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Establishing a Bible Institute

RECOMMENDATIONS

We believe it is the scriptural way to establish your training program under the ministry of your church, with the Pastor as the chief teacher. (Bible Baptist Church, Oak Harbor is not a “Bible College” and does not have a correspondence program, nor do we issue diplomas — except to those men trained through our own institute. Through our publications ministry, we are suppliers of materials.)

We recommend a three- or four-year program of preparation for those planning on entering full time ministry. This includes classroom lectures and practical ministry experience.

We recommend a minimum of four hours of personal instruction per week. We have used Monday evening classes with a one-hour Sunday afternoon class to accomplish this. This traditional method follows the “school year” calendar. We have also set up a “modular” program, where one subject is taught for a whole week — three to four hours per night. Of course, it helps if you can have two pastors instructing.

We recommend that each year contain a balance of knowledge and practical instruction.

We recommend that the first subjects to be taught should be the basics — doctrine, personal evangelism, and Bible survey. However, the plan is flexible and should be designed by the pastor who is training the men.

Our materials come with “Study Questions” for each lecture. We recommend the students be quizzed frequently with questions based on the Study Questions. When using the traditional method, we also recommend you test each student about one-third and two-thirds of the way through each particular course. (With Baptist Doctrine, Expository Bible Teaching, etc., a test after each unit is best.) Then, at the end of each course, have an examination covering all the material. The results of the quizzes, tests, and examinations — together with assignments — will go to make up the final grade.

You must balance the “memory” and “written” portions of the grading. Some courses (e.g. Doctrine) must lean on the side of memory; other courses (e.g. Church History) must lean on the side of written assignments (unless you want your students to memorize a whole bunch of dates!).

We strongly recommend each student purchase a set of notes. They will be the best textbooks they can have. Some of the curricula we provide require the use of additional texts, which can be purchased through a normal “Christian” bookstore or other outlet. Our policy is to gradually extirpate these texts as a requirement — not because they are of no value, but because texts like these often go out of print or are revised to be compatible with some Bible perversion.

We believe it is good to get helpful texts into the hands of those we train, particularly if a man has a definite call of God upon his life to the ministry. The student’s pastor is the best person to make recommendations for these.

SUGGESTED TRADITIONAL METHOD:

FIRST YEAR: [112 hours]
    Baptist Doctrine (Part One) — 1½ hours per week X 32 weeks
    Old Testament History — 1 hour per week X 32 weeks
    Personal Evangelism — 1 hour per week X 16 weeks
    The Life of Christ — 1 hour per week X 16 weeks

SECOND YEAR: [112 hours]
    Baptist Doctrine (Part Two) — 1½ hours per week X 32 weeks
    The Life of Paul — 1 hour per week X 16 weeks
    Church History — 1 hour per week X 32 weeks
    Homiletics — 1 hour per week X 16 weeks

THIRD YEAR: [112 hours]
    Expository Bible Teaching — 1½ hours per week X 32 weeks
    Bible Prophecy — 1 hour per week X 32 weeks
    English Bible: Manuscript Evidence — 1 hour per week X 32 weeks

FOURTH YEAR: [24 hours]
Pastoral Theology — 1 hour X 16 weeks
Baptist Polity — 1 hour X 32 weeks

SUGGESTED MODULAR METHOD:

Under this method, each subject is taught in its entirety in one or two modules. A module consists of three to 3½ hours per night for four nights of one week each month. The method yields the same amount of instruction time as the traditional method, and requires the same overall time (three or four years). Instead of the students taking a load of two or three subjects over the course of the academic year, they study each subject in concentrated “bursts.”

The advantages of this method are:

It does not “tie up” a pastor or instructor for a whole year.
It does not require students to attend classes each week.
Students are able to concentrate on one subject at a time.
It opens up opportunities to bring in a guest pastor or lecturer for one week — especially helpful if he is an “expert” in that particular subject. This preacher could also speak in the regular Church meetings if desired.
It is flexible enough to fit in with the church calendar, special meetings, holidays, etc.

The disadvantages are:

It makes for a demanding week — especially for the instructor.
It is not as suited to subjects requiring considerable time for student projects and assignments — notably, Homiletics (where the student must prepare and preach at least three sermons) and Expository Bible Teaching. These difficulties can be overcome, however, if the Church provides ample opportunities for students to preach and teach throughout the year.
Assignments may have to be reduced in size or otherwise tailored to reasonably fit the time available to the student.
Subjects that normally would require frequent testing (such as Church History) will need to have their testing methods revised.

A suggested plan is set forth on the chart below. This plan has the following features:

Teaching is done on the same week of each month. This consists of four evenings — Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday. This gives 3¼ hours × 4 = 13 hours of lectures each week (allowing for a recommended five minute break between “hours”).
On the Sunday before the next module, students are tested on the previous module. They must hand in their assignment that was given three weeks earlier.
The process repeats itself over nine months of the year, yielding 117 hours of classroom instruction per year.

This plan does require more discipline on the part of the students. There will be no time for procrastination when it comes to assignments and preparing for tests. Even though they will be spending five nights per month in the classroom, they must still put in additional time for study, reading, and writing assignments during the “off” weeks. At least that time will be spent at home.

Click here to view a Modular Chart

REQUIRED TEXTS:

The following supplementary texts are still required for certain courses of study using Bible Baptist Church Publications curriculum:

Old Testament History
    A Survey of Israel’s History
    by: Leon Wood
    Academie Books (a division of Zondervan)
    Christian Book Distributors

Personal Evangelism:
    The Soul Winner
    by: Charles Spurgeon
    Eerdmans
    Christian Book Distributors
    The Soul Winner’s Fire
    by: John R. Rice
    Sword of the Lord

Church History:
    A Concise History of the Baptists
    by: G. H. Orchard
    Bogard Press
    The Trail of Blood
    by: J. M. Carroll
    Challenge Press

Homiletics:
    The Preacher & His Preaching
    by: A. P. Gipps
    Walterick Publishers
    D&K Press

Baptist Polity
    Principles & Practices for Baptist Churches
    by: E. T. Hiscox
    Kregel (reprint)

Pastoral Theology
    Lectures to My Students
    by: C. H. Spurgeon
    Revell
    Christian Book Distributors

BOOK SUPPLIERS:

If these texts cannot be obtained through your local Christian book store, the following suppliers may help:

Baptist Sunday School Committee & Bogard Press (Texarkana, Texas)
    1-800-264-2482
    1-903-792-8128 — fax
    bssc@abaptist.org

Christian Book Distributors
    P.O. Box 7000,
    Peabody, MA 01961-7000
    1-978-977-5000
    orders@chrbook.com
    http://www.christianbook.com

Challenge Press
    Lehigh Valley Baptist Church
    Emmaus, PA
    1-610-965-4700
    www.challengepress.org

D&K Press
    P.O. Box 2245,
    Castro Valley, CA 94546
    1-800-777-8839
    1-510-881-1173 — fax
    dkpress1@aol.com
    www.dkpresschristianbooks.com

Kregel
    Grand Rapids, MI
    1-888-USD-BOOK
    1-616-459-9444
    usedbooks@kregel.com

The Sword of the Lord
Murfreesboro, TN
1-800-251-4100

ECS Ministries
    P.O. Box 1028,
    Dubuque, IA 52001
    1-563-585-2070
    ecsorders@ecsministries.org
    www.ecsministries.org

The cost to give a man a sound Bible education through a church Bible Institute is less than $400. The real cost is the input from God’s man — who alone can impart (through the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and personal experience) those necessary qualities and experiences that make a man a “man of God.”

“But thou hast fully known my…
    doctrine
    manner of life
    purpose
    faith
    longsuffering
    charity
    patience
    persecutions
    afflictions…”
— II Timothy 3:10,11a.