Help I pastor a church with a Christian School

Tough decision. I was teaching in a school that went through a similar situation in 1991. Teachers had spent about two years recieving either reduced or no pay cheques. The school closed in May '91.

I don't think the tail should ever wag the dog. Is there are chance that you can reduce the school to only serve your church families?

 

Hmm, that may be an option.

We taught in a Christian school for ten years and helped our home church set up their Christian school before we left for the mission field in 1995.

Feel free to email if you want to talk further. I have some questions and ideas, but don't want to post publicly.

Click on "email" in this post and we can carry on from there if you wish.

 

I have been in a church which hosts a school. The church does not run the school, though at some point they were able to provide a couple of board members to the school to input church goals.

Things to consider:

1.) Is it generally a positive relationship? (there will always be some negative, no matter what you do. )

2.) Is the church generally positive in attitude towards the school?

3.) Is the school generally positive in attitude towards the church?

4.) Are they mutually co-existing for the benefit of each other, or is the tail wagging the dog?

5.) Does the church need the school to financially exist? Or can the church survive without the school? (The church should not be dependant on the school...in my opinion.)

6.) Are the goals and outcomes of the school meeting the goals and the outcomes of the church?

7.) Is the school doing what it was set out to do or revised to do, or has it gotten way off course? The same question can be asked of the church.

8.) Sometimes you have to reevaluate what your church does, and sometimes we have to change, even though "that is the way it has always been..."

 

I agree with SaggyWoman. The school should be a ministry of the church. If the church cannot afford to keep it going (or is not interested in keeping it going), it should be cut or passed on to another church that can take it on. Considering that the church doesn't even make use of the ministry, it might be best to let it go.

Perhaps it would be best to bring the issue before the members and to have a vote.

 

Steve,

Not to say that you should or shouldn't keep the school..... There are other ways to win children to the Lord and train them. The school can be a good one, if it is generally a positive thing.

 

If the church body will not be supportive of the school by sending their children to it then you are going to be headed for problems. I have been involved in several churches that had a school but did not support the school. It caused problems in the church. I don't know how big your church is or how you are set financially but consider adding staff to focus on children's and youth ministry. These can be more effective in many cases.

 

Steve, the principal really should deal with 99% of the issues and should only bring things to you in a pastoral or spiritual capacity.

 

With few exceptions, what I have seen with church-sponsored schools is that the tail winds up wagging the dog.

I'm not sure exactly why, but I suspect that the church has become financially dependent upon the school.

 

As a former high school teacher and now at a university and a former pastor I would never teach under an administration led by a pastor. I know of no pastors who I feel are excellent administrators whose passion is teaching. Teaching is very diferent than pastoring. Pastors shepherd the people with little accountability on the part of the congregant. Excellent teachers expect their students to learn and hold their feet to the fire. Parents today are not nearly supportive of education as they once were. America is losing ground compared to many other countries because it doesn't want their children to work while other countries expect their children to work hard. Pastors have no way of holding the congregation accountable like a teacher does in a classroom.