Mission and Vision Statement

Oakdale Christian Academy seeks to impact student lives through a college-preparatory education, a nurturing boarding program, and the life-changing knowledge of Jesus Christ. A rigorous college-preparatory curriculum is key to student achievement and includes strong humanities, history, mathematics, and natural sciences components.

The theological orientation of the academy, founded by leaders of the Free Methodist Church, is informed by Wesleyan-Arminian teaching, which calls for wholeness in personal, church, and civic life. Students are pointed to faith in Christ as the foundation for lives of commitment and service to which the academy aspires for each student.

Our mission is to change lives by providing a challenging educational program and a Christ-centered community for teenagers from a broad spectrum of experiences, leading them to lives of learning, serving others, and loving God.

All faculty and staff members engaged in service for the school must sign the following statement, which is taken from the Free Methodist Church Articles of Religion, 2011.

I believe that there is but one living and true God, the maker and preserver of all things. And in the unity of this Godhead, there are three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one in eternity: deity and purpose, everlasting, infinite power, wisdom, and goodness.

I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, who came to save us. He suffered, was crucified, died, and buried. He is our Savior, the one perfect mediator between God and us. He is risen victorious from the dead and ascended into heaven. There, He sits at the right hand of God the Father, where He intercedes for us. He will return to judge all people. Every knee will bow, and every tongue confesses Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is the effective agent in our conviction, regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. He is our Lord’s ever-present self, indwelling, assuring, and enabling the believer. The Father and the Son pour out the Holy Spirit upon the church. He is the church’s life and witnessing power. He bestows God’s love and makes the Lordship of Jesus Christ real in the believer so that His gifts of words and service may achieve the common good and build and increase the church. In relation to the world, He is the Spirit of truth, and His instrument is the Word of God.

I believe the Bible is God’s written Word, uniquely inspired by the Holy Spirit. It bears unerring witness to Jesus Christ, the living Word. As attested by the early church and subsequent councils, it is the trustworthy record of God’s revelation, completely truthful in all it affirms. It has been faithfully preserved and proves itself true in human experience. The Scriptures have come to us through human authors who wrote, as God moved them, in their times’ languages and literary forms. God continues to speak through this Word to each generation and culture through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. The Bible has authority over all human life. It teaches the truth about God, His creation, His people, His one and only Son, and the destiny of humankind. It also teaches the way of salvation and the life of faith. Whatever is not found in the Bible nor can be proved by it is not to be required as an article of belief or as necessary to salvation.

I believe God created humans in His image, innocent, morally free, and responsible for choosing between good and evil, right and wrong. By the sin of Adam, humans, as the offspring of Adam, are corrupted in their very nature, so from birth, they are inclined to sin. By their strength and work, they are unable to restore themselves to the right relationship with God and to merit eternal salvation. God, the Omnipotent, provides all the resources of the Trinity to make it possible for humans to respond to His grace through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. By God’s grace and help, people can do good works with free will.

I believe Christ offered once and for all the one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. No other satisfaction for sin is necessary; none other can atone.

I believe a new life and a right relationship with God are made possible through the redemptive acts of God in Christ Jesus. God, by His Spirit, acts to impart new life and put people into a relationship with Himself as they repent and their faith responds to His grace. Justification, regeneration, adoption, sanctification, and restoration speak significantly to entering and continuing the new life.

I believe that sanctification is the saving work of God beginning with new life in Christ whereby the Holy Spirit renews His people after the likeness of God, changing them through crisis and process, from one degree of glory to another, and conforming them to the image of Christ. As believers surrender to God in faith and die to self through full consecration, the Holy Spirit fills them with love and purifies them from sin. This sanctifying relationship with God remedies the divided mind, redirects the heart to God, and empowers believers to please and serve God daily. Thus, God sets His people free to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love their neighbor as themselves.

We believe that the Oakdale school program within a Christ-centered community provides experiences and opportunities for directing students toward lives of learning, serving others, and loving God. Our boarding school program aims to promote the learning of Christ-likeness in how students view themselves, others, and the world.

Oakdale school is based upon Christ’s call to love one another, grow in obedience to Him, and live in harmony with others. The boarding program provides opportunities for students to practice community living within the call of Christ.

oakdale school

A Safe and Secure Living Environment: The boarding program is a physically and emotionally safe place where students know they are cared for and are safe from verbal or physical intimidation or harm. Our boarding program is designed and staffed to foster emotional and spiritual growth.

Programs and Environments that Nurture and Foster Growth

The boarding program creates environments and opportunities to help students develop in various ways: spiritually through discipleship and mentorship, physically through healthy eating and exercise habits, intellectually through support for their education, and socially through the guidance provided by staff in student interactions.

Prioritizing Ministry and Service over Efficiency

The composition of the students in a dorm and their ability to create a positive, encouraging, and nurturing environment is of higher importance than filling beds and increasing the number of those enrolled in the boarding program.

boarding school in kentucky
Evangelism and Outreach

We will seek to enroll students who will benefit from a positive environment – allowing them also to strive to emulate positive participation in the Oakdale program. Students not professing a faith in Jesus Christ and those having demonstrated difficulties in attaining community standards will be given opportunities to enter a faith community that embraces the ministry’s values.

These values are practiced in the following ways:

Decisions on student admittance, retention, and dorm census are focused on the service to the student and the student’s impact on other students.

Dormitories are designed to foster community living yet provide personal privacy.

The boarding program provides guidance and resources for nutritional health and physical activity.

Students are given the space, the quiet, and the resources they need to study and complete their homework to the best of their ability.

Students facing struggles and challenges are directed toward a relationship with Christ.

The boarding program provides encouragement and an opportunity for personal devotional time.

Students are intentionally placed in circumstances where they can learn valuable interpersonal skills, such as working out a disagreement with a roommate or respecting the personal boundaries of others.

Students are exposed to people unlike themselves to learn to appreciate persons of other cultures, races, social standing, and family resources.

The Oakdale school program shows the value of living in a community and caring for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.