Cornerstone Baptist Academy
Cornerstone Baptist Church exists to magnify God by making and maturing disciples who will minister to others by mirroring Christlikeness. Cornerstone Baptist Academy seeks to mature youth for ministry.
The Christian school is a blessing to our ministry and helps fulfill our philosophy.
The desire of the leadership of CBC is that our graduates would actively serve the Lord. To produce the right product, we must begin with the proper philosophy.
The biblical mandate for spiritual training rests with the parents. (Duet. 6:3-9; Eph. 6:4) At CBC we have sought to develop programs that help the parents in their God-given task of training their children. Expeditions, Sunday School, Teens Living for Christ, and parenting classes are some of the tools that we have implemented to help in this process, but the burden still rests with the parents. One of our deacons commented, "you can't delegate being a good role model." We as parents must realize that spending money to pay tuition to a Christian school that advocates faithfulness to the work of the Lord is of little value if we as parents are not dedicated to the things of the Lord. Therefore, we would expect, all those who wish to have their children in the student body of a school connected with CBC to be faithful in the church services. We believe the Christian school should promote loyalty to the parents. We do not want students who hear teachers sharing the blessings of the Lord to think that their parents show no interest in the things of the Lord.
Christian education begins when a Christian teacher is teaching a Christian student. Christian education requires the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide into all truth (John16:3). Enrolling the unsaved in order for a Christian school to be evangelistic in a community fails to meet the very definition of Christian education. Can unsaved parents favor Christian education when they know nothing of the spirit of truth (I Cor. 2:14)? Unsaved parents are not really choosing Christian education but private education. They often become confused, angered, or frustrated by Christianity that is suddenly brought into their children's academic studies.
We at CBC feel strongly about the work of evangelism. It is to be carried out by every New Testament believer and every New Testament local church. We believe that the Christian school exists to edify students rather than evangelize the community. It is not our desire to get caught up in the race for an ever-increasing enrollment. Growth may come, but growth in Godliness must be our first priority. As our church brochure states, "Building Godly Lives For Godly Living" must be the mandate for our school. We expect CBA to contribute to the ministry of Cornerstone Baptist Church.
Those who operate Christian schools have a responsibility to guard the student body against corrupting influences (Heb. 13:17). I Corinthians 15:33 warns, "be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." In other words, bad company corrupts good morals. the Christian school administration must carefully monitor the makeup and direction of the student body. An admissions policy determines who gets in; but it is often the students who determine what is really considered in. Therefore, loving and careful discipline is necessary to keep the proper spirit in a school. Discipline is necessary even to the point of expulsion rather than sacrificing the many who would do right for the few who seek to do wrong.
A three-legged stool was used to illustrate the required foundation in the life of a child. Those three legs are the home, the church, and the school in that order. It is not our desire to be in competition with public or private schools. If success is measured by size, then the public school will most certainly win. If it is going to be measured by facilities, we are at a tremendous disadvantage there as well. Our Christian School strives to provide four pillars:
1) A warm spiritual environment
2) A strong academic program
3) An emphasis on fine arts to develop talents for ministry
4) Character development to mold tomorrow's leaders
Our first concern is that we are training our children to love God. We will be committed to academic excellence, but not at all costs. If academic excellence requires that a school enroll ungodly students or employ ungodly teachers, then in truth that school is not providing a Christian education. A Christian school dedicated to the task of edification provides a wonderful atmosphere. Success is not measured by sports or facilities, but by lives dedicated to Christ, for then we are maturing youth for ministry.