About
On October 3, 2007, the Van Lunen Center was founded. It began with a cohort of 22 Fellows in its first year. Today, over 400 heads of Christian schools have completed this distinctive executive management education program, and their leadership impacts nearly half of the students in Christian schools worldwide. Fellows are equipped to lead their school communities with increased knowledge, confidence, and renewed faith.
In July of 2023, the first cohort of the Ascending Leaders program was started with 20 participants. The 2024-25 cohort of Ascending Leaders has 24 participants.
The Van Lunen Center continues to flourish and grow because of a strong foundation, generous donors, gifted faculty, and God's faithfulness.
History
In July 2007, the Van Lunen Center was established at Calvin College, now Calvin University, in Grand Rapids, Michigan to provide world-class executive management training for heads of schools based on the historic Christian faith. The Center was named for Richard D. Van Lunen, whose foundation initially gave charitable grants to Christian schools for new programs and building projects.
The year-long Fellows program is led by faculty who are current or former heads of Christian schools. During the year, each Fellow is required to complete an applied project drawn from new skills and information received during Van Lunen sessions. At the heart of the program is its “Big Tent” philosophy with more than 20 different faith traditions represented among all Van Lunen Fellows from the U.S., Canada, and abroad.
The story of the Van Lunen Center’s first decade has been recorded in a book by the late Gordon VanderBrug. Gordon was a Calvin alumnus and Van Lunen Foundation Trustee who envisioned and helped establish the Center. At the end of the book, he wrote, “Remembering that the story of the Van Lunen Center has also been called ‘God’s project,’ we believe that ensuring the future of this important program is both a responsibility and a privilege for all who care deeply about Christian education."
In November 2021, the Van Lunen Center held its first continuing professional development event, “Van Lunen 2.0: Excellence in Christian Education in a Changing Culture” at Calvin University. Renowned speakers, as well as Van Lunen Fellows faculty and alumni, presented keynotes and breakout sessions to learn from and with each other. The last Van Lunen 2.0 professional development event was held November 1-4, 2023; the title for this event was “Van Lunen 2.0: Sustaining Excellence in Christian Education.”
Core values of our programs
- Distinctively Christian: We are committed to Christian principles for executive management education.
- Big Tent: We intentionally recruit Fellows and Ascending Leaders from differing Christian traditions and create an environment where Fellows respect and learn from these traditions.
- Excellent: Excellence in instruction and continuing support for Christian school leaders is central to our mission.
- Diverse: We are diverse by design with respect to culture, ethnicity, gender, school size, Christian tradition, curriculum, and pedagogy.
- Collaborative: We partner with organizations that are committed to enhancing the future of Christian schools and work with a variety of school associations to that end.
- Applied: Heads of school and ascending leaders implement ideas, skills, and projects in the context of their own schools. We are committed to on-the-ground applicability.