The Best Is Yet to Come!
By Head of School Michael Dewey
The final quarter of school is well underway, and we are quickly closing in on our third graduation as a high school program. The Class of 2026 will be our largest to date, with 50 young men and women walking across the stage at Christian Fellowship Church on Friday, May 22, to receive their diploma and head out into the world to live out their faith wherever God calls them to serve.
With this graduating class, we will see a very special group of students leaving us. While last year’s graduating class had 16 students who attended ECS for all four years, a whopping 37 of these seniors started with us in ninth grade. Twenty of them have had, or will have, a sibling who will also graduate from Evergreen. Among the 13 who joined us after freshman year, we have had class officers, student chaplains, standout athletes, leaders of student Bible studies, members of our chapel worship team, and starring performers in our theatrical productions––proving that every single one of these 50 graduates, whether they have been with us one year or all four, is leaving their mark, both literally and figuratively, on ECS. They have works of art that will hang on our walls for years to come, they have set records that may never be broken, they have quotes that adorn our “EQ Wall of Honor” in the Christian Studies room, and they have helped us hang our first athletic championship banners. I can assure you that our faculty and staff will miss them when they leave for college, but their names will be spoken in our teacher workroom for years to come. “Remember how she demonstrated such depth of wisdom in our class discussions?” “Remember that time he stood up in front of his fellow students and challenged them to live wholeheartedly for Christ?” “Remember when Kristie T. caught that pass as she was going across the zipline at Camp Highroad?” We will always remember.
I must admit each of our graduating classes is special, just as the ones yet to come are also special. But what gives me the greatest joy when I think about our growing alumni base, is what they will do for Christ after they leave us. It is for what comes after Evergreen for our students that we started this school. The best is yet to come!
It has been fifteen years since Aly Hawkins and David Kinnaman published the informative book You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving the Church and Rethinking Faith. It was a seminal study which awakened many to the desperate situation facing young Christians. Through careful research, he drew attention to data showing that 60% or more of young churchgoers were walking away from the Church either permanently or for an extended period of time after high school. That alarming trend is part of what drove us to begin Evergreen in 2021, designing a program and curriculum where we are very intentional about helping each of our students claim the spiritual heritage that Christian parents and Bible-believing churches are working to pass on to the next generation of Christian leaders. Again, we are preparing our students for what comes after high school.
Kinnaman pointed out that the problem of authenticity is one of the main reasons young people are walking away from the Church. In other words, they may have been raised in a Christian home and attended church their entire childhood, but they never truly claimed that faith as their own. The great abolitionist statesman William Wilberforce observed this same trend in 19th century England, noting that faith that is merely passed on by “hereditary succession” quickly fades once a young person leaves the home. This is why we do what we do at Evergreen. We believe that chosen faith is much stronger than inherited faith. We challenge each student to explore what they believe, to examine the scripture for themselves, to be certain of the reasons for why they believe, and then to be able to stand up for those beliefs in the face of rising cultural opposition.
As Christians, we may not be able to turn the tide of moral and spiritual erosion in our society, but we can work to turn the hearts of our young daughters and sons––to ground them more deeply in their faith in, and love for, Christ. And guess what? That is exactly what has been happening in the last five years. Recent data has shown that the trends Kinnaman highlighted in his book have been decreasing. Young people are returning to faith, growing more confident in speaking about their faith, and developing a clear vision for how their faith in Christ impacts the world. In 2021, the number of young people staying in the church was at its lowest; today it is at its highest. In fact, young Christian teens and young adults now make up the largest percentage of church attendance in America. Let us echo the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:57, “...thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I’m not trying to say that Evergreen’s founding in 2021 is what has turned the tide. With currently just 56 graduates to our name, we are still too small to claim such an impact. But what I am saying is that we have been part of a move of God to address this greatest need. While our school is not alone in answering the call, we most certainly are doing our part to turn the tide. This is why my greatest joy is for what our graduates will accomplish in Christ as they head out to college and the workforce. Whether they are going off to a college campus or joining the military, whether they become doctors, lawyers, or business leaders, they have been prepared to stand strong in the most challenging mission fields our nation has ever known.
May God richly bless you as you celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. And may God bless the Class of 2026 as they take their final rest before embarking upon their oral defenses in April. They have worked hard to prepare, and I believe they will make us all very proud.