Diversity & Belonging at CHCA

One of CHCA’s core values states “We believe in the Value of Each Person: Demonstrating biblical equality, we will embrace each individual as a distinct creation of God, ensure an emotionally, socially, and physically safe and nurturing environment, and intentionally enroll a student body, faculty, and staff who reflect the socioeconomic and racial make-up of the world in which we live.” Fundamentally, Genesis 1 begins the biblical narrative with the concept of Imago Dei (Image of God). Believing that each person is created as a reflection and image-bearer of God compels us to thoughtfully consider how we live out this truth in all areas of the life of our school. The Diversity & Belonging Committee and Director role were established by CHCA’s Board of Trustees to enable this value to come to life in new ways, establishing a school community of diversity, hospitality, and fellowship that truly reflects the heart of God and His plan for all His people.

As we identify the differences of various ethnicities and people groups within the body of Christ, these diversities should be fully embraced. Furthermore, each unique member, created in God’s image, plays a critical role in Christ’s church (1 Corinthians 12:12-14). In God’s economy no one aspect of His people, such as race or ethnicity, is superior to the other and all should be counted as equal participants and contributors within His Kingdom (Galatians 3:28). As a Christian school, CHCA must strongly espouse these truths.

Over the years, CHCA has grown in its enrollment of diverse families and we have an International Student Program that currently brings students from 10+ different countries. But we believe that God is leading us to more - to be an institution that better represents the beautiful diversity of the Kingdom of God in its faculty, staff, and student body.

In speaking with current and alumni families of color and various ethnicities over the past few years, it is clear that CHCA has opportunities to grow further in being a place where all students, parents, and staff feel valued and supported and truly at home within our community. That is why the Board of Trustees, in partnership with the school’s administration, prioritized diversity as a key strategic pillar and focus for the coming years. As a result, we began working on strategies three years ago for how we could establish and maintain an environment of unity, diversity, hospitality, and equality within the CHCA school community. Creating task forces and starting conversations among faculty, staff, and parents ultimately led to the creation of a new key administrative role, the Director of Diversity & Belonging. This role was created to develop and execute strategies to build and maintain a racially, culturally, and economically diverse school community.

Our vision is to have CHCA known as a community where families of all cultures, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds feel welcomed, a sense of belonging, and able to thrive and reach their God-given potential.

It is always important to define terms. All words have a semantic range, carrying a variety of possible meanings. In society at large, the words “diversity", "equity" or "equality", and "inclusion” have come to represent multiple ideologies and political movements, many of which do not align with our understanding of Scripture’s teaching. While we acknowledge these words and concepts carry a multiplicity of meanings, we seek to be clear in our context how we are applying them. In a world that often fractures communities and divides people, we seek to emphasize that the family of God is to be one and not divided by race, culture, and class. We define the terms in the context of CHCA’s Christ-centered environment as follows:

• Diversity: bringing together a more culturally, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse community among faculty, staff, and families at CHCA – one that better represents the world into which we send our students.
   
• Equity or Equality: no matter the background cultural, ethnic, or socio-economic background, male or female, we should ensure that every member of our community has equal access and opportunity. This is inclusive of student engagement in and out of the classroom, as well as employment opportunities for faculty and staff. And while all students will have equal opportunities, we are mindful that individual talents and effort are important determinants of outcomes for our students.
   
• Inclusion: among a more diverse school culture, we enable the appreciation and assimilation of each individual to work together in activities that promote student development, glorify God, and build up the Kingdom. Simply stated, we want everyone in our community to feel welcomed and a sense of belonging.

Our school desires to grow in the areas of D&B, and there are very specific steps we look to take over the next three years.

• Expand overall school diversity. We intend to increase the diversity within our student population and among faculty/staff/administration as well. This means we need to be strategic in our efforts to find mission fit families from communities that have been underrepresented in the past in a way that continues to advance our institution academically, spiritually, and sustainably. Similarly, we need to expand our reach when hiring so that we are on the radar of diverse candidates who fit the Christ-centered excellence of CHCA.
   
• Create a more connected Kingdom community. We have heard from our past and present students and families of color that CHCA can be a difficult place to navigate. This relates not only to Armleder students transitioning to a North Campus school, but to new families who join our community. This is something that we as a Christian community seek to change. We have already begun an initiative called Armleder Advance which seeks to build more bridges between our Armleder and North Campus schools. We will be working to better understand how to create a more welcoming culture and measure our growth over time.

The scope of this work does not include the implementation of any specific diversity curriculum. Our curricular approach to this, and any topic, will be the same we have always employed. We strive to provide age-appropriate, theologically integrated engagement with students that allows them to consider multiple points of view, filter ideas through the lens of Scripture, wrestle with challenging concepts, developing depth and meaning through this process, guided by expert Christian teachers. We want students to be equipped to engage thoughtfully and meaningfully with others.

We as a school seek to cultivate deep Christian thinkers who thoughtfully consider and evaluate a variety of theories and topics through the lens of Biblical principles. As an institution, we are not adopting any specific theories, philosophies, movements, or constructs about race and society, including Critical Theory. We are equipping our students to engage in the dialogue and bring the mind of Christ to all issues.

We are aware that within the corporate sector and society at large, the "Diversity" definition is broad. The scope of CHCA’s diversity efforts is limited to racial, ethnic, and socio-economic diversity. Recognizing that our denominational diversity results in differing viewpoints particularly on sexuality and gender identity, CHCA as an institution holds to a traditional historical orthodox Christian view on human sexuality and marriage, as well as gender identity. That stated, we believe that God calls us to treat every CHCA student with love, dignity, and respect.

The Biblical mandate has always been to seek justice and righteousness in society. From the Hebrew prophets to the ministry of Jesus, the Bible calls us to minister to the marginalized, the excluded, and the broken in society. Christ’s redemptive death brought not only salvation to human souls but harkened the breaking forth of God’s Kingdom into our world. We as His disciples are called to not only share the Gospel message, but to be instruments of His Kingdom. So we educate our students to understand how our society still reflects the Fall and challenge them to find solutions to bring about God’s redeeming work. We also require our students to fulfill service hours in order to live out that calling. Therefore, we are not “espousing a social agenda”, but instead are equipping our students to consider what it means to engage with a broken world as agents of God’s redemptive love and mercy.