by Stafford North, Professor of Bible, Oklahoma Christian University
I have been around Christian education all of my life. At five years old, I started in the first grade in a Christian school and there went through high school. Then I attended a Christian college. I have been associated with Oklahoma Christian University for more than sixty years and, during this time, have observed, not only OC, but other Christian schools as well.
It is no accident that the churches of Christ are strongest where we have had Christian schools for a long time: Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, Nebraska, West Virginia, and other places. Students come from our churches, attend our universities, and tend to settle near the school they attended. This has built up the church in those areas with young people who come to congregations and serve as teachers, youth workers, worship leaders, speakers, VBS workers, personal workers, and in many other ways. They also strengthen the young married group and bear children who begin their learning process in the nursery and pre-school.
Our Christian universities take our best youth and help them grow spiritually through Bible classes, chapel, Christian teachers in all subjects, and an overall Christian environment. Not every student who attends one of our Christian universities comes out as a leader in the church but, according to Flavil Yeakley’s recent study, more of them are faithful than are those of our youth who attend other types of institutions. The combination of Christian teachers, Bible teaching, activities with other Christians, and a Christian environment in which to learn, has proved online casinos itself to be a great blessing to the church.
Although I am at Oklahoma Christian, I want to say a word in behalf of such schools as York College and Ohio Valley University. These schools do a very important work for the kingdom of God. They give the youth from states near them the opportunity to get a good Christian college education in the general location where they live. Some Christian youth from those areas will need to go to another Christian university to get their specialty—engineering, nursing, graphic arts, etc.—but for many of the youth in those areas, attending these nearby institutions will be a great fit. This is important because students from those parts of the country who attend those schools will be more likely to stay close by to build up the church. Thus, church leaders in those areas should encourage their youth to attend a Christian school—nearby if possible, and if that is not a fit, then to attend another of our Christian universities.
Of course I want to see students attend Oklahoma Christian but, looking at the big picture, I want our schools in the northeast and upper mid-west to succeed in getting many students, training them for Christian service, and seeing them remain in their areas to strengthen the church. So, I hope Christian youth living in these areas will first look at Christian institutions nearby to see if their academic needs can be met there and, if they can, then I hope they will attend there. If they have aspirations which these schools can’t meet, then I hope they will plan to attend a Christian university that will help them reach their goals. We still, of course, can encourage these students, to move back to the areas of the country where the church needs them the most.
A Christian college/university which offers solid Bible teaching along with the other elements for spiritual development will help our youth to be faithful to the church. We need to get as many as possible of our youth to attend them. And for those in areas of the country where the church is not as strong, they should attend closer at hand if those schools meet their needs.