John Shearer: Joel Belz Was Pioneer At Both CCS And Covenant College

Two important Christian educational institutions closely related to Chattanooga have been Covenant College on Lookout Mountain and Chattanooga Christian School.

Joel Belz, who died on Feb. 4 at the age of 82, was uniquely connected with the early days of both. And this imprint on education was just a part of his story, as the energetic Mr. Belz would also enjoy some notable accomplishments in journalism by starting the well-known Christian publication, WORLD magazine, and receive some national attention.

A look back at his life in connection with his recent death and as both CCS and Covenant are winding down another school year shows that his connection with both involved being almost a pioneering adventurer.

As was documented in a Chattanoogan.com story in 2015, his service with Covenant College began when he lived alone in the old Lookout Mountain Hotel building – now Carter Hall -- for three months in 1964. That had come about while he was doing some advance publicity work as Covenant was relocating there from St. Louis. He would go on to work in public relations and serve on the faculty for several years and would remain a member of the board of trustees for decades.

How would you like having to live alone in an old hotel building for three months as he did?

His work with what became Chattanooga Christian School had come about as a result of his job at Covenant. As Mr. Belz said in a CCS video put together in connection with the school’s 50^th anniversary in 2020, the idea for what became CCS resulted from some discussions among the Covenant faculty and staff beginning in the mid-1960s.

“We were increasingly concerned about where we might turn for the elementary and secondary schooling of our children,” he said in the video. “Here we were promoting Christian education at the college level, while our own kids were at increasingly secular public schools.”

The late 1960s into the early 1970s was a time when societal mores were loosening, and the number of Americans involved closely with a church was beginning to decrease slightly. Also, the Supreme Court had made several rulings interpreting the Constitution’s wording regarding delineation of church and state, including as it related to the prohibition of prayer in public schools. These and other issues were likely coming to the attention of some parents.

“So, half a dozen of us started meeting regularly to see what we could do” (to start a Christian school), Mr. Belz continued in the video. “We knew it would be a challenge. We had no facilities, no faculty, and no money, and – oh yeah – we had no students. But what we did have were vision and a dogged commitment to establish a high-quality school that understood the Biblical basis of a good solid education.”

As a result, in the fall of 1969, the group began meeting with plans to open in the fall of 1970. Jack Fennama was to be the first principal/head of school, and Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church leased some facilities to them. “About 25 showed up that first year,” Mr. Belz said.

According to an old newspaper article, the first year had grades 7-9, and the school was initially called Lookout Mountain Christian School. In the early years, it was also located in such places as a structure by the Reformed Presbyterian Church near Covenant College and Hixson Presbyterian Church.

As it tried to grow, school officials proposed a more expansive name, and Lou Voskuil suggested Chattanooga Christian School in 1977, the video says.

To help draw students, it with the help of Mr. Belz also became part of a connected national network, where headphones would connect students via phone lines with teachers in other parts of the country. It was a form of distance or remote learning before the personal computer and Internet.

Another innovative step the school took was in trying to attract black students. Mr. Belz emphasized in the video that Chattanooga Christian did not start as a result of white flight in the days of the integration of schools. That had been at least indirectly the case with some independent schools in other cities.

In fact, it tried to run toward integration. While the school did have a small number of minority students early on, that was not enough for Mr. Belz, who was the third headmaster behind Sander DeHaan.

“That was embarrassing,” he recalled in the video of the small number of minority students. “I vowed to go to work recruiting some African-American students from Chattanooga, and the next year 19 out of 57 came from African-American families. And I have been pleased to watch CCS take a leadership role in that issue” in the years since, he said.

The early period of CCS was actually a time when a number of other churches or Christian organizations in the Chattanooga area were starting schools. A few would start even later and survive to this day and give Chattanoogans plenty of choices in that realm.

The video also recalls how Chattanooga Christian School survived early on almost with divine help from the school community and the larger Chattanooga area. He and Dave Stanton, another early leader and faculty member who was interviewed on the video, recalled mothers making soccer uniforms for the team and the school being able to get some used academic furniture and equipment when UTC was remodeling a science building.

The school had moved to its current location in the former Ed Wright Chevrolet complex in 1982.

Reached over the phone in recent days, Mr. Stanton recalled that Mr. Belz was both a visionary leader and had an unusual amount of energy.

“He had a brain that would work 90 miles an hour and he didn’t worry about the challenges,” said Mr. Stanton, who was hired at the school in 1973 and stayed for 45 years. “Some of the challenges that always stymied us were financial, and he always had different ideas.”

For example, Mr. Stanton said that at board meetings, Mr. Belz might bring and show the board members some big financial bills that needed paying. He would then ask if any board members would be able to pay or help pay the bill. If any members could not, chances were they knew someone who could help.

“He was really good at keeping things rolling, even though the road wasn’t perfectly smooth,” Mr. Stanton said. “He was the right man for the right moment at that time.”

While the early years of what became CCS were a time of great professional growth for him, it was also a time of brief personal struggle. After a divorce from the former Diana Ewing and remarriage to the former Carol Esther Jackson while in Chattanooga in the 1970s, Mr. Belz moved to Asheville, N.C., to become managing editor of The Presbyterian Journal. He would go on to have five daughters who survived him – longtime chattanoogan.com editor Jenny Gienapp and Katrina Costello from his first wife, and Alice Tucker, Elizabeth Odegard, and Esther Morrison from his second wife.

In 1987 he would start WORLD, a weekly news magazine that branched off a children’s publication. WORLD was considered trendsetting in that it focused more in depth on church and religious issues at a time when religious publications were still mostly announcement type news.

His work in that realm would gain national notice, and after his death, the New York Times wrote an obituary on him, a rare honor.

But Mr. Belz also took pride in molding students as well as shaping stories during his life, including his and others’ early work at Chattanooga Christian. And he knew it was always a team effort.

“The true heroes from those early days of CCS were the families who participated,” he said in the video, adding that they understood that the resources were limited but that they liked the school’s vision and mission. “They said, ‘We are ready to go there with you.’ ”

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To see the 2015 story about Mr. Belz’ early connection with Covenant College, read here.

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2015/10/5/309757/Covenant-College-Renovation-Latest.aspx

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net