Brandenburg said no new debt has been added since 2003, and the school and church communities have since been able to reduce the debt from an original $3.4 million.
“Fiscally the school is sound,” Brandenburg said. “Tackling the debt will open up a lot of opportunities for our ministry to expand.”
Middletown Christian — with about 500 students enrolled in grades pre-K through 12 — has expanded over the past decade, from housing all classes and students inside Grace Baptist to now having a facility complete with full gymnasium, cafetorium (auditorium and cafeteria), and elementary, junior high and high school wings.
Max Fernandez, senior pastor at Grace Baptist, said Middletown Christian Schools is the second most supported ministry of the church — behind only the missions ministry. Grace Baptist has a congregation of about 2,000.
Fernandez said now that the building phases have been completed, the church and school can focus more on marketing and development. He said as the debt continues to decrease, Grace Baptist will be able to reallocate the resources for future upgrades to the church facility.
“We’re increasing our payments (on the debt); we’re full steam ahead,” Fernandez said. “So there’s less interest (payments) and we can reallocate those resources and free up capital.”
Quoting Proverbs, Brandenburg said the line “the borrower is servant to the lender” is a good descriptor for the relationship between Middletown Christian and Grace Baptist.
“The church has given an incredible amount of support; that debt was never neglected,” Brandenburg said.
After the initial debt, Brandenburg said the MCS Foundation has completed three building campaigns in the last five years to fund construction phases as they occurred.
More than $1 million was raised to build seven classrooms, an elementary music room, biology and chemistry labs, art room, finance and guidance departments, reading intervention room, teachers’ lounge and school spirit store.
“As a church, we believe in a Christian and biblical worldview, and the education at Middletown Christian Schools offers that,” Fernandez said. “The church has invested for 41 years to train more young men and women to be Christ-like.”
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