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| About Us Here is a little information about me and my ministry.
Testimony of Salvation
I first remember hearing the Gospel when I attended release-time religious instruction class at school in 4th grade. Though I can remember making some kind of decision at the time, my heart was like the thorny ground, which quickly choked out all understanding and even the memory of the message of salvation. In my middle teen years, I began attending a neighborhood Bible study at the invitation of neighbors, and soon began attending their church as well. On the last Sunday of September in 1974, after hearing a special speaker in church, I went home and knelt by my bed, asking Jesus Christ to be my Savior and Lord. The following year I was baptized by my pastor and joined the local church.
Though I looked at a handful of Christian colleges, I felt the Lord calling me to St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY, and while attending there I joined the local Baptist church and began to learn the blessed doctrines of the Faith. As I studied the Bible in my sophomore and junior years, God used two passages to speak to me: Ps. 116:9-10a— “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I spoken...” and Jer. 30:9— “Then I said, ‘I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name.’ But His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” These verses were the confirmation that He wanted me to serve Him and speak for Him in full-time service. At that time I began to explore opportunities for vocational ministry. He opened the door for teaching in the Christian school, and I am now in the 28th year, of which 14 have included administration as well as teaching.
I have gladly accepted teaching and speaking opportunities as they have come to me, and at one point, after a few weeks as pulpit supply at Locust Hill Bible Church, was asked if I would consider being a candidate for pastor. Much as I enjoyed preaching as a layman, I did not sense God calling me to the pastorate. In August of 2001, Central Baptist Church of Binghamton, NY, recognized the call of God on my life by licensing me as a minister of the Gospel, and I have been faithful to look for opportunities to serve Him in the pulpit while continuing to serve in the classroom and the office.
God has blessed me with a lovely and supportive wife; three children; and three grandchildren. My parents are both still living. My hobbies include reading, writing, hunting, and golf—though I do the last two seldom and poorly, I enjoy them very much. Why Christian Schools?
I had honestly never heard of a Christian school until I was in my second year of university studies; and, to be honest, I thought it was one of the silliest ideas I had ever heard of. Our village didn’t have a Christian school; I had never met anyone who had attended one; and the first one that I visited didn’t make a good impression. It seemed like a waste of money for a second-rate education. After all—I had done all right as a Christian without such a school, hadn’t I?
Actually, I hadn’t done so well. My own education was academically shallow, and I found myself at a disadvantage compared to many of my classmates in college. Most of what I knew about drugs, drinking, and sex I had learned at school (and not in health class!) While my parents had taught me to be responsible, diligent, and honest, when I was in school my behavior was reinforced when it was rebellious, subversive, and secretive. (These attitudes were called originality, creativity, and loyalty by my 1970’s-era teachers.) After I got saved at age 16, I knew that there had to be a better way to teach young people—but “Christian school” was a foreign concept that simply didn’t ring true with me for a while.
But as I trained to be a teacher in the public sector, I came to the conviction that I could never teach in a government school. How could I teach history without mentioning His Story? How can a Bible-believer ignore the truth of creation to present the lie of evolution? Is it possible to teach the true significance of literature apart from the moral and ethical values of Christ? Is discipline achievable without a sensitivity to God’s law? I can tell a believer to do his best for Jesus; but what do I tell an unbeliever? Do your best for a dollar? Or excel “just because”? No! God called me to a ministry career in Christian schools, where I could do His work in His way.
Over the years, though, I had to realize that my personal convictions were just that—mine, personally. God doesn’t make His children identical in every aspect, and He doesn’t bring everyone to the same decisions, even in child-rearing. Understanding that, I could be comfortable with my choices for career and for our own children, without being judgmental about others who chose differently. But a philosophical crisis came when I was made the administrator of a large Christian school in upstate New York.
I knew why I was in Christian education, but why would a church want the headache and expense of running such a school? Any local congregation has enough potential pitfalls without adding the problems of sharing facilities, hiring (and firing) additional staff members, and disciplining deacons’ kids! Especially where there are other options, such as other Christian schools within driving distance, why would any church in its right mind want to operate one of its own?
So I did what I tell my students they ought to do when they have a question they can’t sort out: I did a Bible study. I tried to find every verse in the Scriptures about education; and then sorted them to see the patterns and principles that would guide me to a greater understanding. As a result of that study, I drew some preliminary conclusions; and over the next several years, I tested them in the crucible of experience. Over the years, they have hardened into the following convictions:
1. God called parents to teach their children, and nowhere took away that responsibility to give it to the government, or even the church. When someone has to answer to God for little Johnny’s schooling, it won’t be society, or the local school board, or his pastor, or his teachers: Johnny’s mom and dad are responsible before the Lord for how they choose for Johnny to be taught. Among other things, this means that home schooling is the most Biblical method of teaching students when the parents are qualified to make it the best choice for their students.
2. The local church in general is not commanded to operate Christian schools, but may choose to do so as a service or outreach ministry, in the same way they may run a soup kitchen for the hungry, or a support group for widows or single adults.
3. If a local congregation feels led of the Lord to offer Christian education as an outreach and service to the community, it must not violate its doctrine or standards to do so; it must exercise good stewardship in operating the ministry effectively; and its services must be rendered fairly and without prejudice to those it is designed to benefit. While church leadership will oversee the operation of the program, it must have the good-will and prayer support of the congregation in general.
This is why I believe in the ministry of Christian Schools.
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