Preacher, lay your debt burden down (reporting from Florence, Ala.): Heritage Christian University sets a goal of graduating every student with no loans to repay.
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FLORENCE, Ala. — Lucas Suddreth thought he’d rely on federal student loans to pay for his ministry education.
Instead, Heritage Christian University gave him a full-tuition scholarship and helped arrange a part-time youth ministry position.
“I’m extremely blessed,” said Suddreth, 22, who lives with his wife, Rachel, in a house provided by the Mt. Zion Church of Christ. “There’s no way I could have done this by myself.”
Aspiring preachers face plenty of challenges, but tens of thousands of dollars in student debt shouldn’t be one of them, Heritage Christian officials contend.
“We have a goal to graduate every student debt free,” said Dennis Jones, president of Heritage Christian, a 115-student ministry training college founded as International Bible College in 1971.
This story appears in the February 2015 print edition of The Christian Chronicle.
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