About Us
Our vision is
flourishing children who love God.
- They are becoming self-controlled, trustworthy, community builders.
- Determined growers, they don’t give up easily.
- Because they are communicative and relational, they look you in the eye.
- They are flexible and resilient as they face challenges.
- As they evaluate information and solve problems, they are critical thinkers.
- They are joyful collaborators, working well with others.
- They are creative designers, motivated by curiosity.
Who We Are
Hampden Christian School is a daycare and preschool, elementary and middle school in the heart of Hampden, Baltimore, Maryland.
Our daycare and preschool accepts children ages 6 weeks – 4 years and enrolls around 40.
Our elementary and middle school serves children in kindergarten through 8th grade and enrolls around 35.
We are Christians in the Mennonite tradition, and we welcome families of any faith to our school. We have a wide variety of religious and non-religious families in our school.
Our Values
These values represent who we are and strive to be as an organization.
Whole-child learning means we value…
- Active learning, where the student is responsive, engaged, and curious
- Intellectual, physical, spiritual, social and emotional development
- Natural play and frequent experiences in nature
- Character development, especially traits of respect, responsibility, honesty, and kindness
- Essential 21st century skills, especially adaptability, collaboration, growth mindset, and self-regulation
Christ-centered living means that we are always seeking to grow in our…
- Love for and devotion to God
- Love for children
- Focus on Christ as our example and master
- Prayer, individually and together
- God-focused everyday talk and routines
Strong Community means we…
- Practice sacrificial, serving love
- Are like a family here, knowing each other well, caring for each other
- Value a school made up of diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds
- Create opportunities for younger and older children to interact
- Promote personal interactions with parents and parent involvement in the school
- Are highly involved in our church and value connections with other churches
Professional Staff means we want to
- Spend significant time every year in professional development opportunities
- Have a growth mindset
- Not only meet professional requirements, but continually grow so we can offer our children the best environment for their flourishing
Our Faith
We are Christians in the Mennonite tradition, and we welcome families of any faith to our school.
The Mennonites are a 500-year-old Christian movement that started in Switzerland. We have three distinctive beliefs.
Nonconformity: We seek to truly follow Jesus as he taught us in the New Testament. This means that we treat all we are and own as ultimately belonging to God. In other words, we do not conform to the expectations of the culture around us but conform to the example that the Bible holds forth as ideal. We hold to a traditional Christian understanding of gender and sexuality, as outlined in our statement of faith, below.
Nonresistance: We are called to show love to all people whether they reciprocate or not. We strive to practice peace in all of our relationships and avoid violence in all forms. We see politics as the responsibility of the state, not the church, and thus do not engage in politics or advocate for any party’s agenda.
Believer’s Baptism: We only baptize following a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Adult baptism has been a hallmark of our movement since the beginning.
This is a summary statement based on the confession of faith adopted by Mennonite General Conference in 1963. For a fuller statement see the Mennonite Confession of Faith.
- We believe in one God eternally existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- We believe that God has revealed himself in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, the inspired Word of God, and supremely in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
- We believe that in the beginning God created all things by His Son. He made man in the divine image, with free will, moral character, and a spiritual nature.
- We believe that man fell into sin, bringing depravity and death upon the race; that as sinner, man is self-centered and self-willed, unwilling and unable to break with sin.
- We believe that there is one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who died to redeem us from sin and arose for our justification.
- We believe that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, a free gift bestowed by God on those who repent and believe.
- We believe that the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, effects the new birth, gives guidance in life, empowers for service, and enables perseverance in faith and holiness.
- We believe that the church is the body of Christ, the brotherhood of the redeemed, a disciplined people obedient to the Word of God, and a fellowship of love, intercession, and healing.
- We believe that Christ commissioned the church to go into all the world, making disciples of all the nations, and ministering to every human need.
- We believe it is the will of God that there should be ministers to teach the Word, to serve as leaders, to administer the ordinances, to lead the church in the exercise of discipline, and to serve as pastors and teachers.
- We believe that those who repent and believe should be baptized with water as a symbol of baptism with the Spirit, cleansing from sin, and commitment to Christ.
- We believe that the church should observe the communion of the Lord’s Supper as a symbol of his broken body and shed blood, and of the fellowship of his church, until his return.
- We believe in the washing of the saints’ feet as a symbol of brotherhood, cleansing, and service, and in giving the right hand of fellowship and the holy kiss as symbols of Christian love.
- We believe that God has established unique roles for man and woman, symbolized by man’s bared head in praying and prophesying, and by woman’s veiled head.
- We believe that Christian marriage is intended by God to be the union of one man and one woman for life, and that Christians shall marry only in the Lord.
- We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female. These two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God. (Gen 1:26-27.)
- We believe that Christians are not to be conformed to the world but should seek to conform to Christ in every area of life.
- We believe that Christians are to be open and transparent in life, ever speaking the truth, and employing no oaths.
- We believe that it is the will of God for Christians to refrain from force and violence in human relations and to show Christian love to all men.
- We believe that the state is ordained of God to maintain order in society, and that Christians should honor rulers, be subject to authorities, witness to the state, and pray for governments.
- We believe that at death the unsaved enter into everlasting punishment and the saved into conscious bliss with Christ, who is coming again, and will raise the dead, sit in judgment, and bring in God’s everlasting kingdom.
Supporting Scriptures are cited following each article of the 1963 Mennonite Confession of Faith.
Our Story
The HCS journey began when Reuben and Patty Petersheim moved to Hampden in 2007 with a vision to start a Christian school. Reuben taught Social Studies in Baltimore City Public Schools for four years before beginning Hampden Christian School in 2011 in a yellow house near the intersection of Falls Road and 36th St.
We began with five students and 3 full-time teachers. In the next few years, preschool and daycare was added. Today we serve many families who live in the neighborhood and surrounding areas.
Where Our Families Live
