Prairie stays put, president leaving
THREE HILLS, AB—Prairie Bible Institute (PBI) will remain in Three Hills. At meetings in late October, the well-known Christian training institution's board of governors rejected a proposal to move part or all of the school from the town of 3,600 to Drumheller, a town of 8,000 about 60 miles away.
In the wake of the decision, PBI president and project champion Jon Ohlhauser will be out of a job at the end of December. The decision was mutual.
Things looked different back in April. As the board and president considered ways to strengthen the historic Bible institute, the possibility of moving to a larger centre came to the fore. The board then asked Ohlhauser to conduct a study of the options that would assure a strong future for the school, including the Drumheller opportunity.
After a thorough costs and benefits analysis, Ohlhauser saw considerable merit in the move. "We would realize a $3-million net benefit by 2016 on an annual operational budget of $7.5-million," he explains. "We would be able to take that money and invest it back into ministry training. This was a way of bolstering all the programs of the school."
But the board elected to remain in Three Hills. "We looked at the research," says board chair Mark Maxwell. "We felt a move to Drumheller would offer marginally better opportunities that led to potentially bigger benefits."
In the end, the board did not deem "potential" benefits worth weathering the immediate threat to the school's existing identity, as well as the operational and productivity risks associated with a move. The negative aspects were more certain than the advantages.
Human factor
Uprooting a small community is indeed a risky business. The local newspaper, The Capital, became a galvanizing force encouraging the school to grow where it was already planted. "You might say the decision to keep Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills caused 'a sigh of relief that could be heard around the world,'" wrote editor Timothy J. Shearlaw in a late October column.
The human factor had become crystal clear at a town hall meeting a month earlier, where concerned townspeople stood side-by-side with upset faculty and staff to hear more about the proposals and to voice their concern about the possible move.
And PBI alumni scattered throughout Canada used personal blogs to vent their frustration with the proposed move. "Naturally many people are upset with this news," opined one. "I personally have not met one person who feels this is a good idea." Private e-mails circulating among others associated with Prairie—past and present—echoed this discontent.
"There is resounding happiness among faculty with the decision to stay," concludes Maxwell. "I don't think we'd understood the risk [this move posed] to our own people." A third of faculty and staff indicated they would not make the transition to Drumheller, he says.
Indeed, after the decision to stay was announced, Maxwell and other board members made a point of visiting supporters and congregations to apologize for the disruption and anxiety of recent months. "We haven't done a good job of managing our relationships with our community and our local churches. I apologized for how we've messed up and mistreated them."
Why bother?
So why did Ohlhauser become so vested in such an unpopular venture? Since arriving at PBI as president seven years ago, he has led the school through a number of momentous changes. Old buildings have come down; new ones have gone up. He hived off the K-12 Prairie Christian Academy to the province's separate school system, a move that has been good for all concerned. He shut down the graduate school in Calgary.
He also revamped the curriculum and launched the Prairie College of Applied Arts and Technology (PCAAT), which offers accredited vocational training (health care, early childhood education, business) in conjunction with Christian education.
"The challenge for divinity education in North America is that the number of people wanting to invest in theological education is going down and needs to be subsidized," says Ohlhauser. According to his analysis, Drumheller offered more practicum placements and better growth opportunities for a technical college; an approach he believes can support programs that are more directly ministry related.
But the board saw it differently. "Is Drumheller the growth engine that's going to spell Prairie's survival? No. We'd carry our problems with us," says Maxwell.
The board envisions a stronger emphasis on the school's core mission of Bible training. "In the last seven years we carved the Bible program back too much," says Maxwell. And while he endorses the technical school as a worthy way "to provide practical skill sets for the church," he believes that "the Bible college needs our focus now."
Right questions?
Christian post-secondary schools throughout the country are working very hard just to survive. "The whole Bible college movement is experiencing significant changes," says Tim Callaway, a pastor in Airdrie who was raised at PBI and has nearly completed a Ph.D. dissertation on its founder's era (1922-1980). "From a leadership perspective, you are derelict if you don't ask the right questions. Ohlhauser tried to ask those questions."
But strong emotional ties and a deeply engrained PBI culture make the hard work of necessary change even more difficult. "With all due respect, there is a very deep-seated resistance to change at PBI that could come back to haunt them," observes Callaway.
"That isn't just now," he continues. "It was evident in a decision in the late 1950s against seeking accreditation." Similarly, a leadership change in the late 1970s was less than progressive. A decade later, they brought an outsider in as president. He lasted just five years.
These are factors guaranteed to frustrate an inveterate change agent like Ohlhauser. "For 87 years this school has championed the call of [founder] L.E. Maxwell to the crucified life, to the hoping for nothing, that you go wherever God calls you to go. We challenge our students to do that. This may have been a challenge for us as an institution. As a school, are we also willing and able to respond this way freely and willingly?" he asks.
Whatever the relative merits of the status quo or change, Ohlhauser's capacity for change and the pace he was eager to push were too much for PBI. He agreed to resign and, by all accounts, he and the board reached an amicable and fair settlement.
"The board's decision is to try and make a go of the whole ministry in Three Hills, and I have serious questions about that. It's best if someone without those questions carries on," says Ohlhauser.
Dear Readers:
ChristianWeek relies on your generous support. please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.Thank you, from Christianweek.
