Co-written by Janie Niswonger

30-Year History

During the more than thirty years of athletic programs at Mount Paran Christian, the success of athletes and teams has been based primarily on the focus to further the school’s mission of developing servant-leaders who walk in Truth, love others, and honor God. MPC established its athletics program during in 1986 as it became a member of the Georgia High School Athletic Association. The program began with only three sports: baseball, basketball, and tennis – with softball and soccer starting in subsequent years. These founding programs have recorded numerous successful seasons since their start. In fact, the varsity baseball team has finished as the Class A State Runner-Up the last two seasons. MPC athletics has now grown to a total of fifteen sports in its program – adding competitive cheer, cross country, equestrian, football, golf, lacrosse, track and field, swimming, volleyball, and wrestling.   

At Mount Paran Christian School, our mission is to develop servant-leaders who honor God, love others, and walk in Truth. Our desire to live out this mission is at our core. In the classrooms, on the fields, courts, and stages — it is who we are. There evidence of Christian life in everything we do, but we are also very intentional about joining with the church and home to help our students become who God created them to be.

 “The meaning of life is to discover your gift; the purpose of life is to give it away.”

MPCS senior band student and percussionist Josh Arrants shared this thought during his talk at the 2015 MPCS band banquet, and while it was a statement aimed to honor his musical mentor, band director Billy Flood, the statement also goes to the heart of the mission-driven approach to arts education at Mount Paran Christian School.

Students throughout the world may participate in band, chorus, drama, orchestra, musical theatre, visual arts, as well as other unique arts programs such as dance, digital arts, technical theatre, and audio engineering — all of which are offered at MPCS to students in various grades, PK-12. Some schools still see the importance of these various arts programs because of documented evidence that reveals the benefits of arts education in the lives of all children and how it forms their academic, social, emotional, and maturational development. This is also a truism for MPCS. But it is more important to note that involvement in MPCS arts plays an added critical role in the life of our school as it applies to the school’s mission of creating servant-leaders. In a pop-culture world that is rife with ever-increasing moral decay, MPCS is developing visual, fine, and performing artists to change the world of the arts for Christ through behavior modeling and servant-leadership.