The Decline of the North American Bible Colleges

I was talking with a friend of mine a week ago about the Bible College he works for (he's a dean of men). I asked him how enrollment was doing. He said it was down. In fact, pretty much all of the Bible Colleges (according to him) in Canada are down in their numbers, including my old ala mater Briercrest and my current school, Providence. Things don't look good for the classic Bible school of late.

But not all Bible "schools" are decreasing, some are actually increasing. These are mostly one year (or less) discipleship schools like those of YWAM, Capenwray, and the various outdoor adventure schools. CMU here in Winnipeg has a successful program called Outtatown that is part discipleship, part missions trip, and part spiritual retreat. Unlike the academic based schools, these one are doing quite well.

This does not surprise me. Years ago I hypothesized that people were looking for more of an experiential discipleship experience then academics. From my experience lots of students still want to do a year of Bible College, but not the Bible College of old. They are no longer willing to take courses that cover all of the books of the Bible - instead they want to experience God, community, and fellowship. They are looking for experience, not academics.

Can the old schools adapt? Some are trying but it's difficult for a school to uphold the old values and the new ones at the same time. I predict that school attendence will drop even more as more potential students realize they don't want to really be a missionary or a minister and skip Bible College all together. Instead they'll either go to a Christian university, do a discipleship experience, or both. The Bible Colleges will exist as long as there is a need to train pastors, theologians, and missionaries but there numbers will keep receeding.

In many ways this makes me sad.

I loved my Bible College experience. I grew a ton, learned a lot about the Bible, met my wife, and experienced deep and wonderful Christian community. Honestly though I think I was one of the lucky ones. Most of my friends who went to school with me feel like it was a bit of a waste of time (at the best) or actually hurt them (at the worst). Are they just whiners, complaining because Bible College couldn't fix all their problems? It's possible. But it didn't really help me in my goal of becoming a counselor (A BA in Counseling from Briercrest will not get you a counseling job) and I remember wishing back then (1997 or 1998) that I had done a year of discipleship school first. And my spiritual growth there was more thanks to God's intervention in my life (and my friends) then anything the school implemented.

My thinking is that of course you can't please everyone but maybe the Bible Colleges and Seminaries should leave the discipleship to the discipleship schools and the discipleship schools should leave the academics to the Colleges and Seminaries. Let everyone do what they do best. As soon as you start to try to everything, you start to do nothing well. Thank God for the Bible Colleges and seminaries that have trained and equipped our leaders for the past few decades. I hope they can adapt and stick around for a few more.

P.S. The image is of Hildebrand Chapel at Briercrest, one of my favorite places to just sit quietly with God. Also, to sleep. I figured God was OK with either.

May Light increase!