800-466-6961 or 716-681-4896 [email protected]

Accreditation

Accreditation Defined

Accreditation is the act of certifying that an educational institution maintains suitable standards; the granting of approval to an institution of learning by an official review board after the school has met certain requirements. Specifically, accreditation is the review of a school’s course offerings and procedures by a group of its peers to certify that that school is meeting its own stated objectives and offering its students the education it promises them.

CLU’s Accreditation

Christian Leadership University is accredited by Christian Accreditation International.

Christian Leadership University was also certified by the Apostolic Council for Educational Accountability (ACEA) for the entire 11 years of ACEA’s existence (1998–2009). Dr. C. Peter Wagner, head of the Wagner Institute for Practical Ministry, formed this group as an alternative to traditional accreditation for the new apostolic churches that are emerging. They have now changed the acronym ACEA to the name of their new entity, “Association of Christian Educators and Administrators.”

Both CAI and ACEA provide evaluation and accountability without distorting the purpose and vision of Christian Leadership University.

In addition, CLU believes that the Spirit-empowered ministries that develop in your life accredit its discipling experience.

“You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:2,3).

As you become effective in the release of divine power through your life, people will take notice and naturally give place for you and your ministry (Prov. 22:29). This is exactly what happened with Jesus. He had no accredited degrees, but the power that flowed through His hands caused multitudes to come to Him. Your Spirit-anointed ministry is what accredits our program and opens the doors before you for a continually expanding impact on His world.

See the stories of Bill Dupley, Georgia Risenhoover and Salvatore Cerniglia for real-life examples of this phenomenon.

Government Accreditation

Christian Accreditation International and the Apostolic Council for Educational Accountability are not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Accreditation is “a review by your peers” that ensures that you are offering a quality program. CLU has received that. CLU’s peers are other Spirit-filled Christian educators, such as C. Peter Wagner’s Apostolic Council for Educational Accountability and Christian Accreditation International. The U.S. Department of Education is not a peer of Christian Leadership University.

Government-recognized accreditation is not necessary for the religious vocations we are training people in, which include: Bible, Business as Ministry, Christian Counseling, Christian Leadership, Divine Healing, Divinity, Ministry, Missions and Evangelism, Prophetic Ministry, Theology, Worship Ministry, and Youth Ministry. People can function and hold jobs in all of these areas without government-recognized accreditation.

Individuals seeking employment in government-licensed positions such as public school teachers, state-licensed psychologists or psychiatrists, and non-church-related counselors definitely need government-recognized accredited degrees. Generally, people working in ministry positions do not need a government-accredited degree. In fact, a number of churches take a stand against the Church voluntarily placing itself under government regulations.
We believe that our standards exceed those of the government, for we require of our teachers:

  1. That they have high moral qualities.
  2. That they be able to bring about life-transformation in their students.
  3. That they be proven leaders in their fields.
  4. That they be able to hear God’s voice and see His vision.
  5. That they be able to teach with divine anointing.
  6. That they have a love and passion for their subject.

Problems Which Accreditation Brings

Jesus couldn’t teach: One major problem with government accreditation is that it has strict rules as to who can be a professor. For example, you cannot be an instructor in an accredited school recognized by the U.S. Department of Education unless you have an accredited degree from a government recognized accredited school. At the time of Jesus, the Pharisees would have been the “legally recognized” authorities from whom all religious training should come. Jesus did not receive the sanctioned education so His teaching was not acceptable in their eyes. In the same way, Jesus Christ could not be an instructor at CLU, nor could any other spiritually gifted and anointed minister of the Gospel today, unless they first earned government accredited degrees. What a disservice to our students.

Demanding we toe the line on current liberal fads: abortion, homosexuality, pornography and other topics which the Bible speaks clearly about. Maintaining Biblical norms results in legal fights which we prefer to avoid.

 

Quality of education: There is evidence of superior performance from pastors who come out of non-accredited schools. Generally they come from Schools of Ministry offered by local churches. As C. Peter Wagner notes in one of his books, they are building many of the biggest churches in America and around the world. Likewise, non-certified home schooling parents are training children who outperform students of certified teachers in public schools. The home-educated students typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests. Homeschoolers outperform public school children on SAT scores. There is an abundance of research showing home schooled students taught by parents  consistently out-perform government certified teachers.

We are aware of no study which shows evidence that certified teachers produce better results than non-certified teachers, or that government accredited schools turn out better Christian workers than non-government accredited schools. All evidence appears to prove the opposite.

Summary: We don’t feel it is wise to allow such limitations to be placed on CLU. Our purposes are to raise up Spirit-anointed ministers of the Gospel who can hear God’s voice, receive God’s dreams and visions, and operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit . We do not feel we should put the U.S. Department of Education in a position of authority in telling us how best to accomplish this.