Growth is an interesting concept. You can quantify it with pencil marks on the wall that show how much a child grew since her last birthday. You can qualify it with stories of increased maturity or compassion. You can feel it with the closeness of a growing relationship. But what about for a high school? At Lutheran East there are as many answers to that question as there are students in the school.

Over the last seven years Lutheran East’s enrollment has steadily been on the rise. This year we are blessed to welcome three hundred young men and women to the halls of Lutheran East. Three hundred students working hard to earn an education that will shape their respective futures. Three hundred students lifting their collective voice on Tuesday and Thursday mornings in the auditorium as we gather as a school community to worship. And most importantly, three hundred students growing in their relationship with Christ. Three hundred students is a number that tells part of the story.

As Lutheran East has grown, so has our faculty and staff. The remarkable thing about the growth of our faculty is not that it’s grown, but rather how it’s grown. Currently seven of our faculty members are graduates of either Lutheran West or Lutheran East! You can see the lasting impact of the CLHSA and a Lutheran education when one generation of Falcons and Longhorns is impacting the next! Seven educators is a number that tells part of the story.

There are of course other numbers that tell their piece of the story as well. One of those numbers is our graduation rate of 95% over the last five years. Other significant numbers include those that tell the story of a solid financial outlook with balanced (or better) budgets each of the last five years. Some numbers tell the story of athletic victories, others of increasing ACT scores, and still others of service projects and mission trips. Numbers, however, never tell the full story. Schools are about students; not numbers. The story of Lutheran East’s growth is really a story about how our students are growing as young scholars, as people, and in relationship with Christ. That’s the story of Lutheran East’s growth, and it leads me to give thanks! I hope it does that same for you.