Celebrate the accomplishments of ODCS and explore the vision for the future!

The 2009 State of the Schools Report highlights the amazing things God is doing through the ministry of Open Door Christian Schools. At the Patriot Partners Annual Fund Dinner, Dr. Burton shared the vision for ODCS. Be sure to watch the powerful video that was shown at the dinner to hear why teachers, parents and students find ODCS to be so important for themselves and in the lives of so many others.

The following presentation was given at the 2009 Patriot Partners Annual Fund Dinner, in which Dr. Burton shared the vision for Open Door Christian Schools.

Howdy,

I am delighted to be here with you this evening. I want to introduce some special guests who are with us tonight. We are very blessed to have a committed and highly supportive school board. We have several members of the board present this evening. You have already seen Tom Eschweiler, our board chair. Susan Elder, our board vice chair is also responsible for organizing tonight’s event and was the editor for the State of the Schools Report that you received tonight. Susan has worked tirelessly to help put everything together. Thank you Susan. Also present tonight are John Phillips, board secretary, Denver Daniels, Brian Gevry, Scott Giesbrecht, and Susan Schrodt. Let’s give these people a round of applause for all that they do for this school and its ministry. You also saw Dr. Jim Mindling, the senior pastor for Church of the Open Door and a great friend to the school, earlier as he opened our time in prayer this evening.

When I accepted this position to be president of Open Door Christian Schools, tonight has been a date that was circled immediately on my calendar. Certainly, the need to support the annual fund is critical, but I am also very excited about this chance to share the vision that I believe God has for Open Door Christian Schools.

Any vision must be built upon a solid foundation. Open Door Christian Schools has the privilege of a long established and well built foundation. The school began in 1976, fitting for a school with the mascot of the Patriots, founded as a ministry of Church of the Open Door, by Al Ahlgrim and the then senior pastor of the church Don Engram. These gentlemen had a desire to see youth trained to know and serve the Lord. The Ahlgrim family has been dedicated to Christian education and this school in particular ever since. Sadly, Al Ahlgrim passed away in March 2008, and his wife Rita who was also a strong supporter of the school recently went home to be with the Lord in September of this year. We are honored to have Al and Rita’s son Jeff and his wife Donna here with us this evening. I want to take just a moment and thank you, Jeff and Donna, for the legacy of your parents, for their faithful support of the school, and for your personal ongoing support of this ministry. If it were not for your family, the lives of so many would be very different today.

I want to give you a glimpse of the power and impact of the ministry of this school. Please enjoy this video we’ve prepared.

ODCS Video

That is an incredible legacy. When people are willing to surrender themselves to God and His leading, amazing things happen. Al and Rita Ahlgrim surrendered themselves to God, and what you saw on this screen is the result. Imagine if we had not just a husband and wife, not just a family, but an entire generation that surrendered themselves to God. I Chronicles 12:32 mentions a group who pledged their support to David in his struggles against King Saul of Israel. These men of Issachar are described as 200 chiefs who understood the times and knew what Israel should do. A small group of people understood the times and established Open Door Christian Schools. Imagine the impact if all our students were discipled to understand the times and know what this country should do.

On a personal note, my family has had opportunity to share in this legacy apart from my involvement as the president of the school. Kris Hudson, one of our seniors, shared in this video how he came to faith through the teaching he heard from his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Meier. Kris just had his Eagle Scout ceremony today, and several of us had the privilege of being there this afternoon. But to add another chapter to the story – my daughter Amanda is currently in kindergarten, with Mrs. Meier. Just a few weeks ago, Amanda announced to us that she had been thinking about all the things Mrs. Meier was saying about Jesus, and she had decided to accept Jesus into her heart. That is the impact of people who know what they should do.

My wonderful wife Sarah and I moved here this summer from California. Once I tell people that, the first question I am always asked is, “Why would you leave California to come to Northern Ohio?” Our desire was to come to a ministry that wanted to go wherever God wanted to take it. In our search process, God made it clear that He was leading us to Open Door. As you can see from this video, this is a ministry that is already impacting lives and making a difference in our world. And I am convinced that God has even more, even greater things that He wants to accomplish through this school. I believe He wants a generation that understands the times and knows what they should do.

I doubt anyone in this room needs to have the challenges of the current economy explained to them. The past few years have simply been brutal for so many. But, despite the challenges, ODCS has actually grown stronger and healthier in recent years. In large measure due to your generosity, the school has erased a sizeable deficit and now operates with a balanced budget. The help of so many supporters has not gone in vain. The work that Walt Sheffield, our president for the past three years, has done was amazing. Walt was not able to join us this evening, but his son-in-law Brian Gevry, who also serves on our school board, is able to be here. Brian, thank you for the incredible service that you and your family, especially Walt, have given to this school. If you look in the State of the Schools Report at your tables you will see a sampling of the many incredible accomplishments of this past year. I can’t claim any credit for these, for they were the result of Walt’s efforts and his team.

This school is an exciting, healthy place. In my fifteen years in Christian education, I have seen a lot of different schools. And while this is not a competition – I would love to see every Christian school thrive – we already are one of the top Christian schools in the country. Our breadth of programs, the quality we offer, and the impact we provide set us apart. We hold true to our mission – “In partnership with the family and the local church, our mission is the salvation, the discipleship, and the education for life and service of the students entrusted to our care.” This school was established by people who understood the times and knew what they should do – and in our 33 year history, we have lived out their vision. It is now time to decide if we renew that vision and make it larger and bolder, or do we turn and hold on to a shadow of what we could be?

I believe God desires us to be the premiere school, not just in this region, but in the world. That is a bold audacious claim. And, some of you may have noted I did not say “the premiere Christian school”. That is not because I want us in any way to deviate from our mission. On the contrary, I want people everywhere to understand that you do not have to choose between a Christian education and the best education, as if somehow a Christian school is allowed to meet a lower standard. As a Christian school, we should be the best option for parents and students.

So what does it look like for us to be the best school in the world? I am going to discuss some general ideas of what we need in place, and to be candid, many of these will require an increase in our financial resources. Many are likely to take a number of years to achieve. We have a good foundation, but there is so much more we can do. But our reason for doing these things cannot simply be because we want to be the best, and I don’t believe that is why God has laid this on my heart. The danger of pursuing excellence is that excellence in and of itself can become our goal. Our motivation has to be that we want to increase the impact for Christ in students’ and parents’ lives and by extension, in the world. By having programs of excellence, we can best train and equip students – really, disciple them – and we give them a platform of influence in our culture.

To provide us a framework for our thinking and to protect against a secular pursuit of excellence, it is helpful to examine this vision in light of the Great Commandment. In fact, we move towards the fulfillment of this vision as we grow in our understanding and obedience to the Great Commandment. Jesus tells us in Mark 12:29 – 31, in response to a question about what was the most important commandment, “ ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Let’s look carefully at this answer and see what it means for Open Door Christian Schools.

The first part of Jesus’ answer is “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” We need to know God. We need to present Him as He is. Certainly, this is one of the strengths of the school. God is talked about every day with the students. But knowing God, truly knowing and understanding His character, is a lifelong journey. We do well with this, but we can do better, and we must do better if we are to help students grow fully. Our chapels are good, but we need to seek out speakers not only locally but from around the country who are experienced and gifted at helping youth raise their sights and enter into a deeper relationship with God. We are blessed with a dedicated Christian staff, but we need to increase our professional development efforts to challenge our staff to grow in their own knowledge of who God is. We want to create an environment in which teachers and students alike are sojourners together in their growth to know our Lord better and to become more like Christ. Imagine a generation of youth that truly understands and knows the Lord and is inspired to grow. This is the essential first step for us to become the premiere school in the world and help raise up a generation that understands the time and knows what they should do.

Jesus then goes on to say, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” This idea forms the very core of what we do as a school, and it is the reason we need excellence in every area. The word that is translated heart in this passage refers actually to the essence of our spirit. It is what defines us in our spirit. If we truly know God and see Him for who He is, we cannot help but love Him with all our heart.

But how do we love God with all our soul? Here, the word soul refers to the essence of our physical being, the seat of our passions and emotions. One of the most powerful ways to express our emotions is through the arts. We are blessed to have a tremendous arts program here at Open Door. You have already been blessed by the instrumental and vocal talents of our students, and we truly already have great opportunities for students to grow. But we can and need to do more. We need more staff so we can expand our offerings. Some of you may know Mr. Clark’s schedule during the day – I honestly don’t know how he juggles everything he does, but imagine if we gave him some time to focus. What if we found another Mr. Clark to work alongside him? What if we had a regulation-size practice room with proper sound balancing so students can have opportunity to learn about and experience symphonic sound? What about recording studios to allow classes in music technology? Software to teach music theory and composition? Our theatre program under Mrs. Mann does incredible work, all on a tight budget. What if they had the funds to do even more with lighting, sound and sets? What if we had access to a permanent practice theatre for our students to use year-round? Mr. Wallace does an amazing job of exposing students to a rich variety of art styles. But what if we had a robust computer lab for graphic design? What if we were able to offer more courses in art because we had more staff? What if we had a communications program, giving students access to modern audio and video equipment and editing studios? The goal, remember isn’t just to produce top artists. The ultimate goal is to help our students maximize their artistic talents so that they will be best able to express their love for God with all their soul. If we do this, we will of course also see students making an even bigger impact in the performing and visual arts for Christ than they already are.

What does it look like for us to love the Lord with all our mind? Our students do well academically, but here again, we can do more. What if instead of two college-level advanced placement classes, we had 20? What if we had a technology rich environment that allowed students to take full advantage of modern tools? We have a dedicated staff who continually work to improve their skills. What if we could send each of our teachers to several professional development workshops each year? Our staff, who are already working for salaries well below comparable positions in public schools, accepted a wage freeze this year, in recognition of the financial challenges that so many of our families are facing. What if we were able to pay our teachers what they are actually worth? What if we were able to offer new courses and new programs for students? Imagine the top math team, the top robotics team, national spelling bee champions, authors, and national science fair champions. Now, picture all this in an environment where students are testing and strengthening their faith, knowing and understanding the reasons for what they believe. We seek to have students who sharpen their minds and their thinking, so that they are able to truly use their intellect to love the Lord with all their mind.

Now, athletics. Love the Lord with all your strength. Success in athletics offers an enormous platform for influence in our culture. Imagine consistent regional, state and national championships. Imagine multiple Division I athletic scholarships. Imagine our students being quoted regularly in the paper, sharing the importance of their faith in what they do on the athletic field. Imagine additional practice facilities. A new gym, and dare I say, a football stadium? We need to train our students to know how to love the Lord with all their strength, and we need to have programs to draw more gifted athletes, so that we can work with an even larger group of students to teach them these important truths.

The final part of Jesus’ answer is to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we are successful with the first two parts of Jesus answer, this part will happen naturally. If we see and know God for who He truly is, and if we love Him fully, then we can offer no other response than to love others. So, this idea represents our measuring stick. What type of love do we see being demonstrated towards others? Do we see our students reaching out in service towards our community? Do we see our students bringing the message of the gospel to the lost and hurting? Do we see our championship athletes leading sports camps to mentor and train youth? Do we see our outstanding artists painting cheerful murals in a children’s hospital? Do we see our brilliant academic students tutoring those who are struggling in school? Do we see students on campus mentoring others and making sure all students have opportunity to be included? Do our students have a thirst and desire to go out into the world, to use the talents they have developed, to bless this world for Christ? If we are following God’s vision for this school, absolutely we will see these things!

I know one key question in all this is, whether it is the arts, academics or athletics: “Don’t we need more students to do all this?” For most of what I have talked about, the answer quite simply is yes. However, to draw the needed increase in enrollment, we need to increase the breadth and depth of our programs. Then, with increased enrollment comes the ability to support even more programs as well as the financial revenue to sustain them because of the increased tuition dollars we receive. However, we need to jump start these programs to jump start the enrollment that will result because of them.

I mentioned previously we have a balanced budget. Our budget intentionally sets tuition below the full cost of education to keep our programs as affordable as possible. We plan in this budget through the annual fund a certain amount of giving just to meet our planned expenses, but to achieve the goals laid out tonight, we need additional support. On some exciting news, we have a donor who is discussing a proposal with us to offer a large matching grant beginning with dollars raised in excess of $130,000 in annual fund giving. For some even more exciting news, our board met two weeks ago, and has already pledged or given over $60,000 of their own personal funds towards the annual fund this year. We're already almost halfway towards the beginning of this likely matching grant. Even in this continuing tough economy, we are seeing God's faithfulness.

If you will please look at the pledge cards that are inserted in the State of the Schools Reports on your tables, you will see a giving goal of $300,000. That amount includes both our need to meet expenses as well as what we are hoping to raise to jumpstart program development. I am asking you tonight to please consider a gift to not only help us reach our needed budgeted goal, but to allow us to go beyond, so that we can more effectively pursue the vision that God has for us. Our budgeted gap just to meet expenses is $425 per student, but to meet our goal, the gap is $600 per student. We have a number of families that are struggling just to meet the tuition costs. If you are able to afford more than your tuition costs, I ask you to consider covering at least your gap. If you can afford more, please consider covering the gap for those who cannot. As I mentioned at the beginning, your faithfulness over the past few years has placed us in our best financial footing in years. Your giving this year now has the potential to let us move beyond just holding the school together. Your investment will enable this ministry to soar.

I want to pray in just a moment, before you complete your pledge cards. While you are filling out your cards, please enjoy music from two of our outstanding students, Rachel Jindra on violin and Kyle Williams on piano.

Prayer: Thank You God for Your faithfulness. We know that if we are operating according to Your will, You will supply every need. However, You often use people to meet those needs, so I simply ask for Your blessing on these next several minutes. In Jesus' Name we pray, amen.

In a few minutes, students will begin to circulate around the tables with baskets for you to turn in your pledge card. Enjoy the music from Rachel and Kyle.