Michigan Camp Meeting 2019: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Teacher's Commissioning

Teacher’s Commissioning

Father, we're so thankful that you've promised that you're in charge of all things.

So this afternoon, as we spend some time together talking about Adventist education, may we understand that That is your plan for our church.

We think of the 2 candidates that we have today to be commissioned.

We're thankful for their commitment, for their dedication, not only to the classroom, but to you as their personal Savior, and their commitment to share that relationship with the students they have in their classroom.

May we also be counted in that group to share Jesus with everyone that we meet.

Who in the world is the Seventh-day Adventist school system?

Did you know that we have very strong academics in the church?

We did a nationwide survey, research project over 4 years, 50, 000 students, the largest research project in private education yet to date.

And we proved, proved that Seventh-day Adventist education has strong academics.

Did you know that we're the largest private school system in the world?

Now, some will say, well, what about the Catholics?

They're not a system We have a true system Early childhood all the way through the university.

We're the largest 1 in North America probably the world Did you know that a hundred percent of our full-time teachers are Seventh-day Adventists?

I've served the last 10 years as the president of an international accrediting agency, National Council Private School of Crediting, Catholics, Baptists, Jewish, 18 different groups, most of them religious, Montessori, Church of Christ, Assemblies of God, etc., etc., 18 different groups.

Those leaders in those religious systems see the Seventh-day Adventist Church as the strongest system in North America.

When I left that volunteer position as the president of NCPSA, they hired me part-time to work in the office because they wanted an Adventist to be part of the system.

Not only that, but they voted my replacement at the North American Division, Arne Nielsen, as the new vice president of NCPSA because they didn't know how they could run an international accrediting agency without an Adventist.

They'd never met the man but they voted him because he's an Adventist as the new vice president.

I think that's a strong statement of what of who they think we are.

30% of our children are in Adventist education.

That's twice any other system in North America.

I was recently asked to speak to 5, 000 Catholic educators, and my assigned topic was, how can we get 30% of our children in Catholic education?

We beat ourselves up over 30%, and it's true, 70% are not in our system.

And we're gonna talk about that a few minutes today.

I'm so happy that that Brian, I had a slide program already And I said to Brian, totally jokingly, I have 45 minutes, right?

And so he's given me 90 minutes, and I guarantee I'll be done before that.

Did you know that we're the only private school system in North America that has 100% of their schools accredited?

The Lutheran Church has about 8%, the Catholic Church has about 13%, the Baptist Church has about 8%.

We have a hundred percent of our schools that are accredited.

It means that our schools are upholding standards and those standards include spiritual and missional standards.

If they do not hold up to those standards, then they are no longer an Adventist school.

The only private system that has a denominational teacher certification program.

In NCPSA standards it says you have to have qualified people in the classroom, but nobody ever defines what quality is.

The Adventist system has defined what quality is, and we hold our teachers accountable for that quality.

It's the only system that creates its own curriculum and is able to push that to the local level.

When I first became a VP at the North American Division, they were getting ready to do a new science series, they'd selected a committee, a secular textbook, to be used in Adventist classrooms across this division.

I could not understand how we could put a secular, anti-Christian, evolutionary textbook on every Adventist table, kitchen table.

And so we spent $6.5 million and wrote our own curriculum and now is now used in every classroom in North America, a distinctly Seventh-day Adventist science textbook.

We have pre-service teachers connected to teaching situations.

Our system is 1 of the only systems in which we train our pre-service teachers in our colleges and universities to do what we want them to do when they get in the classroom.

And if we have a new science series, we can train those teachers to use that science series in their pre-service years so that when they get into their, they get into the classroom, they know how to use it.

Michigan has some famous bridges like the Mackinac Bridge.

Why do we have Seventh-day Adventist education?

We spend 25 million dollars at the North American Division every year on Adventist education.

Do we do that so that we can have the strongest academics in the community?

But that's not why we spend 25 million, is it?

Do we do it so we have a safe environment for our kids?

Of course it is, but it's not why we spend the money.

Do we spend the money, do we spend $25 million so that our kids know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

Is it the most important thing that we can do?

Yes, But it's not why we spend 25 million dollars.

Because we have strong academics in a safe environment where kids know Jesus, but it's got to be within the context of the Adventist Church.

Otherwise we could send our kids to a Baptist school and they'd have strong academics in a safe environment and they would know Jesus but they come out the other end a Baptist.

The only reason we have the right to exist as a system is so that our kids know Jesus in the context of the Adventist church.

A bridge is where you are to where you want to be over something you want to avoid.

It's over a railroad track, it's over a river, it's over a part of the lake, et cetera.

Where you are to where you want to be over something you want to avoid.

1 of the things that a bridge is made of is hope.

And this world needs hope today more than any other time in its history.

Jesus is the bridge from where we are to where we need to be.

Hope is missing in today's world, and we have an opportunity in Adventist education and in the Adventist church to provide hope to a hopeless world.

The North American Vision's mission statement is to reach North America with a distinctive Christ-centered, Seventh-day Adventist message of hope and wholeness.

That is exactly what Adventist education is about, is hope and wholeness.

They have hoped sometimes for the wrong thing.

Secular education provides a different kind of hope than we provide in Adventist education.

So I'm going to talk about 3 kinds of bridges this morning, this afternoon.

Academics, many parents find academics as the bridge that they want for their children.

Series

Teacher's Commissioning

Teacher’s Commissioning

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Does Adventist Education Make A Difference: Retention Data

Does Adventist Education Make A Difference: Retention Data - Part 1

58m

Does Adventist Education Make A Difference: Retention Data

Does Adventist Education Make A Difference: Retention Data - Part 2

1h 1m

Does Adventist Education Make A Difference: Retention Data

Why Adventist Education: Its Relevancy in a Modern Society

1h 4m

Jesus Introduces the Truth

1h

God's First Book, Our First Classroom

3. Teaching Language Arts in the Outdoors

44m

How Prophetic Preaching Touches the Heart

How Prophetic Preaching Touches the Heart - Part 2

54m

Lessons from the Sower: The Conditions of the Soil

43m

Extreme Preaching

Extreme Preaching: Part 2

1h

Adventist Education: Respectable and Conventional

58m

GYC SE 2013 Plenary Sessions

Heaven On Earth

53m

Vitamin D3 and the Healing of the Church

38m

WYC 2012 Plenary Sessions

Repentance and the Latter Rain

1h 19m

Sound Doctrine