What Kind of Higher Education Shall We Choose?
by Loren E. Swartzendruber
first published in Gospel Herald
October 11, 1994
The relationship between the Mennonite Church and formal education, particularly higher education, has been carried, sometimes close, sometimes tenuous. Some early Anabaptists-Felix Manz, Conrad Grebel, Menno Simons-were well educated scholars of influence, masters of Greek, Hebrew, Latin. Some 225 years later, Christopher Dock, a prominent Mennonite schoolteacher in the United States, produced the first elaborate educational treatise in America.
Even though Manz, Grebel, and Simons were men of letters, many of the early Anabaptists did not have the benefit of formal education. The first 350 years of our history were understandably a time of isolation and retreat from the world. It was a time of persecution, of movement.
We were a countercultural people, an alternative people. Education was hardly a priority. In reality, education came to be distrusted and sometimes feared. Fear characterized our attitudes toward education for many years, and in some quarters that continues to be the case.
The last decades of the 19th and beginning years of the 20th centuries brought an awakening to the Mennonite Church, no doubt the result of influences from the larger world. The church caught a vision for evangelism, education, and nurture. Entrepreneurial leaders established agencies to organize missions, foreign relief, publications.
And colleges were opened-though not be unanimous agreement. Proponents recognized a phenomenon which has not changed since the early 1900s: if our youth attend schools other than those sponsored by the church, a high percentage of them will never return to be active members of the church. As one writer stated in a 1909 edition of Gospel Herald: "The schools are the church's most powerful instrument in working out her mission."
Action was taken to open Hesston Academy and Bible School in September 1909. The changes that have occurred since those beginnings nearly 90 years ago are astounding. To mention just one: tuition the first year was $40; room and board $95. The first president was paid $720 per year; if we had kept the same ratio between tuition and salaries, the president would currently be paid $144,000 and professors $121,000 annually!
Too much change results in psychological and spiritual stress. Too little change can bring stagnation and ultimately death, physical and spiritual. Continuity with the past provides a sense of stability for the present and a foundation upon which to stand as we look to the future. Positive change, on the other hand, energizes and revitalizes.
It is perhaps the immaturity of youth which too often disdains continuity and ignores the learnings of previous generations. It may be osteoporosis of the mind and spirit of us older folks which resists change and worships continuity. Disdain toward continuity and fear of change-both are deadly. Neither extreme is life-giving.
As
a new college president, I know I am expected to bring change.
At the same time, this institution has a long history of
continuity. This history can guide us as we go into the
future with its changes. As president, I make several commitments
for Hesston College in 1994 which I believe represent authentic
continuity with our past.
1.From 1909 to 1994, and throughout this administration,
Hesston College has and will invite its students to be disciples
of Jesus Christ. To use a work I heard president Myron Augsburger
intone many times during my first year at Eastern Mennonite
College, "We will be unapologetically Christian."
2.Hesston College will, in this administration, retain its identity as a college which stands firmly in the Anabaptist theological stream, and we will be proud (in a humble sort of way) to be an institution of the Mennonite Church.
To be a denominational college in this era of higher education in North America, as most of us well know, is to be swimming upstream. Our sociological context is one in which increasingly greater numbers of Christians choose not to identify with any particular denomination.
Many in my generation and younger have deliberately chosen to be "generic" Christians. We now select congregations (if we select any) much like we shop at the wall. Wal-Mart, Sear, Dillards-we have little interest in their philosophies of management, their approach to employee relations-we want the best deal. So it is with shopping for a church home.
While many individuals are choosing not to identify with a denomination, and institutions seek to sever their ties, Hesston College is committed to remain a child of the church. As your child, we ask that you not cut us off from conversation about the future of the family. It is biblical to suggest that occasionally children have insights which adults should hear.
3.Hesston College will continue to tell the biblical story. We are a people of the Book. We do not worship the Book, but we understand the Bible to point us to the one who invites us to be his disciples.
To be sure, we accept the inevitable tension that arises when God's people of the 21st century seek to be a biblical people. It is a nostalgic and attractive desire to suppose that we will all be of one mind as we interpret the Scriptures-attractive, but inherently unfaithful to the biblical record itself. If the record shows disagreements within the early church, how is it that we should be so arrogant as to suggest that we will always agree?
I have observed a fascinating phenomenon, perhaps because I am now in the "older" generation. Every generation in the church has practiced its faith differently from the previous generation. Yet each generation is tempted to label the next generation as unfaithful when changes are implemented.
Can we learn from history that change is inevitable and that it is a sign of dynamic faith-something to celebrate because God's Spirit continues to reside with each generation?
4.This institution will continue to be wholistic in its approach to students. We take a backseat to no institution, particularly those in the public sector of higher education, in our efforts to meet the needs of the entire student.
For some families an education at Hesston College is expensive, and it may require a selection of priorities. But it is an investment in the future of our children and the church.
I am always amazed when I hear parents or students suggest that they will choose public option as though it is only the price that is different. Far too many people seem to think that three hours of credit at institution A is equal to three hours of credit at institution B. Just as we shop for quality when we buy consumer products, so had we better pay attention to quality in higher education.
5.Hesston College will continue to place high priority on intellectual and character development. We are challenged by a statement from Bernard M. Baruch: "During my 87 years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions, but none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual, or the ability to think."
Character development remains an important mission at Hesston College. Teaching our students how to think is not universally applauded, but to ignore that effort would be to assign our graduates to failure.
The question for the church is no longer, "Should we be for or against higher education?" We have already voted on that question-Mennonite young adults attend college at approximately the same percentage as their peers in society. The question for the church is, "What kind of higher education shall we choose?"
A second question is, "Who will made the choices: young adults by themselves, or parents and church leaders standing alongside our youth?" My dream is that I will no longer be hearing parents say, "I wanted Jon to attend a church college, but it was his decision and he chose another option."
We cannot force students to choose the church college option (our student-life people don't want those students who were forced!), but we should not be so naïve as to think that (a) we have no responsibility to exert influence or (b) the choice really won't impact our children and the church dramatically.
Like Abraham, we point our faces toward the future, knowing that God is faithful if we will seek God's presence in our lives.
