Leaders of a Bloomington church decided to do more than just rebuild after the building was destroyed by fire.
Victory Church has started enrolling students for Foundation Christian Academy, a new Christian school that plans to open in August.
The church was a total loss in January of 2022. Members soon started raising money to rebuild. By last spring, a shell of the new structure had been built at the site off U.S. 150 southeast of Bloomington. That's when senior pastor Ed Herald said he had a dream, a calling in fact, to build a new school.
“We had already started building everything,” said Victory Church youth director Steven Bishop, who also serves on the advisory school board for the academy.
“We were on track and God stopped us in our tracks and said you’ve got to shift gears That’s what we immediately started to obey.”
Church leaders had to go to the congregation for their support. Bishop recalls some hesitation at first — at least within the family.
“He looked over to his wife, pastor Beth and said, ‘I really feel like I need to tell the congregation what God was telling me. She [said], ‘I don’t know if I would say that.’ She was definitely trying to protect him, but he said, ‘No I’ve got to do it.’”
Bishop said the congregation responded to the announcement with applause. Then they responded with money.
Foundation Christian Academy set a $4.2 million target to build out the new church to include classrooms. Bishop said they still need about $600,000 to fully fund construction.
They want four classrooms ready by the fall and plan to hire at least four teachers, and they would like to add six to eight more classrooms in future years.
Bishop sad the academy's goal is provide K-12 instruction, likely starting with fewer grade levels based on enrollment.
Some private schools saw enrollment grow during the pandemic as some parents sought fewer restrictions related to COVID protocols. Any enrollment increases didn't last.
Data from the National Center for Education Statistics show private school enrollment held steady overall from the 2 1/2-year period when COVID was at its peak.
Elementary schools did see enrollment gains. Middle school and high school enrollments generally held steady. The number of private schools dropped during that time period.
There already are several faith-based K-12 schools in Bloomington-Normal. They are considerably smaller than the area's public schools. Bishop said he doesn't see them as competition.
“There’s never enough Christian schools in town,” Bishop said. “We’re not worried about the numbers [of students]. Even if we have one kid that we get to give a quality education to then we are successful.”
Bishop said if the new school is not ready by the fall, classes will be held at Journey church in east Normal.
Victory is holding worship services now at Cornerstone Christian Academy east of Bloomington.
Bishop said the new school is exploring membership in the Illinois High School Association [IHSA] and the Illinois Elementary School Association for sports and other extracurricular activities. The school hopes to sponsor a cross country team in the opening year, but will likely explore a co-op with Cornerstone for most sports.
