Blog

Telling the Story of 2020-2021

by Wendy Hofman, Head of School

2020-2021 will certainly be a year to remember in the history of Lansing Christian School. Organizing and supporting Christ-centered in-person education for the whole student, during a global pandemic will be a story to tell about LCS for years to come.

What will be the story that is told about LCS in 2020-2021? This was a question we thought about in our everyday work and interactions with students and staff. Would our story be mostly about surviving a challenging year where the global pandemic and national unrest played a major role? I hoped not.

The story we tell will include what we learned about our need for one another, and with a renewed understanding that our lives are richer together because God has called us together. We were able to talk about how solutions to problems we thought were unsolvable were expedited because of the pandemic circumstances. We learned that disruption can promote innovation. Our students will tell how their teachers helped them understand that God is near and that He is with us when our circumstances are challenging and hard. Most importantly, our story includes a school-wide understanding that God’s provision for LCS and His sovereignty in all things is real.

Before we had any notion of the global circumstances that would happen in 2020-2021, LCS embarked on a nine-month strategic planning process that involved more than two hundred members of our community. Out of that process, a 2020-2025 Strategic Plan was developed for the purpose of moving forward a new shared vision for the future of education at Lansing Christian School.

Building upon a foundation of academic excellence, LCS is advancing a framework for student learning that is curriculum-based and incorporates integrated and active learning experiences, providing students the opportunity to live out their faith and their learning by engaging in real work that meets real needs for real people in our community and in the world. We aim to cultivate a learning environment where all students belong. We seek to support the whole student, including student social/emotional and mental health, as part of Christ-centered learning at LCS.

The strategic priorities in the 2020-2025 Strategic Plan are grounded in the core commitments of Lansing Christian School to provide vigorously academic and thoroughly Christian education and will work to strengthen and advance our vision, mission, and core values.

Having a shared vision for the future of education at LCS in place prior to the global circumstances of this past year is living evidence of God’s sovereignty and His faithfulness to Lansing Christian School.

A year ago we did not know, as we do now, how important supporting mental health is as part of whole-student, Christ-centered education. A year ago, we could not have foreseen how important and relevant God’s biblical mandate to love our neighbor, honor the image of God in everyone, and foster belonging for all students would be in our Christian school.