A Vision To Partner In Thailand

Originally Written for the Westside Way- Modified to communicate the current planning
Over the past month I have been challenged to begin documenting the collaboratively developed vision for our school. This is a process which includes prayer, study, brainstorming, discussing, listening, and openness to God’s leading. I love to talk about the future and prayerfully join God as He unveils His plans. It is a temptation to move faster that God as well as be distracted my own desires rather than His. The last month has brought some clarity to one part of our vision, and we are beginning to work that out prayerfully.

As you may know, last spring we felt called to focus our attention on being more intentional about developing the hearts of our students. In the process I think God has done work on me. Isn’t that typical? I have been forced to grapple with my own leadership approach as we have been talking about the kind of leaders we want to equip our students to be. Our conversations have been about doing a better job of inspiring students toward becoming Christ-centered leading servants.

I have been challenged in my reading through the gospels and through conversations with Christian leaders to look at Christ as the example of leadership. His leadership style is not self seeking. It is honest, loving, and passionate. I have been reading Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great” where he (through research) identifies organizations that have moved from being good to great and have been able to sustain that greatness over time. In his research he identified that every organization that was able to sustain that greatness had an atypical leader at the helm. This is not a Christian book, but every leader they identified in these companies had two seemingly dichotomous characteristics; humility and a passion or overwhelming will for their cause or organization.

Diane Moore describes her sixth stage of moral development as a place of leadership. This is a place were decisions are made out of the combined motivation of truth and love. Obviously these characteristics (humble, passionate, truthful, loving) aren’t a complete picture of the character of Christ, but it has been a challenge for me personally to truly seek God in these particular areas.

It is mind boggling for me to think of how much could be accomplished if we were truly humble, yet on the other hand passionate to fulfill the calling God has given us. It would be amazing to live out that passion in the spirit of Christ’s love and the truth of God’s word. How do we work this out in our own life and present opportunities for our students to work toward being a Christ-centered leader? There isn’t a formula or three step process that will get us there.

I believe our community building focus, grace filled environment, and challenging Christ-centered academics over the past twenty-five years has placed Westside in a unique position to work on developing further the hearts of our students. It has been happening for the past twenty five years, but I believe God is positioning us to do even more. As I’ve reflected on the readings and conversations I’ve had over the past year I’ve come to believe that for learning to take place at the heart level, it may need to include two components.

One component is first-hand experiences. These are experiences that allow us to see, hear, feel, and smell the realities of God’s working in this world. Another component is emotion. To couple emotion with God’s truth in an experience forces us to grapple with heart level commitments and convictions, and fuels our passion for Christ’s calling in our life. Imagine what it might look like if our students were to understand more clearly the world they live in and were more equipped and passionate about living out God’s calling for them in this world.

Over the past year our Spiritual Life team has been working on developing local, national, as well as international opportunities that would help us accomplish our goal of moving forward with heart level learning. As a first step in this process Westside is developing a relationship with an outside organization, Remember Nhu. Cooperating with Remember Nhu will provide our students with a powerful experience that will help us continue to fulfill our Westside mission.

“Our school exists to equip servant leaders in God’s kingdom for the next generation by educating and developing the whole person to the glory of God.”

*Equip servant leaders – To give the practical tools required for Christ-modeled leadership
*Develop the whole person – Encourage the development of a heart that seeks to glorify God
*Glorify – To bring glory to God through one’s actions.

Through Remember Nhu, Westside will partner with a ministry in Thailand to provide a home to children who are at risk of falling into slavery. Remember Nhu will serve as a middle organization providing the administration, consulting, and logistics of our relationship with our Thailand partner. In a grassroots way (not out of the school budget) Westside will fund all capital expenditures and operating costs of this orphanage. In addition we would send a group of our students to this location on an annual basis (with staff and strategic partners) for an extended short-term experience. Our students will be challenged to humble themselves to understand the complexities of another culture, join in the working of God through a ministry to Thai children, bring back that experience, and apply it to their life in the States.

There is no doubt this experience will develop the hearts of our students to glorify God in a new way. I believe this experience will result in a dramatic challenge and heart transformation. Those who go will be challenged to evaluate God’s calling on their life. They will be inspired to a form of leadership perspective that is humble, passionate for the cause of Christ, seeks the truth, and expresses that truth in love to others.

The Next Step:
This summer a pilot trip is being planned (late June, early July). This trip will include a small number of students, faculty and staff, and strategic partners. We realize that this announcement will develop more questions than this article will answer, and for that reason a letter will be mailed in the next week announcing an evening where the details of the vision of this movement in our school will be communicated further.