The Institute for G.O.D. joined around 150 other institutions at the annual ABHE conference in Orlando, FL.

This year marked the 75th anniversary of ABHE, the leading accrediting agency for Bible colleges in North America.

The conference laid out the agency’s strategic plan for supporting Bible education. The goal of the plan was captured in their new motto: “Thriving institutions; Missional graduates.” We share this goal, and we also share many of the challenges that Bible colleges all across America now face:  

• Nationally, colleges face the most significant enrollment decline in more than 50 years. In 2020, 1.2 million students who would have typically gone to college - didn't. Then it happened again in 2021. 

• This decline is just three years ahead of a "demographic cliff" that enrollment leaders have anticipated related to the declining birth rates after the 2008 economic recession. (By 2025-2025, there will be a 10-15 percent drop in enrollments, based on fewer college-bound students born into the world.) 

• Hundreds of faculty and staff positions have been eliminated at evangelical colleges and universities since the COVID pandemic began. 

As O. Alan Noble writes in Christianity Today: "at precisely the time the church in America needs cultural institutions that preserve what is good, transform lives, and prophetically challenge secular ways of being in the world, our schools are experiencing declining enrollment and layoffs." Christian higher education is definitely in crisis. Enrollment declines only speak to the ongoing troubles that beset institutions trying to value learning Scripture in a post-Christian, debt-averse, college-averse age. 

ABHE Annual Meetings provide Higher Ed Leaders Opportunity to Learn from One Another

The annual meetings let college administrators look at the problems "square in the face," learn from one another, and support one another through various means. President Garner helped facilitate the staff’s time, using the opportunity of the ABHE conference to further build up our staff.We were grateful to send a large team of 15 people to attend workshops, discuss issues together, and draw up plans to put our institution and our students on firmer ground. 

We were able to send such a large team in part through the generosity of the Murdock Charitable Trust who provided a $10,000 grant per institution for board-governance training. 

While the Christian college movement is in a troubling era, we know that God works all things together for good. With God’s help these trends and data can help us become better institutions, propelling us forward in offering biblical education worth the time and cost of young disciples. One thing is for certain: This is not a time to grow slack or complacent in our work to bring biblical education to young people. It is a time to  "lift drooping hands and strengthen weak knees" (Heb. 12:12).

Towards Thriving Institutions

We were, in some ways, the “young institution” at the ABHE conference. Although our college started in 2004, we have only just recently sought accreditation. This youthfulness gives us the flexibility to change and try new approaches, and we have been blessed to be able to share some of the unique things the Lord has done for us. Our institution is gaining some attention. In one particular session led by ABHE President Philip Dearborn, our Director Student life introduced herself, and Dearborn told the room: “if you’d like to see a thriving institution, pay attention to these guys!”

In other sessions, we shared how we have been able to sustain our college through strategic business partnerships.Through these partnerships, students are guaranteed a well-paying, flexible job as soon as they come on campus. Employers who share our college's mission play an integral role in making biblical education something students can afford. While we look forward to accepting financial aid in the future, these original practices have helped us to continue offering biblical education in a way that is financially feasible to students, without undervaluing biblical education. 

In this 75th anniversary year of the ABHE, President Philip Dearborn released a strategic plan in three parts: 1. Shepherd a Spiritual Movement, 2. Cultivate Flourishing Institutions, 3. Champion Biblical Higher Education. We are honored to be a part of this group of Bible colleges, particularly with a mission to ensure our colleges are thriving institutions. Thanks ABHE!