Dr Kevin Blackwell

Over the past few months, I have had the privilege of being a part of a leadership cohort at Samford University.  The Leadership Samford cohort has been an incredible opportunity to take part in an exploration of my leadership styles and traits while learning from some of the best and brightest people in Christian Higher Education. One of the assignments this fall was to study peer and aspirant institutions for comparative evaluation and to assess Samford’s marketplace position. The study and presentations were eye-opening. Our cohort examined 18 colleges and universities, many of which were comparative in size and classification to Samford. All of the 18 schools studied were founded as Christian universities, but only two continue in faithfulness to their Christian mission. The group project left our group dismayed about the growing academic trend of colleges and universities jettisoning faith foundations, often selling the soul of the school for national rankings.

Yale University is a perfect example of this type of mission drift. It was founded in October of 1701 by a Congregationalist Minister as a place where students could receive orthodox Biblical instruction and training in the arts and sciences. When the school moved to its present site in 1745 its stated purpose was, “To plant and under the Divine blessing to propagate in this Wilderness, the blessed Reformed Protestant Religion, in purity of its Order and Worship.”  It encouraged its students, “to live religious, Godly, and blameless lives according to the rules of God’s Word.” Its namesake, Elihu Yale would likely ask for his initial gift of $2,800 to be reimbursed if he knew how far the school has drifted from its faith foundation. As a matter of fact, almost every university in America today was founded by religious societies. Of the almost 4,400 degree-granting colleges in America today, around 900 still claim some sort of religious mission, and of those many by name only. Many have bought into the lie that in order to properly train students academically there must be a separation of the Church and the Academy.  Once a university leaves its Christian mission, it is rare, very rare that it ever returns.

Today more than ever, we need faithful Christian post-secondary schools. Faithful Christian universities understand the importance of educating young minds in all the ways colleges should prepare them for success without reverting to the false gods of Enlightened intellectualism.

For the past 10 years, I have had a front-row seat of how a 182-year-old Christian university maintains faithfulness to God.  It all comes back to one word, faithful. In fact, Samford’s new university strategy is called Fidelitas, meaning faithful. Keeping America’s 87^th oldest institution of higher learning faithful hasn’t always been easy, but today we are more committed to our Christian mission than ever before.

In my 10 years in Christian Higher Education administration here are a few things I have noticed that are critical to maintaining the soul of a Christian university.

1. Christian universities must hire the best, brightest, and most faithful Christian Scholars. If the President is the head of a university, the Provost and the faculty represent the soul of a university. A school can claim to be “Christian,” but if the teaching in the classroom doesn’t match its claim, it is Christian in title only. It is not true that in order to hire the best scholars you have to water down faith expectations for faculty. There are plenty of faithful Christian people who are remarkable scholars. I am so blessed to work with hundreds of faculty who love Jesus with all of their heart and consistently turn out some of the best research in the Academy. In order for a Christian university to stay faithful, it must have faculty who are faithful to Scripture. Schools must hire scholars who have been regenerated and transformed by the renewing of their minds. (Romans 12:2).
2. Christian universities must create, promote, and maintain a Christ-centered Pedagogy. Christian universities must uphold a pedagogical approach that not only transfers knowledge but more importantly teaches students wise ways to use what they have learned for the glory of God. As students grow in their knowledge of Christ, they are better equipped to utilize their vocational skills as a Christian calling for the purpose of serving the world. After all, leaders in Christian higher education ought to see their role as preparing students to live out a calling through which they find the most meaning in their called disciplines. As Christian educators, we should strive to teach God’s truth in a way that transforms students and equips them to apply truth in wise ways. A reverence for God is truly foundational to learning. “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10).
3. Christian universities must care deeply and equally about the minds and souls of students. Herein lies the real distinction of Christian Higher Education, equal care to the mind and soul. Matthew 22:37-39 is often referred to as the Great Commandment of Jesus. In this command, there is a clear expectation from Christ that we should love God with ALL of our hearts, souls, and minds. All Christian institutions must cultivate a commitment to this command and universities are specifically designed to teach students to love God with their minds. This will involve much more than transferring knowledge, but also teaching students how to love God more deeply with the knowledge they have received. The risk of higher education, however, is that we titillate the minds of students while missing the opportunity to impact and transform their souls through the truths of Scripture and the salvific power of Christ. Christian universities are not churches and they shouldn’t take the place of the local church, however, any institution that ascribes to a Christian mission must prioritize the missio Dei. God wants all people to be redeemed (2 Peter 3:9) and all Christian institutions must share His heart to this end. The essence of Christian education is transforming minds to serve the world for Christ in various disciplines all the while feeding the souls of students so that they grow in their faith and more in love with God.
4. Christian universities must cultivate a gospel ethos that saturates the institution. Yes, train people in medicine, architecture, arts, sciences, engineering, business, and education but do it while pointing students to the irrepressible hope of Jesus Christ. God forbid that students receive a four-year academic degree from a Christian university without being introduced to the gospel. Not only does the gospel offer students an irrepressible hope, but it also gives them an eternal objective truth to sustain them in the milieu of life. Christian educators must be people who promote and live out a gospel ethos, providing for our students a vision for how the gospel ought to be exhibited. For in so doing we display the highest ideal of Christian Higher Education.