Does the church need the Bible college?

Does the church need the Bible college? Perhaps the real question is, can the church afford the Bible college? The reality of economics seems to be outweighing the need for values education. A growing number of leaders, parents and students within the church believe post-secondary education should immediately provide occupation. Time for faith formation is seen as a luxury for those who can afford it and/or those who are undecided about their career path. If that continues to be the value given to the Bible college by the church, our days, I believe, are numbered.

The Bible college movement was born with a focus on training evangelists and missionaries. The intense fundamentalist conflicts of the opening decades of the 20th century provided reason to believe that youth needed to be spiritually inoculated against the godless institutions of higher learning. Mark Noll refers to the resulting educational focus as “the intellectual disaster of fundamentalism.”

The Bible college, like most faith-based institutions of learning, has lost the trust of the Academy. It is seen as narrow and sectarian in its approach to education. It has been vulnerable to a “formulaic” approach to faith and life. By that I mean taking a few verses, putting them together to come up with an “answer” for any problem, or an argument for any challenge. But life will simply not submit to such formulas.

Neither, however, will the complexities of life submit to the formulas of the Academy. Tom Yoder Neufeld, a Harvard-trained Mennonite biblical scholar, writes: “There is much to be learned from Babylon, but we forget that Babylon is [not only] our home but also our place of captivity. We have become enamored of its wisdom and forget that we live in a strange land. And so we have little sense that we have something to teach our world about what a school is all about and who true wisdom is.”

Faith-based education unapologetically trains students with a biblical worldview. It holds a high view of Scripture as inspired by God and speaking truth into all aspects of life. It believes Jesus’ death and resurrection is the pivotal event in human history, the defining moment of human story.

In Colossians 2:3 Paul writes that in Christ “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” He is referring, says Arthur Holms, to the fact that “Jesus Christ is . . . Creator and Lord of every created thing. The truth is a coherent whole by virtue of the common focus that ties it all into one.”

“There is not one single inch of the created world,” said Abraham Kuyper, founder of the Free University of Amsterdam, “over which Jesus Christ does not say, ‘this too is mine’.”

The Anabaptist model of faith-based education puts Jesus first. It “transforms thinking by living . . . seeking to implement a vision of discipleship that takes its cue from the radical teachings of Jesus.”

So, does the church need the Bible college?

While most education is an investment into how to make a living, Bible college education is first an investment into how to make a life. “So let Christians in Canada support Christian higher education because it forms keen minds, strengthens and softens good hearts, and equips for service in every face of life,” John G. Stackhouse Jr. wrote in Faith Today. “And let us be cautious that we are not focusing overmuch – even in a recession – upon what we shall eat and drink and what we shall wear (Matthew 6:25–34).”

Does the church need the Bible college? We need young men and women who know God, who know how to listen to God, who know how to read the Word and be read by the Word.

Our best leaders are those who, as Henri Nouwen said, are trained to protect space in their life for God. A Bible college is about teaching leaders to listen to the voice of the One who calls them the Beloved. Out of that sense of belonging and identity, they learn how to be present with people, in the church and in the culture.

Institutions that promote such values do not happen spontaneously. They are envisioned, cultivated, and nourished by dedicated followers of Christ; that is, by the church. The church needs the Bible college. And, the Bible college needs the church.

Paul Wartman is president of Columbia Bible College.