This Is Bible College

April 29th, 2010 by Dan Nichols

Naps are always needed, but usually dorm life keeps you up. Play some beach volleyball. Stay up till 6:00 AM working. Go to class from 6:30 AM till 9:00 AM. Sleep till 2:45ish. Go to meetings, meetings, and more meetings. Pick on the freshmen as much as possible.

Learn some Greek – talk some end times. Learn some evangelism – talk some church education. Hangout at your friend’s house – watch a movie. Watch your school’s baseball team play at the nearby stadium. Lead worship after curfew. Go work in the office for a little bit. Spend time in prayer.

Miss out on the cafeteria food you already paid for and eat Chinese buffet food that costs a lot just because you want to. A date here, a date there. Homework everywhere. Agendas, meetings, good conversations, dumb conversations, social overload… accomplishments, failures, lessons learned, friendships made, money lost, life goes on and life is good.

THIS IS BIBLE COLLEGE.

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Spring Banquet

April 27th, 2010 by Catie Prinzing

I set my hair in place and put on my new black heels. Tonight is the spring banquet. Every year around this time, BBC holds a free, semi-formal occasion for all the students. It’s kind of like prom without dancing, and way more fun. There’s great food, hilarious entertainment, lots of pictures, and the warmth of the BBC atmosphere.

 My best friend Bethany and I eagerly awaited the arrival of our male companions as we traded lip gloss and grabbed our tickets. While lots of people choose to have dates for this event, many go with groups of friends. I have done both and find that each is exciting in its own way.

 We pulled into the parking lot of a fancy banquet hall in Scranton and hurried inside to find all of our friends excitedly taking pictures and securing their seats at tables near the front. It was incredible to see everyone dressed-up and chattering with enthusiasm about their post-banquet plans. The dimly lit room made everyone appear to be glowing in the thrill of this one special night.

Nights like these are fun. It’s a perfect way to share a few more memories before the end of the year. Our focus isn’t on the clothes or how we look, but more so on cherishing our time together. It was sad to know that my senior friends won’t be here next semester, but banquet was the perfect and happy way to see them off.

I had a blast at banquet – and I have a hundred pictures to prove it.

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Campus, I Appreciate You

April 26th, 2010 by Catie Prinzing

BBC participates in two “Appreciation Days” throughout the year: Community Appreciation and Campus Appreciation. Thursday, I had the privilege of being thankful for my campus. Half the student body got to serve on a day-long mission trip to one of the big cities in our area (Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and NYC). But the other half got to stay on campus and do some landscaping. Landscaping here means weeding and mulching – and I never had so much fun doing it.

I was in charge of Mulch Export (loading the wheelbarrows) for the majority of the day. It was cool to use pitchforks, but my hands were hurting, my arms were sore, and my face was kind of dirty. However, as I looked around at the students from every class and dormitory, I saw a body of friends working together out of thankfulness for something God gave to them. Several were singing, most were talking and laughing, but we were all working  for a good purpose. It’s true that BBC has a beautiful campus, you should visit if you haven’t yet had the chance. Feel free to check out this link to schedule a campus visit: www.bbc.edu/visit. 

Sometimes I forget to acknowledge how lucky I am to actually live here. The administration gives me a day off from classes just so I can say “thanks” to the campus where I live and learn and grow. So thanks, BBC. I hope you like the mulch.

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Fasting… A Few Days in the Life of A Youth Leader

March 10th, 2010 by Jamie Knowles

Throughout the Bible we see instances of God’s people separating themselves from life’s distractions by fasting. This time of separation allowed them to personally interact with God, without tangling themselves in the daily routine. There were different situations that caused the believers to fast. In Esther we see the entire nation of Israel fasting and crying out to God for fear of extermination because of Haaman’s wicked plan. Moses fasted before bringing God’s Law to the children of Israel. Even Jesus himself fasted before beginning His earthly ministry.

Each biblical account of fasting involved God’s people seeking for His involvement in a specific situation. Over this past weekend, our Youth Group, as well as the leaders fasted for 30 hours. Our goal was to consecrate our Youth Group, to ask God to take over and make a difference in the next year.

The night started out with us watching the Passion of the Christ, which immediately set the tone for the evening’s activities. After that, we spent a half hour singing songs that focused on the cross, and what Christ accomplished for us there. Then there were various games, activities, and lessons throughout the night. The evening then came to a close when each teen split off into their own separate room to read the book of Philippians, and connect it to their response to the cross.

When the teens woke up the next morning, everyone pitched in at 8am for the AngelFood food distribution ministry put on by our church.

Sunday morning we all came together again for worship in the morning and described to the church some of the things we saw God do, including adding new teens to a stagnant group, and convicting us all of ways we can better show Christ’s love to others.

That is a brief preview of what I would say it’s like to be a College Student training for ministry, as well as serving in ministry at BBC.

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The Unlikely Disciple: An Interview with Kevin Roose

February 16th, 2010 by Dan Nichols

This summer I read one of those books you simply can’t stop reading. The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose is a journey through Kevin’s “undercover” semester at Liberty University. Kevin was a student at Brown University when he decided to enroll at Liberty University for one semester and write a book about his experiences as a liberal non-evangelical at a conservative evangelical university. Kevin’s perspective was very engaging and very objective (especially when his liberal background collided with Liberty’s conservative environment). You can learn more about Kevin and the book at www.kevinroose.com.

I had the chance to ask Kevin a grand total of 5 questions through e-mail last summer. Here are some of Kevin’s thoughts on my questions specific to Bible college:

1) What are the biggest assumptions that Bible college administrators make regarding their students?

Well, I can’t speak about all bible college administrators, but at Liberty, the administration’s tendency is to make rules about social conduct (i.e. no drinking, no smoking, no R-rated movies) and expect students to follow them more or less effortlessly.  Which doesn’t seem realistic.  I was living with 18- and 19-year-old guys, all of whom had hormones and rebellious urges, and if you’re a Liberty administrator, asking them to follow this strict neo-Victorian social code without giving them any sort of institutional support is either cruel or naive or both.
 
2) In your book you talk about your interactions with and impressions of various pastors. From your experience with pastors at Liberty, what characterizes an effective pastor vs. a non-effective pastor?

The pastors who made the best impressions on me were the ones who celebrated doubt and skepticism as central parts of the Christian faith, and the worst were the ones who treated those emotions as weaknesses.  Also not a big fan of the pastors who try to connect with college kids by using teenage slang.  You know who I’m talking about – the guys who describe their morning devotions as “dope” and call Jesus “J.C.” 

3) What is the biggest cause of hypocrisy among Bible college students?

I’m not sure if I’d call it hypocrisy, but it always struck me as odd on the few occasions when my Liberty friends would spend hours and hours talking about the need to do Christ-like good deeds to impress non-believers, and then proceed to treat each other with disrespect.  It’s understandable – college kids, religious or not, can be pretty cruel at times – but “love thy neighbor” doesn’t just refer to people you’re trying to convert, you know?

4) Do Bible college students understand unbelievers at all? Why or why not?

I think it depends.  I met Liberty students who grew up in secular schools and communities and had just as accurate a view of non-evangelical culture as I did.  I also met students who thought all secular schools were filled with amoral, binge-drinking Satanists.  There’s a tendency to assume the worst about a foreign culture until you’re actually exposed to it firsthand, and I think a lot of these misconceptions will work themselves out when Liberty students head into the real world and meet happy, moral people of all faiths, or no faith at all.
 
5) Name the top 3 actions Bible college students, professors, and administration can demonstrate to a student like yourself.

Love (with no strings attached – in other words, not “hate the sin, love the sinner”), intellectual honesty, and a sense of humor.

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Missions Conference 2010

February 10th, 2010 by Jamie Knowles

Hey everyone,

Mission’s conference of 2010 came into swing last night and I am excited. Normally, I do not like the mission’s conference, but this year I am looking forward to it. 

This year we are using what we have learned over our time here, out on the field.  On Thursday, students from BBC are heading out into different areas to minister to people. Some students are going to New York City, Cortland, NY and Binghamton, NY for a few hours handing out food and clothing, cleaning, and street evangelism.  Other students are going to Scranton, PA to do the same thing.  The rest of the students, including myself, are staying on campus to pray for those going out.

I decided to stay on campus to pray for one reason, and that was because I need to work on my praying.  I am having a hard time getting into prayer and this is a good opportunity for me to relearn how to pray.   I have no problems helping people and participating in street evangelism, but prayer is one of the most difficult aspects of the Christian walk for me. 

I have been praying more than I normally do lately and I cannot wait to have the whole morning to just pray.  I learn more about God and myself every time I pray. 

I have found that my favorite way to pray is by using a prayer journal. I love to write my prayers and find that I am a lot more focused.  Has your mind ever wondered in your prayers, like when you are asking for help and you end up going on a rant or you just get distracted? I have found that writing also keeps me more sincere and less rushed in my prayers.  I really recommend it. 

How do you deal with being distracted in your prayers?  I would really enjoy trying out your ideas.

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Community, Church and Philosophy

February 2nd, 2010 by Dan Nichols

The community found in the local church is foundational to Christianity. If you follow Christ, you will love His church – both universal and local. Within the local branch of Christ’s church, there is a community that you will eventually discover, totally unique from anything else in the world.

My local church utilizes small group ministry in order to foster community within a large group of disciples of Christ. Last semester I began to work with co-leader Drew Whipple (an Admissions Counselor for BBC) to launch a small group for 18-25 year olds. We started out by studying different portions of the Bible, but eventually our small group discussion led into philosophy. College students can tend to lean in that direction, after all. Here are some of the questions we worked through one night – see how you would respond to these questions. My argument would be that the community found in the local church is an awesome way to wrestle through tough philosophical questions that relate to God – questions like…

“If there is a loving God in control of the world, how do you make sense out of the kind of evil and suffering that the world saw on September 11, 2001?”

“Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to; or he cannot and does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, and does not want to, he is wicked. But, if God both can and wants to abolish evil, then how come there is evil in the world?” – Epicurus

“Did God create evil? Did God create sin?”

Wrestling through philosophical questions about God becomes an extremely positive spiritual experience within the realm of local church community. This is not the only way to have a positive spiritual experience when dealing with philosophy, but it is definitely one of the best. You should try it.

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