We feel enormously blessed and relieved with a return to a more typical school year. We have been overwhelmed by the goodness of God’s sustaining grace over the past three years, and we are delighted to be in a place now where we can focus more intentionally on all that lies ahead of us.
As we have sifted through all the opportunities to strengthen the link between our mission, core values, and practices, one of the areas that we’re focusing on is discipleship and community building. Travis Hutchinson, the Upper School Chaplain recently wrote,
“One of the realities of God being a covenantal God is that our life is at once both “I and we.” We respond personally with faith to the Gospel, but we live in a believing community. We are made God’s child at the same time we are placed in God’s family. The one and the many are creational realities and everyone tends to pull toward one side or another. Most in our culture pull to the one, the individual. But we will never experience flourishing living solely for or in ourselves. In Christ, the one
and the many come together for us, because in triune God the one and the many come together. In Christ, we become both fully who are created to be as persons and at the same time who we are gathered into as God’s people.”
This theological reality forms the foundation of our efforts to disciple; to encourage our students to experience the beauty of God’s call to faith in him AND the life-giving grace that accompanies our coming together as God’s people in Christ.
Our prayer is that this school year will provide an abundance of stories and experiences that testify to God’s “I and we” design and the blessing of our individual and collective lives in him. The first few months of this school year have provided wonderful pictures of this life-giving truth. We look forward to a full year of opportunities to grow in the grace of God in Jesus Christ and to gather together to celebrate his good work in us as individuals and as a community.
We hope you will grow with us in these wonderful things. Chad Dirkse, President
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stronger together
On an overcast fall day, CCS 8th graders stood in a huddle staring up a platform suspended high above the ground. Harnessed to ropes, these brave middle schoolers slowly made the climb one-by-one up to the platform, eagerly anticipating—and slightly fearing—the return trip to the ground. It would come not by ladder but by zipline. With their classmates cheering them on, they experienced the rush of adrenaline and satisfaction that comes from building resilience and community.
Offering outdoor adventures is just one of the ways the Upper School seeks to foster both faith and friendship among the student body. Middle school and high school teachers know that inviting students to collectively challenge themselves, serve as a class, and explore the world around them increases connectedness, builds self-confidence, and positively impacts emotional wellbeing. For middle school students, this happens each fall as they participate in outdoor educational experiences (OEEs) designed to encourage teamwork. This year, 6th-, 7th-, and 8thgraders ventured to retreat centers where they participated in activities such as low element coursework, hiking, field games, swimming, and canoeing.
“The OEEs are a chance for everyone to disconnect from screens and devices and just play!” Middle School History teacher and the coordinator of the OEEs Clay Huffaker said. “The activities students get to experience push them out of their comfort zones and force them to rely on one another. [They] create tension and provide the opportunity for students to resolve that tension by their own effort and ingenuity [as well as with] teamwork/encouragement of the group. Faculty love these events because we get to hang out, joke, and cut up with students a bit more than we would in the classroom. I think it’s good for students to see a more laid-back side of faculty as well.”
For high school students, fall retreats focus on service and fun, but they’re still designed to foster friendships, strengthen existing bonds, and promote emotional, mental, and spiritual growth. The freshmen and sophomores took part in Class Days, a CCS tradition that includes a service component as well as a fun activity. The juniors traveled to Camp Fort Bluff for their annual class retreat filled with outdoor sports, large group games, and opportunities to savor the beauty of God’s creation, while the seniors spent a week in Orlando, FL celebrating the final year of high school as a class and making lasting memories.
“Being off campus together for a day or two gives students an opportunity to interact in a different way,” Math teacher and Student Life Coordinator Robbie Steen said. “It provides them with a sense of relief from the pressures and confines of the typical school day, and students and teachers alike are able to connect with one another in new ways. Each year, students return from retreats and class days with a renewed sense of unity because of shared experiences with classmates and teachers.”
relationships through wrestling
Ask pretty much anyone on the CCS campus to tell you about Head Wrestling Coach Josh Craft, and one of the first words mentioned is almost inevitably discipleship. That’s because students and staff alike know that Craft is serious about mentoring kids. This passion is due to one really tough year as a coach.
When Craft first started at CCS he was energized to build a stellar wrestling team. He just had one small problem. Only three young men showed up for tryouts. Naturally, he was discouraged and said it was one of the most pivotal years for him personally.
He felt like he said and did all the right things and didn’t win a single match. “I was challenged to trust God to bring the athletes, and God flipped my mind off the results and called me to love those guys,” he said. “That was God setting in my heart what the foundation of the program has to be.”
Craft said the aim of the wrestling program is to “exist to infuse a joy for the glory of God into young men through the sport of wrestling.” They seek to be distinctively different both on and off the mat by the way they train, the way they compete, and the way they handle both success and adversity. “Through wrestling, we desire to build relationships with
young men that give me and the other coaches a voice to speak into their lives about who Christ is. We tell our guys constantly, our number one goal is to glorify God. We’re going to compete to win, but I want to make sure we guide them the right way.”
Since 2011, Craft has built a successful wrestling program with numerous accolades and young men eager to join the team. Last year, the team fought their way to the TSSAA DII State Championship where they were the runner-up. But he says it’s the camaraderie of the team that matters more. “We’ve created a culture of family where nobody is valued over anyone else,” he said. Last year’s seniors were particularly intentional about incorporating the younger guys—a tradition he hopes this year’s seniors will continue.
One of the highlights for the wrestling family is the weekly Bible study. Craft said he encourages his wrestlers to take ownership of their spiritual lives, and having a weekly Bible study grounds his athletes and reinforces that Christ is the center of the program. “We all want to glorify God and ultimately maximize how we glorify him,” he said.
