We are in New Covenant’s 24th year of operation as a school serving children from 2 years old up to 12th grade. Preschool, Grammar School, Upper School, and our newest addition-- our home-school co-op Scholé These make up our community here at New Covenant School. 24 years ago with ten middle school students from mostly one church to now serving over 300 children representing over forty different churches in the Upstate SC area.

As we remember the past and present state of New Covenant School we can certainly say the Lord has been faithful and it has pleased Him to bless our ministry.

So what are we trying to do here with these 300 plus students?

We are seeking to cultivate the whole person to be complete in Christ and we measure that completion, by constantly looking at our portrait of our graduate: At New Covenant School, by the means of God’s grace, we seek to cultivate churchmen and churchwomen with Christ-like virtue, wisdom, balance, knowledge, and eloquence.

Our neighborhoods, Anderson, South Carolina, the East Coast, the US, the whole world no doubt needs students equipped and complete in Christ, ready to head wherever God calls them to GIVE, serve, and love their neighbors well. We are seeking to thoroughly prepare them for that. We do that through our classical method, extracurricular athletics and House system, artistic outlets, all founded upon our unapologetically Protestant Christian faith and our King, Jesus. We partner with covenant families to help shape and form our covenant children in our community here-- it’s what we are all about.

And our last few Fall Fundraising Events have been working towards this end. It began with SOIL, where we asked our community to invest in the rich educational experience here at New Covenant School. We asked you to partner with us and help us provide the rich soil to nourish and begin cultivating students to be Complete in Christ.

The following year we asked you to partner with us as we sought to GROW the mission and vision here which has a direct impact on our students, ones whom we are seeking to GROW up to be complete in Christ.

And this process, SOIL, GROW (like any great gardening or planting project) has an end-- to bear fruit.

And in our case our prayer is abundant fruit. Countless students graduating who have been nurtured in the training and admonition of the Lord, planted in great soil, growing up to be tall, firmly rooted and established image bearers who are productive and GROW unto good works that God has prepared for them to walk in.

This year, 2023, kicks-off our 3rd year of focusing on that final stage. GIVE. And this is a fine stage to focus on.

We don’t hoard our graduates or tidy them up to live clean and safe lives. We want them to be virtuous, wise, balanced, knowledgeable, and eloquent lovers of God and their neighbor and enter the kingdom with calloused hands and spent hearts from a lifetime of GIVING and service.

And in this third year, I want to turn our attention to the logo for this year, you can see it has two leaves and acorns on it. Leaves and Acorns rest on the branches of tall oak trees that grow to be 70-80 feet tall here in South Carolina.

And my neighbor has a metal roof next door with a giant oak tree above it. And about this time of year, early Fall, anytime I am outside or walking to my car in the morning with my coffee and loading my children into the car,I hear something.

Acorns dropping on the metal roof. I am sure you can hear it in your mind now.

Those trees were planted in good SOIL, they GREW to be established, and every year they GIVE-- they drop their fruit… over, and over, and over.

Those Oak Trees have left a legacy of GIVING.

That’s what we want New Covenant School to be remembered for-- raising up strong Oak trees. Established, rooted, tall, unshakeable students, complete in Christ. Bearing fruit for God’s glory. And I love the acorn. It’s simple, it’s small, but they regularly fall throughout the day on that metal roof. I’d love for our students to love their ordinary lives, bearing fruit regularly for their families, neighbors, community, Church, and wider places God may plant them. That’s exactly what the Lord has in mind for His people. He had it in mind for Israel, He has it in mind for His Church and we want to be a part of that work.

Isaiah the prophet spoke of the fruit that would come after Jesus’ ministry for us in Isaiah 61:

"They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD that he may be glorified.”

This is what we want.

We aim to raise up great graduates, with all those lovely qualities from the portrait of the graduate, we want them to serve the world around them and GIVE of themselves in ordinary and great ways ,but this is all that the LORD may be glorified. That we might display His splendor. That others may know the one who planted, grew, and established us. That we might proclaim with our words and lives the excellencies of Him-- who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

And Isaiah continues with what they, The Oaks of Righteousness, the Lord’s people will do:

They shall build up the ancient ruins;

they shall raise up the former devastations;

they shall repair the ruined cities,

the devastations of many generations

As we launch our Fall Fundraising Campaign we ask you to GIVE to this cause. GIVE to what we are seeking to accomplish in and through New Covenant School for our cities and generations to come.

Planted, well-nourished, sturdy trees that are slowly but steadily dropping their fruit, like acorns on a metal roof, all over the world. And each time they serve, and GIVE, may it be unto the good of our neighbor and the splendor and glory of His name and may God bless the work of our hands and build, repair, and raise up the ruined cities and places around us in and through New Covenant School.

Follow the links below to join in our efforts and GIVE:

For NCS Families to Register: https://forms.gle/RRHemqen9pq2MNY58

To Donate: https://bngn.blackbaud.school/?id=g1j3ca1kqwl

Dean of Academics Fall Update