Helping Students Prepare For a Great School Year
Posted by Pastor_Chris in School Updates on August 31, 2010
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” -Luke 2:52
The Lord compels Christian parents to train up their children in the ways of Christ. Therefore, it is crucial that students be educated and equipped in three major aspects of life: spiritual, academic, and social. As parents and Christian educators, our greatest desire is to see students flourish in each of these areas. Below are several ways we can help our students grow in these areas and prepare for a great school year.
Spiritually: The Most Vital Aspect of Life
· Personal Walk: Help your students develop a fervent prayer life and a consistent Bible reading and studying time at home. Make a place, provide a plan, and encourage students to petition the Lord for a hunger and thirst for His Holy Word. A student’s relationship and fellowship with Christ will determine his or her success in life!
· Family Devotions: Parents, you must make this a special time in your homes. Sing hymns, give testimonies, and teach biblical principles to strengthen your marriage and your children. A great resource for daily devotionals can be found at www.strivingtogether.com.
· Church and Youth Group Participation: Be a three to thrive family, faithful stewards, and passionate soulwinners. As parents, you must lead by example and encourage your children to grow in their spiritual life daily. Teens need to be plugged into their student ministries.
· Purpose in Their Heart: Students must make a decision to guard their hearts and minds from worldliness as they daily feed the Spirit and not their flesh. Students must be vigilant, not allowing their commitment to Christ to be replaced with carnality or conformity to this world.
· A Great Desire for God’s Will: Through diligent prayer and Bible study, students can discern the Lord’s will for their lives. When they do, encourage them to relentlessly pursue it!
Academically: Communicating the Importance of Learning
· Making Homework Effective: Establish sound study habits, provide a place that is well lit and comfortable and that is free from distractions; create an expectation for quality work, and have an environment of accountability at home.
· Overcoming Math Anxiety: For kindergarten through sixth grade, concentrate on the basics of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. Use math games and flash cards. (Students should master multiplication tables through 12 by fourth grade—no calculators!) For seventh through twelfth grade, use rapid calculation drills, emphasize the usefulness of mathematics, and provide helpful math resources as needed. Limit calculator use to upper- level high school mathematics such as calculus. God created our world and universe using amazing mathematics; encourage students to enjoy learning about math!
· Enjoying the Wonders of Science: For kindergarten through sixth grade, teach students to appreciate God’s creation, use visual aids often, and provide exciting and helpful science demonstrations. For seventh through twelfth grade, teach the scientific methods, make science projects fun as a family, and learn the basics of physical science, biology, chemistry, and physics.
· Seeing History Come Alive: For kindergarten through sixth grade, provide pictures and personal illustrations, take students on historical trips, and support students history projects as a family. For seventh through twelfth grade, demonstrate the significance of history, have students learn important historical speeches and facts about historical personalities, and have students write about the importance of many of our American historical events.
· Achieving Excellence in English and Reading: For kindergarten through sixth grade, provide a solid foundation in phonics and reading, encourage solid spelling skills, and practice the lost art of cursive. For seventh through twelfth grade, emphasize the importance of solid comprehension skills, sound grammar, creative writing, and excellent literature.
Socially: Growing in Christ and Honoring Parents
· Have Sharpening Friends: Help your students select solid friends that will aid their spiritual growth on a daily basis. Students are to be friendly to all but only close friends with those growing in grace. Remember, peer pressure works in a positive or negative manner depending upon the friends a person has.
· Avoid Cable, Internet, and Social Networking Pitfalls: Parents must create a home in which sinful and inappropriate items are kept out. In short, it is a parent’s responsibility to create a home in which it is easy to do right and to grow in the Lord and difficult to do wrong and fail in faithfulness to Christ.
· Use Cell phones, Texting, and Twitter Properly: Technology certainly has it advantages, but if used inappropriately it could lead students into much sin. Teach students how to use technology properly. Limit it, monitor it, and be involved as a parent. Always inspect what you expect!
· Listen to Christ-honoring Music Daily: Music is not amoral: it will either feed your flesh or your spirit. Help your students develop a healthy appetite for godly music.
· Be Involved in Christian Fine Arts and/or Athletic Programs: Develop your students’ God-given gifts, skills, and abilities for the Lord. Encourage students to try out for their school sports programs.
Our desire is to see students grow in Christ-likeness: spiritually, academically, and socially. When the home, church, and school team work together, amazing results are produced. May we as parents, church leaders, and Christian educators continue to labor together to make this the best year ever for our students. May the Lord also continue to use each of us to educate and equip a generation of young people that will turn our world right-side up again for Christ in this twenty-first century.
Dr. Manuel Salazar
*Article written by the Principal of Lancaster Baptist School in Lancaster, CA*
An Excellent Spirit
Posted by Pastor_Chris in School Updates on April 28, 2010
Proverbs 17:27“He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.”
Daniel 6:3 “Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.”
There is nothing like the presence of God in a church and it’s ministries. Often in testimony times you will hear over and over again from our people, “I thank the Lord for His sweet presence in our services.” The presence of God’s Spirit makes all the difference in a life, in a home, in a workplace, in a church service, and most definitely in our Christian School. I don’t take for granted that with all the outside guest speakers we have each week I have heard statements like, “This is the absolute best chapel service I have ever attended in a Christian School”, “What an awesome presence of the Holy Spirit is in this place”, “Your young people have an excellent spirit and reality of faith like I’ve never seen.” There is no one to thank for the presence of this excellent spirit except the Lord, but what is it that pleases Him so much that He would bless us with the fullness of His Spirit as He has again and again? I can think of a few things that come to mind that are key ingredients to this excellent spirit:
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An excellent church- our church members give and offer of themselves each week to minister to our church people and to our community. Whether it is soulwinning and outreach, sports programs for our school and community, special programs, promotions, etc… our people show up, they work together, they give sacrificially, and they really love being a part, and allowing God to use them. I cannot say enough about the spirit of our church. Where we may lack in finances, or other difficulties produced from being an inner-city ministry God’s Spirit overcomes it all. What an excellent church at Maranatha Baptist Church!
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An excellent staff- our Academy staff is absolutely phenomenal when it comes to their spirit. They bring that spirit with them each day to our Academy, promoting it with their lives, and spreading it like wildfire in their influences. You can see our students feeding off of the spirit of our staff. Like many other church staffs I’m sure, they work hard and truly are laying up treasures in heaven with their financial sacrifice, and their time investments. I cannot speak enough about our staff. I love each of them dearly.
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An excellent student body- when it comes down to it I have seen many ministries that have excellent spirits in their churches, and in their staffs but for some strange reason the spirit is being lost or not transferred to the next generation. Perhaps it is because the next generation has decided to adopt another spirit for it’s own? Perhaps the challenges of ministry have become the focus over the blessings of it? I don’t know what the cases may be in other places, but I am glad that our students have, as a body this year, chosen to allow God to work through them, by His Spirit. Our student body ministers to our church, they minister to our staff, and they minister to one another. It is evident in their charity, care, and concern, and it is expressed in their service, speech, and song. Being in the inner-city creates some extreme challenges, but it also brings a sober reality to our young people. There is no middle ground here, either they will live for God, or they will be lost to the wickedness all around us. This “line in the sand” is drawn for them every day as they walk the streets to school, and as they go home each day to their neighborhoods. The wickedness of man’s heart is clearly seen here, it isn’t masked by fancy houses, cars, and careers like in other places. It is a daily reminder I believe to our young people of what the world really has to offer in the end, and in great contrast to what God has for them. It brings an intense gratitude for where God has brought many of them from, and where He wants to take them. From this gratitude I believe comes this genuine, intense, excellent spirit. I count it a privilege to see it every day, and am reminded on how important and necessary this place of ministry is to those who find refuge here.
I am truly thankful to be a part of a place like this place. I am thankful to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who has called us, “out of darkness into his marvellous light…” (I Peter 2:9), and has given us His Excellent Spirit as a Comforter, a Convictor, and a Compeller to live in a such a way that brings His blessing, and good pleasure in our lives.
Below are some shots from our 2010 School Spirit Week:
Before You Discipline Your Children
Posted by Pastor_Chris in Helps for Parents on March 3, 2010
This article was written by Bro. Cary Schmidt (assistant Pastor of the Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, CA www.lancasterbaptist.org www.caryschmidt.com )
Discipline is a sacred thing. Too often we parents take discipline too lightly or treat it too flippantly. In the big picture, all discipline is about bringing our children into a right relationship with their Heavenly Father, that He might bless their lives. It’s not about controlling behavior, modifying behavior, or minimizing embarrassment. Pure and simple, it’s about bringing them into proper alignment with the laws and favor of their gracious God.
With that in mind, there are two critical questions I must ask myself before I enter into any discipline of my children.
1. Am I Right with My Heavenly Father? It would be rather hypocritical to try to bring my child into a relationship that I will not bring myself into. It would be completely duplicitous to demand submission from my children if I myself am not submissive. I cannot expect my child to love, obey, and honor a God that I will not.
I challenge you to begin all family discipline with this question. Search your heart before you correct theirs. This will help you stay right with the Lord. It will make your discipline authentic. It will give you a spirit of humility in meting out discipline. It will give you a right perspective of your role as you are “under the authority” of your own Heavenly Father.
2. Am I Right with My Child? This one is as critical as the first. For discipline to be received, it must transfer far more than mere punishment or rebuke. It must transfer love and compassion. It must transfer care. It must transfer the heart of Christ and a passionate desire for what is broken to be made whole. This cannot happen if there is an unresolved offense between me and my child.
For many parents, the way they deal out discipline actually creates offense. We yell, scream, throw fits, and generally spout unrestrained anger. All of this is counter productive to biblical discipline. While it may temporarily curb undesired behavior (at least in our presence) it actually makes matters much worse under the surface—in the heart.
Authentic discipline only takes place when my heart is completely right with my child. Trying to throw down discipline on top of previous offense only builds and feeds a spirit of resentment. This merely invites my child to despise me.
If my own sin is standing in the way, I cannot deal authentically with my child’s—and the child intuitively knows this.
Discipline is not only sacred—it is precious. It doesn’t need to be purely unpleasant. It can actually be sweet, restorative, rebuilding, and renewing. It can bring wholeness to that which was broken, sweetness to that which was bitter, and closeness to that which was distant. Biblical discipline brings a life out of fellowship back into fellowship. It puts joy and delight back into a relationship. In short—biblical discipline heals.
If you desire your discipline to be these things, you must first provide a “YES” to these two simple questions—Am I right with my Heavenly Father? Am I right with my child? Rest assured, if these two things are in place, your discipline will find its way into the heart and have a life-transforming effect.
Note: Quick litmus test—hug your child and pray with them after you discipline. If you are sincerely, willingly hugged back, it’s a good sign that you provided biblical discipline with the heart of Christ. If not, sit down and talk it out. Don’t stop pursuing an open heart, even after a moment of discipline. Discipline done right should bring your relationship closer immediately.
Christmas Program, Friday the 18th at 7:00pm
Posted by Pastor_Chris in School Updates on December 16, 2009
Presented by the students of Maranatha Baptist Academy:
A dramatic and musical presentation based on the tract by Dr. John R. Rice about the Cartwright Family- a circuit riding preacher and his family to the new western frontier of the United States. This heart-warming drama will encourage and challenge you to increase in your faith and trust in the Lord for your daily needs and provisions hopefully coming to the realization that “God Will Provide Himself a Lamb” just as He has done over and over before. We invite you and your family members to join us this Friday at 7:00pm. You won’t want to miss it!
Keep up with the Patriots!
Posted by Pastor_Chris in Site Updates on October 23, 2009
We are doing our best here at the Academy to keep you, as a parent, up to date on our scheduling and programs here at the Academy. Monthly newsletters will be sent home as well as forms and fliers on a regular basis to accomplish the often difficult task of bridging the gap of communication between parents and the school their children attend. We want you to know what is going on, and we want you to be as involved as you can. The first and greatest thing you can do is support us through daily prayer. We are truly preparing the next generation of our church for college, their careers, and who they will be in our church. We don’t think for a moment this can be accomplished solely through our knowledge or efforts. We need God’s hand of blessing each day on us, and we need to ask and work expecting that He will answer those prayers. We need you to be involved by communicating your children’s special needs to us as a staff, and doing your part at home to meet their individual needs. We need you to be faithful in your tithes at church and in your tuition payments at school. Without your financial support we are not able to help you or your family effectively. So as you are concerned about your child’s education, stay educated yourself as to what is going on in their daily lives both academically, and spiritually. The more you sow into the life of your children the more will be reaped as they grow in grace and knowledge, and ideally in favor with God and men as Jesus did in His example to us. Check the website often. It is here to keep you informed, to aid you if you lose documents or information sent home with your children, and to remind you that we need your prayers, support, and communication in order to do what God has equipped us here to do in “making vessels meet for the Master’s Use”.
Homecoming Awards Banquet
Posted by Pastor_Chris in School Updates on October 13, 2009
Click for printable Flyer
Updates and Schedules
