A Message from Dr. Jim Arcieri, Headmaster of StoneBridge School

                                                                                        Vol. XVIII, No. 8, September 2005

During the summer and fall of 2000, wildfires consumed thousands†of acres of precious forest in the Northern Pacific. Sadly, it wasn’t necessary for so much public and private land to be consumed. A national forest service spokesman revealed that the fires could not be extinguished because of a lack of trained, major-fire leadership. Instead, firefighters fell back to the defensive strategy of merely preserving dwellings. Although there were plenty of workers, there was a dearth of personnel who knew how to handle those huge fires, and so they burned out of control. If the necessary leadership could be trained, available abundant manpower could be utilized in an offensive strike before the next major fire began, thereby saving valuable forest.

Suppose we let the fires represent anti-Christian ideas, movements, structures, schools, movies, TV shows, etc. (i.e. humanism or secularism), and let the church represent the firefighters. We can then ask, “How effective are we in fighting these fires?” Honestly, we have not been very effective in putting out the fires of humanism. Why such ineffectiveness? The reason is a lack of trained leadership. We have unwittingly fallen back to the defensive strategy of merely trying to preserve our little “Christian” subculture, instead of challenging and influencing the larger culture in which we live, raise our children, and make our livings.

At StoneBridge School in Chesapeake, VA, we are dedicated to training our students in an offensive strategy — extinguishing the fires of secularism, instead of allowing them to burn out of control. This must begin with the youth of our nation — training them now to lead their Christian peers in college, and then later in their vocational, professional, and local community. Too much of our rich land — our cultural heritage, if you will — is being consumed unnecessarily. In fact, since so much has been lost already, some believe it can never be restored. We disagree, and live in hope that God’s grace will yet be poured out in amazing ways. We believe†we are realistic in this hope, because of the results we have seen so far. We ask that you share our vision, not only for the fires to be put out, but also, over time, to see the replenishing of the rich forest of our American cultural heritage, which was planted by Christians in the past.

We have great hope that the young people in StoneBridge classrooms today are being equipped to testify to the truth and thus to hit the target of college and cultural change. If we develop the leadership personnel, then they can lead their Christian peers in the firefight against humanism with an offensive strategy and, in turn, replant the damaged acreage and preserve a new, Biblically-based forest. We hope you will pick up this vision and find yourself, in the words of pioneer missionary to India, William Carey, “Attempting great things for God; expecting great things from God.”

[Readers may contact StoneBridge at: StoneBridge School, P.O. Box 9247, Chesapeake, VA 23321, 757-488-2214, online at www.stonebridgeschool.com; email: info@stonebridgeschool.com.]