Blog from the Capital

An initiative in Minneapolis pairs public schools with community churches to provide tutoring, mentoring and after-school programs to students.

Church leaders here have made the curriculum more secular to meet the requirements placed on it by the new school-based partnership. For instance, because Folwell School promotes the after-school program and the district provides students a late bus ride home, the church does not do Bible studies.

The goal is “not to evangelize, but to tutor and develop citizens for this community,” said Russell Grigsby, Lebanon’s pastor.

Negotiating the church-state boundaries is ongoing as the district tries to grow the faith-based partnerships.
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The district does not have any generic written rules for faith-based partnerships defining the church-state boundary. Starr explains ground rules to potential church partners during an initial meeting. One of the rules: No praying.