To open this year's annual magazine, Purple and Gold 2023-24, CPA Board of Trustees Chair Kevin Howard shares with the community his perspective on the mission in action over the past year at the Academy: 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

As we look back on the 2023-24 school year at CPA, we can definitely say that CPA and the CPA community experienced some unique challenges. Yet, we can also affirm that God met us in those moments to sustain and guide our leaders and to uphold our mission. Our mission–assisting Christian families in helping students come to know God, evaluate all knowledge and all life by His truth, and live transformed by His truth for His glory–is at the forefront of all Academy life, arts, athletics, academics, spiritual life, and strategic initiatives. I believe there is no higher mission than this!  

2 Corinthians 4:5-6 tell us “for what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake…[f]or God…has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  

In one of his better-known sermons, C.S. Lewis once preached that “there are no ordinary people” performing Kingdom work. Lewis tells us that “you have never talked to a mere mortal”, rather it is “immortals” who are doing the Kingdom work around you every day, and by God’s grace we see glimmers of these everlasting splendors. As I reflect on this last school year, I can attest that I saw glimmers of the immortal Kingdom work at the Academy.  

I hope and pray that you saw some glimmers too! Here are some glimmers that I witnessed: 

• We saw glimmers in the Arts over a sustained period of 27 years that culminated in Lynn Jung conducting her final Vision benediction at Commencement after 27 years of coaching vocal students to lift their voices heavenward. Her musical gifts paired with her heart for students leave fingerprints of an Almighty Creator. 
• We saw glimmers on the football field when every athlete in every play pushed together towards a common goal: victory, with a shared purpose: to glorify God. Coach Ingle Martin teaches them the elements of football, but it is in the consistency of training where a young man’s character, discipline, and boldness begins to resemble that of his Creator. The State Championship win is an earthly shadow of the victory won on our behalf by a Victor who is undefeated. Coach Martin may lead the football team to State Championships, but we can all see that is not the purpose of the football program.  
• The weight of God’s glory is borne by teachers like Stephanie Garrett, looking back on 27 years of teaching World Language. Her work, year after year, minimizing barriers between CPA students and the world beyond our campus. Teaching them international culture and the Spanish language making them sharper students, but more importantly, equipping them to carry the gospel far and wide. To use Lewis’ language, Ms. Garrett’s teaching is “hacking and pruning” to create “tall trees instead of scrubby tangles and sweet apples instead of crabs”.
• Business + Entrepreneurship students visiting Oracle headquarters in Austin, Tx., Law + Advocacy students laying on the floor of the Capitol rotunda at night, Inquiry + Design students speaking with doctors on the forefront of sickle cell cure research, Visual Media + Publication students presenting strategy to hundreds of student journalists, Production + Performance students exploring faith and art from renowned professionals–learning characterized by a much truer why than simply life beyond CPA. It is for Kingdom Restoration that we go, learn, ask, do, fail, love, forgive, struggle, restore. The weight of glory rests on our shoulders as a holy purpose, divinely aligned, and not thrown off course by worldly circumstance. 
• Last, in just one year as the Chair of the Board of Trustees, I saw a leadership team at the Academy that tirelessly and steadfastly works to further the Academy’s mission with great character, integrity, honor, truth and the desire for the light and the saving grace of Jesus Christ to be spread through the Academy and beyond.  The way in which they lead can only be explained by His grace. Will you join me in thanking them?

Lewis believed that the weight or burden of glory realizes “a brightness or luminosity in the bodies of the saved”. How fitting for Lumen Hall to see students in their last four years of learning at CPA. Let’s take time to recognize the light in our students, families, faculty, and staff all across campus this year. As we engage the unique design of each student, let’s remember we share this weight, the light, the glimmers of restoration happening now, and we will share in their eternal fullness!

Many of you often ask what you can do to help support the Academy. You can volunteer your time and talents through Parent Connect and continue to create belonging in the CPA community. You can support The CPA Fund or the Unseen Stories Campaign. These things are important. But the most important thing you can do for the Academy is pray to the One who saves. The Academy and its leaders covet your prayers! Accordingly, I invite you to pray that the leadership at the Academy would remain steadfast and, in doing so, that the leadership and teachers would feel Christ’s love through our support, that the Academy would fulfill its mission and remain under the protection, love, grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

Soli Deo Gloria,

Kevin M. Howard
Chair, CPA Board of Trustees