Earlier this year, bestselling Christian author, Karol Ladd, was writing her most recent book, A Woman’s Secret for Confident Living.  In the process, she searched the internet for well-articulated statements of a Christian worldview.  That search ultimately led her to Myrtle Grove Christian School’s website and our Biblical Worldview Statement posted there.  With our permission, she reprinted the statement in her book and commented, “Now there’s a school that knows what they believe!  I applaud them for stating it clearly and boldly.”

Needless to say, that praise from a nationally-known Christian author is encouraging!  However, it is even more exciting to see this sort of recognition as an early fulfillment of a vision I cast more than two years ago.  Join me in a quick flashback.

At an Annual Fund banquet in February 2009, I gave a speech in which I stated that MGCS is a “five-talent” school.  That phrase comes from Matthew 25:14-30, where Jesus tells a parable about three servants who are given one, two, or five talents (money equal to one day’s wages) to invest, each according to his ability.  The more a servant was given, the more he was obligated to give the Master in return.

I suggested that as a five-talent school, we CAN, we SHOULD, and we WILL give the Lord a five-talent return.  Specifically, the diligent investment of our five talents over the next five years should put us in the top five percent of Christian schools in the southeastern United States.  One of the benchmarks we would expect to meet as a school of that caliber is that people outside of MGCS would begin to recognize us as a model school that is worthy of imitation.  We would begin to receive phone calls and visits from people who want to see what excellence in a school looks like.

Now fast-forward to 2011 and connect the dots.  Not only did Mrs. Ladd request to include our worldview statement in her book, but in the same week, we received another call from a school in Arkansas requesting our guidance in drafting some other foundational statements.  Do you see what is happening?  Two years into a five-year vision, we are beginning to be regarded – albeit in small ways – as a model school.

My point in sharing these encounters is not so that we can boast or stroke our own pride.  Rather, we simply want to notice that God REALLY WILL empower Myrtle Grove to become an exemplary Christian school as we exercise good stewardship over the ability and opportunity He has given us.  Surely we have not yet attained the prize, but we press on toward the goal (Phil. 3:14) – for the glory of God and the good of His people!