Lincoln Christian University announced Sunday that it has reached an agreement to sell the remaining portions of its campus to Open Arms Christian Fellowship for $800,000. In 2022, Open Arms began leasing part of LCU’s campus, and then in February 2023, the church purchased LCU’s chapel and several other buildings.
The latest sale agreement, announced over the weekend, “includes Restoration Hall, the Administration Building, the Warehouse, Harmony Hall, Henderson Hall, and 16 acres of green space along Route 10 between Chapel View Drive and the former student apartments,” according to a post at LCU’s Facebook page.
“Open Arms has been a wonderful partner and neighbor—particularly these last four challenging years,” LCU President Silas McCormick said. “And since our sale of the eastern and southern portions of the campus to them two years ago, they have grown. Though I grieve what is lost, that grief is certainly not without hope, and I look forward to what may yet be.”
McCormick said this morning that the sale of the remaining part of campus should occur no later than June 1. “I expect it will be sometime mid- or late May.”
The university in Lincoln, Ill., founded in 1944, announced last October that it would cease academic operations at the end of May (after it concludes the spring semester) due to enrollment and financial challenges. LCU officials have agreed to pass along Lincoln’s seminary, plus an endowment, to Ozark Christian College (in Joplin, Mo.).
“This campus, raised from a cornfield, has quite appropriately birthed thousands of harvest workers over the more than 60 years it has been here,” McCormick said. “In contemplating what would happen to this holy ground after we cease academic operations in May, there was no question that what was most important was that it continue to be used to make disciples if at all possible.”
All proceeds from the sale of this portion of LCU’s campus will go toward paying down the university’s debt.
“Our current estimate is that after the proceeds of the sale and the application of our ‘ready reserve fund’ (a certain balance required by our loan to be held on deposit at CFR), we’ll be down to $1.5 million [in debt load],” McCormick said via email this morning.
“We still have assets, and we will continue to further reduce that number,” he wrote.
In an article Friday, we shared news about LCU’s plans for dissemination of the resources and collections in the Jessie C. Eury Library.
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