History of Redwood Christian Schools

Redwood Christian Schools was founded in 1970 as an interdenominational home mission work. From the first year with 69 students, we have grown to a school serving over 750 students in grades K-12, including over 60 children in Concept Help, a program designed to assist children with specific learning disabilities and other challenges that prevent them from functioning in our regular program. Located in the East Bay, 25 miles southeast of San Francisco, we currently have three campuses: two elementary, both in Castro Valley, and a junior high/senior high school located in San Lorenzo. We have maintained our identity through the years as an interdenominational Christ-centered school that now serves over 600 families, representing more than 130 churches, from over 30 Christian denominations.

This home mission work continues to be alive in Jesus Christ as we pursue the vision the Lord gave to our founders. In 1971, the founding superintendent of Redwood Christian Schools, Mr. Gus Enderlin, wrote in our first yearbook: “The major goal of the school is to produce a boy or girl who has the mind of Christ . . . The child must first be ‘in Christ.’ . . . Therefore, the salvation of each student is of prime importance. Christ’s ambition was to do the will of His Father. This is the chief spiritual goal of the school: to produce the boy or girl who wants to please his heavenly Father by being directly in the center of His will; a boy or girl who is daily walking, by faith, in the Holy Spirit.” This continues to be the primary focus of this ministry.

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Redwood Christian Schools Doctrinal Statement

As a school, we believe that God is an eternal personal being of absolute knowledge, power, goodness and righteousness. He is ultimate reality, the source and foundation of all reality and truth. We believe that Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, is creator, designer and preserver of all things. In Him the entire universe has its origin, energy, control and final destiny.

We believe that man came into being by a direct, immediate act of the Creator and is unique among all the creatures. Man (Mankind) bears the image of God in that he has personality and the power of moral choice. Man’s purpose is to glorify God, and to subdue and hold dominion over the earth. The first man, by deliberate choice, became estranged from God, and man’s divine image was forever marred; he became morally corrupt and in need of redemption. This redemption is provided by God only through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Truth is centered in Christ, and all its disciplines are meaningfully related to each other and to Him. God communicates truth to man through revelation that is both "General" (nature and providence) and "Special" (Bible and Jesus). We believe that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, the final authority for faith and practice.

All Christians, in all times and in all places, have been united into a single body of God’s design. This union is called the body of Christ, the universal church. The Bible commands that Christians assemble for worship, instruction, fellowship, and mission. The mission of the church is to make disciples of all nations. Redwood Christian Schools, in cooperation with parents, participates in the mission insofar as we are part of the body of Christ.

Because God is central and has made Himself known through revelation, education must create an awareness of God’s manifestations. We believe that education is learning to see things as God sees them and to think God’s thoughts after Him. We believe that all curricula content is related to God and the revelation of God becomes the heart of the curricula. The most important agent in this revelation is the Holy Spirit.

In the educational process, the Christian school is an extension of both the home and the church, the two institutions to which Scripture gives the responsibility of education. We recognize that the most effective education necessitates a Christian teacher and a Christian student.

We believe that God has given the responsibility for discipline and instruction of children to parents. They are to train each one faithfully in God’s truth. The father, under God’s direction, has this major responsibility as he and his wife raise each child in the ways of the Lord. We believe that our parents have given Redwood Christian Schools the authority to join with them in this process during the school hours and activities. The parents empower the School to act as surrogate parents and Redwood agrees to assist (but not supplant) the parents in the teaching and training of truth and in character development. Personal salvation is our foremost objective for each student, enabling him to reflect God spiritually, mentally, socially, and physically. It is our further objective to lead each student into an understanding of the basic concepts of the Christian life, to develop within him the ability to think deeply and critically from a Christian worldview, and to guide him into making his relationship with Jesus Christ meaningful in every aspect of his life.

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Redwood Christian Schools Statement Of Faith

The basis of Redwood Christian Schools is the Word of God as interpreted by the following statement of faith:

We believe the Bible to be the inspired and only infallible recorded Word of God.

We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.

We believe that for salvation of lost and sinful man, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is essential.

We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.

We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost: they that are saved unto the resurrection of life, and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.

We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Redwood Christian Schools Expected School-wide Learning Results (ESLR)

ESLR I - CONFORMING TO GOD'S TRUTH

All truth is God's truth. Each discipline taught in school contains ideas that are either true or not. A major purpose of educating students is to develop the ability to discern truth from error. The function of ESLR I is to develop an instructional and learning environment that facilitates learning truth and discernment of truth from error. A variety of assessments will be used to monitor student progress in understanding truth.

ESLR II - RENEWING THE CHRISTIAN MIND

A second major purpose of educating students is to lead them toward maturity and integrity in Christian virtues. ESLR II requires using a variety of instructional methods to present ideas and experiences which will explicate godliness so that students will learn about a virtuous life through study and example. Students will be given a variety of learning and assessment experiences in order to demonstrate progress in understanding the standards of a life that will be blessed by God.

ESLR III - STRIVING FOR INTELLECTUAL EXCELLENCE

A third major purpose of educating students is to instruct them on how to develop intellectual and performance skills that will enable students to fulfill God's commission for them. A variety of instructional activities and assessment experiences will be used to help students understand and use these skills.

ESLR IV - DEMONSTRATING ACADEMIC GROWTH

A fourth major purpose of educating students is to develop basic skills and accumulate knowledge about subject matter so that performance as an adult will not be hindered by lack of these skills and by a lack of knowledge. Specific tests will be used to monitor student progress in these areas.

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Redwood is an interdenominational school

Redwood is an interdenominational school. We desire to remain united in the salvation and love of Christ, rather than to focus on denominational issues. This is possible with the cooperation of family, church and school. In order to do so, the following areas are left to the teaching of home and church:

- Form of church government (e.g., authority and discipline).
- Time and mode of baptism.
- Security of the believer.
- Time of the rapture.
- Second work of grace (e.g., baptism of the Holy Spirit).
- Sinless perfection.
-Gifts of the Spirit (e.g., tongues, healing, miracle working).

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