Rightly-Ordered Loves

In our statements of mission, vision, values, and philosophy, we intentionally echo Augustine's call for human beings to pursue rightly-ordered loves, or affections. We aim to help young men and women develop the right desires and prioritize them well. Loving rightly begins with pursuing and loving our Maker, not just knowing about Him or the world He has made. Desiring God leads to loving ourselves and others rightly as image bearers. It also helps us rightly value and prioritize other earthly things. These biblical and Augustinian ideals are at the heart of our mission, vision, and values because the ideas themselves are profound, biblical, and instructive to believers.

Our Mission

Dominion is a classical Christian school that strives to glorify and enjoy God by thinking deeply, living virtuously, and loving rightly.

Our Vision

Dominion will help young men and women cultivate an appetite for rightly-ordered loves so that they may pursue God in any calling.

Our Values

Since Dominion’s desire is for every student to be fully formed and develop rightly-ordered loves that begin with a robust and personal faith in Jesus Christ, we value:

• Confessional Christianity: Committed to the doctrines of the historic Christian faith as expressed by the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, also being shaped by the Westminster Confession of Faith and Heidelberg Catechism while respecting other doctrinal traditions.
• Human flourishing: Students, faculty, staff, and parents learning to love Christ, become well-rounded, and reach their full God-given potential.
• Real-world lifestyle: Choosing digital minimalism in order to pursue all that life offers in human interactions as well as the beauty and goodness of God’s world.
• Community: Knowing, respecting, and loving one another in a school culture that values the role of parents and that is governed by adults exercising biblical wisdom.
• Delight in learning: A work-hard, play-hard culture that awakens a sense of fun, wonder, and joy leading to lifelong learning.
• Great books & great conversations: Unpacking the treasures of meaningful texts while testing each author’s truth claims against Scripture.
  
  

Our Faith

• We believe that God reveals Himself through creating, preserving, and governing all things. He makes Himself more fully known through the Scriptures which, in their original form, are the only inerrant and infallible Word of God, our ultimate, final, and authoritative rule for faith and practice.
• We believe that there is but one infinite, eternal, self-existent, self-sufficient, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, perfect, and good God. In the unity of the Godhead, there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father is neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit is eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.
• We believe that man’s purpose is to bring glory to God by enjoying Him for eternity.
• We believe man’s purpose was distorted when Adam sinned in disobedience toward God, thereby breaking fellowship with Him. Through the Fall of Adam, sin extended to all mankind. We are all born sinners, spiritually dead, relationally and eternally separated from God.
• We believe that Jesus Christ, who was fully God and fully man, was born of a virgin and came to earth to give His life on the cross as the perfect, complete, and sole propitiation for our sins.  
• We believe that the Father raised Jesus from the dead on the third day, after He had provided a full redemption for all those who, by God’s grace alone through faith alone, turn from their sins and trust and have faith in Jesus Christ.
• We believe God will regenerate all for whom Christ died through the invincible power of the Holy Spirit. Christ will one day return to judge the world and deliver His faithful. A persevering, personal faith in Christ, which is the gift of God, is the only way to eternal salvation for mankind.
• We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.  While faith and salvation do not proceed from works or godliness, we believe that works always proceed from authentic faith in conformity to God’s Word and for His glory.
• We believe that all people are created in the image of God and that life is sacred from the time of conception.
• We believe that God created us immutably male and female as a reflection of His image and that He defined marriage as the life-long covenant between one man and one woman.  All forms of sexual activity outside of marriage are sinful, harmful, and outside the bounds of God’s established creation norms.
• We believe that the Father has given Christ all authority in heaven and earth; that He is Sovereign Lord of all creation and every area of life, not just “religious” or “spiritual” life; that Christians are commanded to love Him with all their minds as well as their hearts and souls; that Christians love Him with their minds by refusing to conform to unbiblical thinking patterns of the world and by renewing their minds and transforming their thinking patterns to take every thought captive to Christ.
  
  

Our Philosophy

• We believe that all things were created by God and that reality is most fully understood within the context of His creative and redemptive purposes, so we affirm that God is the author of all truth, not just “religious” truth. All creation is continually sustained by the Word of His power and reflects His goodness and order.

• We believe that the Holy Scriptures are the only inerrant, authoritative Word of God, so we affirm the authority of God and His Word in every area of life and study.

• We believe that the Holy Scriptures command us to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to “not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [our] minds” (Romans 12:2), so we affirm that students must be taught to think carefully and analytically for God’s glory.

• We believe that God’s Word is relevant to all of life, so we affirm that our educational pedagogy must enable students to make sense of the world in which they live while also equipping them to discover the gifts God has given and to fulfill God’s purpose for their lives.
• We believe that the world was created such that man is most fulfilled when he lives in proper relationship with God, others, and creation, so we affirm a hope to create an oasis for those desiring something more than popular culture or immersion in technology can offer.
• We believe that the Holy Scriptures teach in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and Ephesians 6:1-4 that parents are responsible for the education of their children, so we affirm that we are delegated authority by parents, to assist them in the education of their children.  We may not usurp the parents' God-given parental duty and responsibility, and parents are encouraged to participate in their child's education at the school.