4
faceted context, evangelical boundaries sometimes have
appeared to be opaque and even movable.
A PARENTING BODY: THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE CONSORTIUM
Organized in 1971, the Christian College Consortium
initially sought to generate greater collaboration among
evangelical colleges, in part to address the financial,
enrollment, and identity issues that many of them were
facing in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At the
instigation of leaders like theologian Carl Henry, David
McKenna of Seattle Pacific College, and Hudson Armerding of
Wheaton College, the Consortium boldly aimed at cooperative
educational programs, the most ambitious of which was the
dream of an evangelical Christian university.
4
Although the Consortium certainly recognized many
shared concerns in evangelical higher education, the
organizers staked out some distinct boundary markers for
their fledgling association. The primary criteria that
guided early membership invitations called for each
participating institution to demonstrate adequate financial
resources, a commitment to the integration of faith and
4
James Carl Hendrix, "The Christian College Consortium:
1971-1991," (Ph.D. diss., Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale, 1992), 46-67.