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When We Wondered In the spring of 2020, I remember wondering, along with many Christian school leaders, whether our schools would make it to the other side. Classrooms emptied overnight. Budgets tightened. Families faced uncertainty on many fronts. Quietly, many of us asked a hard question: How will Christian education stay alive? God answered that question in a way only He could. Christian education did not shrink. It stepped into a season of remarkable growth. Parents who watched their children learn at the kitchen table saw, perhaps for the first time, what their children were learning and who was shaping [...]

How to Prepare Your Student to Pursue God’s Call Are They Ready? For three consecutive summers, I've had big "are they ready?" moments with my children. In the summer of 2024, I walked my oldest daughter down the aisle and watched her get married. In the summer of 2025, my youngest daughter walked across the stage and received her diploma from Indian Rocks Christian School. And in the summer of 2026, I walked down another aisle, this time behind my son as he escorted my wife to her seat, and then we watched him get married. Walking down those aisles [...]

WHERE DID THE TIME GO? If you're a parent of school-aged children, try this: count how many summers you have left before your child graduates from high school. For many families, it's fewer than a dozen. That moment, watching them cross the stage to receive a diploma, will be here before you know it. I often encourage parents to pause and ask, "What do I want to be true about my child on graduation day?" Once you can picture it, you can begin working backward, making intentional decisions today that shape that future. One of the most important is who [...]

Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, once said something that's been sitting with me for months: "The person you will be in five years is the total of the people you spend time with and the books you read." Two questions are hiding inside that quote. First, what does the next five years look like if we don't read at all? And second, the quote isn't just about individuals. It's about families. It's about schools. It's about all of us, together, raising this next generation of Eagles. I shared this thought recently with a room full of leaders at a [...]

The following is an excerpt adapted from Dr. Asa Walker’s commencement address to the Indian Rocks Christian School Class of 2026. Dr. Walker challenged graduates to embody the type of leadership that would make an impact in an unpredictable future.  Master Three Arts for Uncertain Times In complex moments of historic cultural change, leadership must become dynamic and nimble. You will need to master three arts. Not skills; arts. A skill can be mastered precisely; an art always relies on wise interpretation and implementation, sometimes in imprecise ways and amidst great uncertainty. It requires first a virtuous practitioner: virtue in [...]

Honor, Sacrifice, and the Celebration of Freedom: Why Memorial Day Matters at IRCS As Memorial Day approaches, I look forward to one of my favorite holidays each year. Part of that comes from nostalgia. I grew up in New Jersey, where “going down the shore” is a treasured tradition. Memorial Day weekend marked the unofficial beginning of summer. The beach towns came back to life. Shops reopened, restaurants filled up, and families gathered after a long winter season. For educators, it also signals the transition from the fast pace of the school year into the slower rhythms of summer. But [...]

Presidential Growth: Lessons on High Standards from a Mother Who Raised a President What type of person will your child grow up to be? What will they do with their lives? Every parent I know is consumed with and sometimes stressed about those two questions. A couple of weeks ago, all of my children were out of the house, and the answers to those two questions are becoming clearer each day for my wife and me. Humbly, I am very proud of all three of our children. They are thriving. The future for your children and the answer to those [...]