Issue 4 - Editorial Introduction
We are pleased to present to you the Winter 2025 issue of Integration: A Journal of Faith and Learning. We are excited to introduce a new type of article that we hope will become a common feature of the journal: interviews with strategic leaders in Christian education. For our inaugural interview, we spoke with Drs. Phil Alsup and John Basie, who are part of the leadership team of the Impact 360 Institute in Pine Mountain, GA. Impact 360 occupies a unique place in the ecosystem of Christian education. We trust you will enjoy learning about the history and mission of Impact 360, particularly its commitment to partnering with Christian universities that share their mission and core commitments.
If you are engaged in the world of higher education, you know this is a challenging and chaotic time. The much-discussed demographic cliff, coupled with a growing mistrust of higher education and rising tuition and fees, is contributing to disruption across the sector. Closer to home, the term “Christian college” means different things in different contexts. How do families decide which Christian school makes the most sense for their students? How do schools make the most compelling case possible that their vision of Christian education is worth the investment? What is the role of mission faithfulness for today’s Christian college? The Center for Academic Faithfulness & Flourishing (CAFF) is engaging in research related to these and other questions. In the fall of 2024, CAFF released an online College Guide to help families better understand the landscape of Christian higher education. We are pleased to reprint an article from Jesse Rine, founder and executive director of CAFF, that introduces readers to the CAFF College Guide. Consider sharing the article and the guide with the parents of prospective students.
When new faculty join an institution, they often feel pulled in two directions. On the one hand, their graduate studies have prepared them to be meaningfully involved in their disciplinary guild. On the other hand, their new school is asking them to take ownership of the institution’s identity, mission, and values. For some faculty in Christian colleges and universities, tension arises when the values of the guild conflict with the values of the institution. Thomas Mach serves as the chief academic officer at Cedarville University. Based on his own experiences at Cedarville, Mach reflects on ways that a Christian college can be intentional about connecting new faculty to its institutional identity. We trust both faculty and administrators will appreciate his thoughts on this topic.
As always, we include reviews and notices of recent books related to Christian education. Many other reviews are in process and will appear in future issues. If you are interested in reviewing a title, please contact us. And if you would like to submit an article for consideration, or have an idea, we would like to hear from you. The vision of Integration is to promote the development of a robust understanding of the integration of faith and learning across academic disciplines, rooted in a biblical worldview, and building upon the Christian intellectual tradition. We would welcome articles that intersect with these themes and apply them to colleges and universities, theological education, Christian K-12 settings, or other educational venues that exist on the frontiers of Christian education. You can find our emails at the bottom of the journal’s home page.