Volume 1, Issue 1

Volume 1, Issue 2 March , 2002
Volume 1, Issue 2 March , 2002
	Special Links Home Monthly Newsletter Newsletter Archive Sign Up For Newsletter Articles of Interest A Lesson I Have Learned Links Power Point Presentations Free Teleclass Special Announcement Send topics for discussion to pyoung@midsouth.rr.com Special points of interest: Just recently I heard Dr. Adrian Rogers, Pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, describe a recent photograph that he had seen. It was the picture of a mother putting her ear on the chest of a young man. The caption read, "Listening to the heartbeat of her son." The story went on to tell that the lady's son had been killed in a car accident and through a transplant her son's heart was now beating in the body of another man. With her ear to his chest she could hear the heartbeat of her son. Dr. Rogers went on to say, "Oh, that my heavenly Father could put his ear to my chest and hear the heartbeat of His Son." Wouldn't it be wonderful if our heavenly Father could put his ear to the heart of your school and hear the heartbeat of His Son! Customer Relations: If I were leading a school today, I would require every employee to read Inside the Magic Kingdom by Tom Connelan. Mr. Connelan looks at seven keys to Disney's success. The competition is anyone with whom the customer compares you. Pay fantastic attention to detail. Everyone walks the walk. Everything talks the talk. Customers are best heard through many ears. Reward, recognize and celebrate. Everyone makes a difference. Regardless of what you think of Disney, you would have to agree that they make their guests feel very special when they are in the Magic Kingdom. Guest Relations at Disney are a top priority. Every cast member goes through special training. Take the time to read the book and let your teachers get creative. What can you do to improve customer relations at your school? The creation of this newsletter is a fulfillment of a commitment to give back to the Christian school movement. So many have invested time and energy into my life. My desire is to provide an avenue for older, more experienced administrators to offer mentoring opportunities for those young struggling administrators who desire to make a difference. My desire is to make this forum practical and beneficial. Let us know the issues you want to discuss. I'll find someone to tackle the issue with you. Visit our website at www.christianschooladmin.com Paul E. Young We're on the WEB www.ffna1.com		A service of Family Financial Needs Assessment - www.ffna1.com
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				A CALL TO EXCELLENCE By Dr. Phil Graybeal God is seen more clearly through the window of excellence. Excellence is part of the character of God. Psalm 8:9 says "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth." Isaiah 35:2c reads "they shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God." What is the motivation for striving for excellence? Frankly, we often pursue excellence so we will look good, but the higher motivation is to pursue excellence so God will look good. Those of us with children must admit that when our children do something with excellence, it reflects on us. --A perfect rendition at a piano recital --Scoring the winning goal at a soccer game --Singing a beautiful solo at church --Winning someone to Christ, or --Praising us as parents. Their success makes us look good and we bask in the glory. And when we do with excellence what God has called us to do as His children, it reflects well on Him. When my wife Elaine and I last celebrated our wedding anniversary, we thought back to our wedding day on June 19, 1976, and remembered the ceremony with fondness. Right before Elaine came down the aisle I gave to her what was referred to as "the call to the bride." I raised my voice and quoted Psalm 34:3 - "O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together." We engraved that reference inside our wedding rings and have earnestly sought to magnify the Lord each year. The word "magnify" means to make large. We want to live our lives in such a way that others see God in a great way -- that He would be the focus. Several years ago a donor gave an electron microscope to the school where I was serving as administrator. I agreed to accept it because he promised to set it up in our science lab and put it in working order. It was reportedly a $50,000 piece of equipment. With that microscope students were to be able to see some of the smallest things imaginable. It would magnify the smallest of objects -- make them seem large. That microscope would have been a great addition to our science equipment except that our donor never was able to locate the final few parts that were needed to make it function properly. We eventually had to just throw it away as a piece of junk. It couldn't do what it was designed to do -- magnify. We all are uniquely designed to magnify our Lord. We can do that individually and corporately. But unfortunately, we don't always do what we were built for. I believe that excellence is one of the missing parts. Without excellence in our Christian schools, what we do may deserve only to be discounted or thrown out because it does not fulfill its design of magnifying an excellent God. There is a phrase I hate to hear. It goes like this: "That's not bad for a Christian school." What do you think people are really saying when they use those words? They really had expected mediocrity from a Christian school and were surprised that something was actually done quite well. They clearly viewed excellence as an exception rather than the norm for the Christian school. I believe that God has called us to consistently magnify Him and exalt His name through excellence in all things. In fact, God has given each of us gifts to develop and use with excellence for the building of the kingdom. I Corinthians 14:12 reads, " Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel." We are here to build His kingdom, not our kingdom. Lasting success and true excellence seldom come overnight. And they always have a price. One night after he had given one of the greatest concerts of his brilliant career, Paderewski was greeted by an overeager fan that said, "Oh, I'd give my life to be able to play like you do." Paderewski replied quietly, "I did." Dr. Ted Engstrom says, "Excellence is a process that should occupy all our days." There is no excuse for shoddiness on the part of Christians. Our values and goals may not always call for the use of cutting-edge technology or Madison Avenue techniques, but there is never an excuse for short-sheeted quality in a work that claims the name of Christ. Excellence is not a state that we attain; it is a trait of God that we reflect by His gracious Spirit working in us. The apostle Paul made it clear, however, that we should not depend on our excellence, but on God. "And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." (I Corinthians 2:1, 4,5) Excellent Christian living is not automatic. Excellence is the glove on the hand of diligence. It is hard work and there are not clip-out coupons for a special deal. We must say as David did, "nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing" (II Samuel 24:24). Christian excellence is living life " heartily as to the Lord" (Colossians 3:23) magnifying Him exalting Him. Excellence of life is a definite outworking of the presence of God in the life of a believer. As I said earlier, the essence of excellence resides in God and should be reflected in those created in the image of God and called the children of God. The more we are in God and He in us, the more excellent we become. God did not enable us for mediocrity, but for excellence. So how should excellence be evidenced in the Christian school? We must recognize that it is His work and as such deserves our very best. He should be magnified in our facilities, finances, publications, playgrounds, procedures, staff development, board governance, and academics. There is no part of a Christian school that should escape the permeating spirit and practice of excellence. Like it or not, as Christian educators, we do live in a "glass house" of sorts. By God's grace, let's keep the windows clean enough for others to see all the way to Jesus. Special Note: Dr. Graybeal offers a service to Christian Schools entitled an Excellence Audit. You may find more information about this school-changing opportunity by contacting him personally (864-989-1319, e-mail Phil@Graybeal.org) and going to his website www.graybeal.org and clicking on Excellence Audit in the category of Products/Services. About the author: Dr. Phil Graybeal has served in multiple capacities in vocational Christian ministry since 1975, most notably as Christian school administrator and associate pastor. His education includes a bachelor's degree in secondary education, a seminary master's in religious education and a doctorate in educational leadership. For several years, Phil was a member of the Executive Board of the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI). He has chaired numerous ACSI accreditation visiting teams and has served on both the Southeast Regional and National Accreditation Commissions. He has consulted Christian schools across the United States and internationally. Since 1997 Phil has been a student of the Policy Governance model for non-profit boards, and he has received the highest level of personal training from its designer, Dr. John Carver. Phil served as administrator of over 1260 students at Southside Christian School in Greenville, South Carolina, and successfully utilized Policy Governance prior to his entrance into full-time consulting in 2001. www.christianschooladmin.com is a service of Family Financial Needs Assessment- http://www.ffna1.com/ Back to Top
						Sign-up at www.christianschooladmin.com for a free monthly newsletter of interest to Christian school leaders Roundtable 2002 L to R ( 1st row) Mike Ely; Jim Hopson; Phil Graybeal; Danny Kellum;David Kensey; Ken Rankin (2nd row) Mike Sligh; Tim Hillen; Byron Greene; Brian Modarelli; David Patterson; Paul Young; Brian Simmons; Mickey Bowdon (3rd Row) Rebecca Stiegel; Joe Hale; Mike Beidel; (4th row) Bill Wendl; Marc Stout; Ed Gamble; Roger Yancey; Roy Lowrie; Ron White. Not pictured: Boyd Chitwood; Steve Collums; Jim Vaught; David Manley;Steve Whitaker. The Administrators' Roundtable 2002 was held in Memphis on March 6-8. With a combined student enrollment of over 25,000 students, schools heads from 26 Christian schools across America came together to discuss issues that impact their schools. The Roundtable provides a forum for discussion and a place to build a network of friends and colleagues who live out Proverbs 11:25, "...he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." Participate in the forum that is available at www.christianschooladmin.com. Sign on today and post the issue you would like to have discussed. P.O. Box 488 Hernando, MS 38632-0488 Phone: 662-429-3473 Fax: 662-429-8500 Email: pyoung@midsouth.rr.com Free Teleclass Special Announcement Clark Stephens, Administrator Coach, announces the first Administrator Teleclass to be held on March 27, 2002, at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. The Teleclass will last 30 minutes. More information about Teleclasses is available at www.administratorcoach.com/clarkstephens/teleclass.html . The subject for the first Teleclass will be "Supporting Christian School Administrators." Questions that will be considered include: Do administrators need support and help? If so, how? What specific things can be done to support administrators? In what ways can administrators support each other? How can we help new administrators? How can we help administrators in transition? The Teleclass format allows administrators to network and share ideas without leaving campus. For more information contact Clark Stevens at clarkstephens@administratorcoach.com. Funding Crisis Caused me to Look At Excellence Making a major change in thinking often results from crisis. That was certainly true in my case. Through the years I had not liked the financial situation at our school but had not worked for another solution until I was forced to. The relocation and the building of a new facility compelled us to look at our funding philosophy. We found ourselves almost three million dollars short of the funds needed to rebuild and relocate our facility. A capital campaign would provide some of those funds, but tuition would have to provide for salaries, programs and services as well as some of the building debt that would be incurred with the relocation. All of this would require a tuition increase. It was during the feasibility study for this capital campaign that I made a revolutionary discovery. I had always considered our school a ministry and thought that everyone else, including parents, felt the same way. This was the point of my initial paradigm shift. For the first time, I began to see the school from our parents' perspective. I saw the school as a ministry; parents saw the school as a service for which they paid. For the first time I realized that our parents did not know that we were underfunded. They did not really know how poorly our teachers were being paid. Parents were paying for a service, they wanted the best for their children, and they expected a good value for their dollar. I began to realize that our school was a provider of Christian educational services and that we had to deliver those services with a servant's heart. That is ministry! But I began to realize that I could not hide behind the excuse that this is a ministry. Our school had to be committed to excellence as well as ministry, and excellence had a price tag. I asked God to give me a vision for what He wanted our school to be, and I stopped worrying about what it would cost. I concentrated on whether we were giving a good value for the dollar. At that point I was free to allow our program to decide our budget rather than allowing our budget to decide our program. I came to the realization that the issue was value rather than cost. Understanding that the program should drive tuition, I assumed my proper leadership role and started the process of changing the funding paradigm at my school. Read "How We Change the Funding Paradigm at My School" in its entirety at http://www.ffna1.com/article1.html Xvxryonx makxs a diffxrxncx Somxtimxs I gxt to thinking that what I do doxsn't mattxr. But whxn I start thinking that way, I rxmxmbxr my old typxwritxr. Most of thx kxys workxd finx most of thx timx. But onx day, onx of thx kxys stoppxd working altogxthxr and that rxally mxssxd xvxrything up. So whxn I'm txmptxd to say, I'm only onx pxrson, it won't makx much diffxrxncx if I don't do this quitx right, I rxmxmbxr my old typxwritxr.And say to mysxlf: "I am a kxy pxrson and nxxdxd vxry much." Anonymous

Volume 1, Issue 2

March , 2002