Messiah College: Bible school and Christian higher education

The Brethren in Christ Church chartered Messiah Bible School and Missionary Training Home in 1909. Classes began the following year in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with twelve students. The institution soon moved to Grantham, where first president Samuel Rogers Smith provided land for its expanding campus. Initially offering secondary education and Bible instruction, Messiah introduced college-level work in the early 1920s and later developed four-year programs in theology and religious education.

It adopted the name Messiah College in 1951, ended its secondary program in 1959, and gained accreditation in 1963. Upland College merged with Messiah in 1965, connecting two Brethren in Christ educational histories. Graduate education and a broader range of programs eventually led to the name Messiah University in 2020. The chart’s 1909 date is thus the institution’s charter milestone; it does not mean that all of these later programs were already present at the beginning.