CPH Teach Blog Posts

Developing a Distinctly Christian School

Written by Bernard Bull | July 10, 2025

The following blog post is adapted from Faithful and Flourishing: Strategies for Leading Your Christian School with Excellence by Dr. Bernard Bull, a thought leader in the landscape of Christian education and author of multiple must-read books for Christian educators.

What Is a Distinct School?

For better or worse, we live in an educational culture of choice. When I lived in the greater Milwaukee area and my first child was nearing school age, I became curious about the number of school options available. I stopped when I got to seventy school options within forty miles. There were public schools, charter schools, blended learning schools, Catholic schools, Lutheran schools, Jewish schools, nondenominational schools, STEM academies, classical schools, project-based learning schools, Waldorf schools, Montessori schools, and many more. In addition, several homeschool cooperatives supported those who opted to serve as the general contractor for their children’s education. As I talked to other parents, I discovered something that had been rare in past generations. I found families with four children who, rather than sending all the children to the same school or school system, selected a different school for each child based on what they thought best met the needs of that child.

Some refer to this as an identity versus fit approach to choosing a school. In past generations, parents made a school choice based on their identity. You are a resident of a given town, so you send your kids to the local public school. That is where you attended and where your children will attend. You did not decide based on an assessment of the school’s strengths and your child’s goals or needs. You chose based on identity and proximity. Being part of the town was being part of the local public school. If you were Lutheran or Catholic, perhaps you sent your children to the local denominational school. Once more, this was not because of a careful review of the school’s features and benefits but because that’s what Lutheran and Catholic parents did. This approach is what some call an identity decision.

The Right Fit

Value decisions about schooling are different. You think about your children—their goals, needs, strengths, and weaknesses—and you look at the various schools available to you, considering their features and benefits. It is akin to a matchmaking exercise. You look for the right “fit” for each of your children. Where are they most likely to get what they need, fit in, grow, and have a positive experience?

Not all schooling decisions fall in one of these two approaches, but today’s fit approach is far more common than at any other time in American history. It means parents are doing something far more like shopping for a school. This approach is especially true when considering the possibility of a Christian school.

One response to this change is embracing a branding strategy akin to modern businesses, finding ways to become more attractive to families shopping for a new school. Another option, however, involves ensuring that your school is not simply trying to appeal to as many people as possible. Instead, it is the path of striving to be distinct. What is it that your school does exceedingly well and likely better than the other schools in the area? Rather than seeing other schools as your competition, you focus on how you can live out your mission while meeting one or more unmet needs for families in your church and community.

Distinctly Christian

As a Christian school, that commitment to Christ-centered education will undoubtedly be essential, even central, to your distinctiveness. To be truly distinctive, this must be deep and authentic and must permeate what happens at your school. Such an approach calls for self-examination of as many parts of the school as possible. If we are a Christian school, what is distinct about that when it comes to curriculum, culture, climate, chapel, extracurriculars, faculty, staff, leadership, policies, procedures, what we celebrate, and our approach to admissions? How does all this work in concert, rowing in synchronicity like [a crew] of Olympic rowers? How do these aspects collectively communicate a mission-minded message that shapes and equips those whom God blesses us with the opportunity to serve and teach?

Being Christ centered is undoubtedly a central distinction of Christian schools, and having a long list of distinctive traits is a recipe for mediocrity. Being truly distinct at thirty different things is out of reach for most schools. In my research, I have found that schools displaying a distinctiveness that is genuinely unavoidable and undeniable throughout the school tend to focus on two to four specific features.

Even one distinctive characteristic can result in wildly different educational approaches. Consider two school examples. The first school focuses on being grounded in God’s Word, creating a truly inviting and welcoming family-friendly school culture, and providing an education rooted in a classical philosophy of education. A second school shares the commitment to being grounded in God’s Word throughout the school and curriculum, but the other distinctions are different. This school prioritizes nurturing servant leaders and creating a mastery learning approach to education, where every student makes as much individual academic progress as possible. These two Christian schools share the same first distinction, but consider how their different second and third features will create unique types of schools that will likely serve some students and families better than others.

I will not prescribe your distinct features as a school in this text, nor should anyone else. These features must be agreed upon and owned by each school. I will, however, challenge you to strive for an increasingly distinct school. This challenge entails working with your community to identify, clarify, and define two to four features of your school that you want to be undeniable, unavoidable, and truly school-shaping.

Blog post adapted from Faithful and Flourishing: Strategies for Leading Your Christian School with Excellence © 2025 Bernard Bull, published by Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Explore the importance of distinct schools in Dr. Bernard Bull’s new book, Faithful and Flourishing: Strategies for Leading Your Christian School with Excellence.