Sattler College Turmoil

[Ken]

Sattler College provides an education that is grounded in the historic Christian faith. This encompasses the traditional beliefs of the church with respect to doctrine and practice. While the College has no specific denominational affiliation, the beliefs upon which it is established correspond most closely with the persecuted, suffering churches of history, such as the ante-Nicene church, the Waldensians, the Wycliffites, and the Anabaptists.

Well, the Anabaptists clearly get a mention there. And it's not that far down on their About Us page. So it's not like somebody who goes to Sattler will be surprised to see students or staff that are conservative in dress for instance.

Faith Builders' About Us page includes the following statement of core values:

Core Values
Faith Builders Educational Programs serves the conservative Anabaptist community by discipling people toward humble, joyful, Christ-centered participation in the Kingdom of God. The FB Board envisions FBEP helping to develop people who…

Love God supremely
Are prepared for a lifetime of Spirit-filled service
Are humble, competent, and faithful church members
Provide resources for ministries of the church
Understand the times and are prepared to engage effectively
Faith Builders Educational Programs serves the church by training students to effectively minister Christ for a lifetime. To this end, we will attempt to understand students in the context of their homes and churches. That is, we are committed to learn to know students, to respond to their questions and individual needs, and to develop their abilities. Furthermore, we will be intentional about learning to know their parents and churches and will work to enable students to be loyal and effective in the church communities that have sent them.

So FB is clearly intending to serve the conservative Anabaptist community. Sattler is pretty clearly aimed at a somewhat more broad audience, although it's obvious they have made a lot of effort to recruit students and staff from the conservative Anabaptists.

What is the connection between Sattler and Faith Builders?

[mike]

What is the connection between Sattler and Faith Builders?

No official connection. Faith Builders is the closest thing conservative Anabaptists have to a college, and Sattler is somewhat an overlapping organization. (Appealing to some of the same clientele.)

[RZehr]

I know that in their mind Sattler is far above Mennonet, and Mennonites, but maybe it would be better if Sattler would either lower themselves to our level and engage here, or ignore what the peons say about them here. Instead of complaining to Ernie and JBG. Instead of imperialistically prospecting for raw resources and leaving.
It’s not as if they aren’t very active on social media already. They are very active. And they do apparently have an account here, and apparently know what is being said. viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1189&p=31522#p31522

As much as I’ve become used to FOTW viewing us Mennonites as a bit ignorant or worse, I am fond of M.M. & S.O’. from way back, and only wish them and their family the best. And I believe the fondness is probably both ways.

Having never visited them there, in my mind I view Sattler and FOTW interchangeably.

An organization that wants to manage its public image probably isn't going to officially get involved in a forum where they can't control questions and responses. I'm not sure this discussion matters that much. I could be wrong. I noted that they have a couple of thousand Facebook followers which is quite a few more than Faith Builders which has been around for a number of decades, so obviously this is a school that has done well at gaining a broad audience for how new it is, maybe still mostly conservative Anabaptist and adjacent groups, but probably broader than that.

Fine. Then maybe the individual concerned could speak for themselves alone, and not in any official Sattler capacity? It just seems odd given their embracement and enthusiastic involvement in social media everywhere else. It’s not like we are dealing with a ‘Hats Off’ where their church really wants to avoid all social media. But each to his own.

[Only an Anz]

FotW isn’t really “conservative Anabaptist”, though, they are trying to do something new.

Basically a Stoney-Campbellite edition of Anabaptism with a lot of obscure historical stuff thrown in. Conservatives will be uncomfortable with this. Most CAs are trying to conserve what was mainstream in 1950 (Nationwide, Eastern) or 1980 (BMA), etc.

Why do people associate FOTW with campbellism / restoration movement? I see similarities, but it seems fairly different now.

FotW basically adopts a few core Stoney-Campbellite positions, specifically:

- Belief that full immersion baptism is required for salvation.
- Belief that weekly communion is very very important.
- Anti-denominationalism, preferring to call themselves just a “Christian church” or “The church in such and such a city”.
- Strongly promoting the idea they follow “only the Bible” and reject written statements of practice, church rules, and so on

The first item may seem superficially similar to the position of German Baptist Brethren yet the FotW movement doesn’t seem to have much crossover with Brethren at all; I would argue that Brethren do not have the sharpness and sacramentalism which seem to characterise Campbellite movements.

Most of these positions are detailed in Kuravilla’s book, King Jesus Claims His Church. My guess is he was influenced by people from (International) Church of Christ background.

Funny, some of that sounds a lot more like Church of Christ to me..

[Josh]

Church of Christ is part of the Stoney-Campbell Restorationist movement.

FotW is an unusual mixture of what you would find in Church of Christ, Anabaptist, and “early Christianity” adherents. (An example of the latter is believing in the “real presence”.)

[Ernie]

Faith Builders' About Us page includes the following statement of core values:

Core Values
Faith Builders Educational Programs serves the conservative Anabaptist community by discipling people toward humble, joyful, Christ-centered participation in the Kingdom of God. The FB Board envisions FBEP helping to develop people who…

Love God supremely
Are prepared for a lifetime of Spirit-filled service
Are humble, competent, and faithful church members
Provide resources for ministries of the church
Understand the times and are prepared to engage effectively
Faith Builders Educational Programs serves the church by training students to effectively minister Christ for a lifetime. To this end, we will attempt to understand students in the context of their homes and churches. That is, we are committed to learn to know students, to respond to their questions and individual needs, and to develop their abilities. Furthermore, we will be intentional about learning to know their parents and churches and will work to enable students to be loyal and effective in the church communities that have sent them.

So if it is correct that the founder and resigned board members think Sattler should be a lot more transparent about who they are and what their goals are, perhaps some of you could write up a list of core values (like the one above), we could polish it here on MN, and then it could be submitted to Sattler as an aid to this end.

I taught at Calvary Bible School for ten years. In one of the classes on the church that I taught, I had students write their churches' functional mission statement and core values based on reality on the ground. They looked at what their churches made priority and wrote a description accordingly. The students had a lot of fun with this. Perhaps this is an excercise that Sattler and FOTW could do for fun as well. And maybe this is something we could do on MN in another thread.

[MaxPC]

Church of Christ is part of the Stoney-Campbell Restorationist movement.

FotW is an unusual mixture of what you would find in Church of Christ, Anabaptist, and “early Christianity” adherents. (An example of the latter is believing in the “real presence”.)

What are their beliefs vis a vis the Real Presence? I find that interesting and unusual.

I am saddened but not surprised by this chain of events. All institutions, religious or otherwise, go through what some term as "growing pains". I pray that they are able to get it sorted and continue in their efforts in faithful discipleship to Christ.

[Josh]

Church of Christ is part of the Stoney-Campbell Restorationist movement.

FotW is an unusual mixture of what you would find in Church of Christ, Anabaptist, and “early Christianity” adherents. (An example of the latter is believing in the “real presence”.)

What are their beliefs vis a vis the Real Presence? I find that interesting and unusual.

I am saddened but not surprised by this chain of events. All institutions, religious or otherwise, go through what some term as "growing pains". I pray that they are able to get it sorted and continue in their efforts in faithful discipleship to Christ.

Generally speaking, FotW has been moving to a sacramental view of the Eucharist, and they already believe in baptismal regeneration. However, they do not believe in sacerdotalism or apostolic succession.

[MaxPC]

Church of Christ is part of the Stoney-Campbell Restorationist movement.

FotW is an unusual mixture of what you would find in Church of Christ, Anabaptist, and “early Christianity” adherents. (An example of the latter is believing in the “real presence”.)

What are their beliefs vis a vis the Real Presence? I find that interesting and unusual.

I am saddened but not surprised by this chain of events. All institutions, religious or otherwise, go through what some term as "growing pains". I pray that they are able to get it sorted and continue in their efforts in faithful discipleship to Christ.

Generally speaking, FotW has been moving to a sacramental view of the Eucharist, and they already believe in baptismal regeneration. However, they do not believe in sacerdotalism or apostolic succession.

That is quite intriguing; it will be interesting to see their theological rationale developed to support the Eucharist as sacrament.

[joshuabgood]

Zack Johnson was just announced as the new President of Sattler College. In the official email I received, there wasn't a reason mesaged for the transition. It confirms what I had heard in the first reports, prior to the first post, that Zack Johnson was going to be the new president and that Dean was leaving. And it seems to provide some evidence for the report that the president must be an FOTW member.

It does seem a logical conclusion is that Sattler is moving more explicitly towards being an FOTW denominational school. (Not that that is wrong...but as the Sattler board noted, it seems to be a definite shift from the earlier days).

I noticed the board member quoted was David Adams, so presumably the board, that stated they are going to resign in the near future, hasn't done so yet. At least presumably David hasn't, though he wasn't/isn't actually listed on the Sattler website as a board member - even while he did sign the internal document regarding resignation.

ETA - The Sattler Board/Leadership page, I can't find now on the website...it may be down. Does anybody know if the board members did resign and/or if there is a functioning board or who is on the board?