The Church Answers Podcast

Churches That Own Schools, Part 1: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

One of the fast-growing movements in churches today is the growth of Christian schools owned and controlled by a church. There is indeed much to celebrate with this movement. But there are a few cautions as well. Thom unpacks these issues in two episodes.

Duration:: 11m
Broadcast on:: 11 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Welcome to the Church Answers podcast, presented by Chaney and Associates. Chaney and Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now, get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here is the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. It's one of the fastest growing movements in America today. It's likewise one of the fastest growing movements in churches. What am I speaking about? Private schools, church schools, the alternative, if you will, to public schools. We're not going to get into the why this has taken place, but we're going to talk about the opportunity that is there for churches. But we're not going to do this with blind eye. We're not going to be the metaphorical ostrich in the sand. We're going to look at this with eyes open, and we're going to take this first of two episodes and talk about the good of churches that are on schools. The mental works, what's the positives? And then in the next episode, we'll flip it, and we'll look at the bad and the ugly. But I want you to hear the overall theme. It is a great opportunity for churches to minister and grow within their community. Welcome, as always, to the Church Answers Podcast. I'm Tom Rayner. My co-host, Jess Rayner, is now with me today, but he will be back soon. And we're going to be talking about churches that on schools, and we want to thank the Chaney and Associates, the counting firm for the church, the firm that has 1,100 churches already serving, cloud-based software, access reports in real time, all of that. They serve small churches, church plants, pagan churches. They are friends, and we are glad that they are walking alongside of us in ministry. Okay, churches that own schools. They're basically two categories of churches. And again, I'm oversimplifying it, because you'll probably come up with a lot more than two. Some churches have really the standard traditional Christian school. They may start off small. They may start off K through 3 or 2 or PK through 2 or 3, and then they may add a grade and they may get all the way up to middle school and then stop, or elementary school and then stop, or they may go all the way up to high school in grades 9 to 12, more of the traditional model. Then there are some churches that partner with homeschool consortiums, homeschool groups, and they allow the homeschool groups to come and use the facilities and teaching is taking place there, and they're in partnership with homeschools. Both of those movements are growing rapidly. And what was once considered a kind of, I don't want to call a French movement because I don't make it sound like it's cultic, cultish, but what was considered just not a mainstream movement is now in the mainstream. And the amazing thing is, yeah, Christians want their children to be taught with a Christian worldview, and many of them are coming for that reason, but you know what churches are finding out? Some non-Christian families want their children to be taught with Christian worldview as well. They love the fact that they can put their children in a Christian school and they don't feel like they have to fight the values that their children may learn otherwise. So churches that own schools, that is a growing trend and is a good trend. I can think of one church right now. Since I haven't gotten permission to talk about it and I don't have all the information, I'm not going to give the name now, but I may before it's all said and done. But they're building an entire series of Christian schools in neighborhoods. And they're starting with a neighborhood church and they have locals that are actually serving on staff there, and they're building a series of Christian schools campus by campus. Of course, that's the example of churches going all out to build Christian schools. What are they seeing? They're seeing incredible growth, not only in the schools themselves, but in their churches. They are making certain that they're church. And we'll be talking about the tail wagging the dog with the schools and churches in the very near future, but they are telling us again and again and again that it is the growth engine for their church. And we are seeing it. If you want to find out one of the best ways to reach your community, start thinking about a Christian school. Now there's a lot to starting a Christian school. Tom Rannner talking about it on a very brief podcast does not do it justice and their laws that have to be abided by their may be facilities that have to be constructed. There's there's curriculum. There's hiring. Oh, it could go on and on. It is a massive project to start a school, but if a church starts a school with the right plan and the right intentions, then it can do very well and it can not only be a system of school that grows, the church itself can grow as a result. So what are some of the characteristics of these churches that are doing it well? One, they are very clear on the relationship between the school and the church. Let me say that again from the onset. They are very clear about the relationship between the school and the church. Now why why am I saying that? Why why is that important? Because as I alluded to just a few moments ago in some churches, the school is the tail wagging the dog, the metaphor that means, well, the church started it and should have been the church that's making decisions, but now the school has become so big is kind of overwhelmed the purpose of the church. At the onset, there needs to be a clearly defining pathway about what is a relationship? Is this going to be primarily a church's school or is this going to be a school that in many ways is starting to equate us to our church that is starting a quasi independent school. So on the front end, there has to be this clarity between the church and the school. Likewise, there has to be this integration of purpose and even doctrine because if you're going to have a church and a school connected to each other, obviously the more symbiotic the value of the all the purpose of this church greatly, but even more important than that is, are they on the same page doctrinally and that that's another thing that can happen in many of these church churches and schools that they can separate and go a different doctrinal way. So churches that own schools are seeing an incredible opportunity to reach people with the gospel. They're seeing a lot of people who are so interested in being a part of a Christian school that they are coming to the church. So another thing you need to ask is what is the purpose of the school? Is the purpose of this is the church asking the questions about started is the purpose of the school to make certain that it is primarily a Christian community. In other words, the students come from all Christian homes. Perhaps most of the students themselves are Christians, but they are least raised by parents or a parent who is a Christian. That's one way that you can do that and therefore you have a Christian school whose purpose is to truly communicate and provide Christian values for the Christians who are there. Another purpose could be evangelism. And so the church is saying we're going to open the doors to those who don't believe as we do. They cannot come in and do things contrary to our belief system. But we're going to see this as an evangelistic opportunity and they have a different admission policy. They have a different philosophy because they are now not only a Christian worldview, but they are evangelistic as well. Now, what does that mean? One is going to probably be a little messier than the other. And the one that has maybe a preponderance of nine Christians in it where there's an evangelistic motive, that will be the school that will not have the neatness of we only want Christian families or children coming from Christian families. That's just one example of churches and what they need to know when they start schools. And so my admonition to you is mostly positive. If you have never thought about maybe your church starting at school, maybe it's time to start thinking about it. A lot of good resources out there that you can check into. If you see that it's something you want to do, decide why you want to do this. Do you want to make this a ministry of the church or do you want to many times when a church starts another church, it wants the church to be autonomous from the beginning, you know, as your desire for the school to be autonomous and you're just going to jumpstart it. Again, those are the type of questions that you need to answer. But the bottom line, when we talk about churches that own schools, the bottom line is the good. The school in itself is good for the students and for their families. The Christian worldview is absolutely something that transcends all types of other issues. And it is just good for the family. And then secondly, it is good for the church because many churches can grow with a high degree of intentionality. If they use their school in a way that is connected to the church. There's so many questions, but I just, I just want to affirm in this first episode, I just want to affirm that many churches are now starting schools. One of the fastest growing movements in Christendom is one of the fastest growing movements among churches. Obviously, there's a huge demand that is there and with the demand comes an opportunity to reach people with the gospel. In the next episode, I'm not going to go negative, but I'm going to talk about some potential negative issues, what I call the bad and ugly of churches that own schools. And as you probably can anticipate, it's really just going to be some contrary issues of what I said today. I could get into that later, but for right now, we'll just wait to the next episode. We get into part two of churches that own schools, the good, the bad and the ugly. That'll be our topic for next week. Thank you, Chaney and Associates. Thank you viewers at YouTube. Thank you listeners on your favorite podcasting app. Look forward to talking with you in the next episode. You have been listening to the church answers podcast presented by Chaney and Associates. 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