Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite School acquired a nondenominational private school in late February, the fourth school to join the system since 2002.

LMS superintendent Richard Thomas said the opportunity came as a surprise.

School representatives signed papers Feb. 26 making the addition of Hershey Christian School official, effective Feb. 27. Hershey is the first non-Mennonite school to join LMS and is its first campus outside Lancaster County.

The change takes place immediately.

About 200 students attend kindergarten through high school at Hershey, bringing the total LMS enrollment to 1,612. Thomas said the new name will be Lancaster Mennonite School—Hershey Campus, and LMS curriculum will be introduced over time.

“We won’t force that day one or year one, but those changes will be happening,” he said. “It will occur in a fairly natural way. We’ll be working to shore up Anabaptist understandings.”

Thomas said about 15 percent of the Hershey students are Anabaptist. As part of the transition, LMS is working to have Goshen (Ind.) College history professor John Roth speak to the whole school system about Anabaptism.

The new campus is about 40 miles from the original high school, so high school classes will continue in Hershey. It is the first high school to join LMS.

Hershey athletics will operate separately, continuing in its own league.

Hershey Christian School grew out of the Evangelical Free Church but has always been independent.

“When people say this is a time when things are moving apart, it’s nice to see Christians working together,” Thomas said. “I think schools are a place where people can demonstrate that when Jesus is our center, we can really work across some significant differences.”

Thomas noted that seeking schools to add is not part of the LMS strategic plan. However, the missional vision of Mennonite Church USA — of which the school is a member — impacted the process.

“Being missional means trying to figure out where God is at work and where you join God, so things can happen that may trump your plans because there were unexpected surprises on that missional journey,” he said. “It’s certainly an unexpected surprise. Our initial response would have been ‘no, we’re not going to do that.’ . . .

“If it weren’t for that missional vision of the church, I don’t think that would have happened.”

Since 2001, LMS has added New Danville Mennonite School in Pequea Township, Locust Grove Mennonite School in East Lampeter Township and Kraybill Mennonite School in Mount Joy.

The addition of all four schools has roughly doubled enrollment at LMS.