Changes at BBS Reflect Growing Ministry Trends

If we’re comparing traditional residence model to online, that’s one thing. If you’re comparing compressed in-person module to online, however… I think the face-to-face benefits are overrated. You don’t get to know your classmates or your professors anywhere near as well compressed into a week like that, and if you only have the prof for one class…

Again, I’m not dogging on modules or anything. I’m just saying that online delivery isn’t as detrimental as some make it out to be. Some are comparing it to watching TV from a recliner. That’s not a fair comparison, anymore than being in the classroom is like being part of a studio audience. Good online education makes you read and write, communicating articulately not only to your profs, but to the analysis of your classroom peers, too.

I’ve been following this as you’ve gone along and thought I’d add my opinion, since I know you all are waiting with bated breath… !!!

I’ve done some correspondence learning at a seminary level by way of videos (this is years after my MDiv, which was on campus). My preference is for on-campus education, if it is practicable, but I can see that there may be pressures that keep someone from doing that.

In an ideal world, a young man should probably get as much education as he can first, before marriage and resultant children. I would have married somewhere during my seminary days if my wife would have been willing, but she was adamant that we were going to wait until I finished the degree. I think she was the wise one. I also didn’t dawdle on getting it done, though I did lose a fair amount of sleep.

I am not sure that the benefit of conversing on deep topics is as big as Larry suggests. Perhaps he is different than I am, but I don’t recall much discussion outside of class on the deep topics. At least not the theologically deep topics. It was over thirty years ago, so perhaps something has been lost in the haze, but that isn’t the value of the on-campus approach to me.

I do recall some outside the class interaction with professors when I had questions, and that was helpful.

But there is something about the ambience of University life that cannot be captured anywhere else that is very valuable. In the business world (where I have also spent some time) there used to be a lot of talk about networking. I think that happens at University/Seminary. You build up a network of friends who you will work with in one way or another for decades. One of my men at church commented last Sunday that he noticed most of the guest speakers we have had in to our church were somehow connected with BJU. Well… that’s because most of the people I know in the ministry are somehow connected to BJU. I know them, have worked with them for years, trust them, and am glad to work together with them. I know there are other good schools, and we have had men from other schools as well, but there is value to the network you build up through your on campus connections.

There is, more directly, a benefit to being in the center of a learning environment that you just don’t get from a distance as I see it. This is more intangible and hard to describe, but I think it is real. Just the buzz of being around a group of others who are all focused on the same things.

Having said all that, I am glad there are now opportunities for distance learning. One of the things I have regretted about the schools we support is that there is a temptation for men to go to school and get involved in ministries in the “orbit” of that school - never coming back to where they came from. In a place like where I serve, we need all the good men we can get. If they can stick around out here and get some education on-line, well… I’m all for that too.

So count me as being firmly on both sides of this debate.

[Greg Linscott]

If we’re comparing traditional residence model to online, that’s one thing. If you’re comparing compressed in-person module to online, however… I think the face-to-face benefits are overrated. You don’t get to know your classmates or your professors anywhere near as well compressed into a week like that, and if you only have the prof for one class…

Again, I’m not dogging on modules or anything. I’m just saying that online delivery isn’t as detrimental as some make it out to be. Some are comparing it to watching TV from a recliner. That’s not a fair comparison, anymore than being in the classroom is like being part of a studio audience. Good online education makes you read and write, communicating articulately not only to your profs, but to the analysis of your classroom peers, too.

[Greg Long]

My experience was different. My on campus experiences during the week long modules (2x/year) in my doctoral program with professors, fellow students, and even just the campus experience itself were a smaller percentage of the time involved in the program compared to online/off-campus work, but were almost just as valuable.

Doctoral modules are different. I was thinking MDiv/MA level.

You wrote:

One of the things I have regretted about the schools we support is that there is a temptation for men to go to school and get involved in ministries in the “orbit” of that school - never coming back to where they came from. In a place like where I serve, we need all the good men we can get. If they can stick around out here and get some education on-line, well… I’m all for that too.

I think this is one of the true blessings of virtual and online seminary - young men can stay home, with their home Pastor, working in their home church, helping and serving the people they grew up around, and still get a very good theological education. Their own pastors can mentor and assess them, and prepare them for real ministry. It doesn’t have to be farmed out to the Seminary, or the churches which sit around the seminary, happily using all the eager young men they can get.

This way, young men don’t get sucked into the school’s orbit and never return. I think this new educational model allows us to be a bit more Biblical. For some people, it won’t work. For others, I think it’s good.

Yes, as I said, I am firmly for both points of view, but the tendency for locally raised ministerial candidates to stick around has to be a strong argument in favor of the distance education approach. There are all kinds of factors for each situation, but this is one that resonates with me for the distance education side.