Faculty Assembly 2012

EuNC's Faculty Assembly was hosted on the campus this past week. Last year, the announcement was made about the end of the campus residential program. During that year, EuNC's focus shifted toward its learning centers and how to move effectively into the future of a fully decentralized education model. More details were provided this year (approximately 655 pages worth!).

The goal is for each learning center to effectively function as its own campus in connection with the central administration offices and every other learning center. EuNC continues to pursue accreditation by the European Evangelical Accrediting Assocation (EEAA), and representatives were in Büsingen to observe parts of the Faculty Assembly, meet with EuNC leadership, and interview representatives of the faculty and students. Currently, EuNC is considered a candidate school, having passed the initial candidacy visit of one year ago. EuNC is in the process of preparing for the final accreditation review. Prayers are appreciated for EuNC as full accreditation for its learning centers will be a vital step in moving forward.

Along with learning these kinds of important details and receiving further training, it was a great time of being reunited with faculty from other parts of Europe. Some of these included friends from seminary like Jonathan Phillips and Gil Thibault, and former EuNC students Cezarina Cufaj and Sara Schmid Hasbajrami who are now serving as tutors and helping operate learning centers in their respective countries. I enjoyed meeting the pastor who had just completed an online directed study with me in church history. I also met the new director of the Netherlands learning center, Ineke Swart-den Boer, who is taking over for Gemmeke Hagoort.

This was the last year that Faculty Assembly would be held in Büsingen. Decentralizing means that these meetings will be hosted by different learning centers in the future. Gelnhausen, a German town in the vicinity of Frankfurt, will host next year's Faculty Assembly. Romania, the Netherlands, etc. are all potential hosts in the coming years as well.

What has become clear is not so much that something has ended (the EuNC campus and traditional program), but that God has multiplied EuNC's presence across Europe. If the little campus in a tiny rural German village has represented the proverbial "five loaves and two fish," then this decentralized model represents Christ's multiplication of resources. In other words, EuNC has gotten a lot bigger and has the opportunity to make a greater impact. I'm also reminded of the brief image of Jesus watching a destitute widow put two coins in the temple offering. She gave more than anybody else, Jesus said, because she had given all she had to God. EuNC is not the biggest school with the most educational programs, yet there is no question that leadership, faculty, and students alike are giving all they have. This isn't easy and certainly comes with a heavy price tag of one sort or another, but people here regularly give all they've got out of love for God and the desire to see the world changed as hearts are transformed. I am daily amazed and grateful to be among them.