VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our executive director. Mark, clearly you are in a professional setting with professional equipment, which means this is not a normal podcast from your home. In fact, you are in Louisville.
Mark Prater:
I am. I'm sitting in the brand new music studio with my friend Steve Whitacre.
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey, Steve.
Steve Whitacre:
Hey guys. Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be with you. I want you to know, first of all, I want to say thanks for what you do. I am always excited to get your email in my inbox. Always look forward to reading the transcript of what you guys have done, and really grateful to have the opportunity to hear almost every week about what's happening, how the Lord is at work in Sovereign Grace. So thank you. Thank you for producing this podcast.
Mark Prater:
Well, thank you for listening. You're one of the tens and tens of our fans.
Steve Whitacre:
So glad to be one.
Benjamin Kreps:
Small but mighty. Thanks for your encouragement, Steve. But Steve, you're here today as a guest on the podcast to talk about your role as president of Trinity College of Louisville. And as we talk about that over the next few minutes, why don't we start by helping to provide clarity for everyone checking out the podcast, about what Trinity College is.
Steve Whitacre:
Yeah, great. I'm really glad to speak to that. First, Trinity College, just broadly speaking, is a new venture. So Trinity College is a Christian liberal arts college that we started a year ago. So we're a year and a half into this. This is our second year. And if people are unfamiliar with Trinity College, two places to get started to get acquainted with what we're about first is our website, trinitycollegelou.com, or on YouTube. We recently published a brief promotional video that explains about the mission and purpose of Trinity College. So that's youtube.com/trinitycollegelou. And it's pinned right at the top. You can't miss it. So that's a brief bit about what we're about. I think it helps some people to understand the relationship of Trinity College to Sovereign Grace. That's a question that's come up sometimes. And I think it would probably help people to know that Trinity College was founded as an independent organization.
So we are separate from Sovereign Grace; we have our own board, our own budget and that sort of thing. And yet at the same time, Trinity College was founded with the vision of serving Sovereign Grace churches. We got down the road thinking, what if we could provide a higher education option that taught and led students with the theology and the values that Sovereign Grace holds dear? We think that would be a great way to do this. And that's how we got started on it. So Trinity College is founded with that in mind, and it's not going to be the right fit for every student. No college could be. Some students go to churches like Cornerstone Church of Knoxville with a thriving college campus ministry, Volunteers for Christ, right there at University of Tennessee and so it's great to stay there. Some students maybe have another Christian college close by that they are excited to attend and some students maybe aren't called to go to college at all. So we're excited to see how the Lord's working in any one of those circumstances.
But for students and families or churches who want this kind of education, a higher education with the theology and values of Sovereign Grace, we're excited to be building a Christian liberal arts college that infuses that classical liberal arts curriculum with the delight of the gospel of Jesus Christ in every area of study and life.
Mark Prater:
And by the way, for pastors listening, think about either members of your church, or if you're a parent listening and you have a student, one of the instructors at the college is Josh Blount. If you've attended the Pastors Conference in the last few years or listened to Josh's breakout sessions, he is an outstanding teacher. So, think about your child or a member of your church being trained by, at least partly by, Josh Blount. Steve also is an instructor, and obviously as a Sovereign Grace pastor and brings those values and theology. I think it's one of the ways to illustrate what you're talking about.
Steve Whitacre:
Yeah. Josh teaches our biblical anthropology class, and uniformly has been one of the most popular classes we've had. So students in that class, they study the Imago Dei. What does it mean to be made in the image of God? How does sin corrupt the image of God? How is the gospel restoring the image of God in Christians? And then how does that play out? And really key issues in the world today, like gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, human flourishing. It's a fantastic class.
Mark Prater:
Yeah. I've heard you say this. I think it's important for anyone listening to hear this, Steve's shared this with me. Trinity College is a separate entity, it's separate organization, but he started it because he had a vision to provide a different higher level education than what some universities can offer today. And knowing some of the challenges on university campuses that are currently happening in our culture. So he's bringing that, but it's with the heart to serve Sovereign Graces churches. And this is what you've told me specifically, you not only want to educate students, prepare them for the future, but you want them to return home and be really good members of Sovereign Graces churches, or if they're not going to be in a Sovereign Grace church, then a good member of a church that they attend.
Steve Whitacre:
Yeah, that's exactly right. And I think there's maybe at least three ways that Trinity College does that. I think first that happens because one of our highest priorities at Trinity College is personal holiness. So we really want students who live godly lives, we want them to graduate and be more holy, more committed to godliness and have a better understanding of how the gospel transforms all of life than they did when they started college. So that's really important to us.
Secondly, we want them to be really well-equipped theologically and biblically for discernment. In a fallen world, our culture opposes the message of the gospel at every turn and in new and different ways every day. And so through the curriculum, we're trying to equip students with convictions about what scripture says on these topics, and then the courage to act on it, to live out a godly Christian life and to speak up when necessary in the public square.
And thirdly, and this is I think an important one too, is we want students to graduate debt-free. The rise of tuition costs in this country over the last few decades, it's out of control. It's unbelievable. And many students, I've read as many as 60 to 70% of college graduates will graduate with significant loads of student debt. And that means for those students, oftentimes the major milestones of mature adulthood get delayed. And so in Sovereign Grace, we've always put a really high value on marriage and on family. And so if students can graduate debt-free, then they're in a position to be used by God. They're in a position, they have the freedom to go ahead and get married, to start a family, maybe participate in a church plant, to go serve overseas for a period. All sorts of options open up to them. So that's a really important component as well.
Mark Prater:
And to help people listening to this podcast just understand how you accomplish that, talk a little bit about whatever you want to talk about, whether it's the Bridge year or the two-year or the four-year.
Steve Whitacre:
Right at the center of this is what we call the Bridge year. And so the Bridge year is a one-year certificate program that's designed to serve students with a wide variety of skills, insight, knowledge, and ability, so that they can, well, there's a few different possible outcomes for some students. Some students want to go on to a more technical degree, maybe math, science, medicine, something like that. They're going to need more technical training than we can offer, but if they're going to have to go out into a secular university, they are going to encounter all sorts of ungodly ideologies and anti-Christian worldviews. And so the idea with the Bridge year is, look, just take one year between high school and that education and get equipped for everything that's going to get thrown at you in that year. The Bridge year serves that way. And we've already had several graduates from last year's Bridge year tell us what a difference that it's making in their college experience now as they've gone on to secular universities. So I've been very encouraged to hear how that works.
Some students graduate high school without knowing what they're going to do, and maybe they want to take a year off. They plan on taking a gap year and they work, maybe they travel a bit, all kinds of different options. Those are great options, but we're thinking, Hey, look, if you're going to take a year anyway, why not come spend it with us? And one of the things that we do in the Bridge year is we try to help students understand the doctrine of vocation. What is the calling, or maybe even better, the callings that God has put on your life, and how do those change over time? We want to help them develop the wisdom and discernment to understand how God is leading them into the future. So for a student who's unsure what to do, it's a really great way to have some time to explore. We're going to give them some guidance and do some workshops together to start determining how the Lord leading them into their future. So the Bridge year works really great in those ways.
And for other students, if they come and they're a part of this and realize this is great; love studying history and literature, love studying theology and philosophy, and love learning language, and love how all this happens in the setting of a thriving local church, they want to stay longer. And so for them, the Bridge year becomes the freshman year of a two-year or four-year program. So we're only in our second year now, so we're building out a two-year associates and a four-year bachelors program. And so that'll take us a few years to get that curriculum all ironed out. But we're in the midst of that now. And so the Bridge year, it's the exact same curriculum. It just serves as the freshman year of those longer programs.
Now, I know some parents would ask at this point, oh, two-year associates, that's interesting. What could a student do with those credits from that two-year associates degree? Well, we are working right now with an organization that helps to facilitate the transfer credits moving from one institution to another. So we're trying to do everything we can to make it as easy as possible if students come to us for the one-year Bridge year program or a two-year associates or even a four-year bachelors, then to be able to make the most of that if they want to go on to further education later.
The other program that I want to mention, along with the Bridge year and two-year associates. The other program that we're really excited about is our dual enrollment plan. So dual enrollment is for high school seniors. So if you're currently a junior, or parents, if you have a junior right now, you might want to consider this for next year. For students who want to finish out their senior year pretty strong while also getting credit for college classes, dual enrollment is great and students can do this over Zoom. They can participate with this over Zoom while staying at home and benefiting from their own local church and the discipleship from parents and pastors and whoever else. And so the dual enrollment program, it is a la carte. Students don't have to take all five of the classes with the Bridge year, they can choose whichever they prefer, but it's a full-blown experience. So they're right in there taking the class, doing the assignments, and we have several dual enrollment students this year. So they'll graduate with their certificate from the Bridge year right when they graduate from high school. So it's fun to watch.
Mark Prater:
I remember when I think I first talked to Steve about even this idea of starting a college. My question was, you can do that? You can start a college?
Benjamin Kreps:
Apparently, you can.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, I guess you can. And what Steve has accomplished in a year really is remarkable, I think.
Steve Whitacre:
Well, we've had a lot of help. So Mark, you're on the board. We have a really great board who is incredibly supportive. We've had some very generous donors in Sovereign Grace, and we're very grateful for folks who have contributed to make this happen. We have some fantastic professors, and most of all, we have students and parents who see the vision of what we're trying to do. They're willing to take a risk and give it a try, and I've been really encouraged to see how it's served them so far.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, I mentioned this at the Pastors Conference; by God's Grace, by God's Grace, we want to be a multi-generational family of churches. And you see that happening. I mean, just the feedback from the Relay Conference is amazing. That generation excited about Christ. Those young folks, being in our churches, that's who we want to be. And I just thank you for your heart in starting this college for that kind of an education, and your heart to serve Sovereign Grace churches. And really what you're doing is you're serving future generations in our churches. So thank you for that.
Steve Whitacre:
Well, you're welcome. I'm grateful for the opportunity. I think about my experience growing up in Sovereign Grace all those years, all those conferences, 30 years I've been a part of Sovereign Grace, and hearing over decades now, hearing CJ saying, we are building something for a generation that we won't yet see. And I think Trinity College is just an extension of that vision, and so really grateful to be a part of it.
Mark Prater:
Amen.
Benjamin Kreps:
That's excellent. Thanks for giving us all that info about Trinity College. I mean, it's wonderful that we can trust the theology and practice of what's going on at the college for those of us who love and cherish our shared values and virtues. I mean, there's a Christian, so-called University up the road, fairly large, statement of faith looks kosher. It is completely corrupted with theological liberalism. And so to have an option where we know we can trust the doctrine and practice of the men who lead and teach in the college is a wonderful thing. So thank you for putting that together. Yeah, consider checking out the website, trinitycollegelou.com to learn more, and we're looking forward to someday saying it's year 20 and it's a thriving and growing Trinity College. Thanks for joining us.
Mark, anything else you want to add?
Mark Prater:
Just appreciate folks checking out the website and do look at the video. I've watched the video, by the way. It's outstanding.
Benjamin Kreps:
Check out the video; listen to Mark Prater. So thank you. Thanks for joining us and thanks to everybody for watching or listening to the podcast or reading. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.