In Step with The Spirit: A Message from Head of School, Tom Argersinger

Dear Parents and Friends of CCS,

I hope this issue of Parent News finds you walking closely with Jesus!

I want to thank all of those who have responded to the Campus Expansion Survey, and for those who have attended meetings with School Board members. We are actively processing the survey results, and I will be sharing a response email soon that will address some of the questions and issues raised.

I also want to make you aware of the upcoming State of the School Address on May 12 in the CCS Auditorium. This event will be live streamed, and those who are there in person will be able to ask questions of me and Board members in real time via text.

A special thank you to those who took the opportunity to voice their support for our ongoing work to remain centered on a gospel centered education, the central focus for us.

I am inviting all those who are able to set aside at least 30m on May 11 or 12 to pray in a concerted way for the leaders of CCS as we discern God’s will in all of the decisions forthcoming. I will send out a short prayer list soon. 

I am planning to fast those days for greater discernment and wisdom, and I invite any who are also led to do so to join me in that. 

Keep in mind that fasts can be partial or full, with the latter only undertaken if your health allows. 

Fasting is a Biblical concept, but in and of itself it has no power. Yet practiced sacrificially, prayerfully and with humility it can sensitize us to the movement of the Spirit, and open our ears to hearing God more clearly through His word, His people and, through the Holy Spirit, in our own hearts.

With the recent growth have come many opportunities as well as challenges. It’s also important to note that numerical growth is not the goal in and of itself. I believe God is far from finished with CCS, and that He has a particularly important role for our school in the coming decades, by His grace.

I want to end this article with a portion of Scripture that has been my food for meditation recently: Galatians 3:27-4:7.

27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.

4 Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he differs in no way from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. 2 Instead, he is under guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world. 4 When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our[b] hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

This passage, like the entire book of Galatians, is ripe with the outworkings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here Paul tells us that the only categories that are ultimately meaningful relate to our position in Christ.  For those of us who have received Jesus as Lord and Saviour, we have been given the right to be called children of God.

And this means we stand to inherit all that Jesus has prepared for us. No small thing!

So God sent His only Son (Jesus) to redeem (buy us back, rescue us) us from the power of sin and death. And this rescue actually turns out to be an adoption into God’s family, not just in general, but as “sons”.

But wait, what if you’re a woman? That’s part of the good news. The honor and privilege is not dependent on whether you are male or female. 

It’s solely based on the finished action of Christ on the cross. And the result is that all of us who come to Him in faith will functionally have the rights that in the world have historically been allowed only to the male heir.

Here Jesus is breaking with tradition, and offering a new, more just way forward for entering the Kingdom.

Finally, God’s action on our behalf has the happy result of the Holy Spirit supernaturally residing in us, and living in communion with the Father who is in Heaven. We are therefore united in a deeply profound and meaningful way.

 I leave you with a question today:

Are you living as if you were an heir of the Creator of the Universe, one who will certainly not withhold any truly good thing from those who walk with Him in integrity, in step with the Spirit?

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As we continue the dialogue about CCS, I am certain of many things, the most important of which is that so long as we are working and walking in step with the Spirit and remain rooted in the truth of God’s word, He will guide and direct us toward His ends. 

Make no mistake, the work has not been and will not be easy. Yet I know with absolute certainty that He will be walking with us, so long as we all stay focused on courageously living our His will, and giving Him the glory.

For CCS and the Kingdom,

Tom