founded the school as Elkhart Institute in 1894. Two recent presidents have

compared the church-college union to that of a couple living together without

the benefit of marriage, and perhaps in need of premarital counseling.

College historian Susan Fisher Miller has evoked the image of a long-suffering

parent and a prodigal child.⁷Two decades after its opening, the church shut

down the school for one year, fearing that it had immersed itself too deeply in

liberal, secularized academia. Although the college reopened the following

year, throughout this century it has experienced a healthy tension with the

churches which support its mission. Criticized by some pastors and

laypersons, carefully scrutinized by others, and graciously affirmed by yet

others in the church, the college is sometimes perceived by supporters and

detractors alike as culturally and spiritually distant from Mennonite

congregations.⁸Many faculty, administrators, students and alumni see the

college as faithfully representing the best of the Anabaptist-Mennonite

tradition, with its emphases on active discipleship, pacifism, simplicity,

humility and service. If a cultural chasm is developing, some say, it's because

both the college and the church have moved away from each other, the

former shifting its alliances toward academia and the latter drawing more

7_{Most of these descriptions were given at the Goshen-sponsored conference}
"The Church and College in Partnership:A Vision for the Future," 23-26
March 1995. Conference participant John D. Roth, professor of history at
Goshen College, appropriately noted that the Mennonite colleges are
sometimes perceived by churches as both a "treasure and a threat," and the
colleges perceive the church as both "an anchor of support and a drag on the
institutions' academic potential."

8_{In 1996 and 1997, the Mennonite Board of Education sponsored a major survey}
of pastors, church leaders, and college-age students, seeking to understand
their perceptions about the three Mennonite Church colleges:Goshen College,
Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., and Hesston College in
Hesston, Kan. One of researcher Michael D. Wiese's findings in "The Gideon
Project" was a perceived lack of adequate "spirituality" on the church college
campuses.

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