Featured Tennessee Temple: Can someone tell me about it?

They have always been SBC, however "old school" as long as Dr. Lee Roberson was active and able it held more to what some might consider IFB moderate standards.

They were a good school, and the graduates that I meet through the years were dedicated believers (well most were).

If one looks at Baylor University in the early 50's, they no doubt would find similar standards that TTU held in the 60's and 70's.

I have no idea what the current academic standards are, nor the reputation.

 

I might add that John of Japan probably has a great deal of information that you can gather from him.

He would be more than happy to help in this matter.

 

I'm a '76 grad of the college, and took a semester of seminary at that time and then another in '86 on furlough from Japan.

With apologies to agedman, the school was founded in 1946 as an SBC school, but founder Dr. Lee Roberson took both his church (Highland Park Baptist Church, a mega church of the day) and school out of the convention in 1955 in response to the local SBC association's opposition.

It was IFB until recent years when both the church and school went back into the SBC. So, the great majority of alumni do not support the school anymore, which explains why their student body has decreased from over 3000 in my day to a few hundred nowadays.

The distance learning program of the seminary is about the only part of the institution that is prospering nowadays, IMO. I understand that they have a couple of thousand students and the program is prospering, so the MM could be a good fit for you. However, I would not recommend anyone to take a job teaching there at the present time, according to conversations I've had with long-time teachers there.

 

I'm sure the Lord will lead you to the right choice as you surrender to His will. God bless! :wavey:

 

John,

Thank you for jumping in.

I didn't know the association had withdrawn from Highland Park.

Thank you for the correction.

 

It's actually a pretty complicated history, so people not connected would have a hard time knowing it. The county association condemned the church and the school (which was under the church) as not being SB, so Dr. Roberson and the good church people decided to make the charges a reality and withdrew from the SBC.

Any time. :wavey:

 

Luther Rice is a good school just know they do not yet have their regional accreditation.

 

"yet" as in they are moving towards it???

 

Yes........................

 

LRU is doing great in all respects ($, faculty, library, enrollment, etc). Even so, it has been trying for a number of years to achieve regional accreditation, and some obstacles still remain. One of the faculty told me that while RA is still in their cross-hairs, they are going to go for ABHE first (they are TRACS-only now).

My guess is that they will eventually have RA, but it will be a while yet.

 

A few months ago TN Temple finally got somewhat of a nod from the Southern Baptist state convention. This after a president was brought in from an SBC seminary; virtually all faculty now attend Southern Baptist churches; there was a ceremony where they all officially submitted themselves to the teachings of the BFM, the school is leaving its campus and moving in with some Southern Baptist church, etc.

So the state convention passed a resolution saying it "affirms the actions of Tennessee Temple University in embracing Southern Baptist doctrine and Tennessee Baptist life.":

http://www.tnbaptist.org/page.asp?cat=aboutus&subcat=annualmeet

However it's not yet listed among the Convention's education institutions:

http://www.tnbaptist.org/page.asp?cat=aboutus&subcat=inst

 

Thanks, Jerome, this is very informative.

As far back as 2005 when we were on a furlough, I visited Temple with two friends who were also alumni, two of us IFB and one SB. We stopped by the gym and a guy came up to us and asked what we wanted. Turned out he was the new head of the gym. When we said we were independent Baptist he said, "What's that??" :laugh: Apparently he knew nothing of the history of the school. So even way back then their focus was on hiring SB people.

 

TN Temple to "Merge" with Piedmont Intl. Univ.

School left basically homeless after failed scheme to move onto campus of a financially strapped Southern Baptist church:

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/...netennessee-temple-university-far-its/291216/

 

Wow. I didn't see that coming. Thanks for informing us.

I note that less than 1% of the 16,000 alumni responded to the request for funds. It doesn't surprise me. They have ignored us for decades, so there is little reason for alumni to support the school. I long ago switched my loyalties.

 

Highland Park Baptist church had a summer camp and called it camp joy. This was in the early 60's and my sister went their for a week and said it was a night mare. They believed in easy believism at the time and they stayed after my sister to make a confession of faith which she was about ten years old at the time. One morning before breakfast one of the councilors told my sister she would have to confess faith in Christ and get in a line to be baptized before they would let her eat breakfast. My sister was a little girl with a big appetite so she agreed.