The following was brought to attention today via e-mail.
O F F I C E O F T H E P R E S I D E N T
M E M O R A N D U M
TO: All Faculty, Staff and Students
FROM: President Robert H. Spence
DATE: February 17, 2005
In 1953, the General Council of the Assemblies of God, convening in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, authorized the establishment of a national college of arts and sciences: Evangel College. Opening in the fall of 1955 with 93 freshmen, Evangel joined a sister institution, Central Bible College, also located here in Springfield, as colleges that were owned and governed by the General Council of the Assemblies of God.
Central Bible College has an outstanding history of preparing pastors, evangelists, and missionaries for full-time service in the church. Evangel, on the other hand, was established primarily to help prepare lay leadership for service to the church and to the world. Over the years, Evangel and CBC, as well as the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary (established in 1972) have had numerous opportunities to cooperate and collaborate in a variety of ways.
We live in a time when governments, businesses, and churches are being asked to explore opportunities for possible joint venturing and partnership in an effort to achieve more efficient operations or to realize economies from cooperative ventures. At the present time, our General Council leaders are reviewing many areas of their operation internally and externally for these same reasons.
Since 1977, several studies have been conducted by the General Council to explore possibilities of combining programs or campuses of Evangel, CBC, and AGTS. In each study, the questions that arose had to do with benefits that might be received by maximizing resources and reducing redundancies. In the summer of 2003, the Executive Presbytery of the Assemblies of God chartered The Commission to Study General Council Schools. That Commission, chaired by Dr. Robert Cooley, presented its report to the Executive Presbytery in January 2005.
Question: What does the report recommend?
The Commission recommends that Evangel University be utilized as an existing framework to unify the General Council schools into a “university conglomerate.” The conglomerate would include a College of Arts and Sciences, a Conservatory of Music, a Bible College, a Seminary, a School of Graduate Studies, and a School of Continuing and Distance Education.
What is the decision-making process pertaining to the Commission’s report?
The Executive Presbytery has received the report and may consider it in their March meeting. The Executive Presbytery could approve, amend, or reject the report. If the Executive Presbytery approves the report, it would then be referred to the General Presbytery for consideration. The General Presbytery, a body of more than 200 church leaders from all parts of the nation and the world, is scheduled to convene in Denver August 1-2, 2005.
The General Presbytery could approve, amend, or reject the report. If the General Presbytery approves the report, it would then be referred to the General Council for consideration during the Council’s business sessions, August 3-5, 2005. The General Council in session with voting members, consisting of licensed and ordained Assemblies of God ministers and official delegates from Assemblies of God churches, would then make the final decision regarding the Commission’s report.
All of us have a keen interest in the discussions that are taking place and will be engaged in the coming weeks. It is imperative that we guard against entertaining and circulating unfounded rumors. As an academic institution, we are dedicated to pursuing the truth. As a Christian university, we are dedicated to knowing the Truth. We want to focus on facts. Understandably, we are dealing with emotional matters, but I am confident that we can do so in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord. I encourage faculty, staff and students to join with me in making this a matter of consistent and urgent prayer.
RHS/cs
Please discuss your thoughts on this. | 
