The Kings University – Warren Throckmorton

The King's University Will Now Accept Credits from Charis Bible College

The King’s University is a ministry training school founded by preacher Jack Hayford and later moved to Southlake, TX to be housed at Robert Morris’ Gateway Church. In May, I reported that TKU was losing students and considering the closure of several branch campuses around the country. Nonetheless, Morris and the school leadership continue to promote the school.
TKU is not regionally accredited but rather boasts accreditation by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. Although credits from TKU may not transfer to regionally accredited schools (e.g., University of Texas, Grove City College), they are accepted by other TRACS accredited schools.
Charis Bible College is an unaccredited school also set up to train ministers. However, recently David Barton has been instrumental in helping to start a School of Government at Charis. Thus, Charis is setting sights on training people to go into politics.
A part of that vision is a recent articulation agreement between TKU and CBC for the transfer of credits from CBC to TKU. This means that a student can take courses at unaccredited Charis and transfer them to accredited TKU. This agreement with Charis greatly enhances the value of the Charis credits.
To me, this seems like an end around accreditation for Charis Bible College. The leaders of that school have even less incentive to become accredited because their students can simply transfer them to TKU where they will become a part of an accredited degree program. From there, a student could transfer credits to another TRACS school.
I asked TRACS about their rules concerning transfer of credits. While no one has answered as yet, I did find these criteria to help guide credit transfer arrangements.

The institution’s transfer of credit policy governs both the consideration and acceptance of transfer credit and: a. It is fair, equitable, and equally applied. b. Considers the quality of the offering, timeliness of the work, student performance (grade requirements) and the comparability, equivalency, and appropriateness to the courses and programs offered. c. Considers the accredited status of the institution as a major factor, but not the sole determinate of the transfer decision. d. Informs students of any special situations they may face in transferring credits earned. e. Includes reasons for refusal of acceptance of transfer credits, including the appeal process for transfer credit which was refused. f. Includes information on student responsibilities. g. Provides students with accurate and realistic information, plus guidance concerning the likelihood of transfer of the institution’s credits. h. References any articulation agreements with other institutions. i. Includes counseling and print or electronic assistance for students considering transferring to another institution. j. States the minimum grade required for transfer courses. k. Requires official transcripts from all institutions attended and does not award transfer credits before receiving the relevant official transcript(s). l. Identifies the office(s) responsible for evaluating transfer credit. (emphasis added)

Note letter b and c. Letter b requires the quality of course to be comparable between schools. TRACS guidelines require those teaching BA students to have a masters degree. Very few of Charis faculty have masters degrees. David Barton claims to have an earned doctorate but on examination, it appears that his doctorate is from diploma mill, Life Christian University. Charis’ agreement with TKU all of a sudden makes Barton’s use of a degree based solely on life experience even more relevant.
Letter c requires TKU to consider the accredited status of the sending school. Charis is not accredited by any agency. Although other considerations may be taken into account, accreditation status is supposed to a “major factor.”
The announcement contained this statement:

Students that graduate with a Charis Biblical Studies Degree will have the opportunity to earn an accredited degree by The King’s University.

While technically true because TKU is accredited by TRACS, it is still misleading if it is not explained that TRACS is not considered comparable to regional accreditation. Regional accreditation is what opens up wide spread transfer of credits from school to school. Texas schools are evaluated by The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
In practice, this often limits opportunities for students. For instance, a TKU student with a degree in Christian counseling may find that graduate schools will not accept it as a non-regionally accredited degree. When TKU and Charis promotional materials declare TKU accredited, I fear that some students will misunderstand and make future decisions on inadequate information.

David Barton Is Coming After the Christian Professors

Apparently, Wallbuilders and Gateway Church/The Kings University are cooking up a business deal. Today, on his twitter account, Tim Barton broadcast from the Wallbuilders’ library along with some folks from Gateway Church in Southlake, TX. The broadcast was mainly for the benefit of some Gateway staff. It wasn’t clear to me what kind of deal they were planning but it involved using Barton’s DVDs and books.
Listening to the Barton father and son team in sales mode was interesting. If you buy what they are selling, you would think that no historian gets it right. Truth comes only from Wallbuilders. Barton had some special words for Messiah College history chair John Fea. Listen:

I think Barton is referring to John’s article here for Religion News Service. Since the state constitutions are easily retrieved, I can’t wait to see how Barton will spin this.
I can’t tell if The King’s University is set to make Barton’s materials available to students or Gateway is going to market them. In any case, it was clear throughout the sale’s pitch that Barton was badmouthing actual historians to set himself apart (and of course in a certain way, that’s true).
Now Gateway and/or The King’s University people should find out from actual historians what the truth is. I challenge them to contact me or Fea or Thomas Kidd in their neck of the woods at Baylor to ask why Barton attacks Christian professors so often.

Robert Morris Says The King's University is Fully Accredited

On June 4, Robert Morris told his congregation that The King’s University is “fully accredited.” Watch:

The entire message is here. Start at 2:22 to get the segment above.
(Transcript)

A few weeks ago, we recognized graduates, and I wanted to say something then but I just forgot, but about three weeks ago we had the Kings University graduation commencement, and if you, woo, there’s a student.
And so if you don’t know, the King’s University was began, begun in 1996, by Dr. Jack Hayford, who’s one of our Apostolic Elders. And about seven or eight years ago, I became the Chairman of the Board of that university. And then, about four years ago, three to four, about three years ago, we transitioned the main campus from California to here.
In essence, we as Gateway Church now, are taking the mantle, or the stewardship, of that university from Dr. Hayford to continue it. We have over 700 students, and just few and it’s all the way from Associate, Bachelors, Masters, all the way to Doctorate level, but just three weeks ago at our commencement we graduated 105 students from the university. So, I’m grateful.
It’s a fully accredited university. If you’ve got someone, a child that just graduated from high school, and you want to keep ’em around for a year before they go somewhere else, then, I’d like for you to just consider the King’s University, and get that foundation, a Biblical teaching, and then they could go on to some other university if they’re going to pursue another degree. So, anyway I wanted to mention it to ya.

TKU is not regionally accredited and doesn’t claim to be on the school website. Regional accreditation is the standard required for the easy transfer of credits between other regionally accredited schools (e.g., publicly funded universities, private liberal arts colleges). Even then, it is ultimately up to the school whether or not all credits transfer. When Morris advises parents that the school is “fully accredited” and “the first year” can be completed at TKU, he is overselling the school. Although other non-accredited schools might take TKU’s credits, I doubt very many regionally accredited schools would do it. At the least, prospective students and parents should find out what other schools accept TKU credits.
If pressed, I suspect Morris would refer to the articulation agreements promoted by TKU and accreditation by two organizations which specialize in Bible colleges. The articulation agreements are with other small Bible colleges. The accreditation bodies also focus on Bible and ministry training schools:

The King’s University is accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) (15935 Forest Road, Forest, Virginia, 24551, 804.525.9539) at the Category IV level (through the first professional doctorate level) and by the Commission on Accreditation of the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE) (5850 T.G. Lee Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32822, 407.207.0808). Both the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools and the Association of Biblical Higher Education are members of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

TRACS and ABHE are both listed as national accrediting associations on the Department of Education’s website and as such provide some benefit to prospective students moving around in the world of ministry and Bible training. However, being accredited by a regional group would allow those credits to transfer to other regionally accredited schools.
TKU’s relationship with TRACS has been in flux. Last year, TKU voted to terminate the relationship with TRACS but then backed away and maintained their membership. Without offering any judgment about the quality of education available at TKU, I can still offer a advisory to parents and students considering the school. If one is considering a transfer to a regionally accredited school after TKU, I suggest consulting the destination school first to find out if the TKU credits will transfer.

Is The King's University Expanding or Contracting?

The school that God asked Gateway Church pastor Robert Morris to host is having a rough patch. According to the most recent board of directors report, the school has lost three branch locations since 2015 and may close another (Olathe, KS) very soon.
Currently, on TKU’s website, Morris promotes the multi-campus model and claims that TKU will expand the number of locations by 2018.

The school boasts that plans call for “20 or more campuses worldwide by 2018.” However, a review of the recent board report paints a different picture. Most students attend the Southlake campus with significant declines in number of credit hours at most campus locations. Three locations have left TKU since 2015 (see the locations in dark grey below).

According to the report, no documentation exists for the Hong Kong campus and the NZ campus is under review. Olathe is being reviewed to determine if it is “feasible to continue.”
In the May 2016 president’s report, it is clear that the administrative staff want to move away from multiple campuses:

First, I (along with the administrative staff) have concluded that it would be in the school’s best interest to pivot away from the directive to establish teaching locations on (at least 30) mega-church campuses. The past three years have provided us with ample evidence to conclude that this labor intensive, complicated, expensive plan is not producing the kind of results we had hoped (see Teaching Locations Map on page 46).
Additionally, we have experienced some significant setbacks in our campus extension efforts. For instance, one year ago we were operating on 10 extension sites around the country with two other locations approved and preparing to launch. However, at the end of this academic year, for various reasons, we are positioned to go into the next academic year with only 7 sites in operation (none larger than 60 students) and neither “approved” location willing to move forward (see Teaching Locations Map on page 46).
Second, these “setbacks” have contributed to our resolve to pivot away from this campus expansion model and embrace instead a two-pronged strategy that emphasizes the intensifying efforts to build a healthy, dynamic home campus with over 1,000 resident student by 2022.

In the April 2016 executive committee minutes, one of four challenges was to change the multi-campus model.

With most campuses in decline, it hard to understand how TKU (or Gateway University as it will soon be known) gets to 20 campuses by 2018. In fact, it appears that the board is going to move away from that approach altogether because at least five of the campuses are stagnant and creating a drain on TKU’s limited resources.
To be fair to TKU, enrollment is up to 747 total students (502 FTE) which represents a 55% increase over five years. However, the promise of a growing multi-location system appears to have faded without prospective students’ knowledge.
Current students who cannot transfer may be left without a clear way forward. Since TKU is not regionally accredited, their credits won’t transfer to accredited schools.
I wonder if campus coordinators are aware that they will be closed down. The ethical thing to do would be to discourage any new enrollments since those students won’t have a future at the regional campus.
What this will probably mean for Gateway Church is a greater burden on their budget since the school now relies on a $1/year lease of facilities as well as cash donations to TKU. Since everything is moving to Southlake, the expenses for a residential campus will no doubt require a greater commitment from the church.

Board Members Quit Floundering Teen Mania; Will Gateway Church Continue Support?

World magazine reported on October 17 that half of Teen Mania’s independent board members resigned. I am linking to World’s coverage of TM as an alert to readers that the former high flying ministry is in free fall. TM continues to break commitments and is going deeper into debt to various groups, some of whom are suing.
Top Ten Charities in trouble; note that TM is #5.
I am not sure why anyone would want to be involved with TM after seeing this in 2011:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/OAKGVF3EooA?list=PLDPcYCH6dNUHK5htHOMV5OTqES8u5kUVM[/youtube]
Part two and part three are available on You Tube.
This is required reading as well.
I don’t care how much good TM claims to do (e.g., Acquire the Fire is for the most a big pep rally for God), the mistreatment of teens that is glorified by TM in the msnbc documentary is enough to shut the whole thing down.
Despite light coming to the situation, some groups continue to stand by TM. One such group is Gateway Church and The Kings University.
TKU actually gives academic credit for TM’s Honor Academy. This should be an embarrassment for TKU.
Robert Morris endorses TM, as does K.P. Yohannan.