Christian Fellowship Church Ministries International launched non-accredited "minister's college" Waukegan Illinois

On Oct 4, 2004, I wrote to Mr. Steve Crow:

Greetings. I am writing to you concering the accreditiation of a new seminary which has been in operation in Lake County, Illinois. The seminary is known as the Christian Fellowship Church Minister's College; it is currently located at 621 Belvidiere Road in Waukegan, Illinois (same address as the church itself). The web address for this seminary is found here:

http://www.cfcmi.org/MinistersCollege/index.html

The concern I have is whether or not this school meets any of the criteria of the State of Illinois for accreditation. I have a friend who recently signed up and was starting class this fall after his military enlistment was up. I told him to make sure the school was in fact accredited before he signed, but I have reason to suspect the courses were never accredited. Here are my reasons for concern:

In 1997 L.R. Davis, the founding pastor of CFCMI, discussed starting a minister's college to "train people for the ministry". The main focus of this seminary was the single men in the church, in particular the main USA congregations of Waukegan, Norfolk (Virginia), and San Diego (California). No effort was made to promote the school outside the walls of CFCMI, either here in the USA or overseas. Rev. Davis, at the time he came up with this idea, was serving time in Dixon Correctional Center for various sex crimes. He died in 1999, but the seminary plans were carried out by Peter F. Paine (current general pastor), and d**k Brand (assistant local pastor in Waukegan). In the early part of 2000, when I was still a member of CFCMI, I wrote d**k Brand and asked him how the planning was going and if the school had been accredited by the state to avoid any problems for the students.

This was over four years ago. I never received a response. This was one of the reasons I chose not to enroll.

The original goal of the "college", when Davis was alive, was to see as many as fifty students (emphasis on single males) cycle through the school each year. The students were supposed to complete two years of classroom training followed by two years of mission work as assigned by the church. Since its inception in 2002, four students have enrolled with one of the students dropping after the first semester. The credentials of the leaders is questionable, too.

Lloyd Ray Davis (1935-1999), founding pastor - eighth grade education, no GED

Peter F. Paine, general pastor - high school graduate, no college degree

d**k Brand, dean of mnister's college - high school graduate, no college degree

I am not sure if the lack of college-level credentials weighs a factor on running a school, but none of the current leaders ever attended any kind of Bible college. If there is any way you could help me so I can try to educate my friend, who is a student there, of the pitfalls of attending a non-accredited school, I would be very thankful.

I received a reply from Mr. Crow on 06 October 2004.

"This institution has not been in communication with us regarding accreditation. Perhaps the most important question is whether the seminary has been licensed to operated by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. That is the first step it must take: legal authority to operate and to grant its degrees. Then it might seek accreditation from a private, third party quality assurance agency such as ours.

I appreciate the information you have provided."

Steven D. Crow, Executive Director
The Higher Learning Commission of NCA
30 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 2400
Chicago, IL 60602

What does this all mean? It means that anyone who is conned into signing up for the minister's college will graduate with absolutely worthless credentials. Plus, they may be operating a school without a license...if that is so, then there are more serious issues with the minister's college besides luring single men into further servitude, thinking the will be sent to preach the gospel. I am hoing that a good friend of mine, who left the service in July, will somehow read this and realize he has been taken for a bad ride.

John
Norfolk, Virginia
U.S.A.