Mission and Overview of Lincoln Christian College and Seminary

Lincoln Christian College and Seminary is a Christian higher education community whose mission is to nurture and equip Christians with a Biblical worldview to serve and lead in the church and the world (see Mission and Values below).  Founded in 1944, Lincoln has grown to an annual enrollment of more than 1,200 with more than 5,000 graduates serving in every state in this country and in more than seventy other countries worldwide.

Students enjoy an intimate campus environment with a student/faculty ratio of less than 14:1, with the safety and security that small town American provides, while at the same time studying with faculty and staff who have a global heart and a passion for the world in all its diversity.  Opportunities for service—from nearby neighborhoods to international settings—abound at Lincoln, where the focus is on service learning.

Lincoln is affiliated with independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, a non-denominational fellowship of more than one million members in six thousand congregations in the United States and more than twice that many worldwide (see Beliefs below).   Students at Lincoln represent more than thirty different denominations, though the majority are members of independent churches.  We welcome all who support our mission, core values, and basic beliefs.

Lincoln was launched on May 4, 1944, with the rallying cry, “The Preachers Are Coming,” (based on a World War II song, “The Yanks Are Coming”).  The immediate goal of founding president Earl Hargrove was to prepare preachers and other church leaders to bring new leadership to the many struggling churches in downstate Illinois.  Since then, Lincoln has developed into two separate but related schools—an undergraduate Bible college and a graduate seminary.  These two schools offer a wide range of programs in more than twenty majors, from business to worship, with degrees ranging from a two-year Associate of Arts to the recently introduced Doctor of Ministry.

Lincoln is accredited by the Association for Biblical Higher Education (http://www.abhe.org/), The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (http://www.ncahigherlearningcommission.org/), and the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (http://www.ats.edu/).

The campus of Lincoln Christian College and Seminary has grown considerably over the last few years, with many millions spent to enhance and improve our learning environment for students.  Recent projects include a new women’s residence hall, a new athletic facility, a remodeled and expanded cafeteria, a redesigned student union and student services facility, and numerous classroom upgrades, including wireless internet access throughout much of campus.  The campus includes housing for more than 600 single students, as well as 56 apartments.  Additional campus upgrades on the drawing board include a new seminary building, a new library facility, and a remodeled classroom and faculty office complex.  Our current strategic plan calls for an increase in enrollment from 1,200 to 1,500 students within the next five years, along with the addition of more faculty and staff and new academic programs.

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Mission Document of Lincoln Christian College and Seminary

Lincoln Christian College and Seminary is a Christian higher education community whose mission is to nurture and equip Christians with a Biblical worldview to serve and lead in the church and the world.  The principal means we use to accomplish this mission are teaching, learning, leading, and serving through undergraduate and graduate programs.  The goal of the undergraduate College is to prepare servant leaders who know God’s Word, engage God’s world, and pursue God’s will for their lives.  The goal of the graduate Seminary is to develop servant leaders to equip churches and church-related organizations to carry out Christ’s Great Commission in the world.  Each school has adopted a set of student learning objectives to further clarify these goals for each student.

Our priority as faculty and staff is the education of our students as part of a lifelong learning process.  Educationally, the College identifies itself as a Christian college committed to helping students know the Christ and make Him known.  All students take a common core of classes that builds a solid foundation in Biblical studies, in the liberal arts, and in professional practice, for service inside and outside the church.  The Seminary identifies itself educationally as a graduate theological school focused on professional leadership ministry within its understanding of “the priesthood of all believers.”  In every program at every level we are committed to excellence in a holistic model of education that helps students develop intellectually, spiritually, socially, and physically.  To that end, our faculty and staff strive to serve not only as instructors and scholars, but as role models and mentors.

Undergirding our educational approach is a fundamental commitment to a Biblical worldview.  We want our students to look at and live all of life from a distinctively Christian perspective that is derived from Scripture so they can “think with the mind of Christ.”  We want them to see everything through the larger Biblical story of creation, fall, and redemption. We also want our students to understand and respect those with other worldviews in order to engage them with integrity and with grace.

As a Christian higher education community, we are committed to Christ and His church, locally and globally.  Our religious roots are in the Restoration Movement, a unity movement of independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ committed to the authority of Scripture.  While we have our doctrinal distinctives, we welcome all those who share our common concern for Christ’s church and God’s world.  Located in America’s heartland, we have a heart for the world in all its diversity because God does.

As a private, religious school in the Judeo-Christian tradition, we value the dignity and worth of all people in a pluralistic society.  We strive to be a Christian community committed to covenantal relationships with ourselves and to collaborative relationships with others in the pursuit of our mission.  Our campus culture is characterized by collegiality, compassion, and concern for all.  We believe leadership is best done by serving others, based on each person’s gifts, passion, and sense of calling.  We also believe learning is enhanced by serving, and we view service learning as a hallmark of our campus community.

To help fulfill our mission we have adopted a vision and a set of core values and beliefs, as well as institutional goals.  All of our planning, our policies, and our programs are directed toward these ends as we seek to be good stewards of the resources entrusted to us by God and His people.

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Core Values

To accomplish its mission and vision, Lincoln Christian College and Seminary has adopted the following values:

a. We believe that our highest privilege and duty is to glorify God, serve His Son, and rely upon His Holy Spirit.

b. We believe that the Bible is God's authoritative Word for the Church and that its study and practice are foundational for all of Christian life, faith, and service.

c. We value authentic Christian community that fosters Christian character, conduct, and accountability.

d. We value responsible stewardship of the resources and talents that God provides.

e. We value Christian leadership as vital to the ongoing mission of the Church and as fundamental to our partnership with the Church.

f. We value our Stone-Campbell religious heritage and its plea for Christian unity in carrying out God's global mission.

g. We value students and their holistic development in and out of the classroom.

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What We Believe: An Explanation of Our Faith

Lincoln Christian College and Seminary is an undergraduate Bible college and graduate theological school affiliated with independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. These churches arose from the “Restoration Movement” begun in the early 19th century on the American frontier under the leadership of such men as Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell. Churches within the Stone-Campbell heritage seek to honor Jesus’ prayer in John 17, promoting world evangelism by practicing unity in the church based upon the restoration of Biblical authority and the essential elements of New Testament Christianity. This movement refuses to embrace extra-biblical creeds as tests of fellowship, standing on the Scriptures alone as the foundation for faith and practice. Furthermore, each congregation is self-governing under Christ, so individual churches may differ from one another on non-essentials. Therefore, the statements that follow are descriptive, not creedal—designed to help people understand the positions generally held by Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, including Lincoln Christian College and Seminary. We believe that:

God is one being in three persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is the source of all creation (Gen. 1:1; John 1:1-2), which He sustains (Col. 1:17) and is in the process of redeeming (Rom. 8:19-22). God the Father loves us and desires that we have fellowship with Him as His children (I John 1:3).

Jesus of Nazareth is the incarnation of God the Son. He is the Word become flesh (John 1:14), and He now holds all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). He is Savior and Lord. He made human salvation possible through His life, death on the cross, and resurrection. He ascended into heaven where He is now our high priest and advocate. He is head of the Church.

The Holy Spirit works actively in the world, seeking to glorify Jesus. The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come (John 16:5-11). The Holy Spirit indwells believers individually and corporately in the Church. The Holy Spirit develops within the Christian a pure heart which results in Christ-like character expressed in private and public conduct and action.

The Bible, the Old and New Testament Scriptures, is the uniquely inspired Word of God (2 Tim. 3:14-17; 2 Peter 1:16-21). The Bible is the rule of faith and practice for Christians. We affirm that Scripture is the authoritative revelation from God by which we know God’s will and Christ’s authority. We seek to assert what the Scriptures clearly assert and allow freedom in other cases. We seek to understand divine intent, through authorial intent, and we seek to apply its teaching to the contemporary church and culture.

The Church is the body of Christ on earth, the community of believers throughout the world. Upon surrender to Christ, a person is added to the Church. In addition, the priesthood of all believers means each Christian is called to be a serving minister (1 Peter 2:9-10). The Church’s mission is the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20).

Human beings were created by God to walk in fellowship with Him. However, all (except Jesus) have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) and must rely on God’s grace and forgiveness. Every human from the moment of life is in the image of God (imago dei), a person to be nurtured, protected, and developed.

Salvation is by God alone through Jesus Christ alone. One accepts Christ as Savior through a conversion process that includes faith, repentance, confession, and baptism (Acts 2:38, 8:12, 10:47-48, Rom.10:9, etc.).

In baptism a believer is immersed, crucified and buried with Christ (Rom. 6:3-4), receives forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), is resurrected (Col. 2:12) and clothed with Christ (Gal. 3:27), and becomes saved (1 Peter 3:21) because of God’s free gift of grace received by faith.

The Lord’s Supper is the celebration of the New Covenant, in which the Christian community remembers Christ and celebrates the covenantal relationship they have with Him and with each other. Congregations in this fellowship typically celebrate the Lord’s Supper at least weekly (1 Cor. 11:17-34; Acts 20:7).

The Final Coming of Jesus is a time when Christ will personally come again as savior and judge of the world. At that time there will be the bodily resurrection of the dead—believers to eternal life with God and unbelievers to eternal judgment. Sin will be no more and believers will live in fellowship with God forever (I Thess. 4:13-18 and Rev. 20:11-15).

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The purpose of a philosophy of education is to clarify educational concepts, strategies, and outcomes.  At Lincoln Christian College and Seminary, our particular philosophy of education draws its form and substance from the shared theological values of the campus community.  It is these shared values that give rise to the curriculum and its content.  It also gives expression to the covenantal character of this educational community and its commitment to our mission, vision, core values, and basic beliefs.

The foundation of our philosophy is the shared belief that truth is revealed by God in the natural world, in the written Word of God, and in the person of Jesus Christ, the Living Word. This revealed truth in all three dimensions is the heart of our curriculum and has for us three key aspects: creational, propositional, and relational.
 
The creational aspect of truth requires a careful examination of the created, natural world and the collective knowledge of humankind throughout history. The propositional aspect of truth requires a purposeful process that focuses on the transmission of the truth revealed by God in Scripture through His Holy Spirit. The relational aspect of truth requires a deep knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ as “the Truth” that involves not only mental understanding but also personal experience as learner-disciples led by the Holy Spirit within a covenant community.

At the heart of our educational philosophy is the reciprocal relationship between the student and the faculty in the teaching-learning process.  Students are valued as learners who are integral to our educational and spiritual community. Central to this process is the recognition and acceptance of the diverse nature of learners and the diverse ways in which they learn. This diversity is reflected by age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, life experience, interests, abilities, giftedness, and different learning styles.

The faculty are valued as teachers who do more than teach. Their education, expertise, and experiences are crucial components of the teaching and learning that occurs here, but faculty also serve as role models, mentors, advisors, encouragers, and partners in learning.  It is their commitment to lifelong learning, to scholarship, to creativity, to the discovery of new knowledge, and to ongoing development that creates a vibrant learning community.

This community of teachers and learners strives to strengthen the learning partnership in a variety of ways.  We employ a variety of educational strategies, both pedagogical and andragogical, to address the diversity of our learners’ ages and life experiences. We promote a variety of settings and opportunities for learning, both formal and informal, focusing on individuals and on groups, located inside and outside the classroom, occurring on-campus and around the world, and involving both scholarship and service, academics and ministry.

At the core of this partnership is the desire to achieve learning outcomes that reach the highest levels in all the learning domains, from memorization to critical application.  We want learners who do know basic ideas, interpretations, and information, but can also critically analyze those as needed, synthesizing them in ways that allow for more informed judgments, so that our students can apply them to new situations and practical problems in our increasingly complex and diverse world.  Ultimately, we want learner-disciples who continue to grow in all areas of their lives in order to contribute not only to the “common good” but to the Kingdom of God.

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Our Graduates

• More than 90% of graduates in last decade serve in ministry (paid or volunteer)
• Graduates serve in nearly every state in U.S.
• Graduates serving in 67 countries
• Graduates represent one-third of all military chaplains among Christian Churches/Churches of Christ
• Number of graduates up 13% last ten years
• Students rate all categories of student life above national norms for all private college
• Students rate our concern for students at the highest levels nationally
• Students overwhelmingly say they would recommend LCCS to others
• Seminary graduates with ministry at graduation was 98%
• College graduates with ministry at graduation was 96%
• Accreditation reviews in 2006 were extremely positive, citing Lincoln as a "model school"
  

History

Lincoln Christian College, one of the largest Bible colleges in the United States, is supported by the independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. This non-denominational fellowship of more than one million members has nearly six thousand congregations across the United States and nearly as many more worldwide. Lincoln was founded in 1944, but its religious heritage extends back to the early 19th century, to a nation-wide revival among various Protestant churches often called “the Great Revival.” From that Great Revival came a grass-roots movement among many faith groups led by Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell, Barton Stone, and Walter Scott. It was known as the Restoration Movement. The plea of this movement, to which Lincoln subscribes, has three emphases: (1) the authority of the Bible, (2) the unity of God’s people, and (3) the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to “go into all the world to make disciples.”

Lincoln Christian Seminary has been providing quality graduate education for leadership ministry for more than half a century. In 2001-02, in fact, the Seminary celebrated 50 years of service since its founding in 1951 under the leadership of its first dean, Enos Dowling, and its first president, Earl Hargrove. It is one of only three seminaries in the Stone-Campbell tradition associated with independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. These churches are part of a "Restoration Movement" begun in the early 19th century on the American frontier under the leadership of such men as Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell. The movement they started is based on a plea for unity among God's people by restoring the essential elements of Biblical Christianity.

The Seminary is part of a larger institution known as Lincoln Christian College and Seminary. The Seminary shares a campus and several administrative and other functions with its undergraduate counterpart, Lincoln Christian College, which was founded in 1944. The Seminary has its own faculty, academic programs, and policies for its students, as well as its own building.

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Board of Trustees    » Trustee Login

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LCC Campus Security

Statement of Campus Law Enforcement
Campus security personnel are authorized to detain but not to arrest individuals suspected of crime. Security personnel will immediately contact the Lincoln Police Department if an arrest is imminent. Campus security personnel will submit a report to the Administration that includes campus crime and security warnings. The Administration will report possible felonies to the Lincoln Police Department immediately.

Statement of Campus Facility Security
All campus facilities, including dormitories, will be locked at designated times. These facilities will be unavailable for access without proper credentials. Campus security personnel will conduct security rounds daily.

Statement of Student and Employee Security Procedures
All students and employees are encouraged to utilize safe security practices and are required to report alleged crimes or other emergencies to the Administration, campus security personnel, or other officials of Lincoln Christian College and Seminary.

Annual Campus Crime /Security Report
ope.ed.gov/security
Report for LCCS

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