Identity and History
Founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to “educate men and women for home and foreign mission or evangelistic work,” Messiah Bible School and Missionary Training Home originally had 7 faculty and staff members and 12 students. By the end of the first school year, enrollment had risen to 37 students, and construction was under way for Old Main, the first building on the College’s current Grantham Campus.
In 1924, the school’s name was changed to Messiah Bible College. This change accurately reflected the institution’s broadening curriculum and the junior college status it achieved in 1922. By 1951, the College was approved to confer baccalaureate degrees and was renamed Messiah College. Accreditation from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools was achieved in 1963. Until 1972, Messiah College was owned and operated by the Brethren in Christ Church. Today, the College and Church share in a covenantal relationship, through which each of these two communities works to further the ministry of the other. Legal control is assumed by a self-perpetuating Board of Trustees.
Our teaching faculty, the most valuable resource at Messiah College, numbers approximately 192 full-time men and women, plus about 149 part-time members. Coming from a multitude of backgrounds, they represent nearly 150 graduate schools in several countries and many denominational affiliations. The total campus employment is about 890 employees.
Graduate programming at Messiah College acknowledges the institution’s identity as a “Christian College of the liberal and applied arts and sciences” and its mission of “educating men and women for lives of service, leadership, and reconciliation.” By expanding on Messiah’s mission, graduate programming allows the College to expand its distinct Christian and values-based educational objectives in innovative ways in new contexts. Messiah College now offers more than 80 undergraduate academic majors, as well as ten graduate programs which encompass various concentrations, tracks, certifications, and certificates. With a focus on applied programs designed to meet the needs of practitioners in for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, programs are designed to help students advance in their careers.
Messiah has a very robust culture of scholarship given the fact that it has been and remains a predominantly “teaching institution.” Messiah encourages and supports scholarship with a robust internal scholarship program that includes released time from teaching opportunities. This culture of scholarship positioned Messiah well for graduate programming.
Following the lead of alumnus Ernest E. Boyer, Messiah has a broad understanding of scholarship that moves beyond the scholarship of discovery and incorporates and values the scholarship of integration and application. The types of graduate programs Messiah offers have an applied focus that lends itself well to Messiah’s involvement in the scholarship of application and integration. In particular, the good and extensive work Messiah has put into conceptualizing and implementing the scholarship of application in the form of community-based research with an emphasis on service learning is very relevant to the types of scholarship we expect from graduate faculty and students. In addition, Messiah acknowledges that creative activity as exemplified in the visual arts, theatre, and music is a form of scholarship.