F.A.Q.

What exactly are School Partnerships?

The "official" purpose/mission (pick your favorite adjective) statement of School Partnerships reads, "To encourage local churches and faith-based groups to build long-term relationships with public schools, pray for the teachers, administrators, students and families connected with the school, and help meet real needs at the schools."

How about expanding that "official" statement a bit?

Uh, OK, we're encouraging local churches and other faith-based groups (nonprofit organizations, Bible study groups, accountability groups, etc.) to initiative a partnership with a public school within their community. The partnership involves initiating and building a long-term relationship with a public grade, junior high, or high school, incarnating (i.e. living out in the context of real life) the message of the gospel by seeking to identify and meet real needs that exist at the schools and among those who attend or work there, and doing so in the name of Christ, as an act of community service with no strings attached.

Why has School Partnerships been launched?

A short answer would be that churches and organizations are often not aware of the significant needs that exist at most every school in our city. Many schools face significant budget shortfalls and are forced to cut teacher and aide positions, programs such as band/orchestra and drama, or sports and other extracurricular activities. Other schools may have problems with gangs and violence, or poor academic performance, or issues stemming from family dysfunction in the community. These needs within schools provide a tremendous opportunity for churches to demonstrate the love of Christ to their community and city in very tangible ways. In many cases, various crises have made school administrators unusually open to involvement and help from churches and related groups. Once the get past their fear of a religious Trojan Horse (i.e. churches using service as a pretext for aggressive and often insensitive proclamation of the gospel message,) they are often very receptive to having a relationship with an area church or faith-based group!

Is School Partnerships a formal program? Is there a formula of some sort, or a curriculum one must follow?

The answer to all three questions is no! The purpose of the initiative, and this web site, is to: (1) remind folks that there are MANY needs in our public school system and among those who attend and work there; (2) motivate folks to respond to these needs by providing them with LOTS of tools, resources, stories, and other helps; and (3) track who is doing what, and where. You may have heard the street slang phrase "keeping it real." Well, there are real needs in the schools and communities of our city, and responding to those needs on a grassroots level, as the Spirit leads, is more in the spirit of "keeping it real." If a church or group takes the time to pray for the school, build relationships with folks who attend and work there, do the homework necessary to determine what needs exist, then respond to meet those needs, how they actually accomplish most all of that is completely up to them; again, as the Spirit leads. As I said already, we provide LOTS of tools, resources, stories and other helps on this site to help them in this process.

Then why do you ask churches and groups to register on the web site?

Simply so we, and others in the city, can see which groups have established partnerships with what schools. If the Ninth Baptist Church has four public schools in their community, and three already have partnerships with area churches, it can help that church target the school that has no partnership. Some groups may be prompted to establish a partnership with a school simply because they hear that no other group has. Of course, there is nothing wrong with several churches or groups establishing partnerships with the same school! Regardless, knowing who is doing what, and where, can help churches and groups coordinate, cooperate and collaborate as they serve schools.

This sounds a whole lot like Community Care Day.

That's because it is! Community Care Day, a single summer day designated each year when churches and groups would serve their schools and communities, was born out of the Luis Palau Festivals in the late 90's, and was particularly successful in the Portland Public School District under the leadership of Randy Thomas. Community Care Day is precisely that: a day. School Partnerships is a long-term commitment: meeting real needs in real ways for a real long time.

Could you walk me through a hypothetical School Partnership scenario?

Certainly! The Ninth Baptist Church congregation comes to the conclusion that folks in their community are just not coming to their church building like they used to, and they are warming to the possibility that God wants them to actually move beyond the four walls of their church and reach out to their community. Their biggest question is how to do that. They stumble upon School Partnerships, and realize that Waldo Elementary School is just down the road from their church building. They have been reading in the community paper that budget cuts have forced Waldo to drop a number of programs, such as band, orchestra, and drama, and charge huge user fees to students choosing to participate in sports. When the deacons meet to begin discussions about pursing a partnership with Waldo, they realize that over 40% of their congregation have some kind of connection to Waldo -- families with attending students, teachers, administrators, coaches, even one of the custodians. They also come to realize that while Waldo doesn't connect with their entire community, establishing a partnership with the school would be the most strategic way to reach out beyond their own church walls. So, they begin the process of community exegesis.

Wait a minute! What in the world is "community exegesis?"

I thought you might stop me to ask about that! "Exegesis" is from a Greek word that means "to interpret." So, community exegesis is "interpreting" the community -- who lives there (ethnicity, economic classes, status of family units, etc.) and why they have chosen to do so, how the community functions, the community history, significant and/or strategic institutions (i.e. schools), the "culture" of the community (history of violence, sports-mindedness, appreciation for the arts, unusual community activism, etc.), and the identification of needs that can be met by a church or group.

How does one gather that kind of information?

The best way to begin is by praying. Ask God to open your eyes to see your community and/or an adoptable school with spiritual eyes, in a wholistic way. And supplement your praying by asking questions -- talk to neighbors, cultural and political leaders, influential businesspeople, folks who have lived in the community for a long time -- and by doing research on the Internet and perhaps a local library. Likely you will be surprised at how much you can uncover. And when focusing on a particular school, the best place to go to identify needs is the principal. Yes, church/state separation issues are often very real to them, but experience has shown that when the needs in a school are urgent enough, church/state separation issues take a back seat to getting help. Often, all one has to do is ask.

I notice that you have more information about "community exegesis" on The Idea Page, so let's move on with your hypothetical Partnership scenario.

I can do that. It's VERY important here to understand that serving a school and/or community REALLY means serving the people who live in the community and work at, or attend, the school, by meeting REAL needs. So, Ninth Baptist does the homework and gains a greater understanding of how Waldo Elementary School and the surrounding community works. The pastor schedules an appointment with the principal, lets him know of their intentions, assures him that Ninth Baptist simply wants to serve the school and those who attend and work there, and asks him how they can do that. After getting up off the floor, the principal regains his composure and responds that the school does need immediate manpower help in the form of recess, lunchroom and hall monitors. And Ninth Baptist just happens to have a sizable group of retired folks that have discretionary time during the day. So, before long a number of Ninth Baptist seniors are serving several hours a day at Waldo, building relationship with students, teachers, and even parents, and sharing the love of Christ in an incarnational, relational and relevant manner with them all.

There you go again with those big words. What do you mean by "sharing the love of Christ in an incarnational, relational and relevant manner?"

Another very good question! We believe that ministry and witness in a community must be foundationally incarnational (demonstrating Christlike integrity and holy living), relational (actively pursuing, loving and serving others), and culturally relevant (presenting a message of hope that can be heard and understood). We believe that Christians are called to live counter-culturally within their communities -- that is, living in physical and relational proximity to their friends and neighbors, and actively engaging in all aspects of the life and culture of the community, yet doing so while modeling (incarnating) the values of the Kingdom of God. This is in contrast to the caricature many have of Christians -- hypocrites who are looking for opportunities to wheel their gospel Trojan Horse into schools, the workplace, and communities. That of course is an exaggeration, but unfortunately, not as much of one as we would like to believe.

Fair enough; now back to Ninth Baptist and Waldo Elementary School.

Absolutely. As the seniors are serving at Waldo, they begin to build relationships with students, teachers, even some parents. And, they begin to discern more needs at the school. Band and orchestra were dropped a few years back due to budget cuts. The music and worship minister at Ninth Baptist just happened to have a background in band and orchestra, so before you knew it, Ninth Baptist had a beginning band and orchestra class going again at the school. The church even kicked in some money to buy instruments. A couple of landscapers were Ninth Baptist members, and they organized quarterly school beautification days; a painter and a few finish carpenters from the church joined in as well. The church organized a series of seminars on single-parent parenting stills that was very well-attended.

Wow.

Remember, this is a hypothetical scenario; Ninth Baptist and Waldo Elementary don't really exist, silly! However, the scenario is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg when it comes to churches serving schools in the name of Christ. And when this happens, all the caricatures are dismantled, and the people in our schools and communities begin to really see "Christ in you, the hope of glory!"