Please note: Evangelical Christian Academy now has a new name and look: Evangel Christian Academy. Read more here.

My prideful side would like you to know that ECA has academic and spiritual goals for each student and that they are always being met; my humble and realistic side begs to differ!  You see, we are serious about our Mission Statement …

“ECA exists to partner with parents and their church to educate, equip, and empower students to pursue their purpose in Christ.”

Believe it or not, the academic goals are actually fairly reasonable for us to achieve.  Students who attend ECA are primarily from caring, intelligent, Christian families who value our process of education; and a very high majority of our students achieve and advance academically through our school quite readily.However, we must be fully transparent about the aspect of preparing students to “pursue their purpose in Christ.”  While we’d like to guarantee that every ECA student will advance through our program and proclaim Christ as Lord and Savior in their speech, actions, and heart, in actuality we must entrust these students unto the Holy Spirit Himself to bring this goal to fruition!That being said, this does not stop any of our teachers from faithfully working within the Lord’s framework to do their part in encouraging students to “pursue their purpose in Christ.”  In fact, just this past week, I asked each of our principals to have our teachers write a paragraph about what they do to bring students along in this regard; and, quite frankly, I was thrilled with what I read from our teachers.  We are truly blessed to have caring Christian teachers who are very creative in working with children of a particular age and maturity to escort them to the next step of spiritual maturity!  Most of our teachers included in their responses that they make reference to the Bible, indeed the Word of Christ, to draw these children toward the Savior, who states in Matthew 7:24, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

A foundation for children based on Christ’s Word is priceless!

At some point, I intend to share more with you about the submittals of our teachers.  However, as I look at them as an overview, I see skilled teachers using a plethora of methods that accentuate their giftedness, to reach and move children toward this solid foundation in Christ.While we may never tangibly measure our success in reaching this goal, we do get glimpses of periodic success; and I am inclined to share one such success with you:  Mrs. Stephens, our Kindergarten teacher of Almost 30 years, had a Parent-Teacher Conference with a five-year-old’s mother yesterday.  The mom reported that she was singing a little song to her child -you may recall the words from an Irving Berlin song written for a 1940’s movie which begins, “I can do anything better than you can, I can do anything better than you.”  The mom then reported that her child responded, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) and saw that her child really is being impacted by her studies at ECA!Let us praise the Lord for these small victories!  Let us also pray that the work of His Spirit will abound in the lives of all of our students –as He wills it!

Dr. Jim Johnson,
ECA Superintendent