Why Go to a Christian College?

By Dusty Rubeck

This article is no academic exercise for a college president to justify his vocation. At least not totally.

You see, my 17-year-old daughter is a senior in high school and wrestling through her own decision about what college to attend next fall. My son is just two years behind her. Neither one is clear about what they want to do for their life vocations.

Why go to Christian college? Answering this question is not simply an intellectual exercise for me. I”ve got skin in the game. Literally.

GREAT VALUE

Why go to Christian college? First of all, most of these colleges are incredibly good educational values.

While America”s public schools (elementary through secondary) have struggled in recent decades to keep up with public school progress in other countries, the American system of higher education is the envy of the world. Our Christian colleges share in that distinction. No other country is even a close second in the quality and quantity of options available to the student seeking a Christian college education.

Last fall, my kids and I researched the cost of private and public colleges throughout our region to determine how Dallas Christian Col-lege stacks up against other institutions. The rapid increase of costs at public universities has been well-reported in the news media over the last few years. Even so, we were surprised to discover a year at Dallas Christian College (tuition, books, room and board, fees, etc.) is only a few hundred dollars more than the published costs for a year at Texas A&M.

Across the board, our Christian colleges offer strong faculty-student ratios, small class sizes, and reasonable prices. Dollar for dollar, Christian colleges present some of the best values in a nation full of great institutions of higher education. If one of our Christian colleges offers the course of study you are seeking, you will have a hard time finding a better value.

SPIRITUAL INTENSITY

Second, while academic strength and educational value are great attributes for a group of colleges, spiritual intensity is what sets them apart.

Christian college employees actively partner with God for the good and growth of the student. This takes place through an abundance of forms:

“¢ spiritual direction,

“¢ accountability groups,

“¢ small-group Bible studies,

“¢ weekly chapel services,

“¢ prayer times with fellow students,

“¢ prayer times with faculty and staff,

“¢ structured mentoring relationships,

“¢ focused development of spiritual disciplines,

“¢ directed times of Christian service,

“¢ and local church involvement.

The details of this list could fill several pages. The important thing is that the focus on the spiritual, out-of-classroom experience is every bit as intense as the intellectual, in-classroom experience.

When it comes to spiritual growth and maturation, do we always get it right? No. On the other hand, most public and private colleges don”t “get it” at all. In fact, many could be charged with practicing a not-so-subtle form of spiritual de–formation.

The Oxford University Press describes their book, The American University in a Postsecular Age (edited by Douglas and Rhonda Jacobsen), in the following way:

“For much of the 20th century, and especially since WW II, it was assumed that the university was and ought to be a secular institution. The goal of college or university education was to provide students with scholarly ways of understanding the world and themselves that required no appeal to God, religion, or the sacred. As a result, American higher education came to be seen as not only secular itself, but as a secularizing force within society as a whole, promoting non-religious ways of thinking and living. A common assumption was that the need for faith would slowly evaporate as humanity more fully understood the world through empirical scientific research” (emphasis added by the author of this article).

This humanistic assault on all things religious has taken a great toll on our country. And it continues today. Not to mention the debauched social environment of many of our most popular universities. As the father of a soon-to-be college student, these issues deeply concern me.

Parenthetically, I”d like to point out terrific things are happening in campus ministries at state colleges and universities across the country by folks such as Gary Hawes and his team in Michigan, Greg Swinney and his team in Nebraska, Dean Trune”s team on international campuses, and campus ministries in Missouri and Georgia Tech, just to name a few. Quite a few of the leaders in these campus ministries have undergraduate degrees . . . from Christian colleges. These groups are effectively evangelizing students, as well as discipling Christians on campus. They deserve and need additional support to expand their vital missions.

But that is not an alternative to Christian higher education. To my knowledge, there is no equivalent offered anywhere to the advanced course of biblical studies offered at our Christian colleges. Nor is there an equivalent for the general studies (history, English literature, biology, etc.) taught within a biblical framework and fostering a Christian worldview. Add to that the “vocational” education provided for those who plan to work in church leadership, and you see there is no equal.

A brief survey of the leadership landscape in church work today reveals an overwhelming majority of senior ministers and missionaries have formal biblical higher education. Now, I don”t mean to confuse causation with correlation. Many of these church leaders already intended to enter church leadership before they chose which college to attend. But many also first contemplated this vocational calling while pursuing other studies at Christian colleges.

Our Christian colleges offer great educational value combined with a powerful atmosphere for spiritual transformation. The result is good for the student, beneficial to the church, and vital in advancing God”s kingdom.

Perhaps rephrasing the question in the title of this article is appropriate. Why not go to a Christian college? Why not “study to show yourself approved . . .” in one of the most focused settings to do so? Why not learn the tools of deeper biblical study?

Why not give a few years to study eternal matters before launching a career? That”s the question I want my kids to wrestle with.

 

 

Dusty Rubeck is president of Dallas Christian College. He speaks not only as a president and a father but as a longtime observer of our schools. With this article he added that he has visited 30 colleges in the last 30 years, “most of them birthed from within the Restoration Movement.”