When I read of the closing of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School’s (TEDS) main campus, I was saddened. While technically, it’s moving and merging with a school in Canada, the main campus in the suburbs of Chicago is shuttering its doors and will be transformed into a sports complex. My three years on the Deerfield, IL, campus were academically rich and spiritually formative. It was challenging – I was a newlywed trying to learn Greek and Hebrew simultaneously, along with Church History and Systematics. Oh, and the Bible. It was the most humbling and spiritually best time of my life. Bar none.

I was blessed to sit under theologians such as Wayne Grudem, Douglas Moo, Willem VanGemeren, Grant Osborne, as well as pastors like Robert Coleman and Mike Bullmore. Doug Sweeney fueled my love for Church History and especially the Puritans. And DA Carson, my advisor, poured into his students and advisees – biblical knowledge, pastoral wisdom, church experience, and deep, rich love of Jesus.

TEDS was a flagship institution in American (and global) evangelicalism. It’s closure marks the end of an era. As Owen Strachen has pointed out, TEDS successfully resisted the theological liberalizing tide that swept through many denominations and seminaries in the mid-twentieth century. They also resisted the narrowness, and, frankly, the mean-spiritedness, of fundamentalism.

In many ways, the church I pastor, Christ Community Church in Bloomington, mirrors TEDS. While TEDS was connected to the Evangelical Free Church, it was a “big tent” school, not narrowly denominational. I studied alongside future Baptist, Presbyterian, Christian Church, and Wesleyan pastors. Likewise, Christ Community Church draws people in across many denominational lines – Nazarene, Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, and more.

At CCC, like at TEDS, we are centered on the core doctrines of the faith. We celebrate our unity in Christ, our fellowship with the Spirit, and the glory of God. At the same time, we enjoy learning from one another’s distinct perspectives. We differ on issues. We are credo-baptists and paedo-baptists, Calvinists and Arminians, complementarians and egalitarians, premill and amill. We are not scared of different perspectives – we appreciate them.

Growing up in a fundamentalist Baptist background, I was at first suspicious of the diversity I saw at TEDS, but I came to love it and see its beauty. Where such diversity still exists, it is beautiful. But it’s increasingly rare and, in today’s climate, proving incredibly challenging. We aren’t, as a culture, disagreeing well, even on non-essential things. We’re choosing tribes and tribalism. We’re threatened by diversity of opinion. We are more strident on issues of secondary (or tertiary) issues than we used to be.

Owen Strachan implies that this played a significant role in the demise of TEDS. With the surge in the neo-Reformed movement in the 2000s and 2010s, the irenic spirit was seen as a flaw rather than a virtue. Their willingness to hire professors who were egalitarian or Arminian was seen as a dangerous compromise by those coming up in the faith under the influence of neo-Reformed pastors who were dogmatic on such issues. Another published autopsy claims, “TEDS was undone by its refusal to take a stand, its commitment to third-wayism, and its tacking to the middle. When you attempt to walk down the middle of the road, you get hit by traffic coming from both directions.” These assessments ring true.

TEDS decline comes amid a slight increase in seminary enrollment nationwide (though MDiv enrollment was down – that is a different issue!). Notably, while TEDS saw declining enrollment (“head count” of 1197 in 2003/2004 to 883 in 2024/2025), Southern Seminary in Louisville saw a dramatic increase in enrollment, from 2011 students in 2003/2004 to 3371 in 2024/2025. Southern has much to commend it, but it is not “big tent” in the same way that TEDS was. In fact, all six Southern Baptist Seminaries are in the top ten in terms of enrollment.

If TEDS closed because it was broad and irenic – I stand in praise of their conviction and commitment to Christ and staying true to the irenic spirit, which was a hallmark of its founding. I appreciate deeply, seminaries that are more theologically narrow. I also attended Covenant Theological Seminary. It is confessional and committed to raising up pastors in the Presbyterian tradition. There is room for and a need for those seminaries. But I’m saddened that there is a shrinking space or [perceived] need for broadly evangelical theological education.

There are a few other seminaries that embrace an expansive approach. Fuller and Gordon-Conwell come to mind immediately. I pray they continue to hold the line theologically and remain committed to the principle “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”

Here in Bloomington, we are committed to remaining “big tent,” knowing good and godly people disagree on politics, culture, and secondary theological issues. I have personal convictions on many things, but don’t expect everyone to share them. I am sure my convictions show up in my preaching, but I don’t wear them all on my sleeve. I will continue to walk the third way, and I’m sure my church and I will take shots from both sides.

It’s a hard work. Most good work is.