I have been working with the ABHE board, staff, and selected presidents for some months now in an effort to clarify the key elements and distinctiveness of biblical higher education.  At the annual business meeting, I distributed a discussion draft of an ABHE “branding narrative.” In case you missed it, I offer it to you again and invite your feedback as we seek to crystallize our collective identity and distinctive educational calling. Please e-mail me - renlow@abhe.org - regarding your affirmation or critique of this important statement.

ABHE members, scattered across North America, have distinctive and diverse histories, ethnicity, and doctrinal/denominational affiliations. Nevertheless, we are marked more by our common distinctiveness than by our diversity. We are committed to education that is legitimately postsecondary and academically rigorous, challenging students to develop critical thinking skills and leading them in the formation of a biblically grounded Christian worldview. While we may differ at the periphery and in many particulars, our educational philosophy revolves around a common center. We are united in our collective commitment to engage students biblically, transformationally, experientially, and missionally.

We engage intentionally and pervasively in biblical higher education – education that involves extensive and serious study of the text of God’s eternal Word, not in a posture of detachment and skepticism, but in a posture discipleship and submission, seeking to understand the will of God so that we may conform to it, and the plan of God so that we may join Him in bringing about its fulfillment. This engagement with Scripture ensures that the formation of a Christian worldview issues not merely from sincere devotion to Christ, but also out of a comprehensive grasp of biblical teaching and a well-honed and growing ability to bring sound theological thinking to bear upon every aspect of experience and empirical observation.

We engage intentionally and pervasively in transformational higher education – education that calls students to explore the moral and ethical implications of what they are studying, to faithfully participate in a community of fellow Christ-followers, to appropriate and collaborate with the work of God’s Holy Spirit in the process of developing personal values and virtues worthy of His adopted children, living out Kingdom values before a watching world.

We engage intentionally and pervasively in experiential higher education – facilitating service learning opportunities through which we help students to discover and develop their own distinctive God-given gifts, passions, and sense of calling, and to exercise and grow the skills required for lives of passionate and proficient service.

And we engage intentionally and pervasively in missional higher education. We maintain that an authentically biblical worldview compels all believers – regardless of present or future occupation – to understand their personal vocation within the context of history’s destiny: the day when the kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ. To that end, we seek to equip students, according to their unique gifts, passions and callings, to take their place in the global cause of proclaiming the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ alone. Recognizing that in the 21st century Christianity enjoys cultural hegemony neither in North America nor abroad, we help students to acquire and exercise tools for cultural exegesis and engagement in addition to the tools of biblical exegesis.

What a time to be involved in biblical higher education! The Kingdom impact of ABHE graduates literally reverberates around the globe. The tragedy is that too few people know our story – and too many have a distorted image of our distinctive calling and contributions. I’d like to ask for your help in telling our collective story. Could you send me the names of some of your most effective graduates? Also, when you have a campus or alumni story to tell that highlights the distinctive nature and effectiveness of biblical higher education, would you send it to me? I’d like to populate the “Personal Stories” section of the ABHE website with the true story of biblical higher education’s impact.

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