Mentor's Manual

80 For the Nex t Generat i on: The Urban Mi n i s t r y I ns t i tute ’ s Mentor Manua l

TUMI Course Credit and Accreditation

As a training center dedicated to honoring and glorifying God in all we do, TUMI is unashamedly committed to academic excellence and quality leadership education. Every resource and program represents our commitment to excellence and God-honoring leadership education that rivals the most rigorous and prestigious programs today. Nevertheless, we have deliberately chosen to forego seeking academic accreditation, remaining for the indefinite future as a non-accredited educational school. Why? To be sure, accreditation in most cases and venues is commendable and beneficial for any leadership training center, affording its students the credibility of accredited studies and the ability to transfer credit to other sister institutions. However, exorbitant prices and academic standards preclude the involvement of most urban leaders from attending traditional schools. Accreditation standards inadvertently may severely shrink the pool of prospective students for ministry education, and effectively shut out the vast majority of urban appli- cants in our traditional seminaries and Christian liberal arts schools. Moreover, the pursuit of accreditation, if won, would dramatically limit the number and kinds of leaders that we currently serve, especially those who would not qualify for traditional theological education because of lack of funds, academic background, or cultural distance. In light of these unfortunate circumstances, TUMI has elected to remain unaccredited, not as a cover for supposed mediocrity, but as our way of ensuring that all of our premiere programs and resources can be accessed by any urban leaders who are serving their churches and advancing the Kingdom of Christ in the city, and who also may not have either the large sums of funds or the academic background to qualify for that training. The Case For and Against Accreditation In a real sense, the process of academic accreditation was designed to protect students from fraudulent and unethical diploma mills that were suspect academically and criminal ethically. Who among us has not heard of a get-certified-quick kind of enterprise promising a Ph.D. through a phone call and a money deposit? The Urban Ministry Institute affirms and embraces the legitimacy of the various credentialing associations, and believes them in the main

TUMI Course Credit and Accreditation