Keeping Christ Central to Our College

Almost all Christian schools have a core value of “Christ Centredness”. At MCC we certainly do.

I often explain to parents and students that although Christ-centredness might sound a bit mystical, it is not complicated at all. In fact, Christ-centredness is wonderfully easy to understand.

Christ-centredness simply means making sure that our priorities align with the priorities that Jesus Christ taught. In other words, when we speak, act, or make decisions we do those things in alignment with the teachings of Jesus. When we speak and act in Christ-centred ways, we put Jesus’ teachings at the centre of every word and action.

It could look like this … We might be able to impress the boss at work by exaggerating our success just a little bit. Perhaps we do that; we just ‘harmlessly’ stretch the truth a little bit. Unfortunately, then we find we have to build on that exaggeration by extending it to a little ‘harmless’ lie…. And that little lie leads to another, and to another. But wait! Jesus clearly teaches us to be truthful. Jesus unquestionably says we mustn’t lie. Being Christ-centred means that we don’t lie. In fact, being truthful means we don’t even start with that initial exaggeration. We actually keep truthfulness as part of our core identity. Being truthful becomes our priority and we don’t deviate from the truth, and that is Christ-centredness

Here is another example … Sometimes people are inconsiderate. When they are, they are not being Christ-centred, because Christ teaches that we ought to be kind to each other. But when someone is inconsiderate to us, even though it is not nice, we are actually presented with an opportunity to implement forgiveness. Remember that old saying “To forget is human, to forgive is divine”? Jesus (divine) invites us (humans) to join Him and imitate Him in the way we forgive others. Forgiveness is a gift, a gift that we give to others. When we forgive, we are acting in a Christ-centred way.

Treating everyone with equal importance is a relatively modern idea. Before Christian ideology took over the Roman empire, it was assumed that wealth and social status determined the inherent value of a person. Some of our families come from cultures where that is still the case. Christ’s teachings confronted these shallow definitions of personal value, because being Christ-centred means seeing every person as valuable. Jesus taught that everyone is important, everyone has value, everyone is loved by God. At Melton Christian College, we also teach this as part of our Christ-centred teaching.

Parents and staff let’s work together to create a culture of Christ-centredness among ourselves, and among our children. Let’s uphold our school community as a place that teaches children to be Christ-centredness. The rewards of creating a Christ-centred community are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There are no rules, no cultures, no social structures that could produce better fruit than those ideals!

david gleeson, principal