Andy Rowell

Church Leadership Conversations

  • Who is elected and chosen by God?

    Brief thread with a few quotes because someone asked whether individuals are chosen by God to be saved or damned (according to Christianity). (This is an issue that most Christians agonize rarely about because the concepts below are quite commonly held today).

    "In fact, there is not a single passage in the Bible that explicitly affirms that specific individuals (apart from God’s Son) have been chosen before creation for either eternal life or eternal damnation."
    — @MatthewWBates, Gospel Allegiance (Brazos Press, 2019), 84.

    Oliver Crisp on Karl Barth's view:
    "All human agents are elect only in the derivative sense of having a saving relation to the set of the elect and its single member, Christ."

    https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/on-barths-denial-of-universalism/

    “For God’s eternal election of grace is concretely the election of Jesus Christ . . . And we in the world … are elected and willed by God in Him.”
    – Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/2 (1958), p. 31, 33.

    Limited atonement (double predestination) or universalism (all are saved)? “If God told us the answer to the problem in advance of the eschaton, we would harm ourselves on one side or the other.”
    — Bruce McCormack, “So That He May Be Merciful to All,” 240.

    "churches need to be responsible for all … And for that reason, I would say, neither limited atonement nor universalism should ever be made church dogma."
    — Bruce McCormack, "So That He May Be Merciful to All: Karl Barth and the Problem of Universalism," (2011), 241.

    Timing of salvation is inexact because "Jesus Christ is not only the one who has come (in the incarnation); He is also the One who comes (in the power of the eschatological Spirit); and the One who will come (in His visible return)."
    — Bruce McCormack, "So That He …", 247-248.

    Jesus on people trying to figure out who is and who is not a child of God.
    “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
    “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them."
    — Matthew 13:28-29.

    Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on September 10, 2022.

  • Association for Theological Schools statistics 2021-2022

    Some 2021-2022 Association for Theological Schools statistics


    Largest Seminaries by Head Count
    1. Liberty University John W. Rawlings School of Divinity
    2. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
    3. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
    4. Dallas Theological Seminary

    Largest Seminaries by Full Time Equivalent enrollment
    1. Liberty University John W. Rawlings School of Divinity
    2. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
    3. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
    4. Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
    5. Asbury Theological Seminary

    Most Full Time Faculty
    1. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
    2. Talbot School of Theology
    3. Dallas Theological Seminary
    4. University of Notre Dame Department of Theology
    5. Candler School of Theology
    6. Asbury Theological Seminary
    7. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

    The most increase in student head count from 2011-12 to 2021-22.
    1. Liberty University John W. Rawlings School of Divinity
    2. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
    3. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
    4. Dallas Theological Seminary
    5. Wesley Seminary

    The most % increase in student head count from 2011-12 to 2021-22.
    1. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
    2. Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary
    3. Kairos University
    4. Central Baptist Theological Seminary
    5. Wesley Biblical Seminary
    6. Shepherds Theological Seminary

    The most increase in student Full Time Equivalent enrollment from 2011-12 to 2021-22.
    1. Liberty University John W. Rawlings School of Divinity
    2. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
    3. Grand Canyon Theological Seminary
    4. Wesley Seminary
    5. Grace School of Theology

    The most % increase in student Full Time Equivalent enrollment from 2011-12 to 2021-22.
    1. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
    2. Central Baptist Theological Seminary
    3. Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary
    4. Kairos University
    5. Shepherds Theological Seminary

    Highest spending by the institution:
    1. Princeton Theological Seminary
    2. Fuller Theological Seminary
    3. Dallas Theological Seminary
    4. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
    5. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
    6. Harvard University Divinity School

    Highest Endowment or Long-Term Investments:
    1. Princeton Theological Seminary
    2. Harvard University Divinity School
    3. Yale University Divinity School
    4. Candler School of Theology
    5. Duke University Divinity School
    6. Columbia Theological Seminary

    Highest expenditure per student head count
    1. McGill University School of Religious Studies
    2. Pontifical College Josephinum
    3. Princeton Theological Seminary
    4. St. Patrick’s Seminary and University
    5. Virginia Theological Seminary
    6. Kenrick-Glennon Seminary

    Highest expenditure per Full-Time Equivalent student
    1. Pontifical College Josephinum
    2. Sacred Heart Major Seminary
    3. Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary
    4. University of the South School of Theology
    5. Chapman Seminary
    6. Princeton Theological Seminary

    Least cost for MDiv tuition for one year
    not including schools that listed a 0 because they don’t offer an MDiv or it is free (?).
    1. North Park Theological Seminary
    2. Erskine Theological Seminary
    3. Antiochian House of Studies
    4. Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary

    There are 53 schools where the Full Time Faculty and Full Time Equivalent Faculty are equal so it seems no adjunct (part-time) professors are used.

    There are 31 schools where adjuncts teach 60% of the courses (the Faculty FT / Faculty FTE is .4 or less).

    Here are the schools with the lowest percentage of Full Time Faculty to Student Head Count.

    Here is the Excel Document I made with the ATS data.

    ATS-Data-Tables-2021-2022-and-2011-2012Download

    or https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G9UTpHYZ_pHDSjW1qgnwa-A_r0rSnVCM/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114188792349905334342&rtpof=true&sd=true

    It is from the pdf document Annual Data Tables of the Association for Theological Schools website.

    https://www.ats.edu/Annual-Data-Tables

    Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on June 21, 2022.

  • Analysis of Samaritan’s Purse 2020 990 form

    Oh wow. Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse (a “non-profit organization”) made $224,339,099 in 2020 in profit (Revenue less expenses”). $224 million.

    Number of independent members of the board at Samaritan’s Purse. 9 of 16 in 2020. They lost 3 independent members and added another family member since the previous year in 2019.

    Samaritan’s Purse has 11 people paid over $200,000 in base salary.

    Family members of Franklin Graham paid by Samaritan’s Purse in 2020:
    Franklin (father) $740,704.
    Jane (mother) $47,411
    Cissie Jane Austin Graham Lynch (daughter) $140,947
    Corey Lynch (husband of Cissie) $49,300
    Edward (son) $191,957
    Kristen (wife of Edward) $14,283

    Samaritan’s Purse in 2020.
    Revenue: $875 million
    Expenses: $670 million
    Operation Christmas Child $283 million. 42% of what was spent.
    Next biggest:
    South Sudan Relief $41 million
    U.S. Disaster Relief $39 million
    Profit: $224 million
    Net assets or fund balances. $923 million

    Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on June 21, 2022.