Introductory Remarks at All Saints Classical Academy Information Meeting, February 21, 2026

The year was 1838. A rugged band of 700 migrants left Germany for a fresh start in America. They boarded five ships to cross the Atlantic. One ship was lost at sea. 602 people survived the journey to a place where they could live and worship freely in accord with Scripture and educate their children in the faith without interference. These two goals—faithful churches and faithful education—motivated them to dare, to risk, to build. In their churches, homes, and schools, they wanted more than anything else, to pass down the faith once delivered to the saints.

Within a few years, this “little platoon” had built many churches, homes, and schools. They believed it was not the task of the state, but of parents and congregations to provide for the education of their children.[1] They understood that faith, family, and education must be knit together to bring the next generation into the great tradition. So, they made hard decisions. They built things. They sacrificed. And we stand on their shoulders here today.

Those early pioneers were known for saying, “next to every Lutheran church a Lutheran school!”[2]

-In 1847 our synod had 15 congregations, and 15 schools.
-By 1857 there were 125 congregations and 119 schools.
-Ten more years and we had 253 congregations and 243 schools.
-By 1871 our little band had grown to 419 congregations and 408 schools.[3]

And today, our denomination still runs the largest Protestant church-school system in America.[4]

This is a story worth telling! And one in which a new chapter is being written now. In pockets across the country, new schools are launching, communities are coming together to form co-ops and hybrids. Families are seeking work-life balance and ways of living that are conducive to handing down the faith.

We are seeing all these things right here in our community and church. That’s why we’re doing this. And if not now, when? If not here, where?

My friends, now is the time to build. Now is the time to reunite education, family, and faith—things that our culture separates from one another, we are bringing back together again.

God be with us as we launch All Saints Classical Academy—for the good of children, parents, church, and society. I ask that you continually pray with me that Father, Son, and Spirit would grant us wisdom, unity, and endurance in what lies ahead, and that we would be filled with humility and confidence. Humility in ourselves and our failings, which will be many. And confidence in the Holy Trinity, who will achieve what he wants with this work. We’ve stepped through doors that are opening, and we trust that the Lord will open and shut doors according to his good pleasure. Whether that lines up with our wishes or not, whether it means we end up with few students or many. All of this is about much more than numbers; it is about the dear soul of each child.

And that is our starting point here: we honor each child as an embodied soul, a whole person, a sacred creation of God, made in his image, and formed into the image of His Son by means of the church, the family, and the academy. In uniting these three institutions something beautiful emerges: all three working together to bring the next generation into a culture that transcends time and place.

At the Academy, we see the school not as a factory, but as a garden; we see the child not as a product, but as a person. Education is much more than inputs and outputs, or things easily quantified by the latest measures of productivity or efficiency. Forming and educating humans is never efficient. Students are not commodities or piles of data to be mined. Rather, students bear the mark of the divine.[5] And education is to cultivate them in wisdom and virtue, knowledge and faith, love of learning and lifelong growth. So they can love and understand the world around them, and love and understand the God who made them and saved them. This is what drives us.

-This is a place where we partner with parents in their God-given task of educating their children for this life and the life of the world to come.

-This is a place where boys are trained to grow into men and girls to grow into women, in all the splendor and mystery that manhood and womanhood bring.

-This is a place where there be dragons to slay and kingdoms to win; families to forge and communities to serve; churches to sustain and homes to build.

-This is a place where there is such a thing as truth; and we can learn it. Where there is such a thing as goodness; and we can live it. Where there is such a thing as beauty; and we can love it.

-This is a place where children are given eyes to see the deeper magic by which God rules the world.

-This is a place where we pass on the holy Christian faith and live each day in light of Christ and his work for us.

This is what education is for: ushering the next generation into a way of life and a way of seeing the world that brings joy and wonder at what’s around them; that feeds them noble and virtuous things so that they love what is beautiful, do what is good, and believe what is true, which all culminates in Christ, who holds all things together.

This is the world we want for our children, grandchildren, and children of the church. This is the world as it truly is, and as it will be expressed and embodied at the Academy.

What we’re seeing unfold here is just the beginning of what is possible as we bring together church, home, and school in this hybrid classical model.

In closing, I return to the story I began with: the growth of Lutheran churches and schools during the 18-and-1900s. One of that era’s great theologians and teachers said this: “The Christian home and the Christian school are the two most effective agencies for the training of children.”[6] You stand in that tradition; your children, grandchildren, and the children of your church stand in that tradition. Embrace it. Give it to them. Help them learn it. Help them live it. Help them love it. Give them an education within the tradition, rooted in the permanent things—things beyond ourselves, and durable enough to sustain the generations to come. Here, we have something anchored and stable in this fragmented chaotic age.

The future belongs to the builders, those who do something when needs arise, those who offer a way forward when problems come. There is no easy button to push here; you cannot outsource your difficult decisions and sacrifices to others. It will be hard. But it will be worth it. Good things are hard things. And we do so for the glory of God and the good of His people. As we read in Nehemiah 2:18, when the people of God rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls, “They said, ‘Let us rise up and build.’ [And] they strengthened their hands for the good work.” God grant it to be so, today!

[1] Korcok, Lutheran Education, 167–68.

[2] Jason Oakland, foreword to John Schaller, “The Battle for the Christian School as a Battle for the Christian Worldview,” trans. Jason Oakland and Andrew Hussman, from original “Der Kampf um Die Christliche Schule als Kampf um die Chirstliche Weltenschauung,” Theologische Quartalschrift, vol. 7, 1910. Also, it is clear from earlier Lutheran history, that parish schools were just assumed as part of the work of the church. The preface to the Book of Concord notes that the Lutheran doctrine was being taught in churches and schools. Luther also notes: “But I would not advise anyone to send his child to a place where the Holy Scriptures do not come first. Every institution, where the Word of God is not taught regularly must fail.” The 1854 Synod Constitution noted that every “congregation should give provision of a Christian education for the children of the congregation.”

[3] 1847: 15 congregation, 15 schools, 764 students; 1856: 125 congregations, 119 schools, 4,646 students; 1865: 253 congregations, 243 schools, 16,891 students; 1871: 419 congregations, 408 schools, 26,455 students.

[4] “About Us,” The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Aug 7, 2023, https://www.lcms.org/about.

[5] Sarah Osborne, Reading for the Long Run, dustjacket quote.

[6] Edward Koehler, A Christian Pedagogy, 44, VI, 37.