Editor’s note: The Master’s University (previously Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary, Los Angeles Baptist College, and The Master’s College) is nearing its 100th year as an institution. As we approach the milestone in 2027, this is the sixth in a series of stories about men and women used mightily by the Lord in our history.
Los Angeles Baptist College had reached a crossroads.
For years, the school had made steady, hard-won progress. It moved from a quarter of an acre in Los Angeles to a sprawling campus in Newhall, added new academic programs, and saw enrollment grow from 50 to nearly 400. Regional accreditation, long desired, was achieved.
Then a recession in the early 1980s crushed the institution’s finances, and LABC’s longtime president, Dr. John Dunkin, felt exhausted and sensed it was time to retire. By 1984, the prospect of the school’s closing became very real.
Of course, this was not the first time the institution’s existence had been threatened. And once again, the Lord saw fit to sustain it, delivering a new president who shared Dunkin’s unwavering commitment to Christ and Scripture but whose global ministry could broaden the school’s constituency and impact.
The Master’s University’s commencement ceremony on May 9 will mark Dr. John MacArthur’s 40th graduation at the institution. And in celebration of the occasion, friends of the University graciously agreed to reflect on his providential arrival.
MacArthur’s arrival in 1985 stirred up new levels of excitement about TMC.
For 34 years, John MacArthur served as president of The Master’s College and then The Master’s University, transitioning to his current role as chancellor in 2019. The Lord has blessed the school in spectacular ways during this time.
Under MacArthur’s leadership, traditional undergraduate enrollment has reached an all-time high of 1,200 students (with over 1,000 more in graduate, online, and other programs). Thanks to generous support, TMU’s endowment has eclipsed $100 million. A campus that once covered 43 acres now spans more than 120, with exciting plans underway for further expansion. TMU offers 150-plus programs, and The Master’s Seminary, opened in 1986, has trained thousands of men to faithfully exposit Scripture across the globe.
Almost everything in the preceding paragraph would have seemed unimaginable in 1984.
For decades, Dunkin and those under his leadership had faithfully poured their lives into LABC. They served students at great personal cost, toiling for meager pay and juggling multiple roles. Some professors worked summer jobs to make ends meet.
“I worked with a painting contractor,” says Dr. John Hotchkiss, an English professor from 1969 to 2013. “I also worked at Newhall Electric and two summers at Magic Mountain in the merchandise warehouse.” Others taught summer school and filled pulpits so they could go on serving a college they dearly loved. It was always an uphill battle.
During the 70s, LABC saw steady enrollment growth, peaking at nearly 400 students in 1979. The upswing reversed, however, when a severe recession in the early 80s left LABC hurting for students and funding. Few solutions were readily available, even from the school’s sponsoring body, the General Association of Regular Baptists (GARB).
LABC and the GARB had both been products of a major schism over modernism in the Northern Baptist Convention in the early 20th century, each landing firmly on the fundamentalist side. This made them natural allies. But despite sound theological convictions and good intentions, the GARB could provide only limited support to LABC.
This was partly due to geography. Churches in the GARB were mostly located in the Midwest, leaving LABC out of sight and out of mind on the West Coast. While many congregations gave to the college, it wasn’t in large sums, and by the 1980s most of LABC’s students came from outside the GARB.
So when hard times came, some at LABC saw the need for a change. Dr. John Stead, the vice president for academic affairs in ’84, said he believed the school needed to get into a “whole different league” to avoid closing its doors.
“I believed in my own heart that it would only be a short period of time after Dr. Dunkin resigned that the college would continue to struggle and struggle and eventually go out of business,” Stead said during a 1986 chapel message.
Dr. John Stead (pictured here in the late 1980s) had been friends with Dr. MacArthur since high school. They shared an important breakfast in 1984.
Dunkin felt it too. In October 1984, he submitted his resignation to the board, effective July 1985. He emphasized that his decision hadn’t arisen out of dissent.
“It was our conviction that twenty-six years as president had exhausted a great deal of our strength and creativity,” he wrote in a history for TMC. “The college had been such a major part of our lives and such a central factor in the interests of our children that we could hardly conceive of another role. However, we were convinced that the decision should be made.”
LABC’s search committee consisted of seven board members, a professor, and Stead. One early candidate was John MacArthur, but the idea was quickly dismissed. MacArthur already had a job as the pastor of Grace Community Church and wasn’t likely to leave his pulpit. And besides, he wasn’t a Baptist — a seeming non-starter for a GARB-affiliated school.
But Stead wasn’t ready to move on. He saw MacArthur’s doctrinal convictions, national prominence, and vision as strong selling points. What’s more, MacArthur was well-known at LABC. He had taught classes there, spoken in chapel, and even played on staff intramural teams.
Stead and MacArthur had also been friends since high school and remained close over the years. So in late 1984, Stead invited MacArthur to breakfast at the Horseless Carriage, a diner inside the Galpin Ford dealership on Roscoe Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley. Stead had a question: Would MacArthur consider becoming LABC’s next president?
As Stead recalls, MacArthur said he would “not be disinterested.”
MacArthur had a lot to consider when he was asked to be LABC’s next president. But as he prayed and sought counsel, he saw the Lord’s hand in it all.
Of course, there was a lot to consider. MacArthur, 45 at the time, pastored a church that drew close to 7,000 people every Sunday morning. He had recently published commentaries on Hebrews and 1 Corinthians, with 25 New Testament books left to cover. And his radio and cassette ministry reached thousands globally. He did not need another job, and this one presented significant challenges.
“I sought counsel from people in Christian education, and they said, ‘You would be a fool to do that,’” MacArthur said during a Q&A at Grace Church last year. “Digging the school out of a hole of financial difficulties and all of that.”
But as MacArthur considered the opportunity, he couldn’t help seeing the Lord’s hand. The school was doctrinally sound and staffed by faithful people, and he was thrilled by the opportunity to equip generations of young men and women for service to Christ. “I couldn’t shake it,” he said.
“I think if I understood at that time what it would mean to do this, I probably would have walked the other way,” MacArthur said. “Although now, looking back, I’m glad the Lord kept me ignorant so I would step in and see His hand the way I have.”
Says MacArthur’s eldest son, Matt, “It became apparent he was the man for the job.”
In early 1985, MacArthur met with LABC’s search committee at the Ranch House Inn in Valencia. The gathering proved unforgettable. “I tell people it was a two-hour interview, which wasn’t true,” says Jim Rickard Sr., a board member at the time. “MacArthur talked for two hours. It was a two-hour graduate course in theology and what he would do with the school. It was a slam dunk.”
Next came a vote by the full board of directors. Despite obvious momentum, Stead worried that the board’s ties to the GARB might impede MacArthur’s candidacy. Stead wasn’t in attendance at the meeting, but he participated nonetheless. “I just got down on my knees beside my bed and I began to pray as I’ve never prayed before,” he recounted during a TMC chapel. “I knew God’s will would be done. But I just wanted to make sure that I was where God wanted me to be.”
In the end, despite reservations from a few voters out of loyalty to the GARB, LABC’s board moved decisively to call MacArthur as president. Rickard Sr. credits the harmonious vote to Dunkin’s unwavering support of MacArthur, which the longtime president offered despite his own deep connections to the GARB. Ultimately, Dunkin admired MacArthur’s love for Scripture and believed he was God’s man for the job.
“I did not have a greater friend or a more loyal ally at the college than Dr. Dunkin,” MacArthur says.
On May 12, 1985, John F. MacArthur officially became the institution’s eighth president, safeguarding its Christ-centered mission and forever changing its trajectory.
Generations of students have benefited from sitting under Dr. MacArthur’s teaching in chapel.
One thing was immediately obvious: Los Angeles Baptist College needed a new name.
After all, the school no longer called L.A. home, and it wasn’t primarily for Baptists anymore. But what to call it?
MacArthur says the breakthrough came one day at home in a conversation with his wife, Patricia.
“I said, ‘We have to think of a new name for this school,’” MacArthur recalls. “And she said, ‘Why don’t you call it The Master’s College?’ It was sheer genius.”
The name was indeed fitting. It signified that the college belonged to the Master, Jesus Christ, which MacArthur further explained in a letter to supporters.
“It reflects a desire on the part of everyone to be distinctively Christ-centered — to be a place where young people are discipled by the Master.”
MacArthur credits his wife, Patricia, with coming up with the name “The Master’s College.”
Many heard of TMC for the first time on MacArthur’s “Grace to You” radio program, which helped stir up excitement and interest across the country. Thousands of listeners instantly trusted TMC because they knew and trusted the school’s president. By the fall of 1985, enrollment had nearly doubled from 285 to 447. The following year, it rose to 571.
“It was, ‘Fasten your seatbelt. Here we go,’” Rickard Sr. says.
On campus, MacArthur’s arrival buoyed the spirits of faculty and staff. “On behalf of the faculty, it is with great anticipation and enthusiasm that we affirm you as president,” Stead said at MacArthur’s inauguration on Sept. 8, 1985. “You bring to us the best of our past. But through God’s provision and grace, you also call us to an expanded vision of the future.”
What Stead meant by “the best of the past” was clear. MacArthur shared the school’s doctrinal convictions, chief among them a commitment to the supremacy of Christ and the inerrancy, sufficiency, and authority of Scripture. The goal at TMC, MacArthur wrote in a letter, was that every student “not just get a Christian education, but live a holy life to the glory of God.”
It wasn’t long before MacArthur’s “expanded vision of the future” also came into focus.
In 1985, TMC respectfully stopped applying for approval from the GARB. The school lost support from numerous churches, but the Lord soon brought new donors with greater resources.
The school’s new name signified that it belonged to the Master, Jesus Christ.
According to Dr. R.W. Mackey, a TMU business professor who wrote his dissertation on the transition from LABC to TMC, charitable contributions for the 1984-85 fiscal year totaled roughly $500,000. A year later that number jumped to $3.5 million.
One donor gave a million dollars for the construction of Dixon and Sweazy dorms. TMC also acquired two lots adjacent to Bross Gym and Reese Field, land that now houses three academic buildings, the fitness center, and baseball and soccer locker rooms. Sixty-one acres of undeveloped land southwest of campus, over the hill, were also purchased, as were two houses between campus and Placerita Bible Church (then Placerita Baptist).
TMC made other significant capital improvements. It performed major remodels of Hotchkiss, Vider, and King halls. The second floor of Rutherford Hall, previously a cafeteria, was refashioned into executive offices, with space for admissions, development, and finance installed on the first floor.
The library added 80,000 volumes to its collection. The Hotchkiss pool was resurfaced. Almost no facility remained untouched, Mackey wrote.
Athletics was another area of emphasis — which comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with MacArthur’s passion for sports and his belief in their value for Christian growth. For the first time, according to Mackey, the athletics department branched off from the physical education department, and the school made greater investments into facilities, scholarships, and coaching salaries.
The Signal newspaper highlighted MacArthur’s impact on TMC athletics in a 1994 article, including him among the top 75 “sports legends” in Santa Clarita Valley history. It states that MacArthur, No. 30 on the list, “came to the school in 1985 with the goal of building a strong athletic program.”
It didn’t take long for MacArthur, a regular attendee at TMC athletic events, to make progress. One sport that saw almost immediate improvement was men’s soccer, which won National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) national championships in 1987 and 1989.
MacArthur’s passion for athletics and its value in the development of Christian young people is well-known.
TMC faculty and staff also received new levels of support. Mackey wrote that in TMC’s first two years, staff members experienced an average pay increase of 26.6%, with faculty receiving a 43.6% bump.
During this time, the school also expanded its staff — especially in the area of student life — and hired cornerstone faculty members, including Patricia Ennis, Taylor Jones, Kim Jones, Ken Mays, Benjamin Powell, and others. MacArthur was especially involved in the hiring of Bible faculty, bringing Tom Halstead with him from Grace Church and later adding Greg Behle, C.W. Smith, and Doug Bookman.
Chapel was extended to 75 minutes, and according to Mackey, greater emphasis was placed on drawing faithful, dynamic preachers from outside the campus.
This all fit with TMC’s driving ethos: Everything was an offering to the Lord, and as such, needed to be excellent. “We are committed to a standard of excellence in all that we undertake,” states a TMC document chronicling 1985-1989. “We believe that if God is in it, He wants us to do everything in a way that truly glorifies Him.”
MacArthur hired two men to oversee this pursuit of excellence in key areas: Bob Provost as executive vice president and Russell Moir as assistant to the president and director of student life.
Provost, a pastor in Akron, Ohio, had been considering a move to China for missionary work before MacArthur convinced him to oversee TMC’s day-to-day operations and help equip a generation of missionaries.
Moir was leading Grace Church’s junior high ministry when MacArthur asked him to spearhead student life at TMC. With infectious energy, Moir emphasized heart transformation and Spirit-empowered living, elements quickly embraced by the student body.
When he became the director of student life in 1985, Russell Moir emphasized heart transformation and Spirit-empowered living.
Both men had long-lasting impacts. Under their direction, TMC built a robust summer missions program for students, faculty, and staff (later called Global Outreach, or GO); began setting aside three days for service and evangelism in the greater L.A. area (Outreach Week); and established a rambunctious, Christ-centered intro to TMC for incoming students (the Week of Welcome, or WOW).
Dr. Harry Walls, who served as the dean of men under Moir, refers to the early years of TMC as a “golden era” in school history. “There was a pioneering spirit,” he says, “and a joyful enthusiasm.”
On the morning of Nov. 5, 1990, readers of the Los Angeles Times opened their papers to find an article titled, “Amazing Growth: Sleepy Baptist College Takes Off Under New Leader.”
It reads in part, “The school is one of the fastest-growing Christian liberal arts colleges in the nation, known for an energetic student body devoted to evangelizing in Southern California and throughout the world.”
By then, enrollment had hit 845.
How was this college expanding at a time when institutions across the country were shrinking? “Some might call the change a miracle,” the story states. “Others call it a testimony to the appeal and influence of the Rev. John MacArthur.”
In reality, both sentiments were true.
Says Harry Walls, “Obviously, John stood on the shoulders of others, and he needed help from others. But we are where we are, from a human vantage point, because of his life and leadership. That’s undeniable.”
Russell Moir agrees. “I don’t know of any other great Christian leader at that time who could have come here and accomplished what John has.”
In a letter he wrote to supporters in 1989, MacArthur weighed in on the subject: “If I sound like a salesman, I guess I am. I have never been more enthused about a ministry than I am about the college and seminary. And I have never seen anything that is more clearly the powerful work of God than what is happening here. We are all spectators seeing God at work building lives to the glory of His name.”
Special gratitude is due to Dr. R.W. Mackey for his careful, thoughtful detailing of the LABC to TMC transition in his Pepperdine dissertation. A number of the details related to the changes that took place in the two years following Dr. MacArthur’s appointment come from Mackey’s excellent work.
