This summer, as I've been working on various projects for TBC, I have had the occasion to search for information on "the challenges to Christian Higher Education" in today's world.  There is a lot of information out there.  Many opinions.  Many insights.  And a great deal of speculation...

Suggested challenges range from the economic stress that impacts most of the US these days to declining US church membership (and therefore, a declining traditional "pool" of likely students) to the dramatic paradigm shifts brought to us by the post-modern mindset and worldview.  There are so many more challenges I could list - some common to Christian Colleges across the country, some unique to Tacoma Bible College. 

But those are the negative kind of challenges... the challenges that threaten rather than inspire.  Although we must be realistic and deal with the first type of challeges from time to time, I would rather look to a challenge of the inspiring sort.

To do that, I look to the Old Testament and a faitihful man named Ezra. 

As we read the book that bears his name, we learn much about him.  He was among the Jews who had been exiled in the Babylonian Captivity.  He was a scribe.  He was a priest.  He was "skilled in the Law of Moses".  And he was sent back to Jeruselem by Artaxerxes, the King of Persia, after the Babylonian Empire had been overthrown. 

In Ezra 7:10 we read this:

                    "For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and 
                       to teach his statutes and rules in Israel" (ESV)

Those words are more than a compliment to Ezra.  They are a challenge to us.

They challenge me as TBC's Academic Dean and an instructor here.  They challenge me as a person who wants to live my life fully for God.  They challenge you... whether you are a TBC student, faculty member, staff person, or friend.  They are a challege to you even if you just dropped by this blog to see what the folks at Tacoma Bible College are like.

Ezra's words are, I believe, a challenge to Christian Higher Education today.  Have we got so clear a vision of our God-given purpose and mission that we can say we have set our hearts in this direction?  Are we set to not simply study God's Word, but live out what it reveals to us in our daily lives (as a college and as individuals)?  And, are we set to teach God's Word to all those around us?

That's the sort of inspiring challenge I can sink  my teeth into.  How about you?

Paul