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Contact Us
Phone: 269-463-5545
Fax: 269-463-5739
Email:
info@gcspatriots.com
325 N M-140
Watervliet, MI 49098
What would you like to know about Grace?
Are you interested in our philosophy of education? Maybe you want to know about our athletic program. Perhaps you would like to find out more about our faculty. Click on one of the links in the navigation bar to learn more about Grace Christian School, or to inquire further about the school or receive an information packet including an enrollment form, select Contact Us. The more you know about Grace, the more you will want to get to know us.
Accredited by the Association of Christian Schools International, Grace Christian is committed to excellence, doing everything as unto the Lord.
Grace’s standardized test scores are among the highest in the region and well above state and national averages on the Stanford Achievement Test, PSAT, SAT, ACT, and MME. On an individual level, last year, one of our fifth graders represented Southwest Michigan in Washington D.C. at the Script’s National Spelling Bee; and one of last year’s seniors received the President’s Award at Spring Arbor University, the largest financial scholarship Spring Arbor bestows.
The History of Grace
From tomatoes to strong academic minds, 325 N M-140 has risen from humble farmland to a rich educational field. Built on a former tomato patch, Grace Christian School grows young people “to impact the world for Jesus Christ through an excellent educational experience from a Biblical worldview.” (Current Mission Statement, adopted 2005)
The school was formed on the belief that school, family and church, with Jesus Christ at the center, all play important roles in educating children. In the spring of 1973, several area pastors began meeting to discuss their vision for a non-denominational Christian day school. They formed a study group adding parents and others and bringing in expert speakers from Christian schools. The group was devoted to prayer and progressed seeking God’s guidance on how to create a school with the hallmarks of the Gospel of Christ and educational excellence. Over the course of that year they became convinced that Southwest Michigan needed a Christian school free from the control of any single church, thereby allowing the school to serve the needs of many Bible believing churches.
Original Grace Christian School Crest, circa 1974
By the spring of 1974 the school was incorporated as Grace Christian Education Association with an elected board of directors who were entrusted with the hiring of a school administrator. The school began with the following purpose statement:
The Purpose of Grace Christian School
Grace Christian School is a private, non-profit Christian school which offers high academic and spiritual standards to the families of Southwestern Michigan. The purpose of the school is to give Christian training, along with a solid academic foundation in the basic principles of learning. This purpose will be accomplished through the use of a faculty committed to the Christian philosophy of education. Christ is the center of our entire curriculum.
Architects rendering of original school building, circa 1975
Grace Christian officially opened on September 4, 1974 at Midway Baptist Church, educating 64 students with four certified teachers and Brian Mayfield as the first administrator. Over the next 35 years the school grew in facilities as well as enrollment, maturing with the needs of the student body. In 1976 a permanent facility was opened on M-140 in Watervliet, Michigan. In 1978 a high school wing was constructed. In the fall of 1996 a ten year labor of love was completed when the multi-purpose gymnasium was inaugurated. Our varsity girls’ team beat Calvary School of Holland in the first basketball game played in Grace Christian School gymnasium.
Architects rendering of multipurpose gymnasium, circa 1990
The most recent program additions are the creation of Grace Christian Preschool in the fall of 2007 and a Young Fives program in the fall of 2009. Grace Christian School sits on 24 acres in rural Bainbridge Township in the heart of the fruit belt serving students from fifteen communities and three counties. Our facilities consist of two academic wings, a central library, a multipurpose gymnasium, a cafeteria, and three outdoor athletic fields. Grace Christian has a current enrollment of 198 students in grades preschool through 12, our largest enrollment since 2001.
The school’s philosophy is built on five pillars: the supremacy of Christ, the learner’s need for a relationship with God, the primacy of the parent-child relationship, the commitment to a non-denominational evangelical theology, and the importance of an excellent education.
Updated Grace Christian School Logo, adopted 2008
With Christ at the center, Grace Christian serves parents in fulfilling their responsibility of educating their children with a Biblical worldview. Consequently, Grace Christian School supports the ministry of more than 50 area churches whose families attend our school.
God took a humble tomato field and produced a fruitful Christian day school, harvesting hundreds of graduates and still educating children’s hearts and minds in Michigan’s great southwest. Graduates are serving in many leadership capacities locally, across the United States and around the world, including serving as pastors, teachers, business owners, service men and women, missionaries, engineers, artists, teachers abroad and completing doctoral work. Some have returned to Grace Christian School as faculty, coaches, board members, and, what we are most proud of, parents of current students. Grace Christian stakeholders consider being entrusted with the education of the children of alumni to be the most significant indicator of the school’s success.
Grace Christian School © 2009