The 5 Big Questions

1. Why do we exist?
2. For what results are we accountable?
3. Who are we serving–primarily?
4. What are our values?
5. What is our plan?

These are five questions that according to Steven Brubaker are essential for every school leader to help his school to answer clearly and to communicate relentlessly to everyone involved with the school.

When God has work he wants done, he looks for a person fit for the job. Obviously, there are many different positions that God fills when he forms a community of faith. School administrators and leaders are among them. Drawing from Ezekiel 22 and from his observations over 30 years in the conservative Christian school movement, Steven Brubaker identifies school leadership as one of the wider gaps in our communities and one that we’ve had trouble filling. Steven reflects on his experience as a teacher and administrator from the day he accepted his first job at a school at age 22. There he was tasked with both teaching and administrating. That first year he learned that he liked teaching. In the decades since he has developed a passion for administration as well. Clear and thoroughly communicated answers to these questions will go a long way to turning this gap into a strong part of the wall.

Like other speakers on this show, Steven warns us about the shallowness of a negative answer to the question of why we exist born out of our departure from the public schools. And if we do some hard work on that first question of existence, we are primed to form clear and powerful answers to the rest. God has sustained our schools with his grace. The questions that Steven unpacks here lay out a way for us to steward the tremendous resources that God has entrusted to us.

 

Links

• [book] The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization – Peter Drucker: https://a.co/d/f4pNlWc
• [book] Good to Great – Jim Collins: https://a.co/d/eUuL3la
• [this show] Episode 14: Why Administrators? – Steven Brubaker: https://administratorspodcast.podbean.com/e/why-administrators/
• This recording was first published on The Dock as “Loving our Work:” https://thedockforlearning.org/lecture/loving-our-work/
• More Recordings from Administrator’s Conference and Retreat: https://thedockforlearning.org/series/administrators-conference-and-retreat/
• Details about Administrators Conference: https://www.fbep.org/attend/events/administrators-conference-and-retreat/