Principal invited to help shape future of Christian education
Monday January 22, 2007 Michelle Strutzenberger
An institute based in Grand Rapids, Michigan is looking at the challenges, needs and questions facing leadership in Christian education through the next several decades.

Principal Ray Hendriks is one of fifteen Christian school leaders from across North America invited to take part in discussions at the Kuyers Institute for Christian Learning and Education.

The fifteen leaders or “fellows” met for a preliminary conference in Grand Rapids last week.

The conference included presentations by and discussions with Thomas J. Sergiovanni, a professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and a world-renowned expert in school leadership. Sergiovanni has authored a number of books on school leadership. One of his latest, “Strengthening the Heartbeat: Leading and Learning Together in Schools” was discussed in-depth by the group.

The leaders also presented the challenges, needs and questions arising in their various schools, both within the school communities and regarding leadership for the future.

Hendriks notes that while there was a great diversity of schools represented, from 150 year-old institutions with a population of 3000 students to much smaller, newer schools, the challenges they face are very similar.

“People are concerned about enrollment issues, about the rising costs of Christian education, about the long-term commitment to the traditional vision of schools and whether that needs to be changed,” says Hendriks. “There is also deep concern throughout North America about leadership, particularly about where we will find people who can lead our schools and how we encourage early leadership development.”

The group will be meeting over the next three years, twice a year, to discuss and provide answers to some of these concerns and issues.

Hendriks says that it’s an honour to have been selected to give his voice to the discussions. Participants were selected based on their experience, nature and type of school, with a view to representing a great diversity of leadership styles and schools.

The Kuyers Institute was founded in 2004 and is based at Calvin College, a Christian liberal arts college. According to its Web site, the institute sponsors a range of resources, events, and projects that “seek to stimulate and sustain quality conversation about the relationship between faith, teaching, and learning.”