Mennonite Weekly Review

On my desk is Tabor College: A Century of Transformation, 1908-2008, by Peggy Goertzen, Richard Kyle, Lynn Jost and David C. Peters, edited by Douglas B. Miller, published by the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, Hillsboro, Kan., 2008, 236 pages, $50.

Laurie Oswald Robinson, of Newton, Kan., is a freelance writer and former assistant editor of Mennonite Weekly Review.

A mythical bird called a phoenix often symbolizes life after death. When the bird dies, its nest is consumed in ashes, but a new phoenix arises. This symbol characterizes the centennial narrative of the Mennonite Brethren college in Hillsboro, Kan.

The book describes the “deaths” and “resurrections” Tabor endured from its inception — founded by MB immigrants from Russia to preserve their Christ-centered education on the prairies — to survive into the 21st century.

Peggy Goertzen, director of the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies at Tabor, strikes the phoenix-like tone by describing how an April 20, 1918, fire destroyed the college’s one building. She quotes Peter C. Hiebert, then vice president: “All our hopes of the immediate future seemed to be dashed. I came home and found nothing but a pile of smoldering ashes. The faculty, however, called a chapel meeting in our church building, and there the Spirit of the Lord seemed to prevail… . Tabor was not dead, was not destroyed, only its building.”

There was never another fire disaster, but the other writers follow suit with Goertzen. They show, without obscuring the rougher edges of reality, how Tabor met its challenges. Richard Kyle, professor of history and religion at Tabor, writes that in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s “problems and challenges came piled one upon another.”

Five presidents during these years grappled with crises of identity (would Tabor become a junior college, Bible college or remain a four-year school?), of economics and war (Great Depression and World War II) and of whether the college should remain culturally isolated or move into the mainstream of American society.

Tabor emerged a stronger institution, writes Lynn Jost, academic dean and associate professor of Old Testament at MB Biblical Seminary in Fresno, Calif. In writing about 1956 to 1980, Jost shows how Tabor mostly resolved its identity crisis to become an accredited four-year, evangelical Christian liberal arts college.

He also writes about how the winds of radical change in America in the 1960s buffeted the more sheltered Tabor. Roy Just, president from 1963 to 1980, helped Tabor to bend but not break. Tabor experienced the creativity inspired by the liberal arts environment. But it also felt the anxiety of constituents who feared those winds would ravage their conservative worldview.

In first half of Just’s tenure, creativity dominated. Students rebelled against violence, racism and injustice, and a new energy electrified the campus. But by the second half of Just’s watch, “the college teetered on the brink of financial collapse… . Gone were the heady days of solving world problems. The mid- to late ’70s can be characterized as a time of retrenchment and consolidation.”

Tabor’s survival of this turbulent season brought new challenges, writes David C. Peters, coordinator of special collections at Oklahoma State University. Peters describes how Tabor transferred its ownership to the districts within the MB conference to survive financially.

Successful fundraising and financing helped expand and update the campus. The percentage of students with Mennonite background declined, but the numbers of international students increased. A Wichita extension began, and non-traditional students were recruited. And by late 2007, with more than 5,000 graduates to its name, Tabor welcomed its new president, Jules Glanzer, charged with leading the college into future faithfulness.

It’s hard to absorb 100 years of history. But this book is easily digested, with many colorful sidebars. It is a must-buy for MB readers, and others in the Mennonite world will also find it engaging. It reminds us that faith is the phoenix that helps church colleges rise out of their challenges more focused for flight.