All in all, the 20th Anniversary Celebration was a wonderful time together … not to mention beautiful. What a blessing to be able to pause and remember God’s faithfulness, and to take the time to recognize the hard work and sacrifice that went into building Redeemer Classical School. What a joy to be able to do so together with our current Redeemer community as well as many of our founding board members, parents, faculty, and staff.
THANK YOU to everyone who had a hand in making the evening so special:
Ashleigh Funkhouser for running the show and making it all possible
Anna Lee and Caroline Allison for helping to beautifully decorate the venue
The Beam and Hummel Families for hosting us at Frieden Farms
Mark Lee and Daniel Zimmerman for smoking the pork (and whole pig!)
Crossroads Catering for making and serving the delicious food
Bazzles Bakery for creating a beautiful cake and yummy cupcakes
Christopher Houff, Chet Landes, and Derek Robinson for helping with food prep
Funkhouser Real Estate for providing the libations
Bill Leach and Iain Slater for blessing us with their lovely speeches
Jaye Brumfield for creating the “Celebrating 20 Years” video
The Redeemer Prefect students for helping wherever they were asked
All of the past and present board members, faculty, parents and staff for joining us to celebrate
Below you’ll find a recap of the evening through photos, videos, and text. We hope you enjoy this small taste of a very special evening in the life of our school.
The Speeches
Bill Leach, Founding Board Member and Parent
Good evening. It is an honor and privilege to be with you all tonight. In thinking about what I wanted to say this evening, I was reminded of an afternoon — before the school existed — when my wife, Annie, called me at my office. She was clearly at the end of her tether homeschooling our young son. She relayed to me that she had just finished explaining some important concept regarding the world we inhabit, and was asking him some question related to this, when he — with bright eyed enthusiasm — turned to her, somewhat oblivious to whatever she had said, and said, “Mom!... what if the walls were made of whipped cream!?”
And so, the obvious solution to this dilemma was to start a Christian Classical School.
Now there was probably a bit more that went into that decision. But in deciding to help start a school, we did not want to be relieved of the daunting responsibility that we hear in Ephesians 6 that we are to “raise our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.“ We wanted to see this bright-eyed boy and his siblings, and other children at churches and throughout the community, brought into a model of instruction and learning that would not squelch that enthusiasm, but that would nurture and train it into paths and patterns that God’s people had employed for millennia.
The Christian classical education seemed to fit the bill.
So, with a large measure of unwarranted and naïve enthusiasm, we stepped out to pursue this dream. In doing so, we got to witness God gathering many folks with a similar vision and dream.
There are so many instances in those early years of wondering why on earth we had thought this was a good idea. The sleepless nights contemplating where the students, teachers and money were going to come from. And all those engaged in this grand endeavor, learned to pray and work, day by day and year by year.
That we can gather this evening to celebrate 20 years of Redeemer Classical School is in many ways a blessing beyond belief. For there are many instances when we were not sure if we would last the next 20 days. But God worked through many miraculous and even mundane events to preserve, grow and mature this school.
While I tend to think of the financial gifts that were often so timely, (and by timely I mean at the very last minute.) It was also, and probably more importantly, the countless provisions made by families and faculty who for reasons known only to them and God took a risk, on a small struggling school, and threw their lot in with us, come what may.
So, God, year after year, used the cumulative effect of those myriad sacrifices and acts of service to put the school on a surer footing. So that we are here today with a program that runs from Pre - K through High School, with gifted teachers, support staff and administrators, across two campuses, laboring day by day to take little minds that wonder about whipped cream walls and draw those bright-eyed girls and boys into the glory of understanding God’s beautiful creation.
But we must remember that we are not “home” yet, we haven’t yet arrived.
It is right and fitting that we stop to celebrate this moment of 20 years. But let this celebration serve as a kind of Ebenezer, a stone of remembrance of God’s help. For you see there is much work left to do. And because it is good work it will be hard: the work of developing of the physical plant, the never-ending task of recruiting of families and faculty, and the constant refining of curricula. And remember that we do this in a rebellious and broken world, even as we wrestle with our own rebellion and brokenness.
As we contemplate the scope and depth of this ongoing quest to mold and shape the minds and hearts of these children, we may rightly ask who is equal to such a task. And asking we must return to the Ebenezer of this moment and remember that we labor individually and collectively in the knowledge that we can in fact do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be the Glory. Thank you.
Iain Slater, Alumnus
Well, like Ron said my name is Iain Slater and I graduated from 8th grade at Redeemer in 2013. Ron asked me to share just a little bit about Redeemer’s role in my life through the years and I just want to start by saying there are so, so many things I could say about Redeemer — both as a school and about the many ways God used Redeemer in my life to make me who I am today. And not just myself but my whole family. Each of my four siblings attended Redeemer — my oldest brother Nathan being one of the first students the year the school started meeting 20 years ago, and I know their lives have been impacted in similar ways to mine and we are indebted as a family to this school and how God has used it to shape us and our own families. We, like you I’m sure if you’re here tonight, all agree that there’s just something special about this school — just — a particular way in which God has smiled on Redeemer, and I hope that in my story, you can just see even more evidence of this.
God used Redeemer probably most formatively in my middle school years. I came in like most, if not all, middle schoolers do … doubting and insecure. There were six total students in my class — four boys and two girls. When us guys weren’t wrestling or breaking things somehow somewhere, so many recesses and lunch breaks were spent somewhere on the property — on one of the benches behind the batting cage, on the playground, walking around the track, under a tree somewhere, just us four guys talking about life and about things we were processing and learning in class or in our own lives. Other days were spent sitting around a table with Mr. Borgerding in Bible class discussing Tim Keller’s Reason for God. Other days, Mr. Juday would teach us logic and challenge us to think critically, reason and debate with one another. Some of my favorite days were when Mrs. Dowdy would come across a topic in our earth science textbook that would spark a question in one of us about how what we were learning fit in with creation, and a few times, a raised hand led down a long trail of conversation about how do we always continue to profess that all truth is God’s truth, and how do we let God’s word inform our worldviews, and what to do when we face hard issues that at first may seem to differ from what we thought was true. It was exactly these moments — along with so many more — that God used to make me who I am today. Whenever asked about my testimony and when I started following Jesus, it’s my middle school years at Redeemer that I look back to as the time where my faith started to produce the most fruit, and where I really believe I started walking with Jesus. And through that tiny little six-person class that met in a little old trailer, God used Redeemer to give me some of my closest friends to this day. Even though we each went to the four different county high schools, after senior year we bought a van and traveled cross-country for a month. They were groomsmen in my wedding. I still keep up with each of them and now we’re raising kids together.
Today, I’m in my second year studying at James Madison to be a Physician Assistant (Go Dukes) and owe my time at Redeemer so much for how it shaped me as a student all these years. Part of the reason I had an interest in sciences in the first place and eventually wanted to go into medicine was because of Mrs. Dowdy’s classes and because of the passion and wonder with which she taught. I always joke that Redeemer prepared me more for college than high school did and for grad school more than college did but honestly, it’s not far from the truth. Redeemer taught me how to learn and steward truth well. It taught me how to commit truth to memory and memory to wisdom and then how to apply that wisdom in my life and in practice. It taught me how to apply history and scripture to my current context. It taught me how to learn a new language. I promise nobody paid me to say this, but Latin actually has really helped me. I am way better at Spanish because I learned it. I’m way better at medical terminology and anatomy because of it. I could go on and on but most of all, Redeemer taught me how to be a good man — a godly man — and it taught me how to always be learning and seeking truth.
This is probably something one ought to do before you write out what you’re going to say … but after I finished writing everything I’ve said so far, I looked up Redeemer’s home page and mission statement and found things like, “Discipling students, building oaks of righteousness, shepherding the heart and the mind, building knowledge, expanding comprehension, cultivating wisdom and virtue, through a robust Christian education.” I didn’t need to go back and change a single thing because it’s everything I already said and it’s exactly what God did in my experience at Redeemer.
Praise God for his work in my life, at this school, in many of your lives and in the lives of so many others. Go Griffins!
Ron Hoch, Head of School
There’s a Greek proverb that I’ve been thinking about a lot recently — you may have heard me recite it at back-to-school night. It states, “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.” This statement captures the optimistic, future-oriented, selflessness that characterizes the task of educating youth. Teaching children and young people is inherently optimistic, because it is rooted in the conviction that there’s a tomorrow worth working towards; that our children can learn, grow, develop, and be better than they are today; and that their future is worth the time and energy that we invest here and now, even at the cost of our own comfort, ease, and wants.
So we send our children to school from age four to age eighteen, for a combined total of nearly 17,000 hours of education. We read with them, we study with them, we struggle with them through the challenges that attend learning. We brush up on math, history, grammar, chemistry, and Latin so that we can help them with their homework. In our case, we pay tuition and take the time to drive them to and from school. We do all of this because we believe in the worthwhileness of providing them with a Christian education that is rooted in time-tested methods and materials; an education that instills wisdom and virtue, so that they are equipped to serve God and their neighbor, wherever the Lord calls them. That, my friends, is an inherently optimistic, future-oriented, and selfless endeavor.
It is this same sort of thinking that, 20 years ago, led a small group of parents and educators to start Redeemer Classical School. They wanted something different for their children; something that didn’t exist in the Harrisonburg area at the time. A classical Christian education. An education that, contrary to many progressive models, looks simultaneously backward and forward. It looks backward into the past for the books, ideas, and people who have brought us to where we are today; to the most significant thoughts, arguments, works, and discoveries in history; to the methods, pedagogy, and standards that characterized education for centuries. But it doesn’t look backwards out of some sort of chronological snobbery or nostalgia. Rather, it looks backward to move students forward — to prepare them for what lies ahead. You see, this model of education is founded upon the supposition that the best preparation for an unknowable and uncertain future is to steep the next generation in the wisdom of the ages and to nurture in them virtue — a love for the things that are lovely. Seeing that a school oriented towards such lofty ideals didn’t exist within this community, they did something audacious. They started a school of their own.
In so doing, they planted the tree under whose shade they would never sit. They, themselves, would not be the direct beneficiaries of such a school. Even their children — the inspiration and motivation for this bold endeavor — would not fully reap the benefits. Many of our founding parents, Board members, and teachers sent their children to Redeemer simply for a few years before they aged out. Some were able to send children from Kindergarten through 8th grade. However, none of them were able to send a child through the Rhetoric School. Nevertheless, they sacrificed their time, energy, and money to start and support Redeemer. They navigated obstacles, endured hardship, scraped together finances, and slowly banded together a group of like-minded parents and teachers to join them. Along the way they experienced the satisfaction of investing in the lives of young people, the joy of seeing students rise to high expectations, and the awe that attends being the recipients of God’s lovingkindness. It was a labor of love, founded in optimistic, future-looking, selflessness. And we stand on their shoulders.
Yes, we have come a long way — perhaps beyond what our founders expected — and that is worthy of celebration. It is right to pause to reflect on God’s goodness to this school; to give him thanks and praise for bringing us to where we are today. It is good to hear stories from inaugural Board members and alumni, and to learn Redeemer’s history, so that we know our place in this narrative. It is fitting for us to express our gratitude to the people who worked so hard and gave so much in the process.
We do that today and we will continue to do this throughout the 2024-25 school year. Like the Israelites who, upon crossing the Jordan River, laid 12 stones as a sign pointing to God’s mercy and love, so we commemorate this school year and look to the pictures, videos, and testimonies that serve as signposts for our school’s history, so that we can celebrate God’s love and express gratitude together.
But the story is not finished. Each of our lives, and the lives of our children is a sentence that is being added to the Redeemer story. To mix metaphors, the edifice is not yet complete. We are adding bricks to the foundation that was laid 20 years ago. Let us do so with increased confidence in God’s plan for Redeemer, having seen his faithfulness time and time again over the years. May we be inspired by our founders and early adopters, seeking to continue their legacy of sacrifice, hard work, and dedication to the mission of Redeemer Classical School. May we have a renewed love for this school community, leading us to face the challenges and opportunities of the next two decades with courage, resolve, faithfulness, and optimism.
In short, may we nurture the tree that was planted 20 years ago, so that our current students and future students — even those who are yet unborn — may sit in its shade and learn wisdom and virtue, as so many who have gone before. As they do that, may they be equipped to serve God and neighbor, and know the joy of a lifetime of learning and exploring the creation in submission to the Creator, who is blessed now and forever more.
Amen.