Moody Bible Institute - Spokane

My experience at Moody Bible Institute - Spokane was horrendous. The other review on here signed by Bobby says it all. The students pretend to be friendly, but they are not. In their hearts is a hidden desire to be seen as the most spiritual, and they will cut other people out to maintain that facade.

The faculty are arrogant and do not care about real education, only about pushing their nuanced view down your throat. (There are a few teachers that are exceptions to this rule--Jonathan Armstrong and Jerry Vreeland to name a few) but there are not much more than that.

The student life is nothing but a bunch of constructed, artificial spirituality in which the blatant legalism of the complex flies in the face of everything Jesus taught about true righteousness. Our friends The Pharisees, are a macrocosm of this culture at Moody Spokane.

Save your time and your money - get a real degree, go to a real school, where you will meet real people and have a real experience. Life is too short to waste four years of yours here.If you want to go into ministry, that's an even better reason to avoid this school. Get a real degree that will get you a real job with real value, and use that to fund your ministry pursuits. It will be far more fulfilling and worthwhile for you.

2nd Year Male -- Class 2015

Campus Maintenance: B+, Education Quality: F

Moody Bible Institute - Spokane has some pretty good things, and whole lot of really bad things. In my opinion, it's not worth your money to go there.

Some of the better things are the teachers (they offer to meet with the students, and are VERY intelligent.) MBI - Spokane hires really bright teachers. Some of them are even overqualified, which isn't a bad thing in my mind. The campus has pretty good air conditioning as well, and the HeBrews cafe makes some excellent drinks! It's enjoyable to see students studying their Bibles and striving see what God is saying to them. There are plenty of student events to go to in an attempt to make sure you remain a party of the "comoonity." But in spite of all these good things, nothing can really make up for my horrible experience there. The downsides of going to this place feel ready to pour out of me like an avalanche.

Where can I even begin with this place? My four years at Moody Bible Institute Spokane were four of the worst of my life. Here's my major problems with this institution, in no particular order.

1) It's a spirituality contest plain and simple. Clearly no one here has taken the time to study Matthew 6:1.

2) If you don't want to join in with the spirituality contest and want to be honest about some of your problems you will be alienated. #1 rule at MBI - Spokane, don't be honest about your sin.

3) Public image is everything.
People commend this school because it hasn't turned "liberal," (i.e. there aren't a ton of huge parties.) What most people forget is that Jesus condemned pharisaism as much as he condemned licentiousness (if not more.) And he brought no more than 200 gallons of wine to a party.

4) If you want personal help, it's not available.
The staff are WAY too busy to support the students because there aren't enough staff to handle the ridiculous number of students. In a single Church building, MBI - Spokane went from 60 students/class to 150-200 students/class. It is way past capacity. The campus was not prepared to take on such a huge load of students, and the leadership made a horrible decision to enroll so many. There aren't enough classrooms, teachers, or resources. An example of this is the library. The library is little more than a book-endowed closet. If you need to find a book, don't expect to find it there.

***PLEASE NOTE: The staff never bother to tell you how unhelpful the degree you get will be. It's not a professional degree in any sense. If you don't end up working full-time "ministry" it's like you don't have a degree. Another thing they don't tell you (because it would undermine their whole philosophy) is that if you earned a real degree, like say, chemistry or english, that it would not limit your ministry opportunities one bit!! Yep, I said it, earning a "non-ministry" degree does not limit your opportunities later in life to go into full time ministry!!! If you are a responsible person, and willing to take 6 months to 1 year of Bible school after you get your BA or BS, you can get on board with almost any ministry organization excluding perhaps working as a pastor in which most churches require a seminary degree anyway.***

5) There is no gym, nor weight room. They will however offer you discounted subscriptions to the YMCA on the other side of town. It's very useful after you spend the $5 in gas it takes to get there.

6) Just like the campus wasn't prepared to take on so many students, the housing situation is also horribly bloated beyond capacity.

Many students rent from external organizations, but most students rent from landlords who own houses in the two blocks surrounding the campus. These landlords love to make money off of the students. Some landlords put 12 people in one house and charging each student $290/mo happy and happily called it their ministry. No, I'm sorry, but a ministry involves giving, and though you may sometimes earn a profit, profit cannot become the main goal or else it ceases to be a ministry. Many landlords who gladly engaged in the ministry of price gouging the students could have cut the price of rent in half and still payed the mortgage + make additional profit.

7) In student housing at most universities you can leave at the end of the term. Not so at MBI - Spokane. The ministry minded landlords won't offer you housing unless you sign a year-long (calendar year, not school-year) lease. What if you need to leave after one term? No comprende. All that matters is that your lease is legally binding. In other words, the landlords have a legal right to screw you if something comes up and you need to go home, and they engage in it gladly. The housing isn't geared at all towards college students, it's geared towards the profit of the owners.

8) The theology doesn't even cohere. It's some weird amalgum of dispensationalism, fundamentalism, arminianism, calvinism, mixed with a healthy bit of legalism, and yet they say they affirm grace? I've never seen so many contradictions in one statement. Moodyism!

But if the only fault with their theology was my disagreement, that wouldn't be saying much. After all most Christians disagree with each other on a number of topics. The real fault is their insistence that their particular view of Christian truth should not and cannot be challenged. A university (unity and diversity) is a place where different ideas are supposed to come together and find unity. Not so at MBI - Spokane. If you don't prescribe to their specific religious dogma you will be shunned and chastised by both teachers and students. The teachers are quite capable of making you feel like an idiot when you have something relevant that steps even one smidgeon outside the boundaries of their compartmentalized belief system. Besides the fact that we both seem to acknowledge our need of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, there was really no other common ground. This lack of common ground is exemplified by the environment.

The environment is snobby and childish, and incredibly repetitive. You have to go to 2 "chapels" a week, because obviously if you don't go to 2 chapels you can't be spiritually well. If you make an adult decision to not go to chapels (because instead you have to work) They don't treat you like an adult. They don't give you the freedom to make your own decisions. In the "SLG" (student life agreement) you have to sign a disclosure that says you won't drink. I had unwittingly drank a couple of beers since signing the SLG. I had skimmed it, but hadn't taken the time to read it fully. I enjoyed throwing away the bottle of bacardi and four-pack of beer that I brought up with me. It seemed worth it, to avoid expulsion. But now I question why I even cared. Maybe it's because my roommates would have started hour-long weekly prayer sessions for my salvation if they'd found out. Maybe it's also because I wasn't in the mood to have a "how is your walk with God?" talk on a daily basis.

Speaking of room-mates every time I would mention a sin I was struggling with they couldn't empathize and encourage me. Instead they would gladly push my face into the dirt and shove it around. They would use it as an opportunity to pity me for my lack of spirituality and their superiority. People here are very good at pretending they don't have problems. Do you find yourself compelled to "cuss?" Prepare for a 3-hour debate with a zealous proselyte who wants you to know how the fires of Hell are awaiting those who use cuss words. But this isn't God's law, merely human law, as rules of society dictate what is and isn't a "cuss" word. But I shouldn't be surprised, because adherence to rules and regulations is the sine qua non of MBI - Spokane.

If you did anything deemed as incredibly sinful (like say hang out with your significant other until 3 A.M.) word would spread through the school like wildfire. Suddenly Many people are giving you sideways glances in the halls. Lots of people are happy to regard your relationship as unspiritual for not adhering to a strict curfew, regardless of whether or not the presence of a curfew in your life helps you to keep from sinning. This is a place of injustice. Many felt this way but few had the courage to speak up about it. Lots of students simply leave, apparently without reason. But eventually it all becomes clear why.

When I left Spokane, I did so gladly. My spiritual life at the time was being dried up and choked out by the legalism. The extensive list of rules and regulations and the graceless student body (who declares themselves graceful) absolutely killed anything positive I might have to say about my experience at this institute. I can truthfully say that this school brought out the worst in me.

My review is obviously far from objective. It is colored with my personal and subjective experience of this school. Obviously I'm also not free of the bitterness that torments me from this place, and I pray to God daily to help me get over the bitterness. I haven't been able to yet, but I continue to try.

MBI - Spokane can be summed up like this: if you have a problem with sinning, I would recommend avoiding this place. But if you are righteous, please come in droves. The staff need more people who agree with them.

-BobbyEnjoy!

4th Year Male -- Class 2012

Campus Maintenance: A+, Education Quality: F