The Middles States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) voted on Thursday, June 25, 2009, to grant institutional accreditation to Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary. The vote culminates five years of labor invested by the seminary community into this important milestone.

In March, an MSCHE team of representatives from regionally-accredited institutions conducted an on-site review of the seminary’s institutional self-study. The team was comprised of team chair Dr. Wayne McCown (Northeastern Seminary), Dr. Patricia Coward (Canisius College), Dr. Ellen F. Falduto (The College of Wooster), and Dr. Lucy Lind Hogan (Wesley Theological Seminary). During their visit, the team members met with the seminary administration, trustees, faculty, and students in order to get a broad and representative perspective of the seminary’s mission and educational activities. The purpose for the team's visit was to review the seminary’s self-study document and assess how well the seminary is aligned with MSCHE's accreditation standards. The seminary’s self-study report, detailing the results, analyses, and recommendations from the self-study process, is available here.

Institutional accreditation with Middle States has been seen by the seminary administration as an important means of glorifying God through a cycle of perpetual improvement and of protecting Calvary’s independence as an institution committed to biblical truth. President Sam Harbin said, "Eternal souls are in the balance--we can't afford to be sloppy in our work. Our pursuit of accreditation has helped us do deliberately what we formerly only did intuitively: to evaluate ourselves with an eye toward achieving excellence in all we do, to the glory of God."

Of the various types of accreditation (regional, national, and specialized or professional) the most widely adopted form of accreditation in the United States is regional. The Middle States Association’s Commission on Higher Education is one of six regional accrediting organizations that are recognized by both the U.S. Department of Education and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation.  Regional accreditation serves as an important external validation for academic institutions, providing a degree of accountability and credibility that assures the seminary’s quality for prospective students, institutional supporters, and the seminary students and staff.  "Equipping the next generation of church leaders is serious business," President Harbin said, "and regional accreditation communicates to our constitutents that we understand just how serious it is."

Self-study chairperson Dr. Al Huss describes accreditation as a process which provides an established, recognized, and systematic means to help achieve the goal of glorifying God: “Accreditation is first and foremost about strengthening and sustaining the quality and integrity of academic institutions and the resulting education they provide. The process cultivates an environment of continuous assessment and improvement and fosters community-wide involvement and commitment.”

Through the periodic self-study process, a key element of maintaining ongoing accreditation, each institution uses data to assess where it has been, where it currently stands, and where it is going. According to Dr. Huss, “With its view towards capturing institutional strengths and correcting weaknesses, the self-study is essential for moving forward with a mindset that is both self-critical and self-correcting.”

Furthermore, regional accreditation appreciates the diversity among institutions and guards their individual autonomy. As a voluntary and non-intrusive association, the role of the accrediting agency is not to set institutional mission, philosophy, or even curriculum, but, rather, through a process of peer review, to assure that each institution has the resources and facilities and has established conditions and procedures to effectively carry out its own mission and goals.  Dr. Huss says, “We believe that the resulting process will help us more effectively accomplish our mission of glorifying God through preparing godly servant leaders for worldwide service for Christ.”