Muskegon Christian School

Who We Are

Our Mission

Our mission is to equip minds and hearts to LOVE, LEARN, and LEAD for Christ.

Each day we are looking for new and better ways to integrate the Christian faith into every aspect of the curriculum. At every level and in each area, your children will be challenged academically and encouraged spiritually to fulfill their God-given purpose. We are focused on building character by creating opportunities for each child to deepen their commitment to Christ through service projects, praise services, family groups and more. Scripture guides how we treat each other and know God’s world.

Statement of Faith

The mission of West Michigan Christian Schools is based on God’s infallible Word, the Bible, as explicated by the Reformed tradition; all association members subscribe to this summary:

GOD

There is one infinite, holy, loving, personal God who speaks to us in Scripture and reveals himself to us in His acts of creation, salvation, and renewal, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As finite human beings created in God’s image, we declare that it is our purpose and privilege to worship, honor, serve, and obey Him.

CREATION

The world belongs to God, who created it and faithfully sustains it by His providence. Creation is the theater of God’s glory, displaying His power and majesty. God calls us to discover creation’s resources, to receive these gifts with thanksgiving and delight, and to use them wisely as stewards and caretakers who are responsible to God and to our neighbor.

SIN

Our ability to carry out our human calling to honor God, serve our neighbor, and care for the creation is marred by the corrosive effects of sin, which touches every part of life. When our first parents listened to Satan’s lie, questioned God’s Word, and rebelled against Him, they brought His judgment upon themselves, their posterity, and the creation. Brokenness, disease, hatred, arrogance, alienation, abuse of creation, and ultimately death are the inevitable fruits of sin in our world.

COVENANT

However, God has not rejected or abandoned His world but has turned to it in love. He gave the rainbow sign to Noah as a pledge of his promise to care for all creatures. He made a covenant with Abraham, promising to be a faithful God to him and his children, and through them to bless all nations. Through His servant Moses, God disclosed His law for the human community, promising rich blessing as the fruit of obedience. God always keeps His promises. We acknowledge with gratitude and joy that He is our God and the God of our children; that we are His people, and that this is His world.

REDEMPTION

As He promised, God in love sent Jesus Christ into the world to save it from sin and its consequences. The atoning death of the Son of God is the only payment for the debt of human sin, and Christ’s resurrection is the only liberation from the powers of evil and death. The victorious Lord sends the Holy Spirit to create faith, cleanse and renew hearts, and build a community of love and holiness. It is this community’s mission to proclaim and live this good news and to make disciples of nations.

KINGDOM OF GOD

Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and He reigns over all things for our good. To be a citizen of this kingdom is a privilege, a joy, and a responsibility. Led by His Spirit, we place our every thought, word, and deed in the service of Christ’s present and coming reign, and we live daily in the confident hope of His triumphant return.

All association members, including teachers, must subscribe to the following statements as accurate summaries of the Word of God about Christian education:

COMMUNITY

Each of our West Michigan Christian Schools, as an enterprise of the entire community, enables and equips all of its children to serve the Lord, to love their fellow human beings, and to care for God’s creation. The WMCS community provides an environment of love and care within which students are nurtured. As an indispensable partner with the home and the church, each school leads children to live according to Biblical wisdom.

STAFF

Staff members of WMC Schools, are living in joyful fellowship with God, model the love of Christ to children. Empowered by the Holy Spirit and dedicated to the highest standards of excellence and professionalism, WMCS teachers view their work as a vocation. The calling of a WMCS teacher is to pass on the wisdom of the Christian tradition to students and to help them understand and apply the transforming power of the gospel to contemporary society and culture.

STUDENTS

Children are God’s image bearers, entrusted to parents and the Christian community as His gifts. WMC Schools encourage students to develop their gifts in response to God and in loving service to fellow human beings. Students are led to know God and to respond to Him in every dimension of the creation and in every aspect of their lives.

CURRICULUM

The WMC Schools PK-12 curriculum is developed and organized so that children may come to know God more deeply and richly and live for Him more faithfully. Since human experience in all its rich variety is a good gift from the Creator who remains involved in his world, our curriculum explores all dimensions of creation. God’s design for the creation and His will for human society and culture must be understood and obeyed. This is the way of godly wisdom. Students are taught to recognize the brokenness that sin brings to God’s carefully designed world and are challenged to bring the healing power of Jesus Christ to a fallen world.

Educational Philosophy

Christian education begins with the understanding that God is at the center of every pursuit of knowledge and that all that we accomplish is done out of gratitude for what He has done for us. Muskegon Christian School challenges students to allow God to mold their hearts and minds to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in the world. There is no greater purpose for a school than to guide students toward embracing and influencing the world in this way.

At MCS we believe that all of the subjects we teach are part of God’s kingdom and God is sovereign over all aspects of the world He created. As we study math, science, social studies, language arts and music, we are studying the truths that God has created using the tools He has supplied.

We believe that students are created in God’s image. From an education perspective, this means that students are creative and purposeful as God is creative and purposeful. Therefore, students need to be challenged to use the tools and talents God has supplied to do work that has meaning. This is what has led MCS to adopt Project Based Learning as a methodology that keys into our understanding of the basic nature of the learner. We are most effective when we are able to guide students’ learning in ways that follow His wisdom and design.

The teachers at MCS have a deep love for students and who they are as God’s children. Our Christian perspective not only influences the students’ academics, but also how teachers manage students. Our teachers encourage students to discover the awesome ways that God reveals himself to us through His creation. They work hard to motivate students and encourage them to do their part in helping to make this world more as God intended out of a sense of gratitude for what He has done for us.

Our Story: MCS History

Looking Back

Muskegon Christian School was founded in 1882 by a group of parents who wanted a school that would instruct students according to one of the most fundamental truths of the Christian faith: the love and sovereignty of Christ permeates every facet of each day. Throughout the past 130+ years, God has faithfully blessed that dream.

Muskegon Christian School, circa 1900

Muskegon Christian School actually began as two separate schools. In 1882, a school was temporarily quartered in First Christian Reformed Church of Muskegon until they were able to erect a small school on Hartford Street. A few years later, the Wood Ave School was formed just a few miles away. Both Hartford Street and Wood Avenue schools continued on as two separate organizations until 1923 when it was agreed that joining the schools would provide for better organization and instruction. The Muskegon Christian School Society was incorporated on November 21, 1923.

By the late 1940’s, the Hartford Street school was bulging with students, and in January 1954, construction began on our current school building. Over the next decade, enrollment soared to over 600 students and by 1963, three additions were made to the school to bring it to its current size.

One night in November, 1964, a fire broke out in the custodian’s room and a large section of the school was damaged. After hearing about the fire on the radio the next morning, volunteers showed up in force to clean and repair the school so that only one day of school was missed by students! Our community rallied to support the teachers and ensure that students would continue to experience a quality Christian education in Muskegon. Amazing how some things never change.

Although the people, the buildings, and the times have changed; the visionary perspective of acknowledging that the whole world belongs to God has not wavered. Not only do we strive for academic excellence, it is our goal that every child is touched by Christ’s love, encouraged to live a Christ-filled life, and motivated continually to do works of gratitude. We strive to make this our legacy, one that will be repeated by our children and their children.

Ultimately, we seek to provide an environment that develops original thought and teaches students how to think as opposed to just what to think. We are raising up the next generation of Christian servant – leaders. What an awesome calling!

Our Unique Learning Environment

Diverse Community

MCS students come from Muskegon as well as Grand Haven, Whitehall, Fruitport and other outlying areas and represent a wide range of economic levels. We have a minority representation of approximately 25%, roughly the same as Muskegon County. This provides a valuable opportunity for our students to recognize the truth of the fact that Jesus died for all of us, and is pleased when we live, learn and worship together.

MCS also has approximately 60 different churches represented by its student body!

We seek to foster a diverse community in the area of student ability as well. MCS offers a range of Educational Support Services, including our Passport to Learn Program for gifted and talented students.

MCS seeks to help those who need extra assistance to make full use of their talents. We coordinate our Title I and Gifted and Talented programs through our Academic Support Office.

Learning Adventure

At Muskegon Christian School, we truly believe that education should be an adventure! Kids were never meant to sit in desks all day. They should explore, discover, build, question, and of course, play! A typical classroom at MCS includes all those things. We incorporate Project Based Learning initiatives throughout our curriculum to challenge our students to work together and problem solve. We offer a Spanish Immersion program along with our traditional English program to not only build language skills but broaden cultural awareness and sensitivity. Technology is integrated into the curriculum K- 6th. MCS is focused on preparing our students to be servant leaders, learning real life skills to become global leaders.

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