Closing of Another Fundamental Baptist Seminary

[Dr. Bob]

Calvary Baptist Seminary in Lansdale, PA, is closing. Another strongly academic, historic fundamental Baptist school is closing. It has had a strong reputation but without "feeder" bible colleges pumping in young men for ministerial training, it has fallen victim to declining enrollment.

Knew and loved many of the profs there - had classes from a number of them in the day.

http://lansdale.patch.com/groups/schools/p/towamencins-calvary-baptist-seminary-closing

 

[ktn4eg]

Sorry to hear about this. Although I never attended the school (and probably wouldn't agree with some of its positions), it saddens me to learn of its demise.

Humanly, my roots go back to that area since I was born not too awfully far from where the school is located.

Calvary BC of Lansdale PA (the seminary's host church) meant a lot to me at the time when the HS was beginning to move in my life that would eventually result in my trusting Christ as Savior. It was a deacon from CBC who first showed an interest in my spiritual condition as a lost person, and it was CBC's pastor who first led me to search out what it meant to be "born again."

Would to God that He would raise up another good Baptist seminary in that area where people could get a solid education in the Word and how to effectively serve in the fields.

 

[Salty]

Had the school made any plans to transfer records to another school - or maybe try to do a merger. I know that Bap Bible Sem is not too far away. would that be a possibility? Then the school could continue as a "extenstion"

 

[Dr. Bob]

Not sure of long-term plans. The closing of Pillsbury Baptist College (where I taught) hurt, but Maranatha Baptist College started their own seminary/grad program and it is growing rapidly. Not thinking that any undergrad pastoral men went to Calvary for MDiv from that school in recent years.

And biggest problem - glorification of "under-educated" pastors. Men who get very limited training in a church and then feel "qualified" to pastor. Or who go to a Bible college and feel it is enough.

That is another area of discussion, but a factor here.

 

[preacher4truth]

That's too bad.

Here in MO BBC is struggling, and now there is an outcry over the school among some because they are dropping their KJVO stance at the college.

 

[mjohnson7]

That is a shame. As someone with fundamentalist roots, it is truly sad to see fundamental seminaries / institutions that were intellectual/academic, while maintaining their fundamentalist identity. As someone else mentioned, I hope a merger could be negotiated.

-Matt Johnson

 

[preachinjesus]

And biggest problem - glorification of "under-educated" pastors. Men who get very limited training in a church and then feel "qualified" to pastor. Or who go to a Bible college and feel it is enough.

This seems to always be a nagging problem of fundamentalism.

Perhaps, when young men (not unlike myself in those days) went off to college and then seminary they chose institutions with broader academic reputations. Specifically here I'm thinking of schools with regional accreditation. As they were trained we moved away their fundamentalist roots because of the breadth of perspective that education brought them.

Then, once they had finished seminary, they went into ministry with a different set of theological values than the churches that produced them. Now these values aren't any raging heresy, but they are different than fundamentalism.

It is going to be increasingly difficult for these colleges to stay open.

 

[Crabtownboy]

Sadly, seminaries all over the world are having big problems, especially financial problems.

 

[InTheLight]

Sad news indeed.

When I was a teen en route to a missions trip in New Hampshire I slept on a floor inside Calvary Baptist Church. My sister was married by E. Robert Jordan.

 

[SovereignMercy]

Well, at least it's not sad to Jesus.

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ- from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

 

[Greektim]

I think the most telling thing here is that in 38 years of education, only 517 graduated. That is a terrible ratio of 13 to 14 a year. No wonder it crashed.

 

[InTheLight]

I think the most telling thing here is that in 38 years of education, only 517 graduated. That is a terrible ratio of 13 to 14 a year. No wonder it crashed.

I wonder how successful these graduates' ministries have been. Do you know?

 

[Greektim]

I wonder how successful these graduates' ministries have been. Do you know?

I only know 2 personally. One is a teacher w/ me here in Honduras. The other was a classmate at SEBTS (NT Text Criticism w/ Dr. Robinson). He just recently finished his PhD at SEBTS. He is the son of John of Japan.

So depending on your definition of success... I'd say yes. But numbers are important regardless of what people say. 13 grads a year is not gonna keep a seminary open.

 

[John of Japan]

Not sure of long-term plans. The closing of Pillsbury Baptist College (where I taught) hurt, but Maranatha Baptist College started their own seminary/grad program and it is growing rapidly. Not thinking that any undergrad pastoral men went to Calvary for MDiv from that school in recent years.

My understanding is that several years ago MBC stopped recommending Calvary for the M.Div. Until then Calvary was recommended, and my son wen there for his M.Div.

The reason for the changes was not simply because of the MBC seminary, but because the MBC leadership disagreed with the direction Calvary was taking: who spoke in chapel, etc.

 

[John of Japan]

I only know 2 personally. One is a teacher w/ me here in Honduras. The other was a classmate at SEBTS (NT Text Criticism w/ Dr. Robinson). He just recently finished his PhD at SEBTS. He is the son of John of Japan.

So depending on your definition of success... I'd say yes. But numbers are important regardless of what people say. 13 grads a year is not gonna keep a seminary open.

My son had a great experience at Calvary getting his M.Div. there. When he applied to Southeastern they took a look at Calvary's level since they require an accredited degree for entrance to SEBTS. They accepted the Calvary M.Div. because of the high standards at Calvary, and because the school was well along in the accreditation process at that time. I don't know whatever happened with that.

 

[John of Japan]

I sent an email about a different school to a friend who is very plugged in, but in his return email he mentioned Calvary, and his analysis was the same as mine: the school got away from their base. It is the alumni who generally send students to a school, and if your direction displeases the alumni, your school is in trouble. My friend also mentioned Tennessee Temple (my alma mater for the BA) and Pillsbury as having done the same thing. TTU is still in existence, but has a small fraction of the students it did when I was there, though their online school is going well.

The school I emailed my friend about is Northland, whose new young president has basically shot himself in the foot and several other important places with this speech, in which he cuts down his own school and fundamentalism equally: http://www.ni.edu/news-events/daniel-patzs-vision-for-northland. So Northland is headed in the same direction as these other schools.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

I sent an email about a different school to a friend who is very plugged in, but in his return email he mentioned Calvary, and his analysis was the same as mine: the school got away from their base. It is the alumni who generally send students to a school, and if your direction displeases the alumni, your school is in trouble. My friend also mentioned Tennessee Temple (my alma mater for the BA) and Pillsbury as having done the same thing. TTU is still in existence, but has a small fraction of the students it did when I was there, though their online school is going well.

The school I emailed my friend about is Northland, whose new young president has basically shot himself in the foot and several other important places with this speech, in which he cuts down his own school and fundamentalism equally: http://www.ni.edu/news-events/daniel-patzs-vision-for-northland. So Northland is headed in the same direction as these other schools.

As always a classy & gracious commentary :laugh: