2025 marks ECS’s 60th year of Christian education! We are celebrating this remarkable milestone – also known as the Diamond Jubilee year – in many ways throughout the year. We are so thankful for the rich heritage ECS enjoys today thanks to those who had the vision and courage to follow God’s leading in establishing a distinctly Christian school that partners with the home and church to disciple the next generation in Christ. This is a good time to pause and ask ourselves...
What would the founders of Evangelical Christian School think of the school today, 60 years later?
In 2025, ECS has established itself as the preeminent Christian school in the Memphis area, among only 17 schools nationwide to have earned the distinction of exemplary status by the Association of Christian Schools International. ECS is also the only covenant model school in Memphis, requiring at least one parent to profess faith in Jesus for student admittance. Although many things have changed over the past sixty years, ECS remains committed as ever to its unique mission: to provide the Christian family a Christ-centered, biblically directed education that challenges students to know the Lord Jesus Christ and to develop the vision and practice of excellence in academics, character, leadership and service to others.
Beginning with its first graduating class in 1975, ECS has produced nearly 5,000 alumni. ECS alumni received an excellent college-preparatory education taught through a distinctly Christian lens, with the aim to not only equip students to succeed in college and beyond but also to train up godly leaders who influence the world for Christ. ECS has earned a reputation in the community for graduating successful, talented and well-rounded alumni who value character, family, community and service.
ECS’s commitment to excellence in academics has yielded dozens of National Merit Scholars, hundreds of AP Scholars and millions of dollars in college scholarships to some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions including Ivy League schools and military academies, as well as large public universities and small private colleges, both near and far. Countless alumni have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, business leaders, professional athletes, military officers and pastors, missionaries, and ministry leaders, among many other successful professions spanning the world. There is no limit to the success of an ECS graduate and knowing our students have been taught biblical truth and how to defend their faith when they leave home is both reassuring to parents and honoring to God.
ECS is also known for its success in athletics. The Eagles boast 29 state championships across nine team sports. ECS is tied in the Memphis area for the most high school football state championships at five, and second to only CBHS for the most high school baseball state championships, at six. Last year, the girls became back-to-back soccer state champions, and the first year that girls lacrosse was a TSSAA sport, the Eagles secured that state title as well. Hundreds of ECS athletes have gone on to pursue sports at the collegiate level over the years, and dozens have made it to the pros, including three alumni who are currently active: Super Bowl Champion and five-time Pro Bowler Morgan Cox ’05 plays in the NFL (Tennessee Titans), two-time All-Star and Silver Slugger Brent Rooker ’13 plays in the MLB (The Athletics), and newly drafted star guard Kameron Jones ’21, plays in the NBA (Indiana Pacers).
ECS’s legacy in fine arts is just as impressive. In last years’ production, the cast of Hadestown Teen Edition earned a school record eight awards and 19 nominations from the Orpheum High School Musical Theatre Awards, including Best Overall Production. Performing Arts Director Lynden Jones won Most Outstanding Director for the second time in three years. With 43 nominations spanning four years, ECS has become a perennial favorite among a competitive field of regional theatre competition, showcasing excellence on the stage while being taught to perform for an Audience of One to the glory of God. Many alumni have pursued the arts in their careers including Americana musician Drew Holcomb ’00 of Billboard’s top-performing Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors; accomplished sculptor Clay Enoch ‘91, with numerous public commissions nationwide; and notable Nashville artist Lizzy Ragsdale Love ('10), who specializes in creating figurative paintings combining color play.
We believe the founders – an interesting combination of two pastors, a pharmacy professor, an educator, two dentists and a tech school graduate – would be impressed by these outstanding accolades earned by our school, but we believe they would be most pleased that ECS’s commitment to teaching all of its programs with a Christ-centered, biblically directed focus is as true today as it was when ECS first began.
Why ECS Began
In the early 1960s, there was a growing concern that humanist philosophies were invading our public schools and would ultimately put an end to teachings from the Bible in the classroom. In 1962 and again in 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of those opposing prayer and Bible reading in public schools, replacing the sacred with the secular.
Dr. Stanley Soltau, pastor of First Evangelical Church from 1942-1968, was particularly burdened by this problem. He would later write a position paper in 1965 titled “The Education of our Children” which was used in the formation of Evangelical Christian School. In it, he posed: “What is education? The value of education is that it enables one to know, or at least it helps one to know, the meaning of life and to meet it and its problems. What then is the value of Christian education? Its value is that it enables us to know the meaning of life from God’s viewpoint and thereby be ready to meet its problems with His power under His guidance. What a vast difference lies between these two forms of education!”
Sensing a call from God to establish a distinctly Christian school to partner with the family and the church in the godly rearing of their children, on June 12, 1963, Dr. Soltau appointed a committee to investigate the feasibility of forming such a school in Memphis.
Of those committee members, only Dr. Kenneth Avis had leadership experience in a Christian school. Before he moved to Memphis in 1961 to assume the professorship of pharmacology at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, he served on the board of trustees of his children’s Christian school in New Jersey for 11 years. As part of his research into his future home, Dr. Avis initiated correspondence with Dr. Soltau in 1960 to express his interest in forming a Christian school for his children to attend. The two men instantly bonded over their shared goal and got to work.
While the feasibility committee met, a prayer group of mothers and grandmothers committed themselves to praying over the formation of a Christian school.
On February 24, 1964, a special meeting of First Evangelical Church was called in which the congregation authorized the formation of a Christian school, the school we know today as Evangelical Christian School. Two months later, on April 20, 1964, the Evangelical Christian School Constitution was approved by the First Evangelical Church Council of Elders and Deacons. On May 7, 1964, the first board of trustees meeting was held, and the decision was made to begin classes on September 1, 1965. On that date, ECS’s first school year began with sixty-six students enrolled in kindergarten through fourth grades on the campus of First Evangelical Church at their former location on Union Avenue.
As demand for a Christian school grew, ECS added new class sections and grades and opened new campuses at other churches around the city. In the spring of 1971, the board contracted to purchase the Goodman property which consisted of a house and 30 acres on Macon Road. After remodeling was completed on the house, including the addition of a new wing for classroom spaces, school began at the ECS Macon campus, now called the Shelby Farms campus, on September 7, 1971.
As ECS was becoming more established, the school logo was determined, student uniforms were selected, sports teams were formed, the yearbook was started, and parent-sponsored fundraisers began. A host of ECS traditions were born — like the Harvest Festival, the clown parade, the senior trip, pep rallies and others; many of which continue today. When the first day of school arrived in 1973, its ninth year in operation, enrollment reached 1,100 students.
While the term “Christian worldview” would not become common ECS vernacular until later in the 1970s, that idea was already ingrained into the curriculum in ECS classrooms. Scripture was being memorized, worship and prayer were regular parts of the school week, and the Bible was the ultimate textbook for history, poetry, as well as instruction on how to live. All subjects were taught through the lens of Scripture by Christ-following teachers.
A spring 1971 flyer promoting ECS admissions proclaimed,
“…where God is acknowledged as the source of all truth. Christianity is not merely added to regular curriculum, but God and His Word are central and pervade the teaching of all subjects. This is education in depth! … where dedicated instructors look upon their teaching as a ministry in the name of Jesus Christ.”
This language is still true of ECS today, 54 years later. As ECS leadership has remained faithful to the Lord, He has remained faithful to ECS and has blessed the school with a rich 60-year heritage.
What will the founders of Evangelical Christian School think of the school 60 years from now?
With strong leadership, committed faculty and staff, and a faithful support network of alumni, parents, and students, ECS is well positioned to flourish in the next 60 years and beyond.
To that end, ECS leadership is focused on achieving key objectives in its strategic plan as the school continues to meet the educational needs of today’s child, while remaining focused on its mission for today and support its vision for tomorrow.
Psalm 145:4 says, “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.” As we celebrate 60 years of God’s faithfulness to Evangelical Christian School, what a blessing it is to inherit such a rich school history, thanks to our founders’ obedience to the Lord’s calling on their lives to start ECS! It is now the task of us all to steward this gift well and preserve and grow Evangelical Christian School so that future generations of believing families can enjoy the school we love.
May the Lord find us faithful in the next 60 years and beyond as we commit the future of our beloved Evangelical Christian School to Him.
- 60Anniversary
