What is a Christian college? Why should you choose to attend a Christian college—and how can you know which ones are right for you? In this article, Thomas White, a CC dad who serves as president of Cedarville University, discusses the importance of choosing a college or university wisely.
Choosing a Christian College: A Critical Decision
Choosing a college is a critical decision.
Many Christian young people stop attending church in college. Their beliefs are challenged by evolution, secular humanism, pluralism, and postmodernism. Their behavior is challenged through the pushing of sexual boundaries and the celebrating of other ungodly behaviors. College is a crucial, trajectory-setting first step away from our homes, where our children must own their faith.
We want an institution that will encourage them in the right direction.
What Makes a Christian College?
For those reasons, you should consider a genuine Christian college or university. When I say “genuine,” I mean a college or university:
- that teaches a biblical worldview in every class,
- where faculty members affirm a confession of faith yearly and show students where each discipline disagrees with Scripture and why a biblical worldview forms a better understanding of God’s world,
- and intentionally focuses on discipleship that fills students’ hearts with passion for Jesus rather than just filling their heads with biblical knowledge.
How to Choose a Christian College
I’d caution you against attending a university that uses the label Christian as a marketing tool. These places are dangerous—more dangerous than a secular university because you let down your guard.
Find out whether the school has a clear doctrinal statement that faculty affirm annually and if they have a Bible minor for every undergraduate major.
Attend their chapel to find out what the true heartbeat of the campus is.
Ask what they believe about creation, a global flood, if Jonah really happened, and where they stand on gender roles.
These questions will take the theological temperature of the institution. Unfortunately, schools do exist that are only Christian in name, and I would avoid them.
Why Choose a Christian College?
As a thirteen-year CC Dad and president of Cedarville University, I can tell you that some schools are genuinely Christian.
At those, you will find top-flight academic scholarship through professors holding the highest credentials from all over the world with a passionate commitment to the faith — every professor signing the doctrinal statement, a Bible minor for every undergraduate student, chapel five days a week, a biblical worldview taught in every class, and intentional discipleship in every area on campus.
You have homeschooled because you care deeply about your child. You desire that your child’s education be continued in a strong Christian environment with academic excellence. Find a school like Cedarville that believes in biblical authority and unapologetically stands on its convictions.
For example, we hold to a six-day literal creation and a historical Adam and Eve. We believe that God created us male and female in His image and that marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman. We rejoice in the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ as Savior alone.
If these beliefs match your own, then find a school that aligns with your beliefs and doesn’t try to be all things to all people.
Find Your God-Given Gifts
Such schools do exist. I was amazed when I discovered that 80% of our freshman class came from a home where both parents have a relationship with Christ, attend church regularly, and attempt to have devotions at home. Amazing places with amazing students do exist.
What better place to align your God-given gifts with your God-given passions, sharpen them with excellence, build friends for life, and potentially find a spouse who loves the Lord?
And at the end of it all, there is no greater joy than to see your children walk in truth.
If this all sounds too good to be true, then come visit us at Cedarville University and check it out for yourself.
Read More: “Can Homeschoolers Go to College? Short Answer: YES!”
