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| a message from the co-directors |
Welcome to Alta Vista's website. Alta Vista is a catalyst for initiating dialog and encouraging change in schools, and which is
our goal in all the courses we teach, the seminars we conduct, the resources we produce - in all of our activities and services.
We invite you to become part of this dialog. Our dreams, our visions, our prayers are that our schools will impact our communities
with the Good News of Isaiah 61 which involves compassion, justice, caring, celebration; that we will actually see communities
of believers that will "rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. They'll start over on the ruined cities,
take the rubble left behind and make it new." (Is. 61:4 from Eugene Peterson's The Message) Alta Vista hopes you will join
us in those dreams, those visions and those prayers.
Please click the links above to find out more about us.
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| ALTA VISTA EXPANDS |
Alta Vista, an educational service organization based in Seattle, Washington, is expanding. Founded by Dr. Al Greene in 1970, Alta Vista
has enjoyed a long, rich history of serving Christian education. Over the years the central question driving the work of Alta
Vista has been - What makes Christian education distinctive?
A Christian school, Dr. Greene urged, has no reason to be if it cannot be distinguished from the public school around the corner. His
latest book, Reclaiming the Future of Christian Education (ACSI, 1998), is an eloquent and compelling testimony to his vision. Even
though he is in his nineties and retired from Alta Vista, Dr. Greene continues to write about Christian education.
Following his retirement, the work of Alta Vista continued under the leadership of Elaine Brouwer, Larry Reynolds
and a visionary board. Alta Vista offers seminars, workshops, courses, and
resource materials designed to call attention to the special calling and task of
the Christian school.
While details may change, the central purpose of the organization remains: to participate, through its educational
services, in God's Kingdom agenda. Alta Vista seeks to help equip people for faithful, visionary, competent, and compassionate
discipleship in a hurting world. More than ever before, it aims to be a Spirit-directed voice of hope, discernment, and
empowerment in the realm of Christian education.
John Van Dyk, retired from Dordt College, joined the Alta Vista staff in 2007
to serve along side Elaine Brouwer as a full-time
Senior Member. His arrival signaled an increase in international outreach. Tim Krell,formerly principal of Bellevue
Christian Junior High, joined the staff of Alta Vista in the summer of 2008. He brings with him a rich history of
educational leadership and a passion for awakening curiosity and wonder in schooling.
On the agenda are workshops, courses, and consulting services, along with publication projects of various sorts, all designed to
encourage a style of Christian education continuously guided by a vision of shalom. Alta Vista intends to help identify and support
practices that help equip students for redemptive action in a distorted world.
Alta Vista is particularly concerned to avoid unnecessary duplication and wasteful overlap of efforts. Consequently, Alta Vista
vigorously pursues partnerships and collaboration. Already Alta Vista partners with Christian Schools International, the Society
of Christian Schools in B.C., Seattle Pacific University, and the Christian Educators Association International, and maintains
relationships with the Association of Christian Schools International and Worldwide Christian Schools.
Christian education is surrounded by a cacophony of voices clamoring to be heard. Voices such as dualism, secularism,
individualism, materialism, and consumerism contradict the message of God's Kingdom agenda. They reflect false gospels
promoting self-serving success, fitting-into-society, and synthesis. Such gospels, if heeded, create tensions and
contradictions or an accommodating complacency in Christian education. With humility, compassion, and courage, Alta Vista
commits, while recognizing and celebrating the work God is doing in Christian education, to being a clear compelling voice
inviting Christian educators to impact our culture and our world in ways that point to genuine shalom.
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