Online Christian colleges and universities offer religious instruction and spiritual guidance in addition to academic courses and degrees. These Christian-affiliated institutions offer accredited programs in a range of disciplines. They are an excellent option for those who prefer to combine their faith with their studies.
They provide a grounded foundation in moral and biblical principles, allowing students to move forward in their academic and chosen career paths with confidence. Online Christian Colleges and Universities are designed to give students the highest level of education and the most advanced equipment for educational learning.
Finding the best online Christian school suitable for you can take quite a lot of time and effort. This is because there are numerous schools offering educational programs with a Christian heart in the digital world, and it can be confusing due to the fact that so many good schools exist.
To help you find the best one that will fit your needs, we have compiled a list of characteristics that makes an online Christian school great and list online Christian schools that have those values that you would certainly appreciate.
10 Quality Online Christian Colleges and Universities
Sterling College
This is a United Presbyterian University that has been providing quality Christian education since 1887. Stirling University offers a lot of online courses and degrees. They have been offering online education programs for more than a decade.
Their costs are also a bit lower than the market rates, which goes to show how serious they are with their mission of imparting a quality Christian education to the population.
They offer general education courses, programs in behavioral science, history and religion courses, and even criminal justice and management.
In fact, they also offer environmental science and physical science for general education, which gives them an edge over the usual liberal arts programs that are offered by other online Christian schools.
You can visit their website here.
LeTourneau University
This is a university that has stayed true to both its secular and spiritual purpose, which is to teach adult learners the skills that are needed to work in a Christian manner.
This is a Christian School that is non-denominational, and their special focus and ministry are to reach out to adult learners or people who have day jobs and help them get the education that will lift them up higher in life, both spiritual and career-wise.
LeTourneau University, or LTU, have started doing its adult education ministry in 1989 but is also one of the pioneers for an adult online Christian education.
The university’s namesake is the so-called ‘God’s Businessman” Robert Gilmour LeTourneau, who values engineering and applied sciences. This importance on the hard sciences is also seen in the academic courses it offers, which includes Engineering and Aviation.
This is one of the best Christian universities in the country if you are interested in getting an online education in Software Engineering, Aviation, Computer Information Systems, and even Elementary Education.
It has received recognition and accolades for its special focus on the sciences, which is difficult to find among online Christian Schools. It has also appeared more than twelve times in the U.S. News and World Report, giving further proof of its quality.
While it is one of the smaller schools on its list, it has a Christian heart and soul that can be felt with its mission to help people, adult or not, accomplish more in life. You can read more about LTU here.
Saint Leo University
Saint Leo University is a not-for-profit Roman Catholic University. This school has received multiple awards and recognition from US news & world report for the strength of its online educational programs. While the administration is composed largely of the Benedictine order, it is common to find teachers and professors of different faiths.
They are known for their Business and Computer Science degrees, but as of late, their Criminal Justice Department is starting to get more recognition. They have a lot of extension offices where online students can physically go to get more materials and assistance.
You can visit them here.
Benedictine University
This Roman Catholic University is well-known as the online graduate course provider for Business and Healthcare, particularly Nursing, programs. The Benedictine Order is known to Catholics and people of faith worldwide as very erudite and learned, and this university is proof of their abilities.
It is also part of this list because the school has been recognized by the US News & World Report for its great online program for bachelor and graduate programs.
What makes this achievement even sweeter is that the Online School has just started in 2010 and has already more accolades than some online schools with twice the history.
They also have a very active campus ministry, with a lot of activities that strike a great balance between fun and faith. An interesting observation to note is that the courses offered by the online school are a great mix of liberal arts and applied social sciences, which makes the program very valuable to both the student and the employer.
An added bonus is a 10% discount for people who serve or have served in the military.
They also have a center for lifelong learning if you are interested in a life immersed in the academe.
In a nutshell, Benedictine University has a great online program for bachelor’s degrees. Their online graduate school is top-notch, especially with Nursing and Business courses.
You can enter their website here.
Dallas Baptist University
With more than 75 programs offered online, DBU or the Dallas Baptist University runs the whole gamut of academic life with Certificate programs, Undergraduate and Graduate degrees, and even a dual Master’s degree program or an Accelerated Track for a Bachelor’s degree.
A big chunk of the programs is related to entrepreneurship and Christian studies, but other areas are available too, like finance and psychology. The Master’s program is much more varied, with a focus on Education and Health Care Management, as well as Human Resources and Christian Counseling.
With a very rich and varied history and 100 years of providing education under its belt, DBU is also known for its athletics and its very vibrant and active campus ministry. The online programs the DBU offers can be a purely online experience or a mix of online and on-campus academic activities.
In their words, the curriculum is guided by the Bible and Christian values, and the online program does not have a specific time that you have to log in, but there are activities like a time-sensitive exam that you should take.
An important characteristic that anyone should know is that spirituality and faith are deeply embedded in all of its programs.
This means that it will be normal to have discussions of your faith in the lectures themselves, as well as incorporate discussions about the Bible in your lessons. It has a very Baptist culture, and the students and faculty are a Baptist majority. The curriculum has a very strong Baptist leaning as well.
For more information, you can visit their website here.
Mount Vernon Nazarene University
This is an Evangelical University and has a teaching program that is very grounded in faith and intellectual curiosity. This is done through an interesting online method where they group students into cohorts. They have enough facilities and personnel that the talk feels more like an open-table discussion with a short lecture from the start.
What is most impressive is the ability of students to move through the lecture and discussion even if they have other important appointments outside the online class. This is done through an interesting method where activities that are time-restricted and lectures that can be done at your own pace are combined.
They have a sizeable number of courses offered online, but the majority of which are centered on Business and Marketing. The University is also very welcoming to the Military, with a lot of assistance offered to those who have served the country well.
On average, there are 13 students to 1 teacher, and the ratio can even go down to 8 students to 1 teacher for the graduate programs.
The cohort system also magnifies the Christian character of the students and the teacher without any sense of judgment. This makes classes much easier to take. Here is their website.
University of St. Francis
This is a Catholic Franciscan University with almost a hundred years of Catholic tradition as well as respectful ecumenism.
The faculty is largely Franciscan, especially the administration, but there is a sizeable population of teachers who are not Catholic and are not Christians. This University has also been recognized by US News & World Report.
The online program is largely offered to adults, but it is not rare to find younger students enrolled in an online class. The University is a bit more on the selective side as well since the acceptance rate is only around 58% as of 2022.
This means that the peers and the faculty are considerably more focused on the academic side. Although matters of faith are discussed somewhat, it is relatively less common than others.
The online school of this University concentrates more on the Business and Liberal Arts rather than the sciences, but Health Care and Social Work are available too. The graduate track has more variety though, with Education and Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing offered too.
For more information, visit their website here.
Grand Canyon University
Historically, Grand Canyon University is a Southern Baptist Christian university, but it has evolved into something further since it is now considered an interdenominational haven for learning.
Having been established in 1949, Grand Canyon University has stayed true to its roots of offering Christian Teaching with modern technology. It has a very wide offering of online courses.
They range from offering liberal arts degrees to healthcare informatics and even accounting. The university is known for its athletic leanings, but in terms of academics, it is known for its special focus on nursing and business.
You can visit their website here.
Liberty University
One of the most famous universities in the country, Liberty University is the world’s largest Christian University and is also the largest not-for-profit University in the country.
While Liberty University accepts anyone from any faith, they have Southern Baptist tendencies, and the environment of both offline and online lessons has Christian leanings.
They offer more than two hundred and eighty lessons and programs online, and most, if not all, of the online courses are flexible, wherein the time of the student is respected and prioritized. Faculty members are experienced and engaging, and the online program is very detailed.
They are known for their programs in aeronautics, special education, criminal justice, government, and healthcare, but they have a very big offering of educational programs that you can choose from.
You can visit their website here.
Regent University
Considered one of the most famous Christian Universities in the country, Regent University is a world-class research university that is non-denominational but still has the reputation and capability to be considered as part of the Christian Coalition due to its academic excellence and prestige.
The University is known for its Government and Leadership tracks, especially with quite a number of elected and appointed officials in the government hailing from this university and having their legal department considered as a good law school.
They also are known for their Business and Education departments. They have been in the online scene for more than 20 years already and have very competitive rates.
You can get more information from their website here.
What to Consider in a Good Online Christian School
1. Proper accreditation
The online school should have accreditation from proper authorities and should comply with federal and state guidelines. If the online school in question has a physical campus, then this should not be a problem.
Make sure that you read or at least familiarize yourself with the “about” or “legal and disclaimers” page on the school’s website.
One more important accreditation they must get should be the regional and national accreditation from the appropriate theological accreditors.
The amount of work in their ministries would be a good measure of how seriously they treat their ministry as. Also, the lecturers or teachers should be competent and confident not only with their subject material but also with how they merge their faith into their lectures without compromising any.
This is usually done by taking a look to see if the teacher has signed a Christian doctrinal statement and has the necessary educational level to teach the subject.
3. Strength of Academic capabilities as well as reputation
Core competencies and specialized research can be measured by the quantity and quality of published research papers. Getting a position from any of the professional ranking agencies like the American Council of Trustees and Alumni will also help. Name recognition will also play a part in the making of this list.
These are three primary considerations, but we also factor in cost, number of courses and teachers available, as well as other characteristics.
Online Christian Colleges Accept Those from all Faiths
In general, online Christian colleges offer educational opportunities to students of all religious backgrounds, including those from other faith traditions.
While curricula and resources may be designed from a Christian perspective, most programs value the diversity of the student body and invite everyone to participate in learning.
On the flip side, must you be a Christian to attend a Christian university? No, typically, you do not need to be a Christian to attend a Christian university. Many Christian universities are open to a variety of religious backgrounds and beliefs and promote tolerance and love while honoring the uniqueness of each individual’s faith.
During the application process, however, you may be asked to sign a faith statement that confirms your agreement with the institution’s values.
Watch this for the benefits of attending a Christian college:
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