By Frank Brazell
It’s a question that haunted me when serving as the Dean of Enrollment Management some years ago: Why should students care about a degree from a biblical university? Whenever I received that question (never so rudely worded), my reaction was positively visceral. I felt rather that I knew that biblical higher education was essential for the continued development of the local church; I just had a hard time articulating why. It was more than just because I had an enrollment goal to achieve. I actually believed in the value Manna University and other institutions were providing, but that three-letter “W” word kept buzzing around in the back of my head as time wore on.
Time for an apocryphal story, based on rumor and second-hand knowledge, which means that while it may not be true, it will still stir something in the soul of the reader. Once upon a time, there was a church leader who, in imitation of Moses with Joshua, was preparing his successor to take over leadership of their local church. He recommended that the younger man further his education in preparation for a lifetime of ministry by attending a state university and majoring in something like English or Communications.
The idea behind this advice was that through mentoring and self-study, the young man could learn what he would need to know about the Bible and about Christian ministry. His university degree would help him prepare for the stereotypical role of a pastor— preaching and communication.
Just like with the pesky why question, when I first heard this (likely untrue) story, I threw up in my mouth a little. I couldn’t understand then, but I think I know a little better now, and by putting together these two objections to biblical higher education, I think I finally get it. If you needed to train a doctor, you wouldn’t send them to get a degree in Communications or Conflict Resolution to improve their bedside manner, would you? You wouldn’t send an Engineer to art school so that she could design blueprints better. Why then do we assume that when talking about ministry, vocational or otherwise, it’s okay to major on the minors and to have people learn everything important on their own?
We asked alum (M.A. in Christian Leadership ’17) and Lead Pastor of Manna Church Fayetteville/Ft. Liberty, Chris Fletcher, what he thought about the need for biblical higher education. His response boiled down to one huge point: “Theology comes before nuance.” In other words, we need to major on the majors, and in the local church, understanding what God says through His Word and applying it to our lives and to serve others is priority number one. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says as much in its second question: “What rule hath God given us to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?”
“The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him.”
Hold on, did we just expand the audience for biblical higher education? So far, we’ve talked a lot about people involved in vocational ministry. But if we presuppose that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him, and that we learn how to do so through His word, then isn’t biblical literacy important for everyone in the local church?
Last week, we polled our LinkedIn followers, asking them how they were most impacted by biblical higher education. When the results came in, we found that the majority said that their experience impacted them the most in the area of biblical literacy.
Pastor Fletcher concluded the same saying, “It is important to teach the foundation of the unchanging word of God so that students are prepared to go be church leaders; to go be members of a local church.” If it’s so important that every member of the local church improve their biblical literacy, then why not have them train with people who have the gift of teaching, and who have expert-level education of their own in the relevant subject matter?
But what is the relevant subject matter? We’ve already talked about biblical literacy, but there’s so much more involved in biblical higher education. Fletcher remarked, “And biblical higher education is vital, essential in my opinion, because it helps set the foundation in people’s lives of how to take the next steps in the midst of a changing, turbulent world.” The reality is that the church is people, and the church is called to be salt and light in a turbulent world. Biblical higher education is the specialized vehicle by which Christians, whether they’re called to vocational ministry or not, can be best prepared to do what God has called them to do.
