Welcome to Concordia Press!

Hello, and welcome to Concordia Press! Concordia is comprised of a team of friends with a shared vision for cultivating meaningful concordia within others. Our story began as a group of teachers and students who recognized the importance of pursuing our callings among like-minded people. Over the years, our vocations and loci communitatis (places of community) have shifted dramatically, but we have remained committed to the calling the Lord has placed on us for education. We’re educators at heart, and we’re here to share a little of what the Lord has been teaching us. Naturally, we want to share these lessons, both the wonderful and the difficult, with others walking along our path. Concordia is a place for lifelong learners, for those called to teach, and for those working to build a community that can touch eternity. We’re humbled the Lord has brought you to us, and we pray that what He is teaching us might encourage you in your own concordia.

So, what is concordia? Concordia is a Latin noun meaning an agreeing together, a union, a harmony, or a concord. Its adjectival form can mean of the same mind, united, harmonious, or concordant. The Latin word itself is actually a compound word formed from cum and cor, cordis. Cum is a preposition that means with, in accompaniment, or together and is used to express a joining. Cor, cordis is a noun that means the heart. It can most literally mean the organ, but it can also refer to the heart as in the mind, emotions, or passions. So our compound word, concordia, can literally mean “hearts together,” a central theme of our company. Concordia is also the name of the Roman goddess of agreement and peace in marriage and society. Her Greek equivalent is Harmonia, from whom we derive the English word harmony, which we gave in the above definition of concordia. In ancient Rome, Concordia’s temple, a devotion to the goddess of peace, stability, and concord, acted as a place where the Senate would meet in times of uproar and disturbance. Concordia also depicts balance, as she is the daughter of Mars and Venus (Greek, Ares and Aphrodite), the god and goddess of war and love, respectively.

You’ll notice a few key symbols and colors within our branding. We’ve chosen these to represent pieces of our vision for what true concordia looks like. The olive tree represents peace, more specifically, the kind of peace that signifies friendship, healing, and endurance. The concordia we desire to cultivate has each of these characteristics—living and continually growing toward the Light. You will also notice a column. Columns build upon established foundations and support the building. Friendship, like columns, bears burdens and equips us to stand firm in our positions. We work to strengthen these columns providing stability and peace. Our colors, green and white, emphasize these characteristics.

Through our work, we want to share our understanding of friendship and community and how these definitions ultimately shape our concept of concordia. Initially, our group became friends due to proximity. As teachers and students within the same school, we spent a significant amount of time learning together. However, our relationship quickly grew into a deeper friendship through honest conversations, trying life circumstances, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We became a community, living life together, learning together, and gradually understanding the callings God had placed in our lives. But, we learned that this community cannot be confined to one place or time. As we all grew and parted into different vocations, colleges, and schools, our bond and vision remained. Even when the Lord moved us and led us on different paths, our hearts remained together. We realized that our callings do not disappear even when the circumstances we expected to occur change. Concordia is a testament of how close you can become by pursuing a common calling and truth together. This pursuit transcends circumstances and location to establish an eternal bond.

Our individual skills and perspectives, because they are now so different, allow us to approach our vision in a truly communal way. We are multi-generational and international-reaching. Today’s technology has allowed us to maintain close bonds with one another across state and national borders. We work within classical Christian schools, homeschools, private schools, public schools, churches, universities, and the nonprofit sector. We are able to sharpen one another while retaining peace. Our personalities and experiences inform our quest to learn, to educate, and to create. We are able to do this because the Lord has instilled in us a desire to touch eternity. Our hope is to be a source of encouragement to continue pursuing eternal things such as true friendship, meaningful learning experiences, wisdom, and virtue. We are still learning these lessons in so many ways, but our concordia has taught us the value of honestly and openly sharing these lessons so that we can grow toward Goodness together.

We help others establish concordia in three ways: creating, connecting, and consulting. We create content such as blogs, books, and art about what the Lord is teaching us. We also create resource materials such as textbooks, reading guides, teacher materials, and fundraising guides to help one another along in our visions. We connect others through experiences, such as conferences and retreats, to bring together like-minded individuals so that concordia relationships can organically and spiritually develop. Although we wish our concordia could extend to include each of you, we know that small groups are often where the Lord works. However, our groups grow and strengthen from continuing to seek knowledge and understanding from other groups, writers, and speakers. We want to be a hub for these resources. We also offer consulting services in a variety of topics such as:

• Starting a school

• Equipping board members

• Teaching classical subjects

• Teaching classical languages

• Creating and cultivating school culture

• Establishing house programs

• Training teachers (for schools, homeschools, and churches)

• Etc.

We hope that these services will allow us to connect with you and prompt the development of concordia!

Romans 15:5-6 - “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together with one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” ESV