Heritage Christian University
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Former names
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International Bible College Southeastern Institute (College) of the Bible |
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| Type | Private bible college |
| Established | 1968 |
| Affiliation | Church of Christ |
| President | Dennis Jones |
| Vice-president | Dr. Bill Bagents, Pat Moon, Philip Goad |
| Location | Florence, Alabama, United States |
| Affiliations | ABHE |
| Website | www.hcu.edu |
Heritage Christian University is an undergraduate and graduate university in Florence, Alabama. It is affiliated with churches of Christ.
The university is governed by a Board of Directors, all of whom must be active members of the churches of Christ.
Heritage Christian University traces its roots to 1871, when T.B. Larimore opened Mars Hill Academy on land inherited by his wife Esther Gresham Larimore. Located along Cox Creek near Florence, Alabama, Mars Hill Academy equipped ministers and other Christian leaders for service in the Churches of Christ. Students trained at Mars Hill established hundreds of congregations in Florence and surrounding communities in North Alabama and southern Tennessee. Initially housed in Larimore’s home, the Academy closed in 1887 in order for Larimore to devote himself fully to evangelism. The 12-room house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Among those educated by Larimore at Mars Hill were notable restoration preachers F.D. Srygley and J.C. McQuiddy.
Locally organized Christian education for the Churches of Christ resumed in 1947 when Mars Hill Bible School, an elementary and secondary school, began on the site of the old Mars Hill Academy. Property for the school was purchased by William Wallace Alexander, a local physician, from T.B. Larimore’s son, Virgil, who still resided on the land where his father had operated the original academy. Mars Hill Bible School continues to provide excellent preschool through high school education.
In November 1965, noting an extreme shortage of preachers, a number of Shoals area church leaders proposed to the Mars Hill Board of Directors the establishment of a school to help prepare men for ministry. A steering committee, functioning under the Mars Hill Board of Directors, quickly assumed responsibility for the promotion of the school, curriculum planning, and the selection of teachers. Supplementing the work of Mars Hill Bible School, the new T.B. Larimore School of Evangelists was seen as a restoration of the type of preacher training accomplished by Larimore in the late 19th century.
Opening in January 1966 with 70 students enrolled, the T.B. Larimore School of Evangelists followed the model of a non-credit Bible institute or preacher training school. After operating in the spring and fall of 1966, the school’s steering committee, at the direction of the Mars Hill Board of Directors, transitioned from an administrative function to an advisory one. There is no known record of the school meeting for classes after December 1966.
The dream of providing higher education in the Shoals, designed specifically for the training of preachers, did not lay dormant for long. Before the end of 1967, plans were already underway to establish a private college in Florence, independent of Mars Hill, to prepare students for ministry. In 1968, those plans began taking shape, when Malcolm Hill agreed to leave his work as preacher for the Forest Park congregation in greater Atlanta to become the inaugural president of the newly established Southeastern Institute (College) of the Bible in Florence. Inez Alexander, widow of Dr. William Wallace Alexander, donated land for a campus near the old T.B. Larimore home and local orthopedic surgeon, Dr. G.R. Melson, serving as chair of the Businessmen’s Advisory Board, began efforts to establish an endowment for the school. Founded in 1968, Southeastern classes met for the first time in January 1969. The institute would include a three-year program offering bachelor’s degrees in Sacred Literature and Religious Education. No accreditation from secular or academic associations would be sought.
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