Hello,
My name's Joshua and I'm a 25 y/o husband, father and aspiring bible college student. Having gotten a late start in contrast to the conventional college student, I aspire to as expeditious a process as possible. For the past year, I've been studying at the associates level at Brookes Bible College in St. Louis, MO (an ABHE candidate institution). I was recently accepted into the Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies program at Criswell College (Dallas, TX/regionally accredited). However; I am concerned with how much, if any financial aid I'll be qualified for. Thus, I've been considering lower cost options in the interest of incurring as little debt as possible. I've given a great deal of consideration to Nations University (nationally/DETC accredited, $970/year tuition), but recently stumbled across Christian Leadership Institute which is unaccredited with a total tuition of only $1800 for their bachelor's program and claim to have articulation agreements with such ATS accredited seminaries as Calvin, Western, and Northern. I was just wondering if anyone had any feedback regarding CLI, their curriculum or the legitimacy of their articulation agreements?
I don't necessarily know... When I initially started Bible College I was asked what my long term plans were, when I'd responded "to become an exec. Pastor" I was asked if that was what God was calling me to do, so I suppose I'm still waiting to discern the call.
Well, if I felt that God was calling me to be a pastor, I reckon I might focus less on finding an educational bargain, and more on having faith that God would provide the means of my preparation.
Do we know for sure that those seminaries accept that bachelor's degree? I checked out the website, and it didn't fill me with confidence.
The agreements don't really help you unless you intend to pursue a higher degree at one of the other institutions. If
not your degree would still be an unaccredited degree from an unaccredited college.
I agree with you about not incurring and more debt than is absolutely necessary, but there may be other ways to attend a premier seminary without a huge debt.
Are you eligible for any scholarships from your denomination, state association, or local church?
Is there someone who would be willing to be your sponsor while in school?
Check out assistance available at other schools. Many schools have jobs available with your salary going toward your tuition, often at a discounted rate.
My wife was office manager for the corporate headquarters of a major insurance company, and her income and my GI bill paid for my seminary years while she was the bread winner and provided our insurance and other needs.
I agree with Rob_BW's post above. If God has called you He will make a way. :)
Criswell? The Hazlewood Act is very generous if you're heading to Texas. I am loathe to mention it, as I don't want to come off sounding like a recruiter on this site (Not that there's anything wrong with recruiters,
JonC.;) ).
One of the most difficult aspects of ministry is discerning His call. I am as certain of His call as I am of my salvation, but His call is much more difficult to articulate. I just know! :)
I'd caution against Nations. Not because its not a good school but because of its church of Christ ties. Alot of baptist churches wouldn't consider you with a degree from there.
Granted, I am well aware that this is a Baptist forum. However; in the interest of full transparency, I do not consider myself strictly a Baptist, as the bulk of my Christian walk has been served within non-denominational Christian Churches. In fact, It wasn't until I began attending my current school "Brookes Bible College"
a year ago that I was brought privy to Baptist history and distinctive's. Brookes was originally founded by Presbyterians but is now staffed predominately by Baptist and Bible Church professors and/or pastors. I've since realized that most of the relatively successful (gainfully employed) professors and/or pastors that I know, either at some point attended or graduated from one of the "big 6 SBC seminaries," the ones that didn't graduate from an SBC school graduated from somewhere like DTS, Master's, Grace or Calvary. Though with the biggest and perhaps only distinction between the Christian Church and Church of Christ being the debate over "acapella worship vs. instrumental worship," In my personal/unique situation, I could theoretically stand to benefit greatly from the NationsU program. What I've found especially encouraging in pursuing the pastorate within the Christian Church as a "disadvantaged/unconventional student" is, that I've seen everything from lead pastors who went to law school & executive pastors who hold a BA in children's ministry, to the network of Church planting Churches that I'm currently visiting, where little, if any of the pastorate has been to seminary, though the institution does have seminarians on staff to "keep the ship true." Which isn't to say an SBC school wouldn't still play into my plans in the long term, in fact if I were to pursue the BRS at NU, one of the local Churches here offers a 2-year residency/internship program, where one gains an MTS from Midwestern, which I would then intend to commute to the DEdMin program at Midwestern.
I meant, I wasn't comparing the Church of Christ denomination to Baptists. I was comparing it to the non-denominational Christian Churches I grew up serving in. Having worked closely with "Christian Family Services" an organization compiled of and endorsed by mainly Church of Christ congregations, it was my experience/observation that aside from strictly acapella worship, their Churches differed very little from ours.
The Stone Campbell Restoration Movement fragmented into three groups. 1. The "Church of Christ." 2. The "Christian Church/Church of Christ," and 3. the "Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)."
All three tend toward isolationism, and the first teaches baptismal regeneration. The second teaches remission of sins in baptism, and the third is Modernist and ecumenical, a member of both the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches and in 2013, they voted in favor of a resolution affirming all members regardless of sexual orientation. After same-sex marriage was legalized in the US, the denomination reiterated that it leaves "all decisions of policy on same-sex marriage to local congregations."
No truly born again Christian could have any part in any of them.
Perhaps I was incapable of articulating my point well. Allow me to re-iterate; I came up in "New Heights Christian Church," which deemed itself non-denominational. Our former executive pastor served on the board for "Christian Family Services," essentially as an ambassador for "Christian Churches," being that "Christian Family Services" was seemingly compiled predominately of "Church of Christ" congregations. It was communicated to me by aforementioned exec. pastor that the main difference was instrumental vs. a Capella worship. I was otherwise unaware of any of the above, as I've never experienced such things neither within my home church, nor at either of the congregations I've visited since having left.
Which likely puts you into the group called "Christian Churches/Churches of Christ".
These congregations will swear up and down they're non-denominational.
It's hair splitting since the Christian Churches/Coc Instrumental, as well as the CoC non-instrumental, are only non-denoms in the sense that there is no centralized body over them, much like Independent Baptists.
The Churches of Christ split from the Christian Churches over the issue of instrumental music in worship in 1906, when David Lipscomb informed the Census Bureau that the non-instrumentalists were henceforth to be viewed as a different group (so much for non-denominationalism, hmm?)
This may be off the topic and could be moved to the "colleges" forum, but what is your impression of Brookes?
I had to drop out of seminary twice; the first was a very liberal seminary which didn't break my heart to leave due to the heresy, the second was a General (Freewill) school which I enjoyed, but I had to return to St. Louis for family reasons.
I've been really impressed by what I've seen at Brookes so far.