The BJU Papers: number 01

“At the Winter Board meeting of the FBFI, the board as a whole has wished to express our great concern to the BJU Board about the change in direction over the past several years. We want to go on record from our board to yours regarding how serious we believe this matter is." -FBFI Board Letter to the BJU Board of Trustees, February 15, 2022

Earthquakes cause tsunamis. 

When unseen, unfelt earthquakes occur on the ocean floor, water is displaced, generating powerful, destructive waves. 

On Saturday, I had dinner with three of our summer ministry interns, who are all seniors from Bob Jones University. They were grasping for an analogy to describe the upheaval at BJU that they had experienced, most obviously by having four different presidents in as many years. We settled on a tsunami. 

The BJU Papers will attempt to trace the tectonic plates at BJU that were secretly moving under the surface. From first-hand accounts, I will lay out those shifts, conversations, and influences that created these four years of chaos.

A quick review of the seismograph immediately reveals that one significant, undue influencer of BJU was the Foundations Baptist Fellowship International (FBFI). Today, June 9, 2025, the annual meeting of the Foundations Baptist Fellowship International (FBFI) is taking place on the campus of Maranatha Baptist University and Calvary Baptist Church in Watertown, WI.

The FBFI's close connection to BJU is well known, having now had three BJU's seven presidents as members of the executive or emeritus board of the FBFI. Over the years, there have been multiple board members who have sat on both the FBFI and the BJU boards simultaneously. Dr. Bob Jones III, the present Chancellor of BJU, served on the executive board and now serves on the Emeritus Board. Dr. Stephen Jones, the fourth President of BJU, is still listed as a member of the Executive Board of the FBFI.

Dr. Stephen Jones, the younger son of Dr. Bob Jones III, became the fourth president of BJU in 2005. Enrollment had declined in the final years of Dr. Bob III’s administration, but by 2006, there was a significant increase in enrollment for the 2006-2007 academic year. Dr. Stephen Jones was a great preacher and consistently demonstrated himself to be a kind conservative and a friendly fundamentalist as president of BJU. Due to health reasons, Dr. Stephen Jones was compelled to resign as president on December 13, 2013, saying, “The persistence of my health issues over the last three years is preventing me from providing the leadership the University needs at this time and prompted my personal decision to resign. The BJU mission is more important than I. Serving the BJU family for over eight years has been one of the great gifts of God to my wife and me, and I am looking forward to serving here in whatever new role God has for me.”

There were significant changes that Stephen led BJU through during his tenure:

Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) Accreditation. Almost immediately after he began as President, in 2006, Dr. Stephen Jones led his team to receive accreditation through TRACS. In addition to TRACS, Dr. Jones led BJU to begin the process of seeking regional accreditation through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The school received SACASCOC accreditation in 2017 under the Pettit administration. This was huge for BJU and all of its alumni.

Bruins’ Athletics. Not since 1933 had BJU had intercollegiate sports. Intercollegiate sports began at BJU one year after it opened, in 1928. The BJC sports teams were called "the Swamp Angels." The intercollegiate sports program did not carry over when BJ moved to Cleveland, Tennessee, however. In 2012, Dr. Stephen Jones led the University in offering intercollegiate sports once again and introduced the BJU family to their new mascot: The Bruins! The Bruins initially competed in four sports: men’s soccer, men’s basketball, women’s soccer, and women’s basketball.

The Grace Report. In the wake of the 2010 events at Trinity Baptist Church (at the time a FBFI church pastored by a BJU Grad-me) in Concord, NH, the 2011 Penn State Sex Abuse Scandal, and national discussions about institutional cover-up of sexual abuse, Dr. Stephen Jones led the university to hire GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) to examine the University’s handling of sexual abuse allegations. Although it was a great decision, it was also shocking to many because Boz Tchividjian, a grandson of evangelist Billy Graham, led GRACE. Dr. Stephen Jones flew to Lynchburg, VA, to meet with Boz. A former associate of GRACE said, “He (Stephen) was getting a lot of pushback from various folks in his community, in the Bob Jones community, including leadership, not to hire GRACE. And, despite that, I remember him telling me, ‘Bob Jones cannot move forward until we have fully addressed the past.’”

Lord’s Day Chapel Services End at BJU. Since 1947, when BJU moved to 1700 Wade Hampton Blvd, in Greenville, SC, Lord’s Day worship was not attended at local churches by faculty, staff, and students. Rather, they attended Sunday School (according to societies) and Sunday worship on campus. When BJU moved to Greenville in 1947, they were about 3000 students strong. At that time in Greenville’s history, the student body would have likely overwhelmed the local churches in the area. So, perhaps the original reason services were held on campus was so that they wouldn’t disrupt local churches in the area.

On April 28, 2013, the administration of Dr. Stephen Jones announced that the school would eliminate Sunday morning services on campus in the fall of 2013. Before that change, students, faculty, and staff voluntarily attended churches on Sunday evenings. The Dean of Students had a list of approved churches that the University Family was subject to. That list naturally transferred to attendance on Lord's Day mornings at local churches that were approved. However, beginning in the fall of 2013, Sunday morning church attendance at an approved church was required, rather than optional. The church attendance list was not revisited for six years. (2019)

Which of these significant changes under Dr. Stephen Jones, academic, athletic, ethical, or ecclesiastical, do you think had the most seismic impact on BJU over the next decade, until the present?

Next BJU Paper: The First non-Jones President and a 2017 unofficial FBFI grilling of the POBJU.