The Rev Brie Patterson -- assistant chaplain at Meriden
Christian schools are a ministry of hospitality. As we open the school gates to offer an excellent education, we also invite students and their families in to experience the kind of community that Jesus creates. We have an open enrolment policy, and we welcome students from all faith backgrounds and none at all, but having Christian families in our school is essential to bringing the Christian foundations of Meriden to life.
A new building is going up on our school campus at the moment. The foundation is laid, and we’re looking forward to seeing walls and floors! But a building doesn’t really come to life until people are in it. The same is true for the Christian worldview of a school. It’s in the lives of Christian staff, students and families that the life, hope and freedom of knowing Jesus becomes tangible.
...we also invite students and their families in to experience the kind of community that Jesus creates.
We hope that the girls who are educated at Meriden will leave as women of integrity, appreciative of the Christian faith. We hope that they will have heard the gospel message over and over again, in Christian Education classes and in chapel services, and in the playground in conversations with teachers and friends. We hope that they will understand what it means to follow Jesus and why he’s so good.
We hope that they’ll have learnt God’s truth over the time they spend at school, but we also hope they will have experienced the care and compassion of God’s people, and seen the lightness and love that marks their lives. We are so thankful for the Christian families who partner with us in showing Jesus through their intentional presence in our school community.
As our Christian families make time to meet and pray for us, go out of their way to encourage our staff or extend a warm welcome to new families, they bring God’s love to life. As Christian families share how God has transformed their lives or create space to hear the stories that matter to other families in our community, they bring God’s truth to life. As Christian families volunteer in the P&F or as class parents, attend school functions and weekend sport, they have thousands of opportunities over their daughters’ years at school to be known as Christians and to offer a glimpse into the richness and beauty of life with Jesus.
The Christian families who embody this ethos offer a witness that is very hard to ignore.
The joy of doing this at a Christian school is that the foundation is already laid. The Bible is open often at our school events, and so Jesus is naturally part of the conversation. The Christian families who embody this ethos offer a witness that is very hard to ignore.
I remember sitting down for a parent-teacher interview with a parent holding on to her daughter’s school Bible. “She brought it home and I read it,” she said. “She just kept talking about what she was learning about God at school.”
The parent read her daughter’s Bible from beginning to end, and wanted more: “Then I met some other parents, and they were so welcoming”. They happened to be Christian parents, and as they showed her Jesus in word and action, she came to put her faith in him.
The presence of Christian families in our school community has such a positive impact as they partner with us to make Jesus known.
