Hebraic Christian College represents the culmination of a vision by many Christian scholars and leaders for providing higher education to those in the community of faith who are searching for the Hebraic foundations of their faith.
In 1987, Dr. John D. Garr launched an international publishing and educational effort that brought together scholars from a wide range of ethnic and denominational backgrounds to analyze Christianity’s historical and theological emergence from the matrix of early Judaism. This laterally connected scholarly community continued to be confronted with a groundswell of grassroots demand for an academic institution that would provide comprehensive training in the church’s biblical roots.
In 2001, during a colloquium of an international team of scholars hosted by Dr. Garr, a special meeting was called to explore the possibilities of founding such an institution. Dr. Garr outlined his own vision for the establishment of a fully accredited institution of higher education that would feature a curriculum focused on Christianity’s Hebraic roots and a delivery system that would make the course materials available by way of the Internet to students around the world who could work at their own pace and in their own time. All agreed that the time had come for such an institution to be formed.
After much research and analysis, Dr. Garr was joined in 2002 by Richard G. Rawson, president of Administaff Corporation, and Edward M. Bachman, networker and administrator, in forming the non-profit corporation, Hebraic Heriage Christian School of Theology, Inc. that now does business as Hebraic Christian College. Initially John and Pat Garr, Richard and Dawn Rawson, and Ed and Diane Bachman formed the committee that developed the organization’s business plan, its constitution, and its bylaws.
Immediately after its founding, the College was joined by a stellar team of scholars, business leaders, and spiritual leaders from a cross-section of the Christian church. Many of the members of this team had been in the forefront of scholarship focusing on Christianity’s Jewish roots for more than forty years, and most have been colleagues for more than twenty years.
The major challenge that faced the newly formed leadership team was to develop a learning management system and an educational content development, deployment, and delivery system that would fulfill the Center’s mission to create a Hebraic model for Christian education that would be delivered online.
Immediately it became apparent that in order to accomplish this mission, a more personalized and interactive means of delivering distance learning had to be developed.
Prominent among those who were involved in the the creative processes of devising such a system were Dr. and Mrs. Garr, Dr. F. Clifford Denton, and Dr. Donald Stanley. As the ideas for the system coalesced, the College’s development team contacted CrossLogic Corporation, a software development company to help fulfill the vision.
The CrossLogic team developed the HHCC-designed Learning Management System and the HHCC Educational Content Development, Deployment, and Delivery System and made it operational on January 1, 2007. The College’s commitment to continually enhancing its systems has continued unabated since that time and has resulted in the development of spectacular technological advancements that have been added to the original Learning Management System and its deployment and delivery systems.
Today, the original vision that fired the passion for the HHCC development continues to inspire us to expand our horizons and educational opportunities.