In 1994, when we founded Faith Family Church, we had already been dreaming of starting a Christian school. When we acquired land in 2001, it was with this vision in mind, and our building was designed so that a school could be added. By 2013, having moved into our new building and established our childcare, we felt it was time to bring God’s plan to life. 

Our vision was clear: we wanted a Christian discipleship school focused on individualized learning with excellent academics. We believed in each student’s unique potential, shaped by God’s grace. Just as different plants thrive in diverse environments, we understood that each child needed a unique learning approach, and individualized learning was a priority.

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Establishing Our Vision

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We studied the best school systems in the world to understand what truly fosters learning. We discovered that real learning happens when students are: 

• Interested in the subject, 

• Talking about what they are learning, 

• Motivated to learn. 

Our goal was to create an environment where students could learn the essential core subjects while exploring their interests and stretching their abilities.

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Life Christian Academy 1.0

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In 2014, we launched Life Christian Academy with just a kindergarten class, aiming to add one grade each year until we reached K-12. Every year, we did exactly that; we added one grade per year. We started the 2022 school year with K-9th grade. We built a genuine Christian environment with dedicated, experienced Christian teachers who were passionate about students, education, and Christian discipleship. 

 

From 2014 to 2023, our school flourished in both quality and size. However, with one teacher per classroom and multiple age groups, we hit some limitations. Providing truly individualized education was difficult, even with only 15 students per class. The best we could do was to divide students into groups based on their learning levels, but this approach wasn’t ideal. It was good…but we had hit some limits. It was good, but it wasn’t great, yet.

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From Good to Great: God Prunes Our School

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Finding experienced teachers who embraced our nontraditional model was challenging. We needed educators who were active in their church and capable of teaching multiple subjects across diverse age groups. Despite our strong Christian community and committed staff, by the end of the 2022-2023 school year, we knew change was upon us. Due to our teaching staff’s personal reasons, we faced a teacher shortage, and it was time to find a better way of educating our students in line with our original model. It took us a while to understand that God was pruning our very good school to make it become a great school.

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A New Beginning

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In 2023, we realized God was pruning our school. Even though our school bore fruit, we needed to bear even more fruit. We discovered a unique educational model in Acton Academy, which emphasizes self-directed learning and personal responsibility. It was unique and had excellent results in helping students learn initiative and responsibility. We knew that if we could merge elements of the Acton model with an even stronger Christian ecclesia, we would have an unbeatable combination. And as of April 2023, we committed to transforming Life Christian Academy into Life Christian Academy-Emmaus (Emmaus.) Emmaus was a city near Jerusalem in the days of Jesus. In Luke 24, Jesus walked down that road with two friends who didn’t realize it was Him. This story represents the heart of education—learning together with Jesus in our midst.

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The First Year of Emmaus

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In May of 2023, we decided to start the new model with no more than twenty students. In July 2023, sixteen courageous students joined Emmaus. Our first goal was to cultivate a strong Christian culture. Building on ten years of experience, we launched Emmaus by first building the Christ-centered community and then introducing self-paced mastery of reading, writing, and math skills. Students used pencils, paper, and the latest educational technology as they spent part of their day focused on their core academic skills and the rest of the day pursuing individual and group interests. The student body formed a family. First-grade students worked comfortably next to elementary and high school students who supported them. Our vision was working! What we achieved in the first year was breathtaking, but there was still more to add! We are even more excited about 2024-2025 as we have welcomed an excellent new team member focusing on Jr. High/Sr. High students and college Prep.