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Mission and Community

 
Veritas Academy is a distinctly Christian community dedicated to fulfilling its mission of:

Our mission is to partner with Christian parents to provide their children with a classical Christian education for the lifelong pursuit of wisdom and virtue in the service of Jesus Christ for the glory of God. Our collaborative approach integrates professional instruction with parent-mentored study and discipleship to cultivate genuine faith in Christ, godly virtue, and excellence in academics and workmanship.

Veritas is distinguished by its commitment to teaching and practicing those things that the Bible proclaims as good, true, and beautiful, and in doing so, fostering ideals that lead to human flourishing and are consistent with a Biblical worldview. This commitment informs our moral, ethical, and behavioral standards, which when observed, have a profound impact on our lives—from the meditations of our hearts, to the work of our hands, and the words we speak. It shapes our culture, informing the things we pursue, nurture, and celebrate as well as the things we renounce, avoid, and pray to be delivered from. It becomes the “how” and “what” of our shared lives as a community seeking to equip families to learn and live out the glorious, historic, and orthodox truths of the Christian faith.

Our desire to be a God-honoring community requires that we develop and affirm mutual understandings. We seek to promote Christian freedom without becoming libertine and to promote responsibility without encouraging the bondage of legalism. This is a daunting task, but neither the challenge in the undertaking nor the imperfections in the result should deter us from establishing necessary and reasonable expectations. It is our long-held aim to cultivate the ethos echoed by the Lutheran theologian Meldenius, “In essentials unity, in nonessentials diversity, and in all things charity.” It is with this heart and mind that we share the following Statements to outline the beliefs, understandings, and expectations for members of the Veritas community.

Basic Assumptions and Principles

 
Veritas Academy is firmly rooted in its identity as a distinctly Christian community.
THEREFORE, WE DESIRE THAT ALL MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY WILL:
  1. Identify as a Christian by virtue of the grace of God and faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
  2. Desire to grow in both knowledge and wisdom, as well as in habits and loves, because of a commitment to live out the work of the triune God in their life.
  3. Participate in the ministry of a local church and in personal disciplines of the faith.
  4. Recognize that parents are primarily responsible before God for their children’s education and that it is Veritas’s mission to assist them in this task.
  5. Embrace that work at Veritas is a personal calling and that each person—whether staff, teacher, co-teacher, student, or parent—would see themselves as engaged in the work and ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
  6. Understand they are part of a non-denominational, orthodox Christian community, in which unity is sought while diversity within orthodoxy is respected and valued.
  7. Accept the biblical obligation to submit to governing authorities, whether national, local, or institutional, except when it otherwise contradicts God’s word.
  8. Know that all have sinned and fall short of God’s glorious design, and that redemption for sin is found only in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
 

Statements on Faith, Life, and Conduct

 

We believe that to fulfill our mission and ministry, it is essential that the members of our community share in both the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and certain truths and principles taught by the Scriptures. As a community of faith, therefore, we proclaim and believe…

  1. There is one sovereign God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  2. There is one way of salvation: faith in Jesus Christ, the son of God, who lived as a man, died for the sins of all men, and was resurrected so that all who believe in their hearts and confess Jesus as Lord will be saved.
  3. There is one book of truth: the Bible, God’s written revelation to man, authoritative, reliable, infallible, and without need of another document to complete its message.
  4. There is one body: the church, whom God calls its many parts to act together in unison.
AS A COMMUNITY SEEKING TO SUBMIT TO ONE ANOTHER OUT OF A LOVE FOR CHRIST, WE ALSO BELIEVE...
  1. Life within the Christian community must be lived for the glory of God, daily conforming ourselves to the image of Christ, and recognizing the lordship of Christ in all aspects of our shared work.(1)
  2. A steadfast love for and accountability to Jesus and His people should motivate our actions in this community of believers.(2)
  3. As saints and fellow ministers of Christ, we each bear responsibility for serving and loving one another.(3) 
  4. The words and actions of the faculty, staff, students, and parents in our community are often not a private matter. We are called to pray for each other and for each other’s welfare, go to each other in love when conflict or concerns arise, and hold each other accountable for the consequences of our attitudes and conduct.(4) 
  5. Each member of our community is responsible for their own behavior as it reflects upon the Lord, the school community, and themselves, particularly in the area of personal freedom where discretion, moderation, and restraint should be practiced.(5) 
  6. Attaining common goals and order in community life often calls us to subordinate our individual prerogatives. Christian freedom also includes the choosing not to do some things in order to contribute to the common spiritual and emotional good of the impressionable students and families we serve as well as to promote the betterment of the Christian community of which we are a part.(6) 
  7. We should endeavor and encourage one another to bear the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.(7) 
  8. Every person—regardless of tribe, language, or nation—should be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity.(8) Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes toward any person are not in accord with the Bible and should not be tolerated.
  9. We should strive and encourage one another to overcome pride, covetousness, envy, lust, and immodesty, as all are destructive to the unity of the Body of Christ.(9) 
  10. We should seek to edify each other and our community by sharing the allsurpassing peace of Christ, avoiding slander, gossip, and discord and refusing to act out of selfish ambition, arrogance, anger, or a complaining spirit.(10) 
  11. All human life is sacred, begins at conception, and is created by God in His image.(11) Human life is of inestimable worth in all its dimensions, including pre-born babies, the aged, the physically or mentally challenged, and every other stage or condition from conception through natural death.
  12. God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as either male or female that together reflect the image and nature of God.(12) 
  13. God instituted the glorious gift of marriage, a covenant relationship between one man and one woman only, with the husband born male and the wife born female.(13) 
  14. God designed sexual intimacy to occur only between one man and one woman who are married to each other. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.(14)
  15. All forms of profanity, dishonesty, theft, drunkenness, and sexual immorality (including adultery, homosexual behavior, and use of pornography) are destructive to our souls, sinful, and offensive to God.(15) 
  16. God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess their sin, repent, and seek His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.(16) 
 

We believe that to preserve the integrity and mission of Veritas Academy as a Christian discipleship school and ministry, and to provide a biblical example to those within and outside our community, all Veritas employees, volunteers, co-teachers, and parents agree to and abide by these Statements of Faith, Life, and Conduct.(17) 

These Statements do not, however, define the boundaries of our fellowship, care, or attention. Nor are they an excuse for indifference or a reason to refuse extending mercy, kindness, compassion, and love—in word and deed—to all who suffer from the brokenness of a fallen world. As fellow sinners, the gospel calls us to walk in humility, clinging to the cross of Christ for salvation and not to claims of moral superiority or self-righteousness. These Statements, therefore, are far from rigid standards that demand absolute perfection. Rather, they are intended as a shared set of beliefs, expectations, and ideals to agree upon, proclaim, and pursue. If any member of our community finds themselves out of accord with these beliefs or pursuing practices contrary to these Statements, they should speak with an appropriate member of the faculty or administration to determine whether their beliefs and practices can be reconciled with those of Veritas Academy.

These Statements do not exhaust the extent of our beliefs and standards.(18) The Bible itself, as the inspired and infallible Word of God that speaks with final authority concerning truth, morality, and the proper conduct of mankind, is the sole and final source of all that we believe. However, for purposes of Veritas Academy’s faith, doctrine, practice, policy, and discipline, the Veritas School Board and Board of Trustees is the final interpretative authority on the Bible’s meaning and application.

Footnoted Scripture References
  1. “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.’” Matt. 22:36-38. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31 cf. Col. 3:9, 10, 17.
  2. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:11-12.
  3. “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Matt. 7:12 cf. 25:31-46. “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Gal. 5:14. “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Gal. 6:10.
  4. “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matt. 18:15-17.
  5. “[F]or at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” Eph. 5:8-10. cf 1 Cor. 8:9-13, 9:19-23, 10:23-33.
  6. “But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.” 1 Cor. 8:9-13 cf. 9:19-23, 10:23- 33.
  7. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Gal. 5:22-23.
  8. “And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31 cf. Rev. 5:9, Rom. 1:15. “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” Luke 6:31.
  9. “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” Mark 7:21- 22.
  10. “For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.” 2 Cor. 12:20. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.” Phil 2:14. Updated September 2017 5 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Eph. 4:29. “A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.” Prov. 16:28.
  11. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Ps. 139:13. Gen 1:26-27 (see below).
  12. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” Gen 1:26-27. Matt. 19:4-5 (see below).
  13. “‘Haven’t you read,’ [Jesus] replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’” Matt. 19:4-5.
  14. “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” 1 Cor 6:18. “But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.” 1 Cor 7:2. “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” Heb. 13:4.
  15. “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” Matt. 15:18-19. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Cor 6:9-10. “Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine…” 1 Tim. 1:8-10 cf. Col. 3:5-9, 1 Cor 6:9-10.
  16. “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus…”Acts 3:19-20. “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Rom 10:9-10
  17. “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matt. 5:16. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” Phil. 2:14-16. “Abstain from every form of evil.” 1 Thess. 5:22.
  18. Just as the Statements do not exhaust our beliefs and standards, the Scripture references above do not encompass all the biblical support for our statements and beliefs. Rather, they serve as an initial source for further reference and study.
Statements on Faith, Life, and Conduct
 

Statements on Faith, Life, and Conduct, updated September 2017