Archive for category Leadership
Christian Elementary Schools in the South Bay – 2013 Open Houses
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on January 17, 2013
My son Rohan is now “4 and 3/5ths” and will be graduating from Hearts and Hands Christian Preschool in the fall. We are wrestling with which school he should attend next. The primary criteria are:
- Christian formation
- Academic challenge
- Convenient location
This appears to be Open House season, so I need to compile a list of candidates to start scheduling and ranking them. I figured I might as well do it online in case others find it useful or have suggestions.
The list below is based on the above criteria. The further it is from home (Santa Clara) or work (Cupertino/Sunnyvale), the more outstanding it needs to be in other dimensions for me to consider it.
Sources
- Area Schools | Santa Clara Christian School Area Schools | Association of Christian Schools in the Santa Clara California Area
- Santa Clara County, CA Private Schools | PrivateSchoolReview.com
- Best Santa Clara, California Private Schools. Compare, reviews & ratings.
- Private elementary schools Santa Clara, CA [Yelp]
- Map | Santa Clara Christian School Map | Association of Christian Schools in the Santa Clara California Area
Schools to evaluate (top picks in bold)
- Achiever Christian School | 540 Sands Drive San Jose CA | Jan 26 @ 11 AM
- Bethel Lutheran School – 10181 Finch Avenue, Cupertino | Jan 13 @ 12 PM
- 1175 Hillsdale Ave. San Jose, CA | Calvary Christian Academy
- Campbell Christian Schools | Christian Education | Campbell, CA 95008
- Casa di Mir | Montessori School | 90 East Latimer Avenue Campbell, CA 95008 | Jan 27 @ 2 PM
- Champion School – 4660 Erastus Dr, San Jose | Jan 24 @ 9:15 AM / Jan 27 @ 10 AM
- challenging curriculum without excessive homework burden
- limited parent access to teachers (?)
- Challenger School | Jan 23, Feb 2, 7, 15
- Map - Strawberry Park, off Lawrence Expwy
- Grace Christian School! | 2350 Leigh Ave. San Jose, CA 95124
- One-room schoolhouse
- Los Altos Christian Schools | Feb 7 @ 9 AM
- Los Gatos Christian School | Jan 26 @ 10 AM
- Milpitas Christian School | 3435 Birchwood Ln, San Jose
- Monarch Christian Schools | 1715 Calaveras Blvd, Milpitas | Jan 25/31 – Feb 7/15
- Monarch Christian Schools are based on Christian, Biblical principles and beliefs. A strong foundation in the basics is blended with the “hands-on” Montessori techniques.
- 1715 Calaveras Blvd., Milpitas, CA 95035 – Google Maps
- Monticello Academy: Philosophy
- Rainbow Montessori Child Development Center
- San Jose Christian School | 1300 Sheffield Avenue, Campbell
- Santa Clara Christian School – Santa Clara Preschool | Santa Clara Elementary | Jan 24 @ 6:30 PM
- Santa Clara 220 Blake Ave | Sierra School | Feb 12 @ 10 AM
- St. Clare School | Jan 27 @ 9:30 AM
- St. Timothy’s Lutheran School | 5100 Camden Ave. • San Jose | Feb 2 @ 9 AM
- Sunnyvale Christian School | 445 S. Mary Ave. Sunnyvale, CA |
- Valley Christian Schools: Elementary School | 1450 Leigh Avenue San Jose
Secondary criteria to consider include:
- Year-round schooling
- Extended day care
- Hot lunches
- Associated preschool (for his little sister)
The Virtue and Emotion Pride
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on October 26, 2012
One of the most controversial aspects of Knight Club is that it treats pride (“By Myself”) like anger (“Not Fair”): an emotion which is prone to sin, but is not necessarily a sin — and can even be a virtue.
While it is true that the vast majority of Bible verses mention pride in the context of sin, a number acknowledge its positive role. Here are some that are often translated using the word “pride.” The words “glory” and “boasting” are also used. The point isn’t to quibble about specific words, but to point out that the same general concept (independence, ambition, self-reliance — whatever you want to call it) can lead us towards both good and evil, depending on whether it is submitted to God.
- Galatians 6:4 Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else,
- Romans 15:17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God.
- Romans 11:13 I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry
- Romans 4:2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about–but not before God.
- Philippians 1:26 so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
- James 1:9 The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position.
As well as a few of the negatives, for comparison:
Superhero Workout
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on July 22, 2012
Here is the SUPERHERO WORKOUT we did for the last few Knight’s Club meetings.
- THOR- Arm Circles
- FLASH- Run in place
- SUPERMAN- Super Jumps
- SPIDERMAN- Spider Walks
- WOLVERINE- Scissor Jump Claws
- HULK- Wall Smash
- IRON MAN BLASTS- Side Lunge and Punch
- CAPTAIN AMERICA- Duck, Step, Dodge
- INVISIBLE TORCH- Side Jumps
Meet the Dragons of Knight Club
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on June 14, 2012
The great challenge of manhood is learning to harness our emotions to serve a good purpose. As I mentioned earlier, I believe we need to harness (not slay) these Four Dragons of Manhood: Desire, Fear, Anger & Pride. Here’s a more comprehensive summary of my current understanding:
| Dragons |  |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Color | Green | Yellow | Red | Blue |
| Emotion | Desire | Fear | Anger | Pride/Glory |
| Breathes | Vines | Light | Fire | Water |
| Says | “Mine!” | “I’m Scared” | “Not Fair!” | “By Myself!” |
| Verse: | Psalm 37:4 | 1 Peter 1:17 | Ephesians 4:26 | Galatians 6:4 |
| Nurtured By: | Hope | Wisdom | Love | Faith |
| Reined In By: | Patience | Responsibility | Gentleness | Obedience |
| Experience God’s: | Generosity | Justice | Mercy | Predictability |
Therefore I urge you who have been chosen by God to live up to the life to which God called you. Always be humble, gentle, and patient, accepting each other in love. — Ephesians 4:1a-2
“Who is God and What Does He Want?” Preschool Theology, Book I
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Leadership on May 31, 2012
My goal for this summer is to turn my 36-week Bible study “Growing Church Leaders” into a three-volume series of picture books for my preschoolers. Here’s my first cut at text for the first one, “Think Biblically”, written one tweet at a time:
- God is the One who made everything. He made you for a special purpose. He wants everyone to know how He loves them.
- God is three persons: a Father who sends us, Jesus the Son who rescues us, and a Spirit who helps us.
- God wants us to love Him and other people as much as we love ourself. Sin is when we disobey God’s good purpose for us.
- Sin makes it hard for us to know, want or do what is right. Jesus came to earth, died, and rose again to destroy sin.
- Following Jesus means believing He loves us more than we love ourself, which means obeying Him will make us the most happy.
- God gives us parents, the Bible, church and His Spirit to show us how to love people and be happy His way.
- Jesus went to heaven, but will come back to create and rule a new heaven & earth for all who want to live His way.
- Until Jesus returns, our job is to show how wonderful it is to live and love the way God wants.
Knight Club #1: 4 PM, Sat June 16 at Newhall Park, San Jose
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on May 31, 2012
Calling all Fathers and Sons:
Rohan and Davey invite you to join us in a couple weeks for “Knight Club” – a time of physical and spiritual exercise for boys and dads*
4 PM to 5:30 PM Saturday, June 16thNewhall Park, San Jose (the corner of Newhall Street and Campbell Avenue)
http://goo.gl/maps/3Lai
We will sweat. We will pray. We will grow stronger — together!
The Knight’s Chant: The Promise of Holiness
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on May 29, 2012
I AM A KNIGHT (fist straight up in the air)
KNIGHTS DO WHAT’S RIGHT (pound fist in hand)
I KNOW WHAT’S RIGHT (salute)
I WANT WHAT’S RIGHT (fist over heart)
I CAN DO WHAT’S RIGHT (fist forward)
WE ARE STRONG (make muscles)
WE USE OUR STRENGTH (hands on waist)
TO PROTECT THE WEAK (hands reaching down)
TO HELP OUR FRIENDS (hands straight out to the side)
TO SERVE THE CHURCH (hands forward, palms up)
TO HONOR GOD (hands up to heaven)
AMEN! (hands clasped together overhead)
[YELL] (clap)
Knight Club: How to Ride a Dragon
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on March 17, 2012
Yesterday I gave my son Rohan (age 3 and 5/6ths) a set of colored dragons and attempted to explain my four-dimensional system for emotional maturity. He grasped the basic idea quite quickly, though I had to modify some of the terms (e.g., “Obedience” instead of “Humility”).
| Dragon | Spurs | Reins |
|---|---|---|
| Fear | Safety | Bravery |
| Anger | Caring | Thoughtfulness |
| Desire | Hope | Patience |
| Pride | Honor | Obedience |
What’s interesting about this list is that the “Spurs” column is more maternal/feminine, while the “Reins” are more paternal/masculine.
Knight Club: Moral Authority and the Fourth Dragon
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on March 15, 2012
One of the ways I tackle “wicked problems” is by exploring different possible answers in order to help clarify the essential question. My posts on flying and mastering the dragons of manhood have been useful in helping me recognize that the two main questions Knight Club is trying to answer are:
- What does it mean to be a man?
- What can we do to help our sons become those kind of men?
I believe the most critical aspect of authentic manhood is “moral authority,” where people trust you will do the right thing.
Knight Club: Flying the Dragons of Anger, Fear, & Desire
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on March 3, 2012
In my previous post, on mastering the three dragons of manhood, I discussed the ideal masculine character as harnessing the:
- Red Dragon of Anger
- Green Dragon of Fear
- Gold Dragon of Desire
In this post, I want to explore using anger to go fast, fear to go straight, and desire to go high.
Knight Club: Mastering the Three Dragons of Manhood
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on March 3, 2012
In Sheila Walsh’s Will, God’s Mighty Warrior, there’s a scene where Will and his buddy Josh are pretending to be on a quest against monstrous beasts. They run into Will’s large English sheepdog. Josh is starting to defend himself, but Will assures his friend that “I have tamed this wild creature, and now use it to serve me.”
One of the hot trends in education these days is Mastery Learning: students are expected to master a concept before they move on, not just fill their seats until the class moves on. It is similar to Ranks in the Boy Scouts of America, where you need a certain number and type of accomplishments to move from Tenderfoot up through Eagle.
So what is the analogue in Knight Club? What are we mastering?
Knight Club: The Vicious Virtues
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on March 1, 2012
I often feel I owe my success more to my “vices” than to my “virtues.”
What is a virtue? What is a vice?
- Impatience
- Anger
- Rebelliousness
- Restlessness
- Infatuation
- Daydreaming
- Desire
- Goofing Off
- Subversive Activity
- Laziness
- Quitting
- Boredom
- Fighting
- Delusions of Grandeur
Society — especially school, but the church is arguably worse — tells us these are crimes to be stamped out.
They’re half-right. I call them the vicious virtues. When misdirected, they can easily destroy both self and society.
But if you can master them — and through them master yourself — you can fix the world.
How do we create an alternative form of learning that embraces creative chaos and harnesses the vicious virtues, rather than fighting them?
Knight Club: Levels of Love
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on February 29, 2012
The first rule of Knight Club: you must talk about Knight Club.
In the comments on my first Knight Club post, my friend Jor Bratko talks about “raising adults”, and points out that:
the legitimacy of my authority like all legitimate authority comes from love: the care of the other
He is absolutely correct. I actually knew this, but I didn’t understand how it applied to fatherhood. Part of the problem is that the English word “love” refers to (at least) three different phenomena, which in this context I call Baby Love, Bro Love, and Boss Love — loosely inspired by the four loves described by C.S. Lewis.
Knight Club: The Knight’s Code
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on February 28, 2012
The following is based on 1 – Introduction – The Training of a Knight – Age of Chivalry – Thomas Bulfinch, adapted surprisingly little to match the challenges of a preschool boy in modern America.
Knights:
- Respect their elders
- Serve the church
- Help their friends
- Protect the weak
I added the converse, to help clarify appropriate versus inappropriate behavior.
Bullies:
- Disobey their elders
- Disrupt the church
- Fight their friends
- Take from the weak
Knight Club: Where Fathers and Sons Learn to Win Life’s Most Important Battles
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Knight Club on February 28, 2012
Recently our church has been wrestling with what it means to be “missional” — a family on mission together. My wife and I have been struggling with the same question, particularly with regards to raising our precocious (and sometimes rebellious) 3-and-5/6ths year-old son Rohan. I knew he needed to be more respectful and obedient, but (for whatever reason) I didn’t feel comfortable simply demanding that by fiat. As a result, we’d been more-or-less stuck on this issue for many months. For Lent, Respectful Obedience has become one of my top four requests (along with Emotional Connection, Sustainable Integration, and Viral Transformation).
Thursday night, I decided to pray about it while putting Rohan back to sleep after he woke me up at 1 AM. I felt God say I should look at how He dealt with his children: Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, etc. In most of those cases, God chooses someone, gives them an assignment, and then — after they’ve taken a leap of faith — He makes a covenant with them. In short, I need to start thinking in terms of discipling Rohan (teaching him to obey God) — rather than merely parenting Rohan (teaching him to obey me).
Growing Church Leaders now on Amazon
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Editorial, Leadership on April 11, 2011
I should have mentioned this awhile ago, but I am very excited to have my new book available on Amazon.com <http://amzn.to/growchurch> in both softcover and Kindle editions.
GCL A.6 Father’s Kingdom: His World, His Image
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Leadership on March 3, 2010
In Which God Creates His World, and Our Place In It
The overriding theme of our journey has been exploring what it means to be “baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Having dealt (however superficially) with the ontological aspects of that “name”, we now focus on the narrative aspects.
In particular, we will focus on the arc of “creation corruption and redemption” found throughout scripture (and literature), as manifested through the persons of the Trinity. Starting with the Father, and Creation…
Memory Verse: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” — Genesis 1:27 (NKJV)
GCL A.7 Man’s Rebellion: His Law, Our Sin
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Leadership on March 3, 2010
In Which We Reject God’s Dominion, And Pay The Price
When God created the world, He gave us as humans dominion over all the plants and animals. But it was not an unconditional grant: rather, we have a responsibility to take His already “very good” creation to the next level, by filling the earth with His image.
And if we fail in that responsibility, the price is high…
Memory Verse: “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.” — Psalm 19:9 (NKJV)
GCL A.8 Christ’s Salvation: His Pain, Our Gain
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Leadership on March 3, 2010
In Which We Receive the Gospel, And Are Saved By It
Our series so far — indeed, the first half of human history — is but a prelude to the coming of Jesus Christ. In Christ we have the word of God made flesh, the perfect revelation of God’s character, a tangible representative of the Trinity, and a reminder of what we were created to be.
Yet even more glorious than all that: Christ is Our Lord, and has become our much-needed Savior…
Memory Verse: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” — 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NKJV)
GCL A.9 Spirit’s Conviction: Connect, Chastise, Convey
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Leadership on March 2, 2010
In Which Jesus Sends the Comforter, and We Are Convicted By Him
This week we move from the Father and the Son to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. This also continues our theme of God restoring His Image by saving us from our rebellion. And as usual, there is a heavy price to be paid…
Memory Verse: “And when He [the Holy Spirit] has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment “ — John 16:1 (NKJV)
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