Student Life
Becoming who God wants us to be requires much more than just academic knowledge. Every aspect of life affects and shapes us in some way, so CFS seeks to provide a variety of activities, opportunities, and intentional processes that will help students become contributing community citizens and devoted followers of Jesus Christ. School activities are designed to be fun, challenging, and educational to touch the whole person, so students can learn how to connect better with others, how to serve, how to grow through difficulties, and how to handle success. Student life at CFS means belonging to something bigger than yourself, learning how to be filled with God, so you can be poured out for His purposes and for the benefit of others.
Prayer will be a foundational practice and value throughout the school, including staff prayer, teacher-led prayer, and student prayer. This emphasis on prayer is an acknowledgment of our dependence upon God for the spiritual formation we seek in our staff and students, and of our understanding that God invites us to pray boldly and is at work in and through us in response to prayer.
The gospel will be presented to our students at multiple times and in a variety of ways by teachers and chapel speakers to provide students with opportunities to accept and embrace God’s offer of mercy, forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ, and develop an assurance of salvation based upon the truth of the gospel.
Students entering grades 7-12 will be required to write a personal testimony regarding their faith in Christ, indicating how and when they were saved as a criterion for admission to the school.
As part of the admissions process, school staff will interview students in order to provide an opportunity to discuss and assess the genuineness of the student’s faith in Christ and their desire to grow in their faith.
Students at each grade level will receive daily Bible instruction based upon a vertically aligned Bible curriculum with an overall scope and sequence designed to develop a broad understanding of the Bible, its major periods, stories and characters, its books, major themes, key topics and principles. Assessment of understanding of this biblical instruction by each student will be the basis for grades given in Bible classes at each grade level.
Students will be given the ACSI Bible assessment as part of the TerraNova 3 standardized test administration each spring in order to further assess each student’s Bible knowledge and understanding in the areas of creation, Christ, Old and New Testament stories, Bible organization and structure, the church, Christian doctrine, character and attitudes, Bible study skills and Christian living. Data from these assessments will be used to evaluate and improve the biblical instruction program.
Weekly chapels will be conducted for all students, with separate chapels for grades 1-3, grades 4-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12 to provide opportunities for corporate worship and prayer, as well as topical Bible-based instruction and character instruction. These chapels are vital to building a sense of Christian community and a unity of faith in the school.
Christian service opportunities will be provided and facilitated at each grade level to provide students with multiple opportunities to put their faith into practice by serving others.
Character instruction will be given both by integration throughout the curriculum in morals of stories, character studies, as well as addressed specifically in chapels and Bible instruction. Christian character formation will also be a primary goal of all correction, counsel or discipline given to students, and students will be encouraged and praised when they demonstrate Christian character.
The school will hire and train staff who model, teach and foster a sincere love for God and one another, and demonstrate exemplary Christian character through their interaction with students, parents and with one another to provide an example that students can imitate and follow.
A Christian worldview will be presented throughout the curriculum, repeatedly addressing the core concepts of God’s creation, the fall and sinfulness of man, the need for repentance and God’s provision of redemption, and the restoration available through a life of faith.
Understanding the Times, a comprehensive comparison of other worldviews compared to the Christian worldview, will be included in the 12th grade Spiritual Life II class annually as a capstone experience for students.
Chapels
The Bible recognizes all activities of a believer as forms of worship when they are done unto Him, but CFS chapels provide special opportunities for students and faculty to give honor to God and for spiritual growth and unity. Our desire is that students would experience the presence of God during these times and not just receive information or go through a religious ritual.
CFS has four, weekly chapels, designed to serve students in an age-appropriate manner. The K–2 meet Tuesday mornings, grades 3–5 meet on Wednesday mornings, grades 6–8 meet Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, and grades 9–12 meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. All chapels include singing unto the Lord, a Bible-based teaching, and prayer. Chapel speakers include CFS faculty and staff, community ministers and spiritual leaders, and, for high school chapel, current students. Elementary chapels are led by CFS faculty and staff. Middle school chapels are also led by faculty and staff, however, students may lead singing with their own worship band and lead worship by producing back of house as well. High school chapels are coordinated by a student chaplain and singing is led by a student worship band and perform back of house as well.
Service Opportunities
High School Students Service Hours:
Local Opportunities to Serve – all of the following have been approved for senior hours and NHS hours. Many of these are ministries which have grown from within the members of Christian Fellowship Church and are now serving the whole community of Columbia. If you click on the link on the left of each line, it takes you directly to their list of service needs and opportunities.
Granny’s House — contact name: Pam Ingram
Love INC — contact 573.256-7662 Ext 21 or Jane Williams
Central MO Food Bank — To volunteer at Central Pantry, please contact Sean or Kevin at (573) 874-7848.
Why We Serve
At CFS, we model Christ-like behavior by teaching students to give to and serve others in need. Even the youngest grades can participate in Operation Christmas Child Boxes prepared by students every November. Teaching others to share the Gospel and the love of Christ by meeting their basic needs by packing a shoebox, adding a personal note, and praying over the boxes before they are shipped shows them how to put love into action.
We also host an all school Serve-A-Thon where our students get to pack 50,000 meals in one day!
Our junior class goes on a mission trip to Washington D.C. to work along local churches to meet the needs of those that God puts in front of them.
Class Trips
Kentucky — Creation Museum (8th Grade)
As a culmination of their life science studies, CFS 8th graders take a three-day, two-night trip to the Creation Museum in Petersburg KY, near Cincinnati OH. The Creation Museum is a 75,000 square foot facility with numerous displays and interactive programs, comparing scientific findings and theories to biblical accounts related to natural history, anthropology, and geology. Students see life-size dinosaur exhibits, archeological digs, and geological displays. Also on the grounds is a petting zoo, a botanical garden, and a very exciting zip line.
Junior Class — Mission Trip to New Orleans With Praying Pelicans
Washington, D.C. is the epicenter of our nation’s political landscape and is incredibly diverse along both economic and racial lines. As the hub of the federal government, the city is always hustling and bustling. A proud, smart city, Washington utilizes technology in innovative ways throughout the city. Much of the industry in the area centers around the government with companies like Hilton and Lockheed Martin holding their corporate headquarters in the area. The many international embassies also help to make Washington, D.C. a truly unique place. Though D.C. is a cultural and political hub, it is a city with huge needs. The public school system has been ranked as low as 49th on a list that included all 50 states, and the city continues to battle issues related to poverty. When we serve in Washington, D.C., we will serve alongside churches that are active in their community and aim to reach people in some unique ways.
While serving on a Washington, D.C. mission trip, our mission’s team will be able to work alongside local church partners to meet real needs. We will work with our students to ensure their mission experience will be impactful because we will use their gifts to support sustainable ministry as we serve under the direction of the local Church in Washington, D.C. Leading up to our mission trip, Praying Pelicans will work with our students to prepare them for the missions in Washington, D.C. While politics will not be the focus of the mission trip, our team will have the opportunity to participate in prayer walking to speak God’s love over our nation’s capital.
Senior Class — Destin, Florida
To celebrate their years together and their impending graduation from CFS, the 12th grade class takes an end-of-the- year, eight-day and seven-night beach trip to Destin FL. With the help of their chaperones, the class organizes the week’s activities of fun-in-the-sun, which may include parasailing, renting wave runners or scooters, and lots of cooking and eating together. The “laid-back” schedule and time together provides students opportunities to reflect on their years at CFS and have a final bonding experience before heading off to college. Memories will be made.
