The Bob Jones precedent could easily lead to the revocation of tax-exempt status for schools committed to traditional views of marriage and sexual morality

[Ron Bean]

I hope no one is saying that revocation of tax-exempt status means the demise of an institution? BJU continued operating for 20 years after losing theirs.

BTW, the Internship Program at Capitol Hill Baptist Church seems to be a good model that has enjoyed success.

The idea of Pastor X Sr. keeping X Jr. at home under his father’s wing for training to be Sr.’s successor is a little scary to me.

It’s not the tax exempt status that would be the downfall, it would be the loss of accreditation. I know that they survived without it almost their entire existence, but today is different.

[Bert Perry] One thing that strikes me, though, is that BJU had some big advantages in survival that might not exist today. They were well established with twice the enrollment they have today, the fundamental school environment was far healthier, and I’d guess that the state tax exemption didn’t go as well.

Let’s not forget the big advantage of having a homeschool publishing company funding a lot of the school. Same as PCC.

[Ron Bean]

BTW, the Internship Program at Capitol Hill Baptist Church seems to be a good model that has enjoyed success.

The idea of Pastor X Sr. keeping X Jr. at home under his father’s wing for training to be Sr.’s successor is a little scary to me.

That last comment caught my eye; yes, it is a little bit scary to me, too. That noted, if Pastor Myway Orthehighway keeps his son Myway II at home, but doesn’t train anyone else, then that’s not the internship program at Capitol Hill, and it’s not TCBI at 4th, and it’s definitely not an active discipleship program. Worth noting as well is that an expanded TCBI or intership program should actually help the cross-pollination that today occurs in seminaries and such. You get hooked on a real exegesis class, all of a sudden you get enthusiastic about learning Greek or something.

For an additional resource, Kevin Bauder addressed some of these aspects in 2011: https://sharperiron.org/article/federal-intervention-higher-education

Institutions of higher learning may offer some great help in training, but they certainly have many struggles in operating out of the scope of a local church, pursuing accreditation (for funding and external legitimacy, etc.). Bauder’s 2011 article is rather prophetic (in the non-biblical sense):

“Future pastors and missionaries do need to be taught, but they do not really need degrees. We might well ask, What will ministry preparation look like in a world in which we are no longer permitted to operate colleges and seminaries? Unless something can be done to reverse the federal juggernaut, that day is almost certain to come.”

We may have focused on the wrong things all along (campus buildings, accreditation, degrees, funding, etc.. If his observations are true, we will certainly get unwanted help in getting the right focus.