A vision for a Christian school: the passion of one man

SANTA MONICA – Former L.A. Rams player and 2-time congressional candidate, Rob Scribner – founder of the Lighthouse Christian schools – cleans public bathrooms.

Scribner’s many accomplishments don't stop him from supplying free, anonymous janitorial service whenever he happens upon a soiled toilet. Not being UCLA's quarterback, not his 1973-78 stint with the Rams, not being a sports T.V. announcer, not being a successful businessman.

It's a personal agreement he has with God, a way he keeps himself grounded and remembers his call to serve humanity.

Scribner, 63, is something of a celebrity here in this beachside city. For more than a quarter of a century, he's pastored the Lighthouse Church, an anomaly in ever-progressive Santa Monica. His church adheres to old-school values like marriage and having lots of kids. Scribner had eight children and now has 15 grandkids.

With all those tykes, it's a good thing he established the Lighthouse Church School (K-8th) in 1983 and later its high school counterpart, Lighthouse Christian Academy, in 1992. His oldest son was the first LCA graduate, and his youngest daughter, Tori, graduates this June.

Raised in Van Nuys, Scribner learned to excel with the pigskin playing football against the bigger kids on the block. By college age, he earned a full scholarship at UCLA and played with the likes of Mark Harmon.

Football didn't take him into glory though. To the contrary, the pride of being on national T.V. led him into personal failure. He became so disgusted with himself one night for abandoning his Christian precepts that he asked God to take his life.

God did indeed take his life, but not as a suicide. Instead, the Almighty prepared him to be a pastor at the Lighthouse Church on 20th St. at Wilshire Blvd.

He had married at the age of 20 to Jennifer. He had sold insurance, managed pensions and estates and provided tax advice. He had bought a truss manufacturer, Brown & Honeycutt, in Hesperia, just before the booming real estate market busted. He had run for Congress (1984 and '86) on the Republican ticket – in Santa Monica, a bastion for liberal democrats.

But such resume highlights pale in comparison with his impact through the local church. With high octane energy and expansive vision, he pushed through the foundation and establishing of the tandem Lighthouse Schools.

“We didn't want our kids to have a public education because it didn't include Jesus. They were going to learn in public school that there's no God. We wanted to educate our children with Christian ideals,” Scribner said. “You only get one chance with your kids, and if you make a mistake, you suffer the rest of your life.”

Even before he took the pastoral reins of the church in October 1987, Scribner taught in the Lighthouse school. He was driving 100 miles to his business in Hesperia, but he managed to teach history, government and Bible.

He's still teaching at the LCA today.

Lighthouse graduates have triumphed as lawyers and doctors, dentists and engineers. One graduated from Harvard, and another was just accepted into Columbia University for it's master's degree program in epidemiology.

Lighthouse “is one of the few educational opportunities for committed Christians to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord” on the Westside, said Dr. Lawrence Czer, medical director of Cedars Sinai's heart transplantation program. “Pastor Rob's leadership has been to provide this type of education in an economical manner.” Czer's seven children studied at Lighthouse, and his youngest graduates this year.

Achievement at top colleges is only half the Lighthouse story. Another part is its success with the at-risk students. Steven Fernandez was a thug expelled from University High School. Upon his release from juvenile hall, he enrolled at Lighthouse and turned his life completely around. He even became a missionary to Guatemala in 2013, and today he runs a business in Los Angeles.

LCA runs an independent study program that keeps students – misfits in a traditional classroom – from falling through the cracks of the educational system. If they have special learning needs, they can advance at their own pace with caring individual teacher attention.

The school is also notable for its service to the community – literally to the world. Past and present students always form part of the teams the Lighthouse Medical Missions send to the world's poorest nations in West Africa. The students help transcribing physician's prescriptions for the pharmacy booth. Generally speaking, the youths come back transformed.

When asked about his legacy, Scribner demurs. He shies away from speculation of “greatness.” Instead, he simply keeps teaching the ones who will prove his impact. And he keeps cleaning bathrooms.