What Makes A Christian College Christian?

I was with a group of fellow pastors the other day and we were talking sports. Somehow the conversation turned to Baylor University and their not so positive headlines lately.  This led to a discussion around Baylor being a Christian college.  I wasn’t so sure but I did end up learning about many points of Christian emphasis at Baylor from one of the guys who had close ties to the university.  For that I was thankful.  The whole conversation got me thinking though; what makes a Christian college Christian?  I’ve managed to come up with two requirements.

1.     For a Christian college to be Christian it must advertise as being Christian. – Let’s face it; if a school isn’t even willing to advertise itself as a Christian school than why should the rest of the world consider it so.  Is being a Christian school a point of emphasis on their brochures and website?  Does it have a motto that is distinctly Christian?  I believe there should be something (if not many things) on the homepage of their website that communicates that they are Christian.  It’s all well and good if you can go to a tab and find out about their many student ministries and a thriving religious life, but that’s not the same as distinctly proclaiming itself as a Christian school.

2.     The staff, faculty, and board members need to be Christian. – These are the people who promote the school, run the school, and teach the students.  If they are not Christian than the overall emphasis of the school and education is not going to end up Christian either. 

So that’s it.  Just those two requirements are what are needed in my opinion to be a Christian school.  A couple other issues did come to mind though.

1.     What about requiring chapel?  I think that is more of a philosophical issue.  Personally I think a Christian college should have some sort of chapel requirement.  It doesn’t have to be overly strict, but something that manages to get students together for worship at least once a week.  That being said, there are many in my family who attended North Park University in Chicago (A Christian school by my definition above) and they take pride in knowing that their chapels are not required but many students attend anyway out of their desire to grow in their faith and to encourage the numerous students who are involved in running it.

2.     What about Christian Codes of Conduct? – In other words, what about rules that encourage/force students to follow a particular school’s understanding of what it means to live a Christian life?  When you think about it, all schools have rules.  The Christian ones just tend to be a bit more thorough.  To me that is a good thing.  So many secular schools have gotten carried away with trying to be amoral about how they run their schools that they end up doing things that make little to no sense.  I mean come on; who in their right mind thinks having co-ed bathrooms is a good idea?  Someone was telling me the other day that their kid’s school has a rule that a person of the opposite sex can only stay overnight for up to 3 nights in a row, and then they have to stay in their own room for a night.  Really?!?  How’s the third wheel roommate feeling about that rule?  But back to rules for Christian living in Christian schools.  Of course that’s a good idea, but you need to find what makes the most sense to you.  I personally am not a fan of the overly fundamental Christian schools with strict rules, dress codes, curfews, etc.  The more fundamental they are, the more the student is living in a Christian bubble and not the real world.  That being said, I know many people who have attended Liberty University, and who currently attend there and they have no problem whatsoever with Liberty’s stricter rules and they love the experience they had or are having there.  They knew what they were getting into and that’s how they wanted it.  In summary, any Christian school is going to have a code of conduct with a Christian emphasis.  It’s up to the student (and parents) to decide how comfortable they are with its level of strictness.  Allow me to suggest my alma-matter’s (Gordon College) old motto as what I think is a good guideline to life on a Christian campus.  It was “Freedom within a Framework of Faith.”  I think they followed that pretty well with their conduct codes.  Enough rules to emphasize Christian living, but not so many that it felt like you were not in the real world.

So I have no idea if this was helpful or interesting for anyone reading it.  It was just something I was thinking about.  I almost became a guidance counselor instead of a pastor, so maybe that’s where this blog entry is coming from.  If you’ve managed to stick with me to the end, perhaps you will also enjoy my next entry – "Should I Send My Christian Kid to A Christian School?"  Stay tuned.