Evergreen Christian School Blog
We are to love God with both mind and heart. The only way to truly do this in our fallen world is through the regeneration and renewal that comes with placing our faith in Christ and his death on the cross as the payment for our sin. This means that in a Christian school, the focus must be on both heart and mind. We can fill our student’s heads with knowledge of arguments for God’s existence, historical evidence of Christ’s resurrection, and detailed responses to every essential question, but if we fail to attend to the heart of our students, we will have failed in our mission. Those who know the truth of God’s word but fail to embrace it with their heart, are just as prone to walk away from faith as those who have never taken the time to study apologetics.
Fasten Your Seatbelts, We’re Taking Things to The Next Level. There has never been a more exciting time to be a part of the Evergreen family. This coming year will see us introduce at least four additional AP Courses, at least seven new Arts and STEM offerings, onsite (and in-person) dual enrollment classes in partnership with Colorado Christian University, a brand-new summer program, and the Lewis Scholars Program. Click to read more.
What does it mean to be a leader? More specifically, what does Evergreen Christian School mean when we say that we are a school that focuses on preparing leaders? Given the significant role leadership plays in our school’s mission statement, it is important that we have a clear understanding of just what it entails. We must not see leadership solely through the lens of what society deems a leader to be. Christian leadership is necessarily different. Just as importantly, Christian leadership is exactly what our world needs.
This spring we are inaugurating a new tradition that will allow us to reflect upon all that God has done and to commit to all that he has yet to do through ECS. On March 8, we will hold our inaugural Quadrennial Gala, which is just a fancy way of saying that it’s a banquet that occurs just once every four years. The event will take place at The River Creek Club in Leesburg, which is a fitting location given that it hosted one of the very first interest meetings for Evergreen. It is also fitting that the theme for this event comes from the book of Esther. Just as God raised up a young woman in the midst of challenging times to courageously speak up to defend the people of God, God has strategically raised up Evergreen Christian School to equip young people to do the same today.
The Eagle Center is far more than just a gymnasium. It is the place where we gather for our weekly chapel program; it’s where we worship together, pray together, explore God’s word together, fellowshipping as brothers and sisters in Christ. There is no better way to start each week than in The Eagle Center on Monday mornings, singing and celebrating our common bond as the people of God. But it is also the place where we hold community events, awards banquets, auctions, trivia nights, Christmas parties, and prayer breakfasts. It is where we have joined together to celebrate milestones, such as the First Lady of Virginia speaking at our building dedication and our inaugural commencement honoring our school’s first sixteen graduates. The Eagle Center is where every member of this community, at one point or another, has gathered to celebrate the faithfulness of God.
We have committed to doing a better job when it comes to communicating with our school community. This commitment to improvement encompasses every aspect of our program, from general information coming out of the School Office, to the very specific communication that teachers provide on class assignments and student progress. We have made this commitment in part because of the feedback we have received from parents. As a school that partners with parents, it is critical that we improve in these areas. Our community has spoken, and we are listening.
Count Your Blessings: In just three year’s time, Evergreen Christian School has accomplished quite a bit. We have gone from 36 students enrolled in 2021 to over 170 students in 2024. While our first graduating class was comprised of only 16 seniors, we saw the class of 2024 bring in more than one million dollars in scholarship offers from some of the most prestigious universities in our country. This year we will graduate 40 seniors, and the following year over 50. This past April, the Middle States Association granted ECS full accreditation through 2032. Our very first year as a school we offered 21 different classes; this year we offer 75 different courses from which our students can select. As the old hymn appropriately reminds us, “Count your blessings, name them one by one; count your blessings, see what God hath done.
Governor Youngkin commended Evergreen for providing the kind of education where students are challenged to apply their faith to contemporary issues facing our world today. He concluded his message to graduates with this charge: “Go out into the world with what you have been given. Go out into the world and be confident. Go out in the world and stand strong in your faith. Go out into the world with hope in the Lord and do not worry. You will soar!”
ECS has been granted full accreditation from Middle States Association Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools (MSA-CESS) without stipulations (meaning there were no changes needing to be made before taking effect), and extends through the year 2031.
After representatives from MSA (Middle States Association Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools) visited our school and did a thorough review our curriculum, policies and faculty and interviewed parents, students, board members, and staff, they have recommended ECS for full accreditation without any stipulations. This is the highest recommendation that MSA awards. Their report has already been forwarded to MSA which will make the official pronouncement of accreditation later this semester. One of the reasons for going through accreditation is it helps us find ways to improve our school. But our commitment to continuous school improvement is grounded in a much higher authority.
The culminating moment of a high school education is graduation, the moment when each student receives their diploma and is celebrated for completing an achievement twelve years in the making. It also marks the start of a new journey as each student heads off to college or embarks on a new career. Graduation is, after all, where the proverbial rubber meets the road. Our school’s mission is to prepare the next generation of Christian leaders. Having seniors who go out into the world to fulfill that mission is the ultimate indicator that we at Evergreen Christian School have effectively done our job.
One of the benefits of being a covenant-model school that partners with both the home, the Church, and the Christian community is having guest speakers throughout the school year.
On October 17, 2023, we held a “first-of-its-kind” on-campus presentation entitled Envisioning Our Future: Building upon a Firm Foundation. This was an opportunity for our school community to reflect upon the past faithfulness of God and look forward to the vision he has given us for the future. In case you missed this event, please read more in the article by Head of School Michael Dewey.
Head of School Michael Dewey says, "I am in awe when I think of the faithfulness of God in both establishing and growing our school. Each year we have prayerfully set ambitious enrollment goals for Evergreen Christian, and each year we have surpassed those goals. Knowing the challenges we have faced as a start-up program, I can honestly say that beginning this year with 151 students in grades 9-12 is a complete work of God. 151 students! Just writing that number fills me with praise."
Not only does God have a perfect track record when it comes to keeping his promises, he will continue to be perfect. Because God has a maximally perfect nature (that he has sworn by), dishonesty, fickleness, changing his mind, or going back on his word are absolute impossibilities. Thinking of God in these terms, how is it that we ever doubt a single promise of God? God can no more break a promise than he can go against his nature.
As educators and parents, we need to help our children go beyond the mere intellectual assent that God is the perfect promise keeper, to having absolute confidence that God never breaks His word. I am convinced that if we can get them to that point, it will not only radically change their relationship with God, but in turn change how they relate to others and the world around them.
The world doesn’t need just any kind of leader. It needs leaders who stand for what is good and true. It needs a new generation of young people raised up to lead on behalf of Christ. By God’s grace and through his word, Evergreen Christian School will prepare them to courageously, faithfully, and winsomely speak out for truth.
If we want today’s young people to know that our message is categorically different than all the others, that having a personal relationship with Christ is the most important thing in life, then they need to see the difference it has made in our own lives. Only then will they stop saying, “So what?” and start saying, “So what now?”
God created us to know and love him. The need to belong that is hardwired into each of us is a need to belong to him. We can never satisfy that longing with anything other than God. This is why Jesus came into this world. He is God’s answer to the heart crying out to belong. Today, it is our young teens who are most profoundly crying out daily, struggling with their identity. The greatest gift we can give them is a community where they can find their place in Him.
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