COVENANT SCHOOL OF MINISTRY AND DIVINITY

TION
By definition, the word "accredit" means to authorize, endorse, and officially approve of. What ordination is to a minister, accreditation is to a school. Accreditation is a group process by which schools voluntarily agree to participate in a set of established standards in order to encourage quality education. Biblical Schools are not legally required to become accredited, but it is a very desirable standing. Accredited status means a school has voluntarily undergone a comprehensive examination to determine that it operates at a worthy level of performance. SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
• There is secular education and there is religious education.
• Secular schools seek secular education, and sacred schools receive sacred accreditation—each by their own peers.
• Religious institutions need no secular accreditation because they offer no secular degrees.
• Religious accrediting associations are recognized by the Church of Jesus Christ, which has no supreme central office on earth. Our authority is derived directly from Heaven.
• Civil and religious interests are different and have separate realms of jurisdiction.
• The State is not superior to the Church. The Church need not wait for approval from the secular world.
• Civil agencies should not be dictating standards of Christian education, any more than men in uniforms or authority should be directing the worship of God.
• Theological Seminaries and Bible Schools should not be accredited by accrediting associations that are "recognized" by an agency of the government, because it is contrary to the Biblical principle of "Separation of Church and State," indicated by Christ when He said, "...Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's..." (Mark 12:17).
• What business does a Christian educator have going to the world of unbelievers for recognition and acknowledgement when 2 Corinthians 6:14 clearly tells us, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?"
• A Christian educational institution securing accreditation from an association which is attached to a governmental agency is a Scripturally condemned and unholy union as James 4:4 says, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?"

We are….

• Evangelical (Jesus is central / the Bible is Truth / salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ)

• Trinitarian (God is eternally existent in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)

• Covenantal (We who are born again believers are descendants of Abraham and in covenant with God)

• Faith People - (By faith we accept all of the Truth in the Old and New Testaments in the Holy Bible)

• Charismatic (We believe in and practice the gifts of the Spirit; signs, wonders, and miracles happen)

• Apostolic (This church is structured and operates according to the original apostolic model of the Church)

• Non-denominational (We promote the unity of the faith within the Body of Christ - there is only one Body)

• Aligned (We are a member of the Covenant Global family which is a world-wide apostolic sphere)

• Non-exclusive (All born again believers are a part of the Church which is the Body of Christ)