Back to the Future. Talks of TC

[ImaPK]

See I knew I would step on some toes. Let me try to clarify some things. First I was not trying to say that ALL who went there were "party animals". ALL were not trying "to get away from daddy and mommy". If COGOP wants to have TC back they have TWO choices. ONE...it will have to be set up like a seminary where the focus is on religion and students would go there to be taught how to be ministers of the Gospel, how to be pastors, how to be missionaries, etc. It will need QUALIFIED instructers in this case. TWO...it will have to be set up like a college with all the "warts" and "sin" that goes with it. With LIBERAL instructers thrown in the mix.
In both cases it will need the support and backing of the CHURCHES and I don't just mean HQ taxing...er...tithing the churches. I mean SUPPORT and BACKING!! Are the churches ready to contribute to scholarship funds so underprivilage students-both domestic and foreign- can attend? Are there members willing to step up and contribute funds-and I don't just mean hundreds of $$ but thousands of $$ to the college? Will the alumni be willing to step up and contribute? I don't see it, sorry. Ok, I know, God will provide. Yes he will but are there enough of God's providers willing to step up? Only YOU can answer that. Because YOU are the PROVIDERS that God will provide. God provided the PROVIDERS for the Tabernacle and where is it now? God provided the PROVIDERS for the first TC and where is it now? That's where the SUPPORT comes in AFTER YOU PROVIDE.
Like I said, I ain't got a dog in this one, but I think it's a BAD IDEA.

[Pastor Gary]

[How is a college supposed to stop its students from doing what they want to do off campus?

There was an (unrealistic) expectation that TC would act in loco parentis. Parents believed that if they sent their kids away to "the church college" it would basically be like a youth camp environment, closely monitored and controlled.

My parents wanted me to go to TC, largely for that reason. At the time I had my sights set on a Graphic Design career, and there was nothing remotely associated with that at TC.

[free]

You're right PG...Many parents assumed it was an extension of camp, church, etc...As M.A. Tomlinson said in one assembly, "Be sure to take your purse with you, everyone who attends the assembly is not a Christian."

I guess that pretty much summed up my time at TC...Everyone who attended weren't Christians but there were many good and positive things that came out out of it as well.

[ImaPK]

[How is a college supposed to stop its students from doing what they want to do off campus?

There was an (unrealistic) expectation that TC would act in loco parentis. Parents believed that if they sent their kids away to "the church college" it would basically be like a youth camp environment, closely monitored and controlled.

My parents wanted me to go to TC, largely for that reason. At the time I had my sights set on a Graphic Design career, and there was nothing remotely associated with that at TC.

You said it so much better then I could. That's what my parents thought too.

[Phil Hoover]

is a blood-washed saint either.

EXPECTATIONS were unrealistic at TC, just like they were at LEE...

Parents should NEVER expect a college to raise their children...that is unfair to the college, and down right assinine for the parents.

[dolfan]

[How is a college supposed to stop its students from doing what they want to do off campus?

There was an (unrealistic) expectation that TC would act in loco parentis. Parents believed that if they sent their kids away to "the church college" it would basically be like a youth camp environment, closely monitored and controlled.

My parents wanted me to go to TC, largely for that reason. At the time I had my sights set on a Graphic Design career, and there was nothing remotely associated with that at TC.

The youth camp thing -- no doubt some of the students had that expectation, too. I remember there was always this reference on the tips of some tongues about "campus unity". Every youth-related crisis was melodramatized and somehow turned back to this idea of "campus unity". I never understood it, never got it. But, I did understand (not having grown up in COGOP and never having been to youth camp) that whatever the phrase meant, it was being used against a backdrop of a youth camp expectation. So, when someone finally used that phrase around me for the last time I could tolerate it, I told them, "Campus, campus, campus. That's all I hear. Camp Us is what you ought to call this place because that's the way you see it." So, yeah, parents and families had silly expectations, and they sent silly half-grown kids there who stayed silly and left silly. And, while that was a part of the atmosphere, at least the already-married students who came and left --especially those with ministry careers in mind -- got it. I can also look at people like DeWayne Hamby, whose memory for me from then is special like a handful of other exemplary guys there, because as a young guy surrounded by a bunch of cut-loose girls (I mean free and unsupervised, not morally loose) he always seemed to have a level head and somewhat of a longer view of life, mature for his age. That was my experience anyway, and I know it isn't true in every case.

[Phil Hoover]

Most of the "capital funding" that LEE has seen over the last 23 years DID not come from the Treasury of the Church of God International Headquarters at 25th and Keith Streets.

Dr Paul Conn cultivated many wonderful DONORS...many outside the CHURCH OF GOD....

And LEE has also been able to secure many, many grants from all kind of sources....

[germanshepherd]

Phil, it sounds like you think that Lee is such a great "Christian" university. I would ask you to open your eyes. Though the talk is that it is a "Christian" university, the truth just may be far from that. I do not remember any of my professors at TC cursing in class; this actually happened in my daughter's class at Lee on multiple occasions. Being in Cleveland the last 4 years, we have seen many things that people complain about happening at TC also happening at Lee. We have seen the full picture of Lee with the experiences of friends, my daughter (a student), and myself (a student). Before you praise a place so highly, you might want to know the larger picture. Lee does provide a quality education, but there are times that I would not say it is all too Christian.

I say all that to say that just because a place is called Christian, not everyone that goes there or even teaches there may be Christian. It is true that these people are everywhere. Again, I am not sure if COGOP should start another college or not. However, I do believe (you might call it naive) that the present leadership is trying its best to right some wrongs, to head in the right direction, and to eliminate things that have caused the decline in North America. Yes, I said NA. Because the COGOP outside of NA is growing like crazy and not so negative. My .02 cents.