As we celebrate our 30th school year, we are going to share stories about the people who built our school. (If you have a story, please send it to us.)
Below, Headmaster Robbie Hinton pays tribute to our school’s founder, Tim McClelland, who passed away last month.
Each morning, I have the great honor of driving past the Oak Tree onto the campus that Tim McClelland and his friends built.
Every year when Tim would come for a visit, he would always want to know where the school was culturally and academically. He would probe to understand decisions that we had made and he would check to see if the board was following the PGM. Finally, each meeting always ended with the same question: “How are the cash reserves?”
Before our founders handed the school to the next generation, they established a strong cash reserve. When he saw the theater renovations, he doubled down on the question and gave me a reminder: “Those reserves are for families, not for theaters. One day the economy will turn and families will need help.”
Thankfully, your donations and school growth paid for the theater. The reserve is secure and awaits the moment when your family, or some family in our school, needs assistance.
After years of Tim and his friends praying and planning, Cary Christian School opened in September 1996. Thank God for those friends. They opened the school despite a hurricane and continued to support Tim as he willingly took the helm to run the school for a year, when a headmaster could not be found.
Brian and Margaret Finnegan remember Tim this way:
“His vision to create a school and church that proclaims Christ as King and the Bible as the way for Christians to live their lives has created strong fortresses for people of faith…But, most important to Tim, CCS has children and families who know the Word of God and strive to be faithful to live it and share it in their community.”
Remembering stories is important and fun. So, send us more.
The message I heard was of discipline. Tim was kind and generous to me, but he clearly appreciated steadfastness and looked for people who would willingly sacrifice everything for Christ and His kingdom. The same was true when I met Rick Wharton, John Heester, and other pioneer families. Discipline was the greatest gift our founders and pioneer families gave us.
Three generations of families have come to love this place and its mission. Most importantly, we have come to love each other. All because one man had a vision that he shared with his friends.
Thank you, Lord, for Mr. Tim McClelland and thank you, Lord, for his friends who willingly followed his lead.
– Robbie Hinton
