What will our children need to impact and thrive in the culture?
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The Christian school is the ideal incubator for developing these attributes, in partnership with the church, the home, and the broader community.
Legacy & Impact
Wilmington Christian School has a strong legacy of cultivating Godly Influencers for over 70 years.
Our Challenge
Today, Christian schools are facing significant challenges.
Enrollment decline
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Non-supportive churches
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Funding & Stewardship
Since 2016, Wilmington Christian School has made tremendous progress in effectively stewarding our resources while continuing to deliver quality Christian education.
78%
Net Tuition Revenue |
30%
Expense Reduction |
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But despite our diligent efforts, Wilmington Christian School continues to face the ongoing negative trends that are affecting Christian schools today.
Complex challenges spark innovation.
We must observe, learn, and create new solutions to the challenges we face.
We must observe, learn, and create new solutions to the challenges we face.
Our Bold Vision for the Future
"The flourishing Christian school of tomorrow will look different from the school of today. Undoubtedly, a vision for the future of Christian education will require new ways of teaching and learning. Ultimately, it may transform the fundamental look and feel of classrooms and schools."
– Dr. Lynn Swaner, in Mindshift: Catalyzing Change in Christian Education
– Dr. Lynn Swaner, in Mindshift: Catalyzing Change in Christian Education
While our mission of cultivating Godly influencers remains the same, our future requires bold innovation.
Flexible, open-source learning environment
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Meaningful mentoring (spiritual & vocational)
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Student ownership of school culture
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Our Vision for Learning and the Student Journey at WCS
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Elementary School
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Middle School
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High School
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A Day in the Life of an 11th Grade WCS Student in 2025
"Whew! What a day… it began before school with my student senate meeting in the student-run coffee shop on campus. Besides planning some Spirit Week activities, we found out that our idea of a spring concert was approved, and that Josh Garrells agreed to perform at WCS. We were so excited!
Before the meeting ended, we spent some time praying for our friends. As soon as we said “amen,” William and I had to start serving coffee to students and teachers—now that it is cold out, it seems we have more customers than ever. William has this great idea for an app so people can order in advance, but we’re still working on that one.
After closing shop for the morning, we spent a few minutes trying to figure out what was wrong with our QuickBooks reports. We couldn’t get them to work right for us, but we knew we’d be talking with Rhett our business mentor at lunch, so we quit trying and headed to class.
Continue reading...
My first class was my Faith and Liberty Heritage Studies course and William had to get to Calculus. He only has classes in the mornings, since he’s interning at the Amish furniture shop in Cochranville. I’m kind of jealous… he’s building an oak table for his senior capstone project that he’ll give to Cokesbury Retirement Village. Of course, he also has to do a research paper on furniture and culture, so I guess he’s not getting off too easily! I’m hoping to get an internship next year at an attorney’s office downtown , as I plan to pursue law in college.
After wrapping up in the Latte Lounge, I went to the Learning Lab to work on my project in Faith and Liberty Heritage Studies. I’m studying Martin Luther King Jr’s. work in civil rights, and how his deep love for the Bible shaped his philosophy of non-violent protest. I’m memorizing King’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” which I’m scheduled to recite in chapel in early December. I’m a bit nervous about that, but I love that I get to study what I want to study in our history class. In the beginning of the year, we got to pick 8 topics or people to study from the exhibits at the Faith and Liberty Discovery Center in Philly.
I’m scheduled to meet with my Heritage Studies tutor to discuss King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail on Friday, so I had to really focus on getting my reflection exercise written and submitted so we’d have something to talk about.
In Physics class I worked with my small group on our bridge engineering problem which is based on a bridge reconstruction project in Wilmington. Last weekend, we had to watch a bunch of videos that Mr. Jenkins posted in our Google classroom. The videos helped us figure out what we needed to do next and we made good progress today. We still have a few days until the engineer from the Delaware Department of Transportation visits class again to look at our work. I think next week we’ll get to visit the bridge to see the real work in progress. I’m really looking forward to that.
Math… ugh… math was tough today. I had an exam that I was NOT ready for. The math course I’m taking is an online college course called “Quantitative Reasoning,” and it’s harder than I thought it would be. After the test, I knew I’d need to meet with Mrs. Jackson, so I sent her a Google calendar invite right away to reserve my spot with her during lunch tomorrow.
Speaking of lunch, I was so ready for lunch today! William and I had the meeting with our mentor Rhett, so I ran to grab a salad and then headed to the Wilberforce Room. When I got there, William and Rhett were already at a corner table and had just begun to look at our Quickbooks reporting challenge. As it turns out, we had miscategorized several transactions and it was a simple fix to get everything back in shape.
Once we got that straightened out, we talked with Rhett about William’s coffee app idea. Rhett was excited about the idea but asked us a bunch of really hard questions that made us realize our ideas are in need of more work. The last few minutes of our meeting were so encouraging. Rhett told us some cool stories about how God is working in his coffee shop in Hockessin. I love hearing about how running business can be just as spiritual as chapel services when we do it for God’s glory.
After lunch, I had Classic Literature class. Today’s agenda was discussion about a section of Les Misérables that I find so funny--when Jean Valjean escaped from the Paris convent in a coffin, only to find himself buried alive.
Les Mis is not easy to read, but we’re pushing through. Mr. Tilman’s passion for it helps to motivate us all. I often feel like he was with Victor Hugo as he wrote it—he gives us the inside scoop on the characters and plot. Mr. Tilman helps me see my own spiritual and personal battles and victories in Cosette, Jean Valjean, and even in Javert.
My last class for the day was Influencing the Culture. My schedule didn’t work out to take it in 9th or 10th, so I am one of the older ones in the class. I actually don’t mind that at all—I love sitting next to a few ninth-grade girls, helping them think more deeply about how they could bring Godly influence to others.
For our cultural engagement project, we have chosen to partner with the Delaware Family Policy Council’s efforts to stop abortion in Delaware. While the real work will come later in the year, we talked for a few minutes today about how to recruit students to join us at the March for Life in January. Our goal is to need a whole school bus to take us to DC!
Today’s main topic was good listening skills, as part of the unit on Servant Leadership. Mrs. Gregory gave us a 15-minute lecture (complete with hysterical role-plays demonstrating poor listening) on how to be a great listener. After the lecture, we were split up into groups to practice listening to one another.
After school, I had a student senate disciplinary hearing for a student who had skipped a class for the second time in a month. These meetings can be hard and awkward at times, but deep down I do like helping to come up with plans to help students get back on course.
I am helping one girl, Jamie, who had to come to a hearing last month. She was having trouble with disrespecting Mr. Billings, so she was referred to us. We assigned her to keep a daily journal of how she felt towards Mr. Billings for an entire month. I am her accountability partner and we have lunch together once a week to talk about how things are going. We’ve actually become friends, and Jamie hasn’t had any major issues with Mr. Billings for a few weeks now. That’s progress!
Since basketball has not yet begun, I met with a few friends in the Media Center to get some more work done on the bridge project. We also spent time planning our visit to an inner-city school in Wilmington where we’ll be teaching basic physics to 6th graders for one period a day for an entire week.
Around 5 pm, I finally headed home for dinner and to read 30 pages in Les Misérables. Later in the evening, I completed my active listening assignment from Influencing the Culture Class with my younger sister, which ended in lots of laughter as she mercilessly teased me for being so ridiculously interested in her day.
I’m so glad WCS changed a few years ago. If it hadn’t, I’d be floating through school and I wouldn’t really be challenged to own my learning—except of course for my test grades. Before, I felt like my job as a student was to figure out what my teachers wanted from me and then give it to them. Now, I feel like I’m an active player in my own learning and life.
I know I’m being well-prepared for real life after high school, but I’m not looking forward to graduating next year—well maybe a little bit… I just hope that college will be as meaningful and fun as high school has been. Thank you, Lord, for WCS.
A Flexible, Personalized Learning Environment
WCS will serve a broader population of students as we offer more non-traditional options for enrollment, including extensive homeschool programs and a full array of college-level general education courses. We will forge unique partnerships with mission-aligned organizations and businesses to expand our reach and our revenue. We will become more agile and responsive to individual student needs and the changes in the culture around us.
Committed to Cultivating Godly Influencers
We will maintain a steadfast commitment to distinctively Christian education, where we partner with Christian families, the church, and the community in our region to cultivate Godly influencers. Tomorrow’s culture will need non-conforming, bold Christian leaders who have extraordinary character, competence, and connections.
Partner With WCS
We invite you to prayerfully consider how you can partner with us to help us overcome our challenges and turn our vision into a reality.
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Additional Resources Related to our Bold Vision
1. Read a published article by Headmaster Roger Erdvig on the innovative application of Service Learning in Christian Schools
"Service-learning is a teaching strategy that connects classroom learning with meaningful, authentic service in the community. Students learn and practice content, skills, or dispositions in the classroom and then go out to apply those learning objectives in the context of a service project that meets legitimate needs of others." Read the full article here
2. Watch a video on the Surprising Truth About Learning In Schools
"Service-learning is a teaching strategy that connects classroom learning with meaningful, authentic service in the community. Students learn and practice content, skills, or dispositions in the classroom and then go out to apply those learning objectives in the context of a service project that meets legitimate needs of others." Read the full article here
2. Watch a video on the Surprising Truth About Learning In Schools
3. Download/Share the digital pdf of our printed Future Vision brochure.
| wcs_future_vision_brochure.pdf |
