When Daniel and Kellie Bybee met at Golden State Baptist College in Santa Clara, California, they could not have imagined they would someday be serving side by side on the other side of the country as Christian school administrators. Though Kellie was majoring in elementary education, a degree she completed in 2003, Daniel was studying theology and had mixed feelings towards Christian schools. He had attended both public and Christian schools during his K-12 years, but some negative experiences in a Christian school left him disillusioned. Further, he did not feel a calling towards education. At one point, when he told his mother, “I will never be a teacher,” she told him to be careful about saying he would never do something.
After college, Kellie began to teach in a California Christian school where her father was an administrator and pastor while Daniel served in the church ministry. It was during this time that he felt the Lord leading him to pursue additional training to work in law enforcement. His degree in theology actually made him a strong candidate due to a local initiative to diversify the backgrounds of police officers. He was hired in the Palo Alto Police Department. Daniel eventually worked in California law enforcement from 2006-2016. During this period, he became a master taser instructor and had the opportunity to travel throughout the U.S. presenting training. On a visit to Charlotte, he recalls observing that North Carolina might be a nice state to live in someday.
In 2016, the Bybees, now with two daughters and a son, moved across the country to Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, for Daniel to serve as an assistant pastor at Victory Baptist Church. In addition to serving as a full-time pastor, he began working as a part-time deputy sheriff and as chaplain for the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office. Kellie was kept busy in her role as a mother, teaching in an area Christian school for a few years, and serving in church ministries. Although the church did not have a Christian school, the pastor and leaders felt a burden for some time and were praying about whether they should start one. It was during this time that the Lord moved in an unusual way to give them a clear answer.
Just a half mile away from the church property, there was a Christian school that was on the verge of closing. The academic disruption caused by the COVID pandemic further aggravated the situation. With barely 50 students left, the school board was on the verge of notifying remaining families that they would not be able to reopen in fall of 2021. Because the board had a burden for Christian education to continue, they reached out to Victory Baptist Church to see if they had any interest in taking over the school. After much prayer and further deliberations, the church voted to take on the challenge. In short order, God miraculously provided a completely furnished school on ten acres for the cost of assuming the remaining mortgage on the property.
Prior to the decision to take over the school, the church leadership knew that for it to be successful, they needed to identify the right administrator. Daniel felt burdened to create a list of candidates the pastor might consider. After reviewing about a dozen names, none were found to be a good fit for managing this new ministry. Almost as an afterthought, Daniel asked whether the church might consider having him and Kellie work together as administrators. Their pastor was excited about the prospect and encouraged them in this direction.
After further discussion and much prayer, they agreed. Recognizing the need for formal training in light of the daunting task ahead of them, Daniel reached out to a colleague serving as administrator at another North Carolina Christian school, and he strongly recommended BJU’s online SCOPE degrees in education. In addition to the many practical courses and projects, the 50% discount for Christian educators made the online programs especially appealing. When Daniel told him they thought Kellie should get the training since she was the one with the undergraduate education degree, his friend countered that Daniel was really the one who needed the training due to the many practical things he would learn. Following this advice, Daniel enrolled in BJU’s M.S. in Educational Leadership in the spring semester of 2022, while Kellie began the following year in our M.Ed. in Teaching and Learning program.
Since 2021, when the school was relaunched as Victory Christian Academy, God has blessed, and the school has grown to about 200 students. The church even expanded the facilities to better serve the growing student body. Along the way, Daniel completed our M.S. in Educational Leadership degree in the fall of 2023. Although he began the program with a sense of trepidation, having not been formally trained in education, in one of the first courses he remembers a professor making the statement that “The Bible has all the answers.” Once he grasped this truth’s application to the task before him, his assurance of the power and practicality of God’s Word strengthened and encouraged him, both in his formal studies and his ministry in the school. With the confidence that he received from this experience, Daniel decided to enroll in Liberty University’s EdD program, also in Educational Leadership. He is now nearly halfway through the coursework and testifies that he feels thoroughly prepared for the rigors of doctoral studies because of his BJU courses.
Kellie chose the Teaching and Learning program to better mentor teachers for success in the classroom. She has appreciated the many helpful strategies for communicating with parents, planning instruction, and classroom management, but said the program’s greatest impact has been her better understanding of a biblical worldview in education. Although Kellie is the product of Christian education and has spent much of her life in Christian school classrooms, she admits that through her coursework she has fully grasped the importance of integrating a biblical worldview into every aspect of teaching. Though Kellie slowed her pace some with the demands of their busy family, she has made good progress and hopes to complete her final action research project in the upcoming fall semester.
God has used the Bybees in some unique ways as they have yielded their gifts to God’s service and pursued opportunities to develop their knowledge and abilities. With their youngest child graduating from high school this year, the Lord opened the door for a new ministry opportunity. This fall, Daniel will become the administrator of Wilson Christian Academy in Wilson, NC. This school was founded in 1961 and has a legacy of excellence among the North Carolina Christian Schools Association. We wish Daniel and Kellie well as they open this new chapter of ministry together.
