Philosophy of Education

The Seminary’s educational mission is a community endeavor shared among the Faculty, the Staff and the Board. The churches of our students and their families also participate in our students’ preparation for ministry. As members of the Faculty we bear a special responsibility for guiding this process. In expressing our philosophy of education, we hope our partners in training will affirm the values we cherish and support our commitment to live out these values, professionally and relationally, with our students.

Truth and Education

We believe that God is truth and does not lie, and therefore divine communication and action are characterized by truth, and thus by reliability, infallibility, and consistency. All truth is consistent with God’s person, His word, and His work; God is the source and measure of all truth. This requires diligent and constant research and study of the Scriptures; an appreciation of the ways in which the church witnessed in the past; and an understanding of the situation in our day to which the truth of God must be addressed. Both the Old and New Testaments teach that God expects His people to evaluate truth claims using the criterion of His infallible Word, by means of an intellect continuously renewed by Christ, and with the help of the Holy Spirit. God also expects His people to subject their own thinking and teaching, as well as that of others, to biblical and evidential tests. We endeavor to develop the capacity of our students to do the same.

Truth and Life

Truth must be experienced not merely as propositional truth or head knowledge but as a way of life. The Bible shows that knowledge is fundamentally relational; knowledge is incomplete unless it affects behavior. Since we subscribe to this integrative and relational understanding of truth, we always examine our lives for evidence that the truth we teach is affecting our behavior and relationships. We also seek to draw our students into a holistic learning process whereby truth is integrated into their experiences. This reminds us that we can never be satisfied with simply communicating ideas without relating them to the lives of our students. In this sense, we affirm that education must always be experience-oriented.

Science and Scripture

We believe that God is the creator and sustainer of all that exists. Since we need to understand and appropriate God’s truth as revealed in creation, it is our responsibility to make critical use of the disciplines and insights developed in the social and natural sciences. It is the Holy Scriptures, however, that make us wise unto salvation, and which serve as the lens through which we explore scientific and other fields of knowledge. We determine above all else, therefore, to be men and women of the Word who handle the Word correctly, and wisely use it to inform the various disciplines of study. We teach our students to be and do the same.

We Respect Persons

We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His own image and likeness, gifting them with a personal, social, and spiritual nature like His own. Since sin entered the race, every aspect of human nature has been warped and distorted. However, distortion is not eradication. Every human being is still God’s image-bearer having infinite worth. For this reason, we relate to every person—beginning with our families, students, and colleagues—with appropriate respect and care. If we abuse or dishonor one another through contempt or manipulation, we dishonor God.

We Equip the Equippers

The church exists as an exhibit of God’s grace and for the purpose of extending His kingly reign to every aspect of life and society. The mission of the church has been entrusted to the whole people of God, to whom the Spirit gives gifts for ministry. The risen Christ gives to His churchable men and women who are especially gifted in equipping others for spiritual service. It is our task as a Seminary to equip these “equippers,” who then will train God’s people and lead them in ministry. Thus, the Seminary exists to serve the church, and our instructional programs must always reflect this reality.

We Model the Truth

As teachers, we study the Scriptures not only to learn God’s truth but also to obtain guidance in the practice of our profession. The Bible is not a textbook on education, yet we find educational principles implicitly represented and explicitly modeled in both the Old and New Testaments. The Bible teaches that moral instruction is central to character development. We who uphold God’s truthare tasked with the high moralresponsibility to communicate truth to our studentsand exemplifyit with our lives. Our Lord’s incarnation points to the centrality of the integration of teaching and practice, of truth and life, forcefully reminding us that we must be models first if we are to be teachers.

Jesus, Our Model Teacher

We are challenged by Christ’s sensitivity to the people He taught, especially His understanding of their perceptions, needs, and readiness to learn. We admire His creativity in relating spiritual and moral truths to concepts familiar to His listeners. Jesus did not allow His followers to be passive learners,but challenged them to actively consider the things they heard and to search out the meaning of His statements. His authority as a teacher never stemmed fromarrogance, but was rooted in His understanding of Himself and His mission, His profound knowledge of the Scriptures, His intimacy with the Father, and the absolute integrity of His life.

We are Servants and Stewards

Jesus defined His own mission as “servanthood” both to God and to men. We recognize that elitist attitudes and ambitions are entirely inconsistent with servanthood, so we reject these. We seek, instead, to humbly relate to all whom God brings into our lives, and to serve our students as we serve our Lord and His church. Our motivation toward excellence derives from our responsibility to be stewards of the gifts, opportunities, and resources God has committed to us. We seek to discipline our personal and professional lives, and thus to honor Him in the way we administer our stewardship. We seek also to communicate these values to our students.

Christlikeness is Our Aim

Jesus Christ is not only our model teacher; He is also the embodiment of personal and spiritual wholeness — what the Bible refers to as “maturity.” The New Testament epistles show us that Christlikeness is the aim of the Christian life; thus, it is only appropriate that it should be the ultimate goal of the educational process. As we teach, we strive to stimulate growth—though not growth for its own sake as this would be sterile and directionless, but growth into Christlikeness. This ultimate goal gives meaning to the educational task and provides a criterion for assessing progress. The Seminary exists to help people grow, develop their God-given gifts, expand their horizons, and acquire new cognitive and ministry skills as well as sharpen old ones, so that at the end of this teaching-learning process, we—both teachers and students alike—may all become like Christ.