One of the major changes that has occurred this school year is that Mr. Graves, a history teacher at CA for the past six years, changed his teaching discipline from history to religion.

Graves said that when Mr. Baldwin him contacted with the opportunity for the position, he told God, “God, if you want this to be the next step in my life, open the doors, for there is a lot of competition for this position. If you make it available for me, I won’t even think about rejecting.”

Graves explains that teaching religion has not been a longtime goal or passion: “When I was in high school and college, I did not like Bible class. It was boring to me.”

And this fact is a driving reason for how he teaches and what his goal is as a Bible teacher. He says that the purpose of the class is to make a change. He wants to teach about God to make the comfortable uncomfortable and the hurting feel safe.

“The purpose of Collegedale Academy is to create strong, battle-ready Christians ready to fight for God. When kids come through this school, they should want to grow closer to God and dive into the Bible. If they don’t get this, they might as well go to several schools in the area to receive a better education. You see, these prep schools prepare kids for college. Our goal is to prepare our students for eternity,” Graves said.