and Other Ways to Look Like You are Building God’s Kingdom
When You are Really Building Your Own!

 

Delila, a deceitful worker, offers university leaders dishonest shortcuts. There is One who watches to see if the leaders will build with gold, silver and costly stones. or thoughtlessly build with straw. How did things work out for Sampson?

When I was studying at Fuller Theological Seminary, the library had a disturbing conundrum. Periodically, a student would pull a book off the shelf, only to find that it was the hardback cover with no pages. The sensor that kept books from being smuggled out of the library without setting off the gate alarm was in these hardback covers. It turns out that there was an ambitious student who was so committed to the success of his future ministry that he was building his library by pillaging Fuller’s. After all, how could one expect to have a great ministry without a great collection of books?

Of course, books are expensive, too expensive.

Since these books would be foundational to the great work for God that the student knew he would do, God would certainly not have expected him to do without. Right? Or might there have been a flaw in the reasoning of this sticky-fingered student? Maybe the foundation to a great ministry cannot be built on dishonest shortcuts to success.

 

“Hey Sampson, What Would it Hurt”

The driving force that impels people to establish a Christian institution, the foundation on which it is built, is a commitment to serving Jesus Christ. Succeeding generations of leaders build on that foundation. On what foundation was this thieving student building? At the very least, the foundation on which he was building was not going to be dependent on anointing and power from a holy God. A Christian school is a ministry that depends on God’s blessing. When Christian leaders take shortcuts to the “success” of their ministries, are they sliding off the foundation on which they were built. What happens to a house that is only partly still on its foundation?

There are so many formerly-Christian universities that have completely slid off their faith foundations. What were the small steps that led to such disaster? Disaster is conceived in concessions, birthed in compromises, and matures as leaders thoughtlessly continue their slow progress away from the Lord. Unaware of how far they have drifted away, they do not see the dangers.

Like Sampson, a once passionate servant of God may not realize that the Lord has left him. How did that work out for Samson? He ended up captured, blinded, ashamed, and suicidal. How disturbing to us are Christian leaders who bring us shame when their flawed character is exposed. And how eager are the anti-Christ souls who love to hear and repeat such stories.

Leaders of small colleges often find that accreditation is foundational to growing their schools. But achieving accreditation is difficult. It is expensive. It takes a great deal of time. Do you hear Delila whispering to College President “Sampson” that there are shortcuts … or is that a snake whispering to Eve?

“Take the shortcut—you know how unfair it is for something so good to be kept from you for so long.”

 

So Many Ways to Cheat, So Little Time

Swindlers abound. The creativity, inventiveness, and arrogant chutzpah exhibited is impressive—or rather depressing.

There are dishonest “accreditation consultants” who market themselves as a way for a school to get accredited without doing any work. These “consultants” invent objectives, report assessment data without doing assessment, make up minutes to board meetings, and write works of fiction that they call self-studies.

There are schools that change the name of a school on documents they plagiarized. I have even heard of self-study documents that were so obviously copied that in a few places members of an accreditation commission found the name of the original school from which it was uncritically copied.

There are degree mills that use accreditation mills. These so-called accrediting agencies (i.e., accreditation mills) that only care whether checks clear are useful for conning students into gaining worthless credentials. A similar tactic for swindling students is to list accreditation from a legitimate agency on a school’s website when the school has never been accredited by that agency. Shall I mention schools that try to confuse students by having a name that is similar to a prestigious university?

I have seen a “college” that didn’t even have classes. What the school was selling was not education, but foreign student study visas. But I am not writing this article for leaders of schools that outright sell degrees; They have lost their souls. Reading this would not influence them to reconsider their paths.

There are staff members who are rumored to be bribing or attempting to bribe accreditation officials. They might write a kind note like this:

“Thank you for your visit. I hope you will be able to write a nice evaluation for our school. Your wife is very kind to let you travel so much. Before you leave, we have a nicely wrapped gift for her. It’s a clutch purse.”

When the accreditation official gets home, his wife finds that the simple gift came with a card—a card with a thousand dollars in it. I would wonder about the soul of an accreditation official that would accept such a gift.

While there is no sinless perfection in any Christian leader, there are degrees of corrupt actions that obviously show they are not building on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

 

How Should We Respond?

In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he tells us that he inwardly burned because false apostles, deceitful workers masquerading as angels of light, were leading Corinthian Christians into sin (2 Corinthians 11:13, 29).

At first, I prayed that these “Delilas” be exposed and stopped. Then, perhaps becoming a tiny bit more Christlike, I prayed for their repentance and renewal. Finally, my perspective changed. —————————————————— Monozigote / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

Like Samson, some administrators are foolish enough to not see that Delila’s shortcuts are no more beneficial than the advice a snake gave to Eve. At first, I prayed that these “Delilas” be exposed and stopped. Then, perhaps becoming a tiny bit more Christlike, I prayed for their repentance and renewal. Finally, my perspective changed.

Why does God tolerate deceitful workers who tempt administrators of Christian colleges to be dishonest? It is for the same reason that He didn’t place an electric fence around the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. “Delilas” are useful to God’s purposes because there is a testing nature to God. We see it in God testing Abraham on Mt. Moriah. We see it in the first chapter of Job where God invites Satan to consider Job. We see it in the book of First Corinthians:

But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames (I Corinthians 3:10b-15 NIV).

The Apostle Paul would lay a foundation and then move to another city. He probably was in Thessalonica for less than a month. His concern was on how others would follow up with those Paul had reached. Might the founders of a school we serve be part of a great cloud of witnesses who are watching and hoping that we are building with gold, silver, and costly stones? If so, wouldn’t they also be hoping we are more interested in quality that equips students well than in selling degrees, in building the reputation of our school or in building our own ego?

One wonders what those cheating an accrediting agency are thinking.

At best, they may think they build half on God’s foundation and half on something else. At worst, they use the name “Christian” to describe their college in a way that uses God’s name in vain. After all, when the Psalmist says the name of the Lord will be great, he means the reputation of God. Using God’s name (i.e., His reputation) while building with wood, hay, or straw smears God’s reputation. But, “their work will be shown for what it is, because the [Judgement] Day will bring it to light.” Do they understand that God will call them to account for how they built? “Here men may deceive themselves and others but they shall not be so successful in the final apocalypse” (Linski 142: 1937).[1]

While Delila suggests shortcuts to leaders of colleges, God watches to see whether the leaders will build with gold on the foundation of Jesus Christ, or merely build their own kingdom while pretending to be building God’s.

Since God allows temptations to test us, I switched my prayers from praying against the deceitful workers, the “Delilahs”, to praying for the leaders of Christian schools.

We should pray. How else should we respond? Since “a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough” (I Corinthians 5:6), the Apostle Paul would clean house. Should we?

Build with care.

[1] Augsberg Publishing House, Minneapolis, MN

Author

  • David Agron, Ph.D.

    Dr. Agron is the managing editor of Christian Academia Magazine. He also serves as an accreditation consultant. Since 1999, Agron & Associates, Inc. has specialized in helping Christian colleges achieve accreditation. In both roles, his mission is to help raise up Christian colleges in quality, quantity, reputation and impact for the Kingdom of God. If you would like to discuss how his firm can help your school achieve accreditation, contact him at [email protected].

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