A Message from Dr. Jay Hancock…
Thank you to everyone who has offered encouraging words and prayers during the past 11 months as I served as Interim Head of School at Carmel Christian. I’m very grateful to serve the school that I love and I’m humbled to be selected as the next Head of School.
Last year, if you had asked me if I was considering applying for the Head of School position, I would have told you that I was not. And that would have been a genuine answer.
When I agreed to serve as Interim Head of School at Carmel, I felt that the Lord was leading me to make a commitment only to the interim position. However, over the summer and early fall, many people asked me if I would consider becoming the permanent Head of School. While I appreciated their encouragement, my decision about whether to apply had to be something I felt the Lord was calling me to do.
So, on October 18, I took one of my regular prayer days away from the campus to intentionally ask the Lord if I should apply for the position. Several close friends and Carmel colleagues knew this was the main question for my day away, and they were praying for me. On that day, the Lord immediately revealed His will that I should apply and affirmed that message as I spent several hours praying and walking in the mountains.
I shared more about that story at the parent meeting on February 11. You can hear that message online. (Password: ccsheadofschool)
My calling has always been to use my God-given gifts to lead ministries and to teach and equip leaders to carry out the mission of disciple-making. The major responsibilities of a head of school are:
• to cast vision that advances the mission of the school,
• to create a healthy organizational environment,
• to set the expectation that academic excellence is essential
• to establish a culture for making disciples who will be future leaders in their communities and
• to shepherd and guide the school’s leadership team to make the wise and sometimes hard decisions to get us where we want to go.
My goal will be to empower leaders, some of whom have skills and experience that I do not have, to use their gifts to make the school ministry successful.
Many years ago, I came to believe that every generation must learn how to give the kingdom of God to the next generation and that they must do so deliberately and completely. Christian education is not simply about graduating more educated, more happy, more moral, and more spiritual kids than a secular school. It is about preparing young men and women to be spiritual leaders in their generation.
The next generation– the students in Kindergarten through 12th grade at CCS– will not live in the same America that our parents and grandparents lived in.
Their America is becoming increasingly hostile to Christ and to the values that we hold dear. CCS is about investing in the next generation.
• I want our students to learn how to truly abide in Christ, to build relationships that matter for eternity, to live the gospel in word and deed, and to invest everything they have in the mission of Christ.
• I want students to experience Christ in a way that makes being counter cultural natural and normal.
• I want to call on parents to lead the way in discipleship in their homes and to pray for spiritual renewal, which in previous generations began with students.
• I want to build a school that parents across the region will long to send their children to so that they can be smart kids, godly kids, who are inspired to live life on mission.
That’s my vision for CCS. Carmel Christian has a great opportunity to impact the future for God’s glory. I am grateful for the opportunity to lead CCS in this important role.