We have a location!
Union Chapel Church met for the last time to allow a final opportunity for Q&A, open debate as part of the Administrative Council procedure and then to approve the lease agreement.
Just to explain the atmosphere and the congregation’s mood, I haven’t seen that many smiles in one room in a long, long time. The vote was 32-0, a unanimous decision to openly welcome us onto their property. There was genuine excitement throughout the conversation and after the meeting was over, discussion of all the new possibilities, ways to make rooms work better, cleaning up and getting organized was so fun to watch. Faces I saw to be hesitant just days or weeks ago were bright and enthusiastic, full of joy. That went on for nearly an hour after the meeting was over. These folks are truly excited for us and for the ministry opportunities that are sure to flow out as we come to know each other a bit better. In the two Sundays I’ve spent with them as a congregation and in meetings with their Board of Trustees, I have found them to be incredibly kind and full of a love for the Lord. I pray that you will take time to get to know these people as they want to get to know all of you.
God has truly blessed both parties with this opportunity for the coming year and I pray that we will bless them with the same level of loving commitment that we have for The Summit Academy.
Thursday, July 23rd is your first opportunity to do just that as we hold our informational meeting for families, Union Chapel members and prospective families. The fun starts at 6pm for Summit Families and I’m sure there will be members excited to meet you there so please come! Join in a time of celebrating God’s love for us all and this school. Can you actually say no to ice cream? We didn’t think so! Come and give thanks.
Thank you for your patience and so many prayers,
Mickey Justice
Board President
The Summit Academy
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Our New Home for 2009-2010
A lot has been happening this summer, and we want to share with you some of the changes that are taking place as we look toward the new school year. After many long, prayerful meetings and exploration of many possible locations for our school, we are excited to announce that The Summit Academy will meet for the 2009-2010 school year at Union Chapel United Methodist Church. Union Chapel is located at 2720 East 86th Street, Indianapolis, IN, 46240.
The people of Union Chapel have shown great enthusiasm in welcoming us into their facility, and we are eager for all Summit families to see the space that will be our home for the next year. We hope you will be able to join us for an informational meeting on Thursday, July 23 at the church. Current Summit families will meet from 6:00-7:00 p.m. to see the facility, with a general informational meeting following from 7:00-8:00 for all current and prospective Summit families as well as our new friends at Union Chapel, who are very much looking forward to this evening. It will be a great opportunity not only to tour the church, but also to begin building relationships with our new hosts. Popcorn, hotdogs, and ice cream will be on hand, and children are invited to check out the playground equipment and basketball courts.
Paul wrote the Philippians, “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:4-6, NIV) The Summit board is likewise filled with joy because of the partnership of all our families in an adventure in education that is rooted in the gospel. Like Paul, we, too, are confident that our Lord will carry to completion the good work that He has begun at Summit.
We hope you will be able to join us on Thursday, July 23, at Union Chapel for a time of fellowship, catching up on the events of the summer, and sharing in our vision for the future. It is an exciting time in the life The Summit Academy, and we look forward to where God is leading us.
The people of Union Chapel have shown great enthusiasm in welcoming us into their facility, and we are eager for all Summit families to see the space that will be our home for the next year. We hope you will be able to join us for an informational meeting on Thursday, July 23 at the church. Current Summit families will meet from 6:00-7:00 p.m. to see the facility, with a general informational meeting following from 7:00-8:00 for all current and prospective Summit families as well as our new friends at Union Chapel, who are very much looking forward to this evening. It will be a great opportunity not only to tour the church, but also to begin building relationships with our new hosts. Popcorn, hotdogs, and ice cream will be on hand, and children are invited to check out the playground equipment and basketball courts.
Paul wrote the Philippians, “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:4-6, NIV) The Summit board is likewise filled with joy because of the partnership of all our families in an adventure in education that is rooted in the gospel. Like Paul, we, too, are confident that our Lord will carry to completion the good work that He has begun at Summit.
We hope you will be able to join us on Thursday, July 23, at Union Chapel for a time of fellowship, catching up on the events of the summer, and sharing in our vision for the future. It is an exciting time in the life The Summit Academy, and we look forward to where God is leading us.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Latin Grammar and Chemistry
I spoke today with a Latin II student at the public high school where I teach. She informed me that she could not take Latin next year because she was enrolling in a veterinary science class that would occupy three class periods. I asked her what she would take if she were not taking the veterinary class, and she replied that she would be taking a second math and a second science class in addition to the math and science she will already be taking, along with Latin.
Her choice, then, was between taking a schedule with two math and two science classes along with Latin III, or one with only one math, one science, and the veterinary class.
I was immediately put in mind of the following account, which I shared with her.
In the early 20th century, the great German chemist, Bauer, was asked by one of his colleagues whether his best students came from the Real-Schulen (a modern school where chemistry was taught as a subject) or from the Gymnasien (a traditional liberal arts school where Latin grammar was stressed). His colleague's assumption was that the best science students would come from the Real-Schulen.
"Not at all," [Bauer] replied; "all my best students come from the Gymnasien. The students from the Real-Schulen do best at first; but after three months work here, they are, as a rule, left behind by those coming from the Gymnasien." The colleague wondered at this because the Real-Schulen students had been especially instructed in chemistry. "Yes," he replied; "but the students from the Gymnasien have the best trained minds. Give me a student who has been taught his Latin grammar, and I will answer for his chemistry." (Kelsey, Latin and Greek in American Education, New York, NY: Macmillan, 1911, p. 24)
I asked my student who had advised her on this choice of curriculum. Her guidance advisor at school and, to my surprise, someone at the university she wishes to attend...North Carolina.
She and her mother thought that the veterinary class would give her a leg up when it came to such studies in college. I tried to help her see that the better preparation would be more classes in math, more in science, and more in Latin, precisely for the reasons that Bauer cited, but when I ran up against the university itself saying the opposite, I ceased trying to persuade her.
This is but one more example of an educational system and a social culture within our country that fails to recognize what true education is.
Her choice, then, was between taking a schedule with two math and two science classes along with Latin III, or one with only one math, one science, and the veterinary class.
I was immediately put in mind of the following account, which I shared with her.
In the early 20th century, the great German chemist, Bauer, was asked by one of his colleagues whether his best students came from the Real-Schulen (a modern school where chemistry was taught as a subject) or from the Gymnasien (a traditional liberal arts school where Latin grammar was stressed). His colleague's assumption was that the best science students would come from the Real-Schulen.
"Not at all," [Bauer] replied; "all my best students come from the Gymnasien. The students from the Real-Schulen do best at first; but after three months work here, they are, as a rule, left behind by those coming from the Gymnasien." The colleague wondered at this because the Real-Schulen students had been especially instructed in chemistry. "Yes," he replied; "but the students from the Gymnasien have the best trained minds. Give me a student who has been taught his Latin grammar, and I will answer for his chemistry." (Kelsey, Latin and Greek in American Education, New York, NY: Macmillan, 1911, p. 24)
I asked my student who had advised her on this choice of curriculum. Her guidance advisor at school and, to my surprise, someone at the university she wishes to attend...North Carolina.
She and her mother thought that the veterinary class would give her a leg up when it came to such studies in college. I tried to help her see that the better preparation would be more classes in math, more in science, and more in Latin, precisely for the reasons that Bauer cited, but when I ran up against the university itself saying the opposite, I ceased trying to persuade her.
This is but one more example of an educational system and a social culture within our country that fails to recognize what true education is.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Special Facilities Update
The Facilities Committee and the Board are excited to say that our search is nearly over! We have narrowed the options to two final properties, one in the west 86th Street area and one near 131st and Meridian. We are waiting for a little more information on one of them, but the board has committed to making a decision for our 2009-2010 location that we can share with everyone the Tuesday we return from Spring Break. Please take this time...whether you are at the beach, in the mountains, or staying home for Spring Break...to pray diligently each day for us to hear clearly God's voice. We are excited about our options and want to make a faithful decision.
Friday, March 6, 2009
How Democracies Become Tyrannies
An article from American Thinker titled "How Democracies Become Tyrannies" not only puts forward an insightful view of the times through the lens of Book VIII of Plato's Republic, but also presents an excellent example of the application of Classical learning in the modern world.
We read ancient works that have proven their worth by standing the test of time so that we may better understand and live in our own times.
This article is must-reading, especially for our rhetoric students.
We read ancient works that have proven their worth by standing the test of time so that we may better understand and live in our own times.
This article is must-reading, especially for our rhetoric students.
_ _ _ at School
What three-letter word rhyming with "nod" fits into the blanks in the title of this post? If you are a student at Lakeview Elementary School in Mt. Juliet, TN, you will never know. This article on this latest in an ongoing attack on God and those who follow Him can be found here.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Death's Duel
The great English poet John Donne (1572-1631) delivered his final sermon in 1630. It was during Lent and was titled Death's Duell. The following is the conclusion of that sermon, and I found it so eloquent, so poignant, that I just had to share it. Yes, the language is a bit difficult. Try not to get hung up on individual words and just push through. Let the general force of the piece carry its message. For those who want to read the entire sermon, you can find it here.
Take in the whole day from the hour that Christ received the passover upon Thursday unto the hour in which he died the next day. Make this present day that day in thy devotion, and consider what he did, and remember what you have done. Before he instituted and celebrated the sacrament (which was after the eating of the passover), he proceeded to that act of humility, to wash his disciples' feet, even Peter's, who for a while resisted him. In thy preparation to the holy and blessed sacrament, hast thou with a sincere humility sought a reconciliation with all the world, even with those that have been averse from it, and refused that reconciliation from thee? If so, and not else, thou hast spent that first part of his last day in a conformity with him. After the sacrament he spent the time till night in prayer, in preaching, in psalms: hast thou considered that a worthy receiving of the sacrament consists in a continuation of holiness after, as well as in a preparation before? If so, thou hast therein also conformed thyself to him; so Christ spent his time till night. At night he went into the garden to pray, and he prayed prolixious, he spent much time in prayer, how much? Because it is literally expressed, that he prayed there three several times, and that returning to his disciples after his first prayer, and finding them asleep, said, Could ye not watch with me one hour, it is collected that he spent three hours in prayer. I dare scarce ask thee whither thou wentest, or how thou disposedst of thyself, when it grew dark and after last night. If that time were spent in a holy recommendation of thyself to God, and a submission of thy will to his, it was spent in a conformity to him. In that time, and in those prayers, was his agony and bloody sweat. I will hope that thou didst pray; but not every ordinary and customary prayer, but prayer actually accompanied with shedding of tears and dispositively in a readiness to shed blood for his glory in necessary cases, puts thee into a conformity with him. About midnight he was taken and bound with a kiss, art thou not too conformable to him in that? Is not that too literally, too exactly thy case, at midnight to have been taken and bound with a kiss? From thence he was carried back to Jerusalem, first to Annas, then to Caiaphas, and (as late as it was) then he was examined and buffered, and delivered over to the custody of those officers from whom he received all those irrisions, and violences, the covering of his face, the spitting upon his face, the blasphemies of words, and the smartness of blows, which that gospel mentions: in which compass fell that gallicinium, that crowing of the cock which called up Peter to his repentance. How thou passedst all that time thou knowest. If thou didst any thing that needest Peter's tears, and hast not shed them, let me be thy cock, do it now. Now, thy Master (in the unworthiest of his servants) looks back upon thee, do it now. Betimes, in the morning, so soon as it was day, the Jews held a council in the high priest's hall, and agreed upon their evidence against him, and then carried him to Pilate, who was to be his judge; didst thou accuse thyself when thou wakedst this morning, and wast thou content even with false accusations, that is, rather to suspect actions to have been sin, which were not, than to smother and justify such as were truly sins? Then thou spentest that hour in conformity to him; Pilate found no evidence against him, and therefore to ease himself, and to pass a compliment upon Herod, tetrarch of Galilee, who was at that time at Jerusalem (because Christ, being a Galilean, was of Herod's jurisdiction), Pilate sent him to Herod, and rather as a madman than a malefactor; Herod remanded him (with scorn) to Pilate, to proceed against him; and this was about eight of the clock. Hast thou been content to come to this inquisition, this examination, this agitation, this cribration, this pursuit of thy conscience; to sift it, to follow it from the sins of thy youth to thy present sins, from the sins of thy bed to the sins of thy board, and from the substance to the circumstance of thy sins? That is time spent like thy Saviour's. Pilate would have saved Christ, by using the privilege of the day in his behalf, because that day one prisoner was to be delivered, but they choose Barabbas; he would have saved him from death, by satisfying their fury with inflicting other torments upon him, scourging and crowning with thorns, and loading him with many scornful and ignominious contumelies, but they regarded him not, they pressed a crucifying. Hast thou gone about to redeem thy sin, by fasting, by alms, by disciplines and mortifications, in way of satisfaction to the justice of God? That will not serve that is not the right way; we press an utter crucifying of that sin that governs thee: and that conforms thee to Christ. Towards noon Pilate gave judgment, and they made such haste to execution as that by noon he was upon the cross. There now hangs that sacred body upon the cross, rebaptized in his own tears, and sweat, and embalmed in his own blood alive. There are those bowels of compassion which are so conspicuous, so manifested, as that you may see them through his wounds. There those glorious eyes grew faint in their sight, so as the sun, ashamed to survive them, departed with his light too. And then that Son of God, who was never from us, and yet had now come a new way unto us in assuming our nature, delivers that soul (which was never out of his Father's hands) by a new way, a voluntary emission of it into his Father's hands; for though to this God our Lord belonged these issues of death, so that considered in his own contract, he must necessarily die, yet at no breach or battery which they had made upon his sacred body issued his soul; but emisit, he gave up the ghost; and as God breathed a soul into the first Adam, so this second Adam breathed his soul into God, into the hands of God.
There we leave you in that blessed dependency, to hang upon him that hangs upon the cross, there bathe in his tears, there suck at his wounds, and lie down in peace in his grave, till he vouchsafe you a resurrection, and an ascension into that kingdom which He hath prepared for you with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.
Take in the whole day from the hour that Christ received the passover upon Thursday unto the hour in which he died the next day. Make this present day that day in thy devotion, and consider what he did, and remember what you have done. Before he instituted and celebrated the sacrament (which was after the eating of the passover), he proceeded to that act of humility, to wash his disciples' feet, even Peter's, who for a while resisted him. In thy preparation to the holy and blessed sacrament, hast thou with a sincere humility sought a reconciliation with all the world, even with those that have been averse from it, and refused that reconciliation from thee? If so, and not else, thou hast spent that first part of his last day in a conformity with him. After the sacrament he spent the time till night in prayer, in preaching, in psalms: hast thou considered that a worthy receiving of the sacrament consists in a continuation of holiness after, as well as in a preparation before? If so, thou hast therein also conformed thyself to him; so Christ spent his time till night. At night he went into the garden to pray, and he prayed prolixious, he spent much time in prayer, how much? Because it is literally expressed, that he prayed there three several times, and that returning to his disciples after his first prayer, and finding them asleep, said, Could ye not watch with me one hour, it is collected that he spent three hours in prayer. I dare scarce ask thee whither thou wentest, or how thou disposedst of thyself, when it grew dark and after last night. If that time were spent in a holy recommendation of thyself to God, and a submission of thy will to his, it was spent in a conformity to him. In that time, and in those prayers, was his agony and bloody sweat. I will hope that thou didst pray; but not every ordinary and customary prayer, but prayer actually accompanied with shedding of tears and dispositively in a readiness to shed blood for his glory in necessary cases, puts thee into a conformity with him. About midnight he was taken and bound with a kiss, art thou not too conformable to him in that? Is not that too literally, too exactly thy case, at midnight to have been taken and bound with a kiss? From thence he was carried back to Jerusalem, first to Annas, then to Caiaphas, and (as late as it was) then he was examined and buffered, and delivered over to the custody of those officers from whom he received all those irrisions, and violences, the covering of his face, the spitting upon his face, the blasphemies of words, and the smartness of blows, which that gospel mentions: in which compass fell that gallicinium, that crowing of the cock which called up Peter to his repentance. How thou passedst all that time thou knowest. If thou didst any thing that needest Peter's tears, and hast not shed them, let me be thy cock, do it now. Now, thy Master (in the unworthiest of his servants) looks back upon thee, do it now. Betimes, in the morning, so soon as it was day, the Jews held a council in the high priest's hall, and agreed upon their evidence against him, and then carried him to Pilate, who was to be his judge; didst thou accuse thyself when thou wakedst this morning, and wast thou content even with false accusations, that is, rather to suspect actions to have been sin, which were not, than to smother and justify such as were truly sins? Then thou spentest that hour in conformity to him; Pilate found no evidence against him, and therefore to ease himself, and to pass a compliment upon Herod, tetrarch of Galilee, who was at that time at Jerusalem (because Christ, being a Galilean, was of Herod's jurisdiction), Pilate sent him to Herod, and rather as a madman than a malefactor; Herod remanded him (with scorn) to Pilate, to proceed against him; and this was about eight of the clock. Hast thou been content to come to this inquisition, this examination, this agitation, this cribration, this pursuit of thy conscience; to sift it, to follow it from the sins of thy youth to thy present sins, from the sins of thy bed to the sins of thy board, and from the substance to the circumstance of thy sins? That is time spent like thy Saviour's. Pilate would have saved Christ, by using the privilege of the day in his behalf, because that day one prisoner was to be delivered, but they choose Barabbas; he would have saved him from death, by satisfying their fury with inflicting other torments upon him, scourging and crowning with thorns, and loading him with many scornful and ignominious contumelies, but they regarded him not, they pressed a crucifying. Hast thou gone about to redeem thy sin, by fasting, by alms, by disciplines and mortifications, in way of satisfaction to the justice of God? That will not serve that is not the right way; we press an utter crucifying of that sin that governs thee: and that conforms thee to Christ. Towards noon Pilate gave judgment, and they made such haste to execution as that by noon he was upon the cross. There now hangs that sacred body upon the cross, rebaptized in his own tears, and sweat, and embalmed in his own blood alive. There are those bowels of compassion which are so conspicuous, so manifested, as that you may see them through his wounds. There those glorious eyes grew faint in their sight, so as the sun, ashamed to survive them, departed with his light too. And then that Son of God, who was never from us, and yet had now come a new way unto us in assuming our nature, delivers that soul (which was never out of his Father's hands) by a new way, a voluntary emission of it into his Father's hands; for though to this God our Lord belonged these issues of death, so that considered in his own contract, he must necessarily die, yet at no breach or battery which they had made upon his sacred body issued his soul; but emisit, he gave up the ghost; and as God breathed a soul into the first Adam, so this second Adam breathed his soul into God, into the hands of God.
There we leave you in that blessed dependency, to hang upon him that hangs upon the cross, there bathe in his tears, there suck at his wounds, and lie down in peace in his grave, till he vouchsafe you a resurrection, and an ascension into that kingdom which He hath prepared for you with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.
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