Details emerge on Southern / Northland partnership

I’m pretty excited for this development! Partnerships like this can and will happen when the Gospel is at the center.. Godspeed NIU!

This would make more sense if Boyce College assumed (acquired) Northland and therefore Northland students would enjoy benefits of regional accreditation. Of course it would mean that Patz family would lose grip

http://www.boycecollege.com/academics/accreditation/

[Jim]

This would make more sense if Boyce College assumed (acquired) Northland and therefore Northland students would enjoy benefits of regional accreditation. Of course it would mean that Patz family would lose grip

http://www.boycecollege.com/academics/accreditation/

well, it would ruffle the feathers of the “weaker brethren” to officially become an SBC school. So for now, I think just affiliating is a good political and gracious move…

http://www.boycecollege.com/future-students/

Why waste $$ on a school that lacks regional accreditation

[iKuyper] well, it would ruffle the feathers of the “weaker brethren” to officially become an SBC school. So for now, I think just affiliating is a good political and gracious move…

Who’s left “to ruffle”? Anyone who was going to be ruffled probably has already been ruffled.

I wholeheartedly agree. Go somewhere with regional accreditation - please! Go to … Maranatha!

[Jim]

iKuyper wrote:

well, it would ruffle the feathers of the “weaker brethren” to officially become an SBC school. So for now, I think just affiliating is a good political and gracious move…

Who’s left “to ruffle”? Anyone who was going to be ruffled probably has already been ruffled.

Yeah, probably. But there are probably a few who are hanging on for dear life because of their loyalty to the Patz family and Northland. Official SBC business might be that last straw..

Will all of this matter in the long run, in the next 2-3 years? We’ll have to see of course.

The question in my mind is who is paying for this? Last month Daniel Patz made a public plea for $600,000 & by all accounts their $10M fund is gone. It isn’t their students providing them with enough funds to operate and I would expect to hear of a continued decline in student numbers this fall.

With this announcement coming just over a month before students are scheduled to arrive and with only 7 degree programs, how many students will they have this fall and who is making up the financial deficit?

Will it matter in the long run? In my mind, I don’t think it will.

I don’t know all the ins & outs of Northland and the Patz family, but if indeed it is true that NIU is the “Patz Family Show”, I would argue that that in itself is reason enough to change course. For that matter, Jim makes a great point about accreditation—I’ve met a bunch of graduates of unaccredited schools, especially Pensacola, who have had a horrible time finding work because no one outside the “fundamental ghetto” took their degrees seriously.

Amen and amen. If a man wants to go into the ministry, and he is fine with NIU doctrinally, then he’ll do fine to go there. If someone wants a Christian education that they can use in the “real world,” they must go somewhere that offers accreditation.

This is a formula to remember:

• Ministry goal = unaccredited may be ok, depending on what you’re looking for
• Secular workforce goal = NEVER go to an unaccredited school

http://religiousaffections.org/articles/in-the-nick-of-time/schadenfreu…

He says “Very often, Christians seem to take a kind of perverse delight in the downfall of other Christians.”

Continuing he states:

Some seem to believe that the only appropriate response is to hope for the death of the institution. This fierce hope—this Schadenhoffnung—gives rise to a pursuit of bad news and results in expressions of Schadenfreude at every institutional setback. In the long run, it becomes a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, producing the collapse of the institution in whose demise it rejoices. At least some “discernment ministries” (that expression is often ironic) understand the power of public Schadenfreude and employ it as a weapon. They actually aim to destroy Christian leaders and organizations by rejoicing in their misfortunes.

We certainly need to NOT wish Northland bad. I don’t. My views:

• It’s a family (apparently a family with deep pockets) originated parachurch organization. “The school was founded in 1976 by businessman and inventor, Paul Patz and his family of seven children” [source]
• There was a robust Christianity prior to 1976. And if Northland folds, life goes on
• Steve Pettit who was there for 30 years calls it “A little place of heaven on earth”
• I know to folk in my church who are either graduates, or parents of graduates, or who served there (eg. Sam Horn), that the place is very meaningful to them.
• Having never been there, I am dispassionate about it.
• I observed that the origination of Northland (founded by a millionaire family) is quite different than what I would consider a better model: a school sourced by an association of churches (I’m thinking specifically about Faith in Ankeny (really Greater DesMoines - if you’ve ever been there!)
• Parachurch ministries come and go. It’s been sad (to me) to see some go: Eg: Evangelical Baptist Missions and Pillsbury
• Of course even churches come and go. The church of my first pastorate has changed dramatically in a way that I don’t view positively. The church of my 2nd pastorate has dwindled to a very old congregation that is questioning whether they should even continue.
• Back to Northland. In my view, it would have been better had the Patzs given money to Faith than to start there own. But it was their money to spend. And so goes it

From an inside perspective as a faculty member at a public university, accreditation is a sad thing. Let me assure you, IT MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING as far as the quality of the education. I know of many schools that are accredited that are horrible as far as education. I know many “diploma mills” that are fully accredited.

But, accreditation mean EVERYTHING when it comes to getting a professional license and credit for graduate school.

It is a sad, tragic thing.

I understand what you’re saying. In the end, the drive and character of the student actually determines what is learned and what is not.