No price tag on priceless Anabaptist education for the young

Going to Christopher Dock High School in Lansdale, Pa., has been a priceless experience for senior Amanda Yoder. The value isn’t only the Anabaptist faith perspective or how the spiritual riches received far outweigh the price tag of tuition.
Christopher Dock High School/MEA photo.

What most puts it in the can’t-count-the-cost category is more personal than that for Yoder. She’s been respected as a person created by God with gifts to share and regarded as someone who is loved and called by Christ to love others, she says.

“This campus [serving about 400 students in grades 9-12] lives out community in a way that everyone is given respect,” Yoder says. “That is something you just don’t find very much in our world today.

“My Anabaptist education has totally changed my worldview. I’m encouraged to accept myself as created by God but also to extend that respect to everyone—including people who are different from me.”

Not too good to be true: Yoder’s story may seem too good to be true. But it isn’t. The mission to form such views in hundreds of children and young people is a far-reaching reality. It’s found in the 39 elementary and secondary schools that belong to Mennonite Schools Council (MSC), resourced by Mennonite Education Agency (MEA), the education agency of Mennonite Church USA.

“The financial costs seem high in today’s economic climate, but when one considers the Christ-centered, full-life approach our schools represent, I don’t think we can put a price tag on the value,” says J. Richard Thomas, MSC president and superintendent of Lancaster Mennonite School, serving grades K-12 (about 1,500 students).
Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite High School. Photo by Fern Clemmer for MEA.

“As Anabaptist educators, we partner with the church in forming Christ followers. To do that, we provide academic excellence, foster a committed discipleship, build community and shape servant-hearted and peace-loving perspectives.”

Remaining rooted and reaching out: Mennonite schools remain undaunted in their passion to form young people for whom Christ-centered living is not skin-deep but part of their lifelong DNA. This task is complicated by the fact that MSC not only serves students from Mennonite Church USA congregations but also many students who aren’t Mennonites—or aren’t part of any church.

Many MSC schools today have less than a majority of students that are Mennonite, which is different from earlier days, and are being called to reach out increasingly to diverse communities and student bodies.
Bethany Christian Schools/MEA photo.

Such schools include Lake Center Christian School in Hartville, Ohio, sponsored by three local Mennonite churches. The portion of Mennonite students is about 15 percent, one of the lowest percentages of any MSC school, says Matt R. McMullen, superintendent of the school that serves grades K-12 (about 630 students).

“Our challenge is valuing our Anabaptist viewpoint while still reaching out to students from any Christian denomination,” he says. “We now serve students who come from 20 different denominations and about 150 congregations. We strive to stay true to our center and to share the gifts of our perspective without trying to make people Mennonites.”

Another school called to reach out in new ways is Mount Clare Christian School in inner-city Baltimore. It’s situated in a low-income, violence-ridden section of the city. The school inhabits a block that was almost a ghost town except for the drug traffic, says Gwen Martin, principal.

The vision for this multiracial school was birthed in the mid-1990s. Two teachers who formerly belonged to Wilkens Avenue Mennonite Church, the school’s sponsoring congregation, renovated six condemned row houses, which opened as a school in 1998.

It now serves 47 students in grades 1-12. The school is flourishing, but its setting presents many challenges in addition to the joy that Mount Clare can be a tool for love and healing.

“My biggest joy happens when I have the freedom to pray with kids,” she says. “Just like the 9-year-old who came to school the other day. He was worried about his sick, 85-year-old grandmother who is his caretaker. Because I am part of a Christian school, I was free to take him on my lap and pray with him. I am so grateful that we were able to call upon God together.”

Forays into such neighborhoods are only just the beginning. MSC and MEA are constantly encouraging the birth of new schools, such as The Peace and Justice Academy. It hopes to open fall 2009 in ethnically diverse Pasadena, Calif. The school is a nonprofit enterprise with Pasadena Mennonite Church and a local Korean Mennonite church serving as sponsors.

Co-founders are Randy Christopher, a marriage and family therapist and head of customer service and quality assurance for a large company, and Kimberly Medendorp, a credentialed teacher and school administrator. The first year will open with a class of sixth graders and a class of ninth graders. More classes will be added until a middle school and high school are offered, grades 6-12.

“Our main goal is to graduate students [who] will change our world,” Christopher says. “Our Mennonite tradition has much to share with other Christians and non-Christians. An educational program that focuses on peacemaking and social justice in a nurturing community is a rare treasure and can be a precious gift to children and their families.”

Facing cultural challenges: Anabaptist educators face many challenges in presenting their worldview of faith inside and outside Mennonite communities. They often feel they are swimming against the tide of a culture, says Preston Bush, Bible and social studies teacher at Christopher Dock.

“Many of my Mennonite students are not much different from students from other backgrounds,” he says. “Our culture is seeping into our own faith communities. And that’s made me more intentional about presenting an unapologetic biblical narrative, complete with its historical Anabaptist dimensions. … I strive to help them engage with their own story, even as they respect others’ stories.”

24-7 modeling: Teachers in all areas of study are powerfully shaping their students’ faith journey. “That means all of us are called to keep Christ at the center,” says Allan Dueck, principal of Bethany Christian School, serving grades 6-12 (about 320 students) in Goshen, Ind. “In our chapels we talk about being good stewards of God-given sexuality. In our drama department we do plays that focus on peace. In our sports we encourage excellence without fostering a fiercely competitive spirit that harms teammates or rivals.

“Community building becomes priority. Every teacher and administrator is held responsible to live Christ’s ways one-on-one and in the classroom. We must model what it means to have a 24-7 faith rather than just during one hour every Sunday morning.”

A couple that is a grateful recipient of this community building is Keenan and C.J. Wenger. Bethany provides a safe spiritual and emotional setting for two of their adopted children, who need extra love and care because of early trauma.

“We struggled with knowing whether we should put our children in Bethany, but it’s turned out to be a really nurturing place for them,” C.J. says. “The acceptance of the teachers and the students has really helped heal the poor self-images they’ve carried.”

Keenan says, “The cost of Bethany scares a lot of parents away, but it shouldn’t. Bethany and our congregation [Holdeman Mennonite Church, Wakarusa, Ind.]—like many other Mennonite congregations—have financial scholarships and grants and take families’ needs to heart.”

The unbroken circle: Many of these schools have served multiple generations of families. Mary Helen Heinbaugh has served for 30 years as a first-grade teacher at Lake Center and agrees with Thomas that education is at the heart of perpetuating the Anabaptist faith.

“I am teaching quite a few children of students I taught years ago,” says 63-year-old Heinbaugh. “It’s struck me that parents of these current students must have had a good experience here to be coming back like this with the next generation.”

One of MSC’s main goals is to help the schools retain the strong roots of their Anabaptist heritage yet explore new efforts to serve these new generations. The organization knows that “any community that wants to last beyond its current generation must take the education of its young seriously,” Thomas says.

That means MSC must continue to help the schools sharpen their focus and broaden their scope through new initiatives in accreditation, Anabaptist teacher training, curriculum building and envisioning for an uncertain future with faith in a faithful God.

“God is a God of love who casts out fear,” says Elaine Moyer, Christopher Dock principal and a member of the MSC executive committee. “It’s challenging to stay faithful during these times when money is tight. But it’s not a time to hole up and close off.

“It’s a time to let our light shine, to reaffirm our valuing communities of faith and radical discipleship. It’s time to live out and help our youth live out Christ’s way of peace.”

Laurie Oswald Robinson is a freelance writer and photographer from Newton, Kan.