Mission Activation Plan

2019–2021

Single-minded Mission

Since 1897, Trinity’s mission has been to educate men and women to engage in God’s redemptive work in the world by cultivating academic excellence, Christian faithfulness, and lifelong learning. Its goal is to prepare students to lead others, as they are entrusted with the gospel to think and live as Christ-followers in the twenty-first century.

IN THE BEST ORGANIZATIONS, mission drives the allocation of resources. Today’s market realities have required Trinity to think afresh about how we align our resources with the market realities, so that we can drive our mission forward. Trinity’s mission will be sustained only by reaching financial stability and offering academic programs that meet the changing needs of today’s students. As we celebrate 125 years of participating in the work of God’s redemptive kingdom, we now find ourselves at a turning point where together we follow his lead—prayerfully and strategically—sketching out the next chapter of the Trinity story.

The Market Realities

The landscape of higher education, including postbaccalaureate theological education, has shifted significantly over the last decade, and most dramatically in the last few years. Trinity has chosen to make hard decisions as a proactive measure to ensure that it continues to live out its mission in the midst of such challenging conditions. Learn more about the changing market for higher education.

The Process

Since coming to Trinity in 2019, President Nicholas Perrin has sought to respond to these market realities by strengthening the business model (for example, creating efficiencies, ensuring best practices in marketing and enrollments, building a more student-responsive culture internally) while prayerfully clarifying the vision. This year, the time had arrived for Trinity to undertake a highly data-driven, Spirit-led process of discernment—leading to a Mission Activation Plan. This transparent and collaborative Mission Activation Plan Process (MAPP) focused on the University’s operations and academic programs, seeking to align our mission, strategic priorities, and core values within a financially sustainable model. Outsourced partners have provided rich and granular data never before available, empowering the administration, deans, and faculty working groups to come together in designing solutions that combine mission and sustainability. Learn more about how the MAP unfolded.

The Plan

MAPP isn’t about revisiting who Trinity is and what we’ve been called to do, but how we go about responsibly fulfilling that mission to which God has called us. As painful as the pruning is, we are very excited about where God is leading us and firmly believe that as a result, Trinity will be better positioned to even more aggressively pursue its mission. Learn more about the outcomes of the MAP.

More Information

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