Keep Your Vision Alive: Plans for Helping Ministry Schools Survive and Thrive

By Curt Scarborough

The book analyzes the reasons that most new Christian institutes, Bible colleges, and seminaries fail within three years of launching. The author relates the accounts of seven Christian ministry schools where he personally taught during the past twenty years. Four of these once-vital institutions now have closed. Using these examples, the book attempts to discover what valuable lessons can be learned and applied to other ministry schools.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664179578

Book preview

KEEP YOUR VISION ALIVE

IN JOHN 15, THE LORD Jesus taught a spiritual lesson about the vine and the branches. He emphasized that it is absolutely necessary for the branches (disciples) to abide in the vine (stay closely connected to Him in intimate relationship and fellowship) in order for them to produce grapes. Then He promised these expanding fruitful results: bear fruit (v. 2a), bear more fruit (v. 2b), bear much fruit (v. 5), and that fruit should remain (v. 16).

Christ expects His disciples to bear fruit abundantly, and that the vineyard will expand and grow more fruitful year after year. The Divine expectation is that the repeating cycle of Holy Spirit life flowing from the Vine to the branches will remain . . . that is, keep on bearing good grapes to be crushed in order to produce delicious, nourishing juice each season.

Does this principle apply to churches as well as to individual believers? What about Christian schools . . . which are, in effect, the church in education mode, teaching disciples to observe all things the Lord taught? Does this teaching about our mandate to follow the Great Commission include bearing fruit that abides?

Bottom line, Christian churches and schools are made up of believers and followers of the Lord of the Harvest. So, should not we expect churches and schools to survive and thrive?

I think the answer is yes . . . God gives His servants a divine vision to launch new churches and new schools. His purpose, generally speaking, is that these institutions should remain productive for generations to come. I realize that there may be exceptions to this statement, and that sometimes the planted churches and schools are there temporarily to fulfill a specific purpose only for a season.

But there must be a root problem or cause for the fact that so many of these God-given visions for launching new churches and schools wither and die within a short period of time. Assuming that a school of Christian ministry is founded with a divine vision, and that the school’s motives are pure and that its operations are ethical, why do so many of such sincere and worthy institutions flounder and become defunct within a few years? This is not just a wild guess or an exaggerated statement! I am using accurate statistics gleaned during these past two decades from almost 600 AICCS schools of all sizes . . . in 33 U.S. states and in 59 other nations.

WHY DO 50% OF NEW CHRISTIAN COLLEGES

& SEMINARIES FAIL WITHIN 3 YEARS?

The purpose of this book is to examine the reasons for this failure to remain and to suggest practical solutions. I will always be cognizant, of course, that to remain alive and productive, a school must abide in vital connection with Jesus Christ, our True Vine. So what goes wrong?

To begin this analysis, I will relate the accounts of seven Christian ministry schools where I personally have taught Biblical Studies during these past 20 years. I will not reveal the names of these churches and schools, but all of them were located within the Greater St. Louis Missouri Metropolitan area. Four of these once-vital institutions now have closed. What happened . . . and why? Let me tell you about each school, and then attempt to discover what valuable lessons can be learned and applied to other ministry schools.

Case 1. Evangelism Institute

The Evangelism Institute (not its real name) was started by a very successful and dynamic minister who was a long-time friend of mine. We shared a great love for the Lord and a (lesser) love for the game of baseball. Both my friend and I harbored a dream in our youth to play for the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals . . . he as a left-handed pitching ace and I as his switch-hitting catcher. But the Lord had other (better) plans for us.

In 1991 the Lord laid upon my heart to launch a new ministry school in St. Louis . . . as part of the outreach of a Christian charitable foundation where I served as president. (More later about this school, Pillsbury Institute of Applied Christianity.)

I gathered a dozen pastor friends in the area to meet with me weekly to discuss and plan and pray about this new school. My evangelist buddy was one of that select group, and he became an early student and graduate. A few years later, he enlisted a group of like-minded street-ministry evangelists to work as a team of preachers providing feet-on-the-street witnessing and soul-winning efforts in inner cities.

His Institute (about 25-30 men and women) met on Saturday mornings in his large St. Louis flat to pray, study God’s word, and prepare for upcoming evangelistic crusades. He invited me to come for two hours on Saturday mornings to teach the Bible study session. Both he and his wife actively participated in the sessions. We usually stayed around for a noon pot-luck meal and good-humored fellowship.

For three years, we met faithfully for expository Scripture searching, using the curricula I had written. We covered all sixty-six books of the Bible, chapter by chapter. The students in the class earned either an Associate or Bachelor degree in Biblical Studies from Pillsbury. One or two of them continued toward their Master’s degree, but most were satisfied with the accomplishment of earning their undergraduate degree in Bible to assist in their preaching ministry.

The group did not enlist any new members during those years of intensive study, although they did do additional training courses related to evangelism from time to time. My friend continued with his institute and very active itinerant preaching schedule until his health deteriorated. He now lives as an invalid with his wife in the St. Louis area, but the Institute group he led has dwindled and evaporated. What was once a thriving institution for practical evangelism has closed . . . although its influence for good will go on for eternity.

What lessons can we learn from this vignette?

1. Students will come and remain if their leader shows the way by his active encouragement, involvement, and participation.

2. A closed group, by definition, will not receive new students; for a school to survive and thrive, it needs an open-door policy.

3. Friends and colleagues will participate and assist in recruiting students if they are involved in helping to establish the new school . . . if they are invited to share ownership of the idea.

4. The curriculum of the school must give students personal and practical value. Provide them with content and tools to deepen their spiritual life and expand their ministry or service to others.

5. If the class becomes like a family (with a meal and fellowship) it will be more likely to retain its membership. Then when a person is absent, he really is missed, and he misses a blessing.

6. School leaders must plan for the Lord to raise up new leaders to assist and eventually assume the major leadership role. This particular Evangelism Institute folded because there was no one to take the reins when the founder was no longer able to function. Success involves succession.

7. Ministry schools are not money-makers. We charged only a small fee to barely cover the cost of printing the textbooks