Bible Colleges in the 21st Century (Part 2)

From Voice, Nov/Dec 2014. Used by permission. Read part 1.

Most of the innovations sweeping higher education are products of the Internet that is quickly transforming virtually everything and making our entire world more global, mobile, social, visual and digital.

Global

The world of work is increasingly international. As more and more companies move to the global marketplace, it is common for work teams to span continents and be culturally diverse. Working from his home country of St. Vincent, a West Indian pastor/graphic artist designed the current Piedmont logo. That seemed most appropriate to me as we added “International” to our school name and featured the curvature of the earth in the logo.

Mobile

There are now more than 6 billion active cell phone accounts, and 1.2 billion have mobile broadband as well. Eighty-five percent of new devices can access the mobile Web. People expect to work, learn, socialize, and play whenever and wherever they want to. Increasingly, people own more than one device, using a computer, smartphone and tablet, and they now expect a seamless experience across all their devices. Wearables like Google Glass, and the highly anticipated and recently announced Apple Watch, may be the next wave, along with simple, quick, electronic payment options.

Social

Around a billion people log into Facebook on mobile devices every month, and some 350 million photos are now uploaded there every day.

Visual

Technologies are increasingly cloud-based, and content is delivered over phone networks, facilitating the rapid growth of online videos. Almost two hours of video footage is uploaded to YouTube every second. The future of higher education will undoubtedly feature video content delivered seamlessly to mobile devices.

Digital

The book is being reimagined. Libraries are in the palm of the hand. School, literacy, education, etc. are quickly being redefined. PIU students in remote corners of the earth can instantly access extensive online library databases directly through the Piedmont portal.

This is a scary age in which Twitter feeds and Facebook posts can spark riots and overturn governments, but also an exciting age in which people can learn anything, see anything and buy anything from just about anywhere. It is a world in which the average phone is also a camera, a calculator, a GPS, a library, a bank, a school, a weatherman, a level, a compass and almost anything else that app producers can imagine. Such a world favors those who embrace it. Amazon.com, Kayak.com and Google Maps thrive while Circuit City, the local travel agent, and paper mapmakers quickly become obsolete.

The future?

In light of all of that, how will Bible colleges of the future look? No one knows for sure, but there is a growing awareness of the need to understand and utilize the technologies while continuing to focus on outstanding Bible teaching and effective ministry training. I predict that thriving Bible colleges of tomorrow will likely be known for the following as well.

Innovation

Virtual classes, flipped classes and integrated classes will become commonplace. Many younger students will still choose to attend on campus and enjoy the full collegiate experience with lots of academic choices, but half of all higher education students in the United States are over twenty-four years of age. Many of them are eager to use their lives to make a difference. They will enroll in a Bible college to study God’s Word, complete a degree and prepare for effective ministry by choosing the flexibility of online, virtual or hybrid options without needing to uproot family or interrupt current ministry.

Globalization

Students will enroll from around the world, and many will live abroad and study online. Schools will offer courses in multiple languages and develop mutually beneficial international partnerships. A number of Bible colleges are expanding internationally, and PIU is no exception. In addition to enrolling students from over fifty countries, Piedmont established an accredited branch campus in Egypt and translated an entire Master’s degree into Arabic. Dozens of graduates are now serving the Lord in Egypt and across the Middle East. A teaching site continues to be maintained in Bangladesh, and our graduates have planted churches across that country. In May we will graduate over a dozen students from Latin America with their Master of Arts in Biblical Studies degree. The entire program was delivered online and totally in Spanish. We are now translating into Vietnamese, have one course completed in Chinese and are in discussions for translating into French and Portuguese. By God’s grace our vision is to obey the great commission and actually teach all nations.

Integration

Bible colleges will proactively pursue ethnic diversity and reflect the demographic makeup of their cities. Instead of waiting for the world to correct the Church, Bible colleges will lead the way in bridging racial gaps by eschewing practices that might meet legal requirements but still result in de facto segregation.

Collaboration

Schools will cut costs, lower tuition and sharply improve quality by sharing resources and reducing duplications. Outstanding faculty will teach at a number of institutions, and students will choose courses and instructors from a variety of like-minded schools. Academic credits will easily transfer back and forth between accredited institutions. Bible colleges will partner directly with churches and Christian schools to train lay leaders and teach the teachers. (See the e4-12 advertisement in the Nov/Dec 2014 issue of VOICE for a current example.)

Anti-Inflation

Bible colleges will continue to lead the way by providing quality, accredited education while keeping tuition much lower than our secular counterparts. By utilizing cutting edge technology and reducing duplication, Piedmont did the unthinkable this fall. We cut tuition by up to forty percent, which brought tuition for a typical, full-time undergraduate student down to only $8,800 per year. Many of our students qualify for scholarships of around one third of tuition, bringing the annual amount down to around $5,800 (roughly equivalent to this year’s full Pell Grant).

Finally, these are exciting days for those who desire to thoroughly understand God’s Word, long to have their lives count for eternity, and want to pursue the kind of training that will equip them for a lifetime of effective ministry. An affordable, flexible Bible college degree is now available to more people in more places with more choices than ever before.

Dr. Daniel Anderson, the president of Appalachian Bible College, recently told me about how they are now offering courses at Mt. Olive Prison where they have some twenty-five students enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts in Bible and Theology (more on that here). The exciting goal is to have these men plant churches inside the prisons.

There are scores of similar stories emerging from our Bible college movement, and this is truly an exhilarating age of opportunity. Let’s make the most of it for the glory of God, the preeminence of Jesus Christ, the authority of the Scriptures and the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth.