On March 9-11, 2007, nearly 400 pastors, church members, principals, teachers and board members met at Fresno Adventist Academy. “The main purpose was to work in collaboration for the salvation of our children,” says Jerry Page, conference president.
Called SchoolWorks – Windows of Opportunity, the unique event was developed by a team of conference leaders — Dick Duerksen, assistant to the president of Maranatha Volunteers International; Dick Osborn, president of Pacific Union College, and Ron Rasmussen, pastor of the Modesto Parkwood church, who also served as chair.
The goals were to begin to develop a culture and environment for every child to develop as one of Jesus’ disciples; identify and prioritize challenges; develop opportunities for improvement and growth; and develop a team approach for working together back home.
Attendees learned some sobering facts from the latest research by The Barna Group, Christian research specialists. For example, a child’s moral development is set by age nine; the greatest opportunity for reaching kids for Christ is between the ages of 5 and 12; and the older a person gets, the more difficult it is to replace his or her moral or spiritual pillars.
“Today, each child stands on the frontlines in earth’s supernatural warfare. Therefore, spiritual development is the single most important aspect of each child’s development,” George Barna says. His book, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, was given to every pastor and principal before the weekend.
Let’s Talk
Overcoming barriers between each other began through dialogue as church and school teams, sitting at round tables, worked together. “It was very, very beneficial. It was time well spent!” said Harvey Fletcher and Alma Bello, team members from Cambrian Park.
“Presentations by Jerry Page and Vern Biloff helped create an honest atmosphere for dialogue,” says Osborn. “They paved the way for openness in talking in a sensitive way about topics of division and possible unity in the future.” Osborn also noted that the challenges Central is dealing with are a microcosm of what the entire North American Division is facing.
Discussions also included Adventist education. “Education is such a major part of the ministry we do for our children, a vital ministry,” Page says.
Since 1872 Adventist schools have operated on a unique philosophy to educate and develop the whole person — spiritually, mentally, physically and socially. “We want our children thinking God’s thoughts, not just man’s thoughts,” says Biloff. “We need to address the long-term issues of continuing Adventist education in its present form.”
The Elephants in the Room
Real dialogue was essential. “There are issues and challenges that no one talks about,” explains Duersken. Describing them as “elephants” filling the room with a whole lot of mess, he listed nine:
#1 More than half of Adventist children are not in Adventist schools.
#2 The church has no way to measure or locate the non-attending kids.
#3 Churches and schools have divergent interests in how to spend money.
#4 Adventists traditionally prefer the existence of institutions over individual needs.
#5 Adventist education is too expensive for most Adventists, except for subsidized employees.
#6 The conference doesn't listen when parents have concerns about their kids ... so why bother.
#7 The school and church policies make everything more difficult ... so why bother.
#8 Adventists suffer from philosophical blindness — conservatives/liberals/middlers — all see the others as evil.
#9 The attitude of, "I don’t have time for kids. I don’t want my schedule interrupted or to be bothered."
Says Bakersfield Pastor Marlan Knittel, “Perhaps the best thing was that it put our team into an environment where we had time and creative stimulus to think of solutions.”
Action Plans
“We wanted to establish a model for back home — prayer, dialogue and planning in a local group setting,” Page explains. Sunday morning each team began an action plan.
Some teams, like Visalia, met the very next week. “The first meeting went very well. We met to eliminate ill feelings between our churches, to talk about the greatest issue that was dividing us, which was finances,” says Justino Aguilar, pastor of the Visalia Bilingual church. “We spent time dreaming about future joint fund-raising projects.”
Matching resources with skilled labor by buying homes to fix and resell was just one idea. Aguilar has already bought and sold five houses with the profits going to worthy student funds and the new church building project.
“God really blessed and we accomplished a lot of what we wanted to do,” Page says. “But it’s only a start.”
Dolores Smith, a Fresno Westside church member, plans to make some changes. “It reminded me that I need to start with the basics,” she says about regular family worship at home. “I will be a more involved parent at our school.” And her church is already planning to start vespers for the children led by the youth. About the weekend, she says, “It made me feel that parents, teachers and conference leaders were on the same page, putting the care of our children first.”
The Education Commission
Established on April 12, 2005, by the conference executive committee, the Education Commission grew out of the one-day Education Summit in March 2005. The SchoolWorks idea came from the Constituent Relationships/Pastor and Lay Leadership subcommittee, which is one of four subcommittees of the Education Commission. The other three are Philosophy & Curriculum, Finances & Operations and Marketing. The commission’s three-fold purpose is to clearly define major strategic issues facing our educational system; to seek input from a multitude of sources; and to develop initiatives to move toward solutions, turning challenges into opportunities.
