On October 16th, we celebrated our 20th anniversary with our current Redeemer community as well as many of our founding board members, parents, faculty, and staff. (You can read more about that here.) During that event, we looked back on God’s gracious and faithful provision to our school. And one of the myriad ways in which God has blessed us these two decades, is in establishing the Rhetoric School. With that in mind, we’d like to take a moment to go back and highlight our first graduation as just one, very tangible, reminder of God’s goodness to us.
The celebration of the Class of 2024 began on Friday, May 31st, with the Senior Send Off. Our soon-to-be graduates and their families were invited to breakfast at the Keezletown Campus. During that gathering, Mr. Hoch presented each senior with a gift: a set of books to start their own library. Afterwards, the seniors donned their regalia and signed the Alumni Tree (for the first time in 5 years). They shared their favorite Redeemer memories with the entire student body, and they then placed laurel wreaths on the heads of the Kindergarten students (a symbol of humility and of passing the baton to the next generation of Griffins). Finally, the entire PK-11th grade student body lined the gym, the hallways and the front steps, and cheered as the seniors exited the building for the last time as students. Their loved ones were waiting at the bottom of the steps. It was moving to witness.
The next day, June 1st, 2024, was a truly momentous one for Redeemer Classical School. It marked the first Rhetoric School Commencement Ceremony in school history. Six seniors walked across the stage, received their diplomas, and became Redeemer’s first graduates. Not only did this cap off months of planning for the ceremony itself, but it was the culmination of a five-year-long process: in 2019 we spent a full year planning for the launch of Redeemer’s Rhetoric School. In the fall of 2020, we moved forward with offering 9th grade and then added a grade a year until we were a full PK-12th grade school. Countless hours were spent by a growing team of people drafting policies, writing curriculum, finding space, and developing student life initiatives. It all paid off in the celebration of our inaugural graduating class.
The Graduation Ceremony, which was held at Court Square Theater, began with a processional that was led by the rising House Heads carrying their House Banners. Once the banners were placed, Rhetoric School faculty and staff proceeded to the stage in full academic regalia. Finally, the Senior Class processed in and took their seats in the front row of the theater.
Upper School Principal, Aaron Cosner, welcomed everyone and introduced Rev. John Kidd, who gave the opening prayer. Mrs. Swanson, our 3rd-12th music teacher, then sang our Alma Mater. James Fries, who has attended Redeemer since Kindergarten, gave a wonderful (and entertaining!) Valedictorian Address. This was followed by singing “It is Well with My Soul,” with music led by Mr. Greg Yoder. After which, Head of School Ron Hoch gave the Commencement Address (found below).
Next it was time for the presentation of diplomas. Mr. Cosner introduced each graduate individually as they walked across the stage to shake hands with Redeemer’s Board Chair, Jonathan Bucher, before receiving their diplomas from Mr. Hoch. Tassels were turned once everyone had received their diplomas, and then the congregation sang “Be Thou My Vision.” This led to a closing prayer by Rev. Kidd during which parents were welcomed to stand next to and lay hands on their senior students. The ceremony was closed with the singing of the Doxology, and the recessional.
Many tears of joy were shed by graduates, family members, and faculty and staff alike. It was a beautiful and moving celebration that honored the graduates well. Moreover, new traditions were formed that will be cherished and looked forward to with eager anticipation for years to come. All in all, it was a lovely reminder of God’s goodness, grace, and care for Redeemer Classical School.
The Lord has brought us to where we are today — to the point of being a PK-12th grade school with graduates — and it is fitting to give thanks.
Like the Israelites who built a stone monument so that they would remember God’s abundant blessings (1 Samuel 7), so may we look upon Commencement each year to remember God’s blessings in our midst, and turn back to him in praise!
2024 Commencement Address, Mr. Ron Hoch
It is my distinct pleasure at this time to give the inaugural commencement address. Graduates, there’s so much that I could say and so much that I want to say to you that it’s difficult to narrow my scope. While I sincerely hope that this won’t be the last time that we speak, in many respects it feels like the final opportunity to impart some wisdom, and so the question becomes, what do I want to say? As I pondered this question, I thought about your experience as the pioneering class for Redeemer’s Rhetoric School — which came with a unique set of blessings and challenges, I’m sure. But I also thought back to what Redeemer was like when you first started whether it was in 6th grade, 2nd grade, or Kindergarten — Redeemer has changed in some significant ways during your time here, and you have had a beautiful opportunity to grow, not just in or at the school, but with the school.
Along the way, you received a high-quality, Christian classical education. An education that is different from that which many of your peers in other schools have received. On a day to day basis, as you strove to balance the demands of sports and school, or to finish a paper on-time, or to study for an exam, you may not have realized how different your education was, but I assure you, it was not the status quo. In her book, Classical Me, Classical Thee, Rebekah Merkle shares a helpful analogy for explaining the differences between a classical education and what we might call a “typical” education today. She says, “Many classical students tend to think of high school as a giant Pizza Hut. All the American teenagers are sitting at their various school tables eating pepperoni pizza, and meanwhile the classical school tables are off on the side eating pepperoni with extra cheese and green peppers.”
In other words, we tend to think that what makes a Christian Classical education unique is that there are some additional classes — Latin, Greek, Logic, Rhetoric, etc. But the reality is that your education is fundamentally different. Merkle continues, “You’re sitting there eating pizza, everyone else at your table is eating pizza, and so you assume that’s what the rest of the students around the room are eating too. But if you were to actually go over there and sit down with them, you would discover that they’re being served something entirely different….they were over there having tuna and crackers…” (pp. 15-16). It’s true. You’ve been given — dare I say, gifted — something special at Redeemer. An education that is different not just in the classes you’ve taken, the number of students in your class, the types of facilities you’ve been housed in (for good or ill), or the teachers who’ve taught you, but in its very purpose and essence.
You understand that to some extent now, but my guess is that the differences between your education and that which others received will become more apparent to you as you enter college and/or the workforce. One day you’re going to reference Cicero OR ethos, pathos, and logos, OR the tu quoque fallacy, OR Senior Thesis, OR visiting the catacombs in Rome and your peers are going to look at you like you have 3 heads. It’s likely that, at some point, there will be a temptation to downplay the uniqueness of your educational experience, to avoid discussing it among certain company, or to play dumb so that you can blend in. Don’t. Don’t succumb to that temptation, for to do so would be to squander the gift that you’ve been given in the form of your Christian classical education.
Instead, embrace the uniqueness of your Redeemer education. You see, the world needs people like you; people who are equipped to winsomely promote and courageously defend truth, goodness, and beauty; who act with integrity rooted in conviction; who think critically and are not easily swayed by error; who communicate eloquently; who love their neighbor by pursuing what is best for them; and who do all of this to the glory of God. To put it another way, the world has enough people who’ve never read Cicero, never heard of the tu quoque fallacy, and didn’t receive an education centered around the pursuit of wisdom and virtue. What we need more of is people who have. So embrace the fact that you’ve received a unique education, and use what you’ve received, wherever you go and whatever you do, to bless others to the glory of God.
With all of this in mind, I’d like to leave you with two ideas for how to go about doing this. First, be humble. While on the one hand there will be the temptation to downplay what you know, there is an equal and opposite temptation — to show off what you know in a way that is arrogant and insufferable. To this I also say, resist the temptation. For, first and foremost, arrogant pride is sinful and displeasing to God. But it’s also true that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and a soft word turns away wrath. So be winsome, eloquent, and humble in the way that you interact with others and make your point.
What’s more, while you know a lot, you don’t know everything. There are other people smarter than you, who know more about certain things than you. A position of humility allows you to listen to and learn from others. An ancillary virtue to being humble is staying curious and embracing a lifetime of learning, which I strongly encourage you to do. The Lord has given us a vast creation to explore, and I pray that you will do so throughout your life. For that pursuit will provide you with an increasing sense of God’s majesty and an appreciation for the beauty of his grace towards you.
Second, be holy. This may seem like a strange comment for a commencement address, but bear with me. The word “holy” means “set apart” or “separated.” God is holy, because he is “set apart” from all other beings, in that he is God, the only God. He is the only being who is omniscient, omnipotent, eternal, infinite, immutable, and independent (what theologians call aseity); thus he is holy. When people, places, and objects are called “holy” in Scripture, it means that they are to be set apart for a special purpose, for God’s purpose. So when I encourage you to be holy, I’m referring to acknowledging and accepting God’s special purpose in your life.
There are two implications that I want to highlight here: first, be set apart, separate, different from the world around you. In this way, I’m drawing on what I said earlier about embracing the Christian classical education that you’ve received. Don’t be afraid to be different, because of the foundation that’s been laid in place at Redeemer. Lean into it, use it to grow, improve, and help others.
But secondly, and more importantly, embrace God’s calling on your life. God is calling each one of you to a deeper relationship with him. I know this, because it’s the same call that he has for all of us: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20). The one true and living God is a personal God who desires to dwell with and among his people. And he wants you to live in communion with him.
Moreover, God is calling each one of you to serve him with your whole lives. Holiness — God’s setting us apart for his service — requires us to view everything we do for his honor and glory. So, whatever you do, whether it’s going to college, church ministry, raising children, working on the farm, or working in corporate America — and everything in between — do it unto the Lord. Do not view higher education as a path to making more money, but as a way of learning about the world so as to be a better steward of God’s creation. Do not view your work as merely a job, but as a vocation. Do not merely view your family or your community as a support system, but as a way of building God’s kingdom and bringing it to bear here on earth. Do not view your life as a dichotomy between sacred and secular elements, but seek to bring all things into conformity with Christ and so lead a life that is set apart (holy), unto the Lord. This is what you were created for and this is how life works best. It won’t be easy, quite the opposite, but it is the most fulfilling and the most beautiful way to live.
In closing, embrace the education that you’ve received with gratitude; use what you’ve learned at Redeemer as a firm foundation upon which you can build the rest of your life. Along the way, be humble and be holy. Do all things to the glory of God and view your entire life — whatever you do — in terms of service to him. Finally, remember you are Griffins for life. You always have a home at Redeemer. Your teachers, parents, grandparents, and friends are all proud of you, and we love you. We can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for you. Congratulations class of 2024!