A Culture of fit-ness

​     Recruitment of new students and families sometimes feels sticky.  The whole idea of “what can i say to convince them” is laced with political baggage.   Personally that idea does not work well with me.  Martin Luther High School is a ministry established by area Lutheran Churches and their members to reach young people with the Gospel.  This is not about selling points or convincing arguments.  
    There is a strong stewardship discussion of dollars and cents that can follow.  The biggest questions that Martin Luther High School hears are: “Why pay for something you can get for free?”  “What are you paying for at MLHS that is different from the public ‘free’ school?”  And, “What is worth the cost of tuition?”  
     What you are NOT paying for, and what we CANNOT promise, includes higher ACT scores, higher grades, better Christians, and/or heaven.  We can promise an environmental difference.  It is not a perfect environment, but one that will emphasize and teach objective right and wrong.  We will not teach acceptance, but we will teach empathy.  We will teach confidence in Christ, not confidence in self.  We will teach discipline and forgiveness different than rules and punishment.  We will teach gifts, talents, and blessings as opposed to earning our way, “looking deep inside,” and survival of the fittest.  (When you consider that public schools have to teach that “survival of the fittest” is at our biological core with no alternatives, wouldn’t you expect bullying to be accepted and practiced as normal?)  When you start adding all of our environmental differences and the impact those differences can and do have on success, there is something of significant value in our Christian schools.  There is a strong secondary impact of our culture that certainly does carry into grades, ACT scores, and Christian living.  This is deliberate and liberating.
     For me, it is less about recruitment and more about “Fit.”  Maybe a better word would be “Fit-ness,” meaning the degree to which one fits.  The degree of Fit-ness needs to be right.  If families are here for the grades, or some other factor, then there will be friction.  If families are here for Christ in the culture and the impact that can have on their student(s), then there will be a high degree of Fit-ness. It all comes down to culture.  We promise to keep the Truth of Christ at our Core.  This difference yields spiritual and eternal Fit-ness. Martin Luther High School and our ministry partners hope you find this valuable enough to experience better Fit-ness for your family.  
                                                                                                 Come Lord Jesus, Amen!

                                                                                                  Paul Steinhaus, Principal

---