ST. LOUIS – Tower Grove Baptist Church is the proposed location for a new Christian high school to be launched in partnership with the St. Louis Metro Baptist Association. The Tower Grove church has hosted Tower Grove Christian Academy for many years with classes for Kindergarten through 8th grade. At one time, several years ago they offered a high school also. Now Metro St. Louis Baptist Association is making plans to partner with them to expand classes and sponsor a new high school beginning in the fall of 2024.
The new school will be rebranded Metro Christian Academy. Plans are to add high school classes starting with 9th grade and add a grade level each year for four years.
Darren Casper, the executive director of the association, said they have a desire to reach out beyond the Tower Grove neighborhood to offer a Christian school experience for students in other St. Louis area churches and to the residents of the neighborhoods nearby.
He said, “My wife and I have spent 30 years in St. Louis and my wife has worked in St. Louis city (public) schools for twenty years. This effort in no way diminishes our support for public educators. But our hopes and dreams for this sponsor based school is to provide a high quality education with uncompromising Christian values for students regardless of race or ethnic background.”
Casper said the association has enlisted Kyle Hamby, a St. Louis native, who has been living in Dallas, Texas, to begin the organizational and fundraising efforts to provide for the school’s expanded ministry. If funds are raised and the association board approves, they will move forward.
Hamby said he expects several St. Louis area churches to join the partnership being established. There is currently no evangelical Christian high school in St. Louis, although there are several Lutheran and Catholic parochial schools. He said they hope to raise $1,000,000 by the end of 2024. This will provide for teacher salaries for the expanded school and for scholarships for students.
The current head of the Tower Grove Christian Academy, Mike Gregory, said the school was begun under the leadership of former pastor, Larry Lewis, in 1978. He thinks it will be a convenient option for families with students in several grades when they can drop off all the kids at one location.
“We teach the whole child, mind body and spirit,” Gregory said. He hopes it will be a missional school with a focus on outreach. And they believe it will attract Christian and non-Christian students. They serve an area of St. Louis with a diverse population of ethnic groups living nearby in the southwest part of the city.
“Chin people and Ka’ren people, from the nation of Burma (now known as Myanmar) are a significant population group,” he said. There are also Vietnamese, Africans as well as whites and African-Americans living in the neighborhood. They hope to partner with many churches to reach these students with the gospel.
Hamby said, “When churches heard of the partnership there was a lot of excitement.” He asks for prayers because “…the enemy does not want us to do this.”
To learn more about the new high school and to gain information about the partnership Hamby invites people to contact him at (314) 776-6473 or e-mail khamby@stlmetro.org.