The Cost of Education

I have spent the last few days researching the cost of online Bible Colleges, Universities, Seminaries, and Institutes. Education can be very expensive. Many of the schools have a credit hour tuition of 250-350 dollars. This is typical of schools that are accredited. The cost of accreditation is extremely high. I have been researching that as well. I understand the value of accreditation. It is great that these opportunities exist for people who can find ways through scholarships, grants, and loans to be able to pursue their education with some of these fine institutions. But, there are a lot of people who just can’t put that kind of resource together. There are also a lot of schools online that are not accredited. These schools typically have a credit hour tuition of around 50 dollars. Some of these are fine schools but some seem to be more of a revenue stream than anything. Some of these less expensive schools are accredited by agencies that are not very well established themselves. Again, I am sure there are some good ones but it also looks like another possible revenue stream for some people. When we started the Jesus Moment Bible Institute and Seminary we were looking for a way to provide a quality ministry learning experience to people in our church who wanted to take their ministry callings to another level. We also wanted to be able to provide that opportunity for free. Along the way we have been joined by students who have found us on the Internet. We are happy to have them along on this journey. Our plan is to provide a quality program for people who feel called into the ministry. We are on a continuing quest to find excellent curriculum that we can make available to our students for free. Since we will not have the money to do so, we will not pursue accreditation. What we will pursue is providing an excellent education and ministry experience for people who desire to be better equipped for ministry but just can’t afford the multiple thousands of dollars that it could take at other institutions. Our Associates and Bachelors Degrees will have to be judged on the quality of the coursework and graduates that are produced. Our hope and prayer is that our Online Bible Institute will ultimately be a blessing to thousands of people who will be well prepared for the journey that God has called them to!