Press Release

Is here: Faith and Central Lay Plans to Join Institutions

Even though I'm a Faith grad, I don't know much about this other than what I've read in the announcement. But I'm excited by this. I can see how this could benefit both schools through increased visibility and pooling of resources. Instead of "competing" with one another, they'll be joining forces.

Speaking for myself as a grad of FBTS, I think there are some exciting possibilities here.
FBTS has at times been the best-kept secret in fundamentalism. I received a top-shelf education there -- studying under first-rate full-time faculty in combination with world-class guest lecturers. This merger may give the program some much-needed awareness and well-earned recognition, as well as additional resources to accomplish new goals.
This would also make sense from an academic and organizational perspective. One could easily argue that there are "too many" fundamental Baptist seminaries for the market to bear. (Learning from the histories of occurrences at mega-seminaries Dallas and Grace, however, there are advantages to having more, smaller seminaries.)
Those things being said, there are many things which are not clarified in the press release, and I am sure there are many details still to be worked out.
The greatest concern I would have would be that FBTS would not lose its theological distinctiveness, as expressed in its documents (for example, see http://www.faith.edu/generalinfo/positionalstatements/definitiondirectio...).
One area where there has been disagreement in the past is in dispensationalism. FBTS will not tolerate progressive dispensationalism; CBTS has allowed it in the past.

Observations:

• My sense is that there are synergies that will make one great multi-campus seminary.
• Possibly will draw more students to the combined school

Prayer request: Please pray for the leadership, faculty, administration, and staff at Central. I know these people personally and they are fine brothers and sisters in Christ. Anytime someone talks about saving $$ by eliminating duplicate functions, behind that sentence is a question or a worry about whether someone's job will be lost.

Having attended both institutions, I can't see how much better of a fit one could hope for, especially considering the current faculties and administration on both ends. I look forward to seeing how the story continues to unfold. I am particularly interested in seeing what impact (if any) this move might have on the relationships between the immediate local constituencies of each institution- the Minnesota Baptist Association, the Minnesota Association of Regular Baptist Churches, and the Iowa Association of Regular Baptist Churches.

Are either or both of these institutions in financial trouble?

I am not currently at FBBC&TS and do not have any inside information, but I can say that the school actually received the largest gift in its history a couple years ago. The story was highly publicized in the Faith Witness.

I cannot find a link to the story, but the gift enabled the college to begin its missionary nursing program (http://www.faith.edu/missionarynursing/).

It was also promoted that the gift would allow the seminary to begin the D.Min. and Th.M. programs in time.

Perhaps there is someone with more information than me who can answer the question further.

P.S. -- I first went to Faith in 1994, when it was questionable as to whether or not it would make it out of a very low point in its history. The turnaround on campus since that time has been truly amazing in so many ways. I am still meeting people in "our circles" here in the upper midwest who have never even heard of Faith. I would say that anyone who is in that boat should get acquainted with the many positive things this historic school has to offer. That is my commercial break for this evening .

Folks have been making a distinction between "fundamentalist movement" and "idea of fundamentalism" for a while now. Personally, I don't think it's necessary to distance oneself from the movement in order to distance oneself from particular problems in it. I'd rather do the latter. It's more precise.

But as a highly cohesive phenomenon with alot of forward momentum, "the movement" is pretty much dead. This is really the point of the statement you quoted from. In Bauder's opinion, what we have now is so different from what once was, it is no longer accurate to call it "the fundamentalist movement."
Oh well. It really was always the principles and practice that mattered most, anyway.

This may be a case of Historic Northern Regular Baptist thinking trumping "Fundamentalism." E.g. Hamilton Square Baptist Church (founded 1881) was an Independent Fundamental Baptist church before Fundamentalism was fun.

"Baptist Fundamentalism" is a term which Faith uses quite often. It seems to be part of the culture.

FWIW, they also have a course entitled "Biblical Fundamentalism."

If there is a hair there to split, I would take it to mean that the emphasis is on being baptist (i.e., Biblical, dispensational) within a fundamentalist worldview. I never heard an "official" explanation, so I can only offer my guess.

Or maybe it is just a neat way of saying it .

Brian... probably deserves a separate thread. I think there is little disagreement that the ship, as you put it, is no longer moving. So I can't blame anybody for not wanting to use "movement" in reference to something that isn't moving.

Is that a mistype?

There are advantages to a campus in the Twin Cities that a campus in metro Des Moines does not offer... and vice-versa. The kinds of students they can attract in their area, transportation to those coming from distances (airports, highways...) facilities, churches for both students and faculties to minister... I'm sure there are many more factors we could list. With Central and Faith, having attended both, I can say that both have strengths and weaknesses in the areas I listed. As a pastor living in Minnesota, taking weekend classes as I did in 2009 was much easier to do from a seminary just under 3 hours drive time away than it was to head south for 6+. I know that many of my classmates for those classes came from places north of the Cities, or even Wisconsin, where FBTS would not have been a viable option. When I was a student at Faith, there were similar considerations for those living in Iowa, as well as students who came in from surrounding states.

Greg,
My prayer is that this will vastly improve these relationships. When I served on the board of the MARBC, I was very surprised at not only the lack of cooperation, but the tension that exists between it and the MBA. I could elaborate...but suffice it to say there is some healing that really needs to occur. Let's pray this will help!