Tennessee Temple University Closing

Jim,

I just want to object to the whole “NIU is dead” thing. It’s not dead. It fulfilled it’s mission even though it has now passed to better (some would dispute that) hands.

The last time I visited Piedmont I recall that the neighborhood in which it was located was less than ideal.

Schools that are still in operation but with stagnant or shrinking student populations need to look at themselves or the list will get longer.

It strikes me that the demise of both Northland and Pillsbury (or reformulation in the case of Northland per Jay) may have a lot to do with leaders forgetting that they are not the institution, and it’s not all about them. And a whole bunch of other factors, but “does not play well with others” seems to be somewhere high on the list.

It also strikes me that this school has 15 trustees, dozens of full time staff according to one commenter, a number of adjuncts, sports teams…..I hope I’m not stepping on toes here, but it seems like they’re rocking some “bloat” here in terms of expenses. Maybe that’s needed to get the necessary programs for what they’re doing, but this is an ugly business model.

Eventually most, if not all, churches, denominations, schools, and ministries either close down or go into apostasy. The Ivy League schools are a good example. Its difficult to find one that has stayed true to the faith for many years.

[Jim]

Craig wrote:

Eventually most, if not all, churches, denominations, schools, and ministries either close down or go into apostasy. The Ivy League schools are a good example. Its difficult to find one that has stayed true to the faith for many years.

But TTU is not a case of apostasy. Neither would Pillsbury or Northland (I know some might dispute that) be cases of apostasy.

[/quote

I have heard some who were there in the ’70s who would say it has. Nevertheless the only reason its not going into apostasy is because it is closing.

Craig, making a charge of apostasy is a big deal—we are talking about compromise on the Fundamentals, the Trinity, and the like. Are we talking about this, or are we talking about Calvinism, continuationism, and cultural issues like music?

And I will grant that at least certain forms of continuationism do in fact pose a threat to the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture, especially in charismatic movements where there is no discipline for false “prophets”. But I don’t think a mild continuationism like that of John Piper is a matter of apostasy—it is something with which I disagree in some ways quite emphatically, but it is not apostasy.

Granted, it took Harvard and Princeton only about 150 years to fall into real apostasy—that of Unitarianism for the former and liberal theology for the latter—so it’s not completely implausible that NIU and TTU would have done the same given enough time. But that said, I don’t know of anything that would qualify as this.

Anybody have any predictions on the next five fundamentalist schools that will close?

[Bert Perry]

Craig, making a charge of apostasy is a big deal—we are talking about compromise on the Fundamentals, the Trinity, and the like. Are we talking about this, or are we talking about Calvinism, continuationism, and cultural issues like music?

And I will grant that at least certain forms of continuationism do in fact pose a threat to the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture, especially in charismatic movements where there is no discipline for false “prophets”. But I don’t think a mild continuationism like that of John Piper is a matter of apostasy—it is something with which I disagree in some ways quite emphatically, but it is not apostasy.

Granted, it took Harvard and Princeton only about 150 years to fall into real apostasy—that of Unitarianism for the former and liberal theology for the latter—so it’s not completely implausible that NIU and TTU would have done the same given enough time. But that said, I don’t know of anything that would qualify as this.

…. so TTU is as strong in its scriptural stand as it was 30 years ago and has not waivered but is actually spiritually stronger today? ….really? If not it is in decline …

Jim said

It would be interesting to map the schools to Bauder’s taxonomy

https://www.scribd.com/doc/22115897/Bauders-Taxonomy

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I would place BJU in the Confessionalist category. Where would you place Crown College?

[Jim]

BBC - Clarks Summit. (forgot the new name): Ditto

The new name is Summit University. Shedding the Baptist and the Bible. Don’t know much about the college, but the seminary’s online enrollment continues to grow. I believe the resident seminary students are either declining or stagnant due to the lack of work opportunities in the area and the draw of the SBC seminaries.

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[Jim]

Pensacola: Weird organization w the Horton dominance. A Beka Book division is money maker and contributes to the school being so affordable. Great location. Campus “church” not a real church.

Hortons are gone. But, they established and ran PCC based on a hierarchical business model, not a higher ed or Christian ministry model. This is both good and bad. The upside is that PCC is financially healthy, has modern facilities, can fund strategic growth initiatives, and can weather significant constituent / alumni disapproval. The downside is that PCC has been accused of harsh treatment of its faculty / staff, maintaining low wages / benefits, and discouraging academic freedom, research, and writing. Anything published by the faculty must first receive approval of the administration, and I believe PCC maintains ownership of any output from its faculty (i.e. research, publishing, inventions, patents, etc.). The faculty is primarily PCC alumni, so there’s little outside academic, theological, or philosophical influence. I’m not sure what (if any) changes have occurred under Shoemaker’s presidency. The Campus (non)Church is a longstanding issue.