Seven Reasons To Attend A UPCI Endorsed Bible College
Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 10:55 AM
by: Terry R. Baughman
Young Pentecostals are faced with many choices after graduation from high school. Opportunity presents them many options. Military recruiters visit their schools extolling the virtues of a career path in national service. Secular colleges compete to get the graduates enrolled in their programs, offering scholarships and financial aid packages. Some students are making choices about long-term relationships, considering marriage and beginning families of their own. Others are tired of school and just want to find a job that pays good money. Often the choice of attending Bible College is a distant consideration, barely noted on their list of options. Following are seven reasons why a young person should consider a UPCI endorsed Bible College in his or her educational pursuits and life preparation:
1. Bible College is a safe place to find direction for life’s work.
Few students have a clear direction for their purpose in life as they graduate from high school. The temptation is to dive immediately into secular education. Some plan to get the general education classes “out of the way” while trying to figure out what to do in life. However, this is a very impressionable time of life. The sudden freedom of college life and being immersed in an anti-Christian culture is often too much for an eighteen-year-old student who may be away from home for the first time.
The Bible College environment provides an opportunity to experience some of the freedoms of growing up, but with the security of caring counselors, spiritual classes with God-centered instruction, and a structure of accountability. It is often in this stage of development where crucial questions concerning core beliefs and long-held values are asked. In Bible College, critical thinking questions are encouraged but the safety net of godly instructors and positive peer groups are present. By spending a year or more in Bible College, students have the opportunity to focus on their purpose and seek God’s will for their future.
2. Bible College affords an opportunity to answer the calling of God for ministry.
Not everyone who attends Bible College will enter pastoral ministry or become a full-time music minister. Many will find fulfillment in various other ministries of the church, enhancing the effectiveness of the congregations in which they will eventually serve. There are others that have not considered a pathway of ministerial service, but who may receive a confirmation of the calling of God to the ministry while learning in the Bible College environment. I am convinced that many more people are called by God than those who actually respond to that call. In Bible College there is opportunity to block out the noisy clamor for secular materialism, vocations that promise prestige and rational pragmatic plans for prosperity. In a place that calls for a life of faith, discipline and service, it is easier to hear the quiet voice of the Savior, “Come, follow me.”
3. Bible College provides intensive training for ministry.
There is no substitute for the teaching and instruction received from the local church pastor. Though this is valuable practical education, the opportunity to enroll in full-time Bible College instruction accelerates the pace of ministerial growth and development.
Bible College students are in class at least fifteen hours per week in addition to church services and the interaction with other students and ministers in study groups, personal discussions and faculty advising. Add it up and there could easily be twenty hours or more per week in active ministerial preparation and learning environments. In one year a student will have clocked more than 500 hours in the classroom, read a stack of books, wrote numerous papers, reflections and sermons, and read large portions of Scripture. The student will also have spent many hours in worship and prayer, heard numerous preachers and teachers, and been involved in several ministry opportunities never before experienced. No local program can hope to offer this amount of instruction and experience in such a short amount of time.
4. Bible College facilitates the creation of a Christian network.
Besides the classroom instruction and ministry opportunities afforded in Bible College, there are myriad occasions to build life-long friendships and an extensive Christian network. There are few places I go that I don’t find former students, friends and associates from my four years in Bible College. In four years there is the potential to connect with three years of previous students and three years of future students. That is a decade of college students with which friendships and interaction may develop during the four years at Bible College.
Because our colleges are small, each student has the opportunity to know all of their college classmates. At the time, few realize that these men and women will be district leaders, pastors, music directors, and teachers in churches across the country, even around the world. Whether evangelizing, raising missions’ support, or seeking a new opportunity in ministry, this network will provide a broad base of contacts and a more accessible pool of people to which you can appeal.
5. Bible College gives the opportunity to find a life partner.
Bible Colleges have long been derided as “bridal colleges,” the place to go if you are looking for a mate. It is true that many people find their life partner during their tenure at Bible College. It really is not a bad idea! One of my former college instructors said, “If you’re gonna pick oranges, you gotta go where oranges grow!” It is a fact of life that young people in the college age group are more likely to be looking for that right life partner than those at other ages. What better place to look for a mate than in a spiritual environment where other youth of similar interests are seeking their life purpose as well? It might not be the only reason to go to Bible College, but it is okay if it is one of the reasons to go!
6. Bible College prepares students for a fulfilling life of service.
The “happiness quotient” should not be overlooked when choosing a vocation. According to one national survey the clergy tops the list in job satisfaction. There are many other jobs that will provide greater financial rewards. Some careers may offer greater prestige in the community, but few occupations will provide the opportunity to serve with the overall satisfaction that is found in a life of ministry. What if you spend your life frying hamburgers, sewing bed sheets or trading stocks on Wall Street? All occupations have merit, but at the end of the day how will you feel about your choice of vocation in life? At the end of your life will you feel that you have contributed to somebody’s life? Have you made a difference in anyone?
7. Bible College has eternal value.
There is no way to really know how the kingdom of God has been impacted by the ministry of the instructors in Bible College and the influence they have made on the church. A multitude of souls will be in heaven because someone attended Bible College, responded to the call of God, devoted her life to missions, or taught Sunday school, or became a pastor in a church. This is the contribution of our Bible Colleges that result in an eternal value.
Only eternity will reveal the extent to which lives have been shaped and transformed in Bible College. In my experience I have seen countless lives turned around and have heard their testimonies of how God altered their direction and gave them purpose through their Bible College experience. Young people need to hear those stories and be challenged to seek the same direction for their lives.
Of all the choices available to young graduates at the time of their commencement, attending a UPCI endorsed Bible College should be at the top of the list. Careful consideration should accompany prayer and godly counsel when making this most important decision in life. God is still calling. Who will answer?
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Terry R. Baughman is an instructor and the Executive Vice President of Christian Life College, Stockton, California. A graduate of the same college, he has also earned a M.A. in Exegetical Theology from Western Seminary, San Jose, California.