By Jim Tune
Mark Twain spoke in 1900 on the value of an education. “Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail,” he said. “What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It”s like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won”t fatten the dog.”
We need our schools in this movement of ours, perhaps more than ever. As president of the 2015 International Conference on Mission in Richmond, Virginia, October 29″”November 1, I”ve had the unique privilege of personally visiting nine of our Bible colleges and Christian universities. As I write this column, I am in the middle of a Bible college road trip. By the time ICOM rolls around, I hope to have visited no fewer than 11 schools.
Along with speaking at chapel, I”ve had the opportunity to teach classes, speak at a homecoming, preach a commencement address, and speak at several campus-based special events. In all of that, there is nothing I”ve enjoyed more than hanging out informally with students and faculty and staff. Occasionally I had the chance to interact with presidents and leaders who are deeply concerned about effectively reaching and educating new workers for Christ while the cultural ground quakes and shifts beneath their feet. These are difficult days to lead any “Christian” institution, and I”ve come away convinced that a Bible college/university president has one of the most difficult jobs in the world.
It”s not uncommon to hear churches complain that our schools aren”t producing enough preachers. I”m not sure that is a fair charge. Certainly our churches share some of the blame. If we want schools to produce preachers, we, as church leaders and congregations, need to send them some. Today”s freshman often begins his or her undergraduate education with little biblical literacy in spite of spending decades going to church. A growing number of students arrive at school wounded from dysfunctional family situations or broken homes. Frankly, I”m glad our schools are there for them!
I spent three days at St. Louis (Missouri) Christian College. SLCC”s intentionally low tuition makes it possible for students with limited financial resources to grow in a positive environment where life skills and vocational competencies can be nurtured and developed. Some students become Christians while attending school!
SLCC President Guthrie Veech carries much of the overall burden for development and academic standards, along with faculty and human resource management. His school is not large enough to support layers of administration. Like others in his role, he is expected to perform a bishoplike task among area churches, while possessing no actual bishoplike authority. I can only imagine the additional stress of living and working just blocks away from the site of the Ferguson, Missouri, riots after the shooting of Michael Brown by a white police officer. So, while we”re at it, let”s add the titles of diplomat and racial reconciliation counselor to Veech”s responsibilities.
The school is not perfect. No school is. But I was consistently impressed by the heart, passion, and determination of so many of its leaders. Culture is changing at a bewildering speed. Our schools are trying to keep up, but often feel a step or two behind the times. The thing is, good people with sharp minds are trying to deliver solid Christian education in difficult circumstances. They deserve our support and prayers.
A school’s graduates are only as good as the teaching they’ve received and the teaching is only as good as the teacher. Good institutions choose good teachers.
I appreciate your article. SLCC provides excellent education for students of all races, ages and all walks of life. SLCC has been part of my life since its inception. I was born and raised in the Christian Church in the St. Louis area, I served on staff at a large Christian Church in the area and I am a preacher’s wife of an AIM (SLCC’s Adults in Ministry degree program) Salutatorian who made a mid-life decision to enter the ministry.
I have seen SLCC go through good times and not so good times and I have always been proud of their leadership and consistent devotion to rightly dividing the Scripture, disciplining students (and faculty) when necessary, being an extremely mission-minded campus in many avenues of missions, but most of all for producing some of the finest preachers and leaders in our Brotherhood.
Perhaps Jim Tune found it necessary to bring up the discord that has newsworthy in nearby Ferguson to indicate yet another issue in President Veech’s multi-faceted role. What disturbs me, is that even in a Church publication like The Christian Standard, he felt it necessary to bring out the point that the discord resulted from a white officer shooting and killing a black teenager. Anyone who has been in the United States during the past year KNOWS what happened in Ferguson. They are also aware of the Grand Jury and US-DOJ’s findings and decisions in this matter.
Why include a racially charged statement in an article about a fine Christian College, who for years has been integrated with no racial animosity. Perhaps, a better note would have been to comment that despite being near Ferguson, MO, which has made national news for over a year due to racial unrest, SLCC remains a place that continues to provide students of all races and backgrounds a place of peace and safety to pursue their Christian education.
Thank you.
Unfortunately, three days does not accurately capture the racial disparity and divide present at SLCC. The African-American students regularly express uncomfortable and unfair treatment and circumstances. Many students were disheartened when they were told to stay away from Ferguson. Others listened with despair as they were refused even a prayer vigil on campus on behalf of the turmoil in Ferguson. SLCC has never grasped its potential nor responsibility to the urban and minority community. Even this week, I have had African-American students express “this is their (whites) school” in discouragement. SLCC lies on a frontier that the Restoration Movement has yet to pioneer. With prayer, persistence, and purposeful action, SLCC can be the headquarters of a new day of diversity. She has a long way to go, but the Great Commission is her mandate and mission.
The charge by Jon-Michael that “the African-American students regularly express uncomfortable and unfair treatment and circumstances” needs to be backed up with facts or it is simply a spurious and un-Christian attack on people who have dedicated themselves to Christian ministry. That is unacceptable.
I’m not sure what other facts people want about the racial environment at SLCC besides the eyewitness testimony from the African-American students that attend SLCC. I could offer that people check the website of SLCC and find its only African-American professor a former USAFA cadet, a graduate of OCC and Lincoln Christian Seminary, who majored in Intercultural Studies, and did his master’s work on Racial Reconciliation, but I would assume that any wise person commenting about the racial state of an institution would actually at least first listen to the perspective of a qualified African-American who has worked at that institution for a decade. If not, it would really shed a bad light on he state of race relations in the Restoration Movement. My real name is actually Jon-“Michael Brown” a strange irony for someone who lives in the Ferguson-Florissant School District of Missouri. My children missed school for the events that many others watched as entertainment on the evening news, but I actually publicly spoke against those protests.
Since I am the only African-American professor at SLCC and spoke to Jim while he was here, I might not need to defend what I have heard from my students at SLCC or experienced and observed for myself. I also did my master’s work in Racial Reconciliation at Lincoln Christian Seminary, did two bachelor’s at Ozark Christian College, have taught at SLCC for a decade, and have been involved in the Restoration church since the 1990s. I think I have a pretty good handle on the racial state of the Restoration Movement, especially here at SLCC.
As a black student on campus at Saint Louis Christian College, there is a very clear tension between the majority and the minority. Our chapel services, lunch hours, and classes are divided. When the Ferguson riots began we were told “Don’t go to Ferguson! Stay away from Ferguson!” The irony is that we have an alumni and professor that minister in Ferguson. SLCC makes its outreach with Christian churches and camp teams where white people commonly are in surplus. Most of the black people attending SLCC, including myself, were not sought by the typical means of church visits or camp teams. This college does not do a good job appealing to the diversity on its doorstep.
As you can see by the various posts about racial discourse, there are those within the “Christian family” that fan the racial discourse flames, rather than try to assist in mending those scars. As to the reasons (or agendas) for fanning this discourse, that is for God to judge.
Bob,
What are the racial scars you are “trying to assist in mending?”
If they are the scars of African-American SLCC professors and students, it seems that NOT referring to them talking about what they see and feel as fanning “the racial discourse flames,” or as having an “agenda” might not be a bad place to start.
Anytime I’ve been interested in seeing a specific scar mended, I’ve always found that listening to those who have suffered that specific scar is a helpful step.
I took my kid to the doctor one time because he broke his arm. The doc did not set the bone, but did put duct tape on my kid’s mouth. The problem was solved (as far as I could hear, my kid wasn’t complaining about the injury anymore). Recently, the duct tape fell off and I heard him complaining again. I don’t know why he would bring up something that we solved a long time ago. As to the reasons (or agendas) for why my son fans this discourse, that is for God to judge. … hopefully He prefers superficial peace to a deep unity borne of deep healing … because I’m just going to keep re-applying the duct tape.
Bob,
You and your comments are a wonderful example of the racial discord in our culture at large. Pointing out the fact that racial tension is still very prevalent is not “fanning the flame,” rather exposing issues that have been masked by white administrators out of ignorance (hopefully) But we’ll leave that for God to judge. You don’t, nor have you ever attended our school, nor are you an African American on our campus so your level of “expertise” you believe you’ve reached on these issues is questionable to say the least. It’d probably be best if you gracefully bowed out and not discredit people who actually experience SLCC daily.