Clarks Summit University Plans to Sell Seminary Building
“Though the Stowell Seminary Building is on the market, Baptist Bible Seminary remains an important part of Clarks Summit University”
- 90 views
I hope Bible Baptist Seminary is doing well. I am worried.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
Redeployment of resources
It was a nice building, sad to see it go, but residential enrollment has plummeted, seminary can no longer have its own chapel because there aren’t enough residential students to have chapel. The online students and students who take one-week modules keep it going.
Jackson Hall is the main classroom building at Clarks Summit. Other than the music building, gym, cafeteria, and dorms, everything else about the school is in that building. It is a grand building, but it is old. The school could use a modern classroom building.
I agree with Jonathan. Having visited campus several times over the course of my on-line M.Div., I’m saddened to hear they have to sell the seminary building. It was much newer and nicer than Jackson Hall.
When I graduated this past Spring, they were trying to get as many M.Div graduates as they could to sign back up for their D.Min program. Were Dr. Decker still around, I might have considered it. Honestly, the seminary lost a lot when Dr. Decker passed away. From what I was told, several of the existing faculty are looking to retire soon either because of age and/or health. I think they stopped publishing their academic journal several years ago. I imagine the seminary being “downsized” won’t help them gain / retain faculty or students.
Yes, it’s just a building, but, along with the huge drop in BJU’s attendance and the closing of Pillsbury, Northland, and a host of other schools, it demonstrates that institutions our spiritual forefathers set up are losing their appeal. The trick is to figure out what the main reasons are. Is it because too many fundamental churches resemble little more than a senior citizens’ center (no kids), or because the kids coming out of fundamentalist churches don’t have funds to spend on a school that doesn’t have the major they need to get a trade, or because kids coming out of fundamentalist churches don’t want to deal with the rules, or….?
With regards to the seminary specifically falling on hard times, it could be the loss of faculty, but you’ve got to look at other factors. A big one would be that too many churches keep their pastors in poverty, and hence young people who’d like a family steer clear of that calling. Another one is that too many head pastors view themselves as CEO and (intentionally or not) end up pushing young people out of leadership positions.
In itself, a fairly minor move, but it’s a sign that some serious gut-checking needs to be done in fundamentalism.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Another issue is that old identities don’t matter much to young people now. In the past, a young person from a GARBC background might stay in that system. But if one is going to school online, and his engagement is limited to his laptop screen, why would he care if his school is GARBC, SBC, Liberty, etc.?
Finally, because of the online option, the schools that do it well are probably snatching up more than their share of students, leaving little to sustain the rest of the schools.
[Jonathan Charles]Concerning the seminary, the biggest issue is the availability of online education. A young married guy no longer has to move to where the seminary is.
Another issue is that old identities don’t matter much to young people now. In the past, a young person from a GARBC background might stay in that system. But if one is going to school online, and his engagement is limited to his laptop screen, why would he care if his school is GARBC, SBC, Liberty, etc.?
Finally, because of the online option, the schools that do it well are probably snatching up more than their share of students, leaving little to sustain the rest of the schools.
It’s interesting that you say this, Jonathan, because if it were just online studies, you’d expect a student to do online studies in his own orbit—the schools in this orbit have had distance learning for a while. However, what’s going on here is that the students who are not coming are saying, in effect, that whatever it costs to do online/distance studies at a fundamental school are not justified, in their opinion, by the differences in teaching between a fundamental and an evangelical school like Liberty.
So there’s a deeper problem, in my opinion.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I can’t say that I’m surprised by the news.
Any seminary or university must have clear answers the following questions:
- What types of churches are looking for the product that we provide?
- What is the yearly revenue we can expect to garner from students coming from these churches?
- What competitive advantages do we have over the big name - mainstream evangelical seminaries (DTS/Liberty/SBTS)?
Clarks Summit just happens to find itself positioned in a very narrow market for students. I would characterize it as slightly to the right of BJU in terms of doctrine and baptistic distinctiveness and slightly to the left in terms of music and dress standards. In other words, it is way too far to the left for most IFB churches to consider hiring from, and too far right to attract mainstream evangelical attention.
John B. Lee
From what I was told, a lot of the GARBC guys who used to choose a seminary like BBS now choose SBTS or Liberty instead. Now that Decker is gone, I would too. In fact, when I decide to pursue my ThM or doctorate, I’ll most likely attend SBTS. It produces some the best conservative evangelical scholarship. It’s within 4 hours driving distance (and offers an on-line / modular ThM / DMin). I’m very familiar with the campus and several of the professors.
I was planning on doing a PhD at BBS in about five years. I hope they pull through.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
[Jonathan Charles]Also, independent Baptist churches have not historically demanded, expected, or encouraged graduate/seminary education for their pastors. I bet for 10 independent Baptist pastors I know, only 1 has at least a Master’s.
This is surprising. In the “IFB” I grew up in, pastors w/o seminary degrees were extremely rare. Even as much as we church hopped growing up, we never even visited a church who’s pastor wasn’t seminary trained. (OK, on vacation there were a couple!). Maybe some of this is the Flint, Michigan/Detroit region, but off hand I don’t know of any area churches where I am now that are not pastored by seminary grads either.
(Maybe one… not sure though.)
I looked at PhD at BBS also, and might have gone for it if I could make the numbers add up (both cost and time). In retrospect, could have probably managed it… but it did not seem feasible at the time.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
At the Pastor’s fellowship near where I was, nobody had a Seminary degree. Everybody had a BA.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
My family attended a large IFB church (500+) in Dayton, Ohio where the pastor had a B.A. in marketing, but no formal theological training.
My family attended a medium IFB church (200+) in Columbus, Ohio where the pastor dropped out of Bible school and had no other formal education.
In both cases, the lack of a formal theological education was evident in their preaching ministries, and God used that to stir up a desire within me to earn my M.Div before pursuing pastoral ministry.
The pastor had a Th.G. from Baptist Bible College (Springfield, MO).
If you’re not familiar with a Th.G., it stands for “Graduate of Theology.” Sounds good, right? I mean, it has “Theology” in the name, and “Graduate” must mean it’s a graduate (post-baccalaureate) degree, right? Not so. A Th.G. is actually a three year undergraduate degree (think between a two year associate degree and a four year bachelor’s degree).
Here’s an example (just pulled from Google–I’m making no endorsement of this school):
“This specifically designed three year degree is for preachers desiring a formal theological training. This degree is a concentration of Bible, pastoral, and ministry related courses. For many years all pastor’s and missionaries sought this degree. However, as time passed many pastors and missionaries made the decision to continue into four year Bachelor programs.
This degree is perfect for those who because of geographical location, time constraints, or other reasons do not desire to continue into the Bachelor program.”
http://lbtsintl.org/academics/graduate-of-theology-th-g/
So my pastor at that time had not done any graduate-level seminary work.
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In contrast, my current pastor has a M.Div and Ph.D., both from SBTS. (His B.A. is from the University of North Carolina.)
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