes the work of about 20 leading educators in the Christian school movement and was edited by James L. Drexler with copyright in 2007: ISBN 978-1-58331-083-0.

You can order this book directly from ACSI Global here, or contact us to get a copy through our Europe office.

 

October 2025 Highlights

Thank you for your partnership in the ministry of ACSI Europe! We would like to give you an update on the highlights of our recent activities and also request your prayers for some important upcoming programs.

SLC report 2025

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness and blessings poured out during the ACSI Student Leadership Conferences (SLC) this year! These gatherings brought together students and chaperones from 47 schools across Europe for a time of worship, discipleship, and leadership growth centered on the theme “Leaders Who Love Truth.”

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Christian schools are often intentional about teaching worldview and preparing students to engage with competing ideas. Yet the way we structure this engagement can either nurture deep critical thinking or unintentionally foster shallow habits of argument. Here are some practical tools to support critial thinking in the classroom.

Education as a Restoration of Hope

Today we turn to the good news: God’s plan of restoration through Christ. This is not only a personal hope but also a framework for how we think about education, leadership, and the shaping of society. How can we build meaningful outcomes into the process of teaching and learning which truly reflect the hope we have in Christ?

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