Central Florida Christian Academy welcomes new headmaster

ORLANDO  Students at Central Florida Christian Academy soon will be seeing a new face around campus.

That person is their new headmaster — and executive pastor at Church of the Cross — Dr. Hal Stewart, who until June will be dividing his time between CFCA and New Orleans, where he currently serves as an instructor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Originally from South Carolina, Stewart’s educational background begins at Clemson University, where he graduated from with a bachelor’s degree in secondary science education, focusing on physics and chemistry. He went overseas afterward for a couple of years to teach in Kenya before heading back to Clemson to finish his master’s degree in education.

While on track to become a principal in the public-school system, Stewart had what he describes as a “spiritual renewal and calling” and surrendered to it. That led him to earn a master’s degree of divinity at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and finally to earn both master’s and doctoral degrees in theology at NOBTS.

“A lot of people end up following the footsteps of their family,” Stewart said. “I was nurtured in a secondary-school environment. My dad was a principal … and eventually became a superintendent (in the public-school system). My grandfather was a principal of a public school, my mother was a second-grade teacher (and) all three of my sisters have education degrees. 

“My family — we’ve always been educators, as far as I’ve known,” he said. “I’ve taken somewhat of a detour in moving to the church field, and I’ll still be doing that at Church at the Cross and CFCA. It’s a perfect environment for me.”

Stewart has since taught at NOBTS for five years and said two factors led him to the job opening at the church and CFCA. After serving in the theological environment for a few years, he said he was ready to dive back into the local church environment. At the same time, CFCA president and Church at the Cross senior pastor Dr. Clayton Cloer — who has also been serving as CFCA’s interim headmaster — was searching for the school’s new headmaster. Cloer learned of Stewart from a former CFCA headmaster, who happened to be a friend of Stewart’s from their time at Southeastern.

“I had no idea there was an opening at the church and school,” Stewart said. “We (Cloer and I) began to talk and have talked over the last several months. … Through prayer and talking with my wife, we decided it was a good time to transition. … This is one of the settings I want to be back in — with a church and a school.”

At CFCA, he hopes to both build on the school’s base of quality teachers and expand the student enrollment.

“I believe the teacher is the main influencer for learning,” he said. “We can pick different types of math and science books and curricula. We can have freshly painted walls and great seats, but it’s the teacher who makes the difference across all levels. My goal will be to have quality staff and teachers across the board, and there’s very many of them there already, so that’s good for me.

“Second, (I want) to increase enrollment,” he said. “We currently have about 235 students. I would love to see us increase up to maybe 33% over the next five years in a steady incline.”

Stewart, his wife, Julie, and their youngest daughter, 9-year-old Hallie, will move to Florida in the next few months; he will start full time at the church and CFCA June 1. They also have a 21-year-old son, Trey, and a 19-year-old daughter, Jordan, both in college.

Until then, Stewart will be at CFCA twice a month over the next four months as he finishes his semester at NOBTS and his commitment to his students there.

“The people (at CFCA) are just incredibly hospitable and welcoming and they also do a good job caring for the students,” he said. “It’s just a very good setting.”