Bible College Graduates

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Gregory Thompson

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My own efforts have shown me that several years after getting out, less than half of all Bible college graduates even attend church.
I've noticed something similar, what do you make of the trend?
 
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Gregory Thompson

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the knowledge component of the faith draws the carnal nature the most, since it is the only part it can interact with. It is in delving deep into the words of the divine, that many notice they never believed at all. ..
 
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Vince53

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I taught Christian school for ten years, where I observed that less than half of all Christian school teachers entered their third year of teaching. I started looking for former Christian school teachers, hoping to help them, and realized that most of them aren't in any church.

I began studying the numbers, and concluded that if all Bible college graduates attended church to the age of 60, the average evangelical church would have 22 Bible college graduates.
 
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Gregory Thompson

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I taught Christian school for ten years, where I observed that less than half of all Christian school teachers entered their third year of teaching. I started looking for former Christian school teachers, hoping to help them, and realized that most of them aren't in any church.

I began studying the numbers, and concluded that if all Bible college graduates attended church to the age of 60, the average evangelical church would have 22 Bible college graduates.
wonder what they're teaching them?
 
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Friedrich Rubinstein

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the knowledge component of the faith draws the carnal nature the most, since it is the only part it can interact with. It is in delving deep into the words of the divine, that many notice they never believed at all. ..
That is certainly one factor in this trend. I would add another factor: more and more churches nowadays become quite superficial. The pastor's/priest's message becomes less deep, sometimes churches even go so far to support the "mainstream" and promote clearly unbiblical things.
Therefore not only the unbelieving students don't go to church but also the highly believing students don't attend church.

I myself am a fundamentalist and believe the Bible to be the absolute truth. Yet I haven't been to a church in 12 years because I was unable to find a church/pastor that takes God and the Bible as important as I do.
 
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Gregory Thompson

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That is certainly one factor in this trend. I would add another factor: more and more churches nowadays become quite superficial. The pastor's/priest's message becomes less deep, sometimes churches even go so far to support the "mainstream" and promote clearly unbiblical things.
Therefore not only the unbelieving students don't go to church but also the highly believing students don't attend church.

I myself am a fundamentalist and believe the Bible to be the absolute truth. Yet I haven't been to a church in 12 years because I was unable to find a church/pastor that takes God and the Bible as important as I do.
Thanks for your post, I initially thought people would not want to attend church because most sermons are too shallow if you've studied deep enough. So you echoing this initial thought is like a confirmation.

I've studied the bible deeply, and may have went to bible college if I didn't notice a trend of people being in ministry and then dropping out afterwards. Something about studying books without enough emphasis on application seemed to be the observed factor at the time.

The constructive suggestion that comes to me regarding this topic is teaching things people actually want to know. Such as, how to live in closeness to God, having classes where this is practiced. You would keep a journal of faith and submit it at the end of the evaluation period.

The above suggestion alone would give people knowledge that could help disciple people in their local church, and identify prayer needs in that area.
 
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Friedrich Rubinstein

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Thanks for your post, I initially thought people would not want to attend church because most sermons are too shallow if you've studied deep enough. So you echoing this initial thought is like a confirmation.

I've studied the bible deeply, and may have went to bible college if I didn't notice a trend of people being in ministry and then dropping out afterwards. Something about studying books without enough emphasis on application seemed to be the observed factor at the time.

The constructive suggestion that comes to me regarding this topic is teaching things people actually want to know. Such as, how to live in closeness to God, having classes where this is practiced. You would keep a journal of faith and submit it at the end of the evaluation period.

The above suggestion alone would give people knowledge that could help disciple people in their local church, and identify prayer needs in that area.
I agree. Chewing through the subject of faith in a historical-critically way is like trying to find God with an inch rule.

My mother studied theology at a German university, and here we have an institution that's whole purpose is to strengthen the students' faith in God before they enter university. As sad as it is, such an institution is necessary indeed, because much of the so-called "historical-critical method" that is taught and used at university is utter nonsense. There is more guessing and assuming involved in that method than actual knowledge.
 
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Gregory Thompson

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I agree. Chewing through the subject of faith in a historical-critically way is like trying to find God with an inch rule.

My mother studied theology at a German university, and here we have an institution that's whole purpose is to strengthen the students' faith in God before they enter university. As sad as it is, such an institution is necessary indeed, because much of the so-called "historical-critical method" that is taught and used at university is utter nonsense. There is more guessing and assuming involved in that method than actual knowledge.
I recall my introduction to textual criticism as a secular university "there is no the bible" just scatted manuscripts and fragments. I laugh looking back, but sure was difficult material to get through initially.
 
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Gregory Thompson

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The danger of textual criticism in today's church is too many Christians cannot have a faith in Jesus without a faith in the bible. The idea of trusting God very God alone beyond knowledge is too abstract. So when Textual Criticism takes the text apart, there's no basis of faith for many.
 
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PloverWing

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My own efforts have shown me that several years after getting out, less than half of all Bible college graduates even attend church.

Can you give me some more details here? 1) When you say "Bible college", do you mean schools with "Bible" in the name, like Moody Bible Institute? Are you including Christian liberal arts colleges like Wheaton and Gordon? Are you including seminaries like Princeton and Duke? It's possible that different kinds of schools have different outcomes, so I'm curious about the precise definition. 2) What is the source for the statistic? Did the source break down the numbers in any more detail -- say, by age, or gender, or church background, or region of the country? I'm curious about the specifics.
 
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Vince53

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Much of the problem, IMHO, is that the leadership of Christian schools were afraid of losing tuition money. Many of the teachers, including me, often found ourselves backstabbed by our leaders if angry parents backed up their disobedient children.
 
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Vince53

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PloverWing, by "Bible College" I mean a college that specifically trains students for some full-time ministry. I am not referring to "Christian colleges" that have majors in Business, Nursing, etc. I realize that they often overlap, but I am only referring to the students who major in some full-time ministry.

Alas, there are no concrete statistics. Pick any Bible college, go to its website, and try to find out how many graduates they have produced. Over a period of months, I found scattered numbers from different years, but I could find numbers on the denomination itself. If every Bible college grad attended an evangelical church up to the ago of 60, the average evangelical church would have 22 Bible college grads.
 
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Andrewn

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The danger of textual criticism in today's church is too many Christians cannot have a faith in Jesus without a faith in the bible. The idea of trusting God very God alone beyond knowledge is too abstract. So when Textual Criticism takes the text apart, there's no basis of faith for many.
This thread is about Bible Colleges, which are Evangelical institutions. Evangelicals send high school graduates to Bible College to protect them against going to universities, which they perceive to be too liberal.

So, Bible College graduates is supposed to have no exposure to anything that is pro-science or considered to be against Fundamentalist Christianity. Textual Criticism may be applicable to Seminaries that administer graduate studies but not to Bible Colleges.

So, it it is true that a certain number of Bible College graduates lose their faith, it must be because they face reality and realize that they had been lied to in college.
 
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Pioneer3mm

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PloverWing, by "Bible College" I mean a college that specifically trains students for some full-time ministry. I am not referring to "Christian colleges" that have majors in Business, Nursing, etc. I realize that they often overlap, but I am only referring to the students who major in some full-time ministry.

Alas, there are no concrete statistics. Pick any Bible college, go to its website, and try to find out how many graduates they have produced. Over a period of months, I found scattered numbers from different years, but I could find numbers on the denomination itself. If every Bible college grad attended an evangelical church up to the ago of 60, the average evangelical church would have 22 Bible college grads.
"..I mean a college that specifically trains students for some full-time ministry.."
----
Question:
Those who went to Bible Colleges..
- How many of them had a clear/definite 'ministry calling'?
---
It seems that many Bible colleges became ''another establishment'.
- The focus is.. on money/assets, status/recognition, etc...
- Maybe..too much.
 
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topher694

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This thread is about Bible Colleges, which are Evangelical institutions. Evangelicals send high school graduates to Bible College to protect them against going to universities, which they perceive to be too liberal.

So, Bible College graduates is supposed to have no exposure to anything that is pro-science or considered to be against Fundamentalist Christianity. Textual Criticism may be applicable to Seminaries that administer graduate studies but not to Bible Colleges.

So, it it is true that a certain number of Bible College graduates lose their faith, it must be because they face reality and realize that they had been lied to in college.
That's a very narrow brush you are painting Bible Colleges with, I'm sure it's true in some cases, but it is by no means the standard.
 
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topher694

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"..I mean a college that specifically trains students for some full-time ministry.."
----
Question:
Those who went to Bible Colleges..
- How many of them had a clear/definite 'ministry calling'?
---
It seems that many Bible colleges became ''another establishment'.
- The focus is.. on money/assets, status/recognition, etc...
- Maybe..too much.
This is a very good point. Other's have articulated well what are probably the primary reasons that church attendance drops off, but I'll throw in 2 more reasons:

1. Colleges do not prepare them for the reality of ministry. They may be trained in scripture, biblical history & principles, preaching & teaching, finances, ect... but what they are not taught or often even told about (people can't really be taught this, only told & prepared for it) is the burden that ministry carries. The reality is if you get into ministry you will find out how awful people can be and treat you. How much some Christians lie to you and about you. If you are not prepared for it, it can be devastating and destroy your faith. I know this sounds terribly cynical, especially for a minister, but it is absolutely true. The trick is the positives do by far outweigh the negatives, IF, you put your time and focus in the right place, but if you are not taught and prepared to do that??? One has to become an expert in perseverance to be successful in ministry.

2. They went to Bible College for the wrong reasons. One I've seen a fair amount is they feel like that degree, or title (pastor, reverend, fill in the blank) will give them meaning, fulfillment, respect, it will fill a void in their life/heart. The problem is if you are not enough without the title you will never be enough with it. Especially considering #1. They get the degree/title and before too long they realize they still have an empty place in their heart and eventually walk away from the whole thing with added emptiness and bitterness. Sad, but I've seen it.
 
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Afin

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Hi, I am new here and a Bible College graduate. I attended church for a few years after but now that I have moved and haven’t been able to find a church with service opportunities or a strong message, I have been not been going. I am wondering if there is a thread/forum where I can ask a good place to get back into communion with God. I’d like to attend some sort of retreat! Does anyone know of anything like that? I have a dog, so would have to be pet friendly. Sorry if I am posting this in the wrong thread.
 
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