by Marty Hughes
Pastor, Grace Harbor Baptist Church, Grove, OK
When my mother walked across the platform at BBC to receive her diploma, I was already well on my way to making my grand entrance into the world. I have never been a member of a church that was not associated with the BBFI. My childhood heroes were not athletes, musicians, or movie stars, they were pastors, missionaries, evangelists, and pioneering church planters.
My first recollection of being a part of something bigger than myself was a trip to BBC with my father and two other pastors, Carl Bush and Clyde Barnes, when I was only nine years old. Those men were giants in my eyes and they were going to Springfield to challenge students to start BBF churches in the wide-open mission field of Wisconsin.
That visit opened my eyes to the passion our Fellowship has always had for training young men and women to turn the world upside down for Christ. It wasn’t long after that visit I decided one day I would be a student at Baptist Bible College.
The four years I spent on BBC campus had a phenomenal impact on my life. In the classroom, I learned practical truth from men and women who had been on the front lines for Christ. In chapel, I heard from the best and brightest of our Fellowship. My heart was stirred and motivated to reach the world for Christ at any cost. The opportunities for practical ministry taught me things I could learn in no other way. But looking back, the most valuable resource I acquired during those years was the network of friends, associates, and mentors I have drawn on continually over the last 35 years of ministry.
This is the main reason the colleges and their respective alumni associations are so important to the success of our Fellowship. Ministry is difficult, if not impossible, to survive in isolation. Genuine fellowship thrives in an atmosphere of commonality. A common spirit, a common mission, and a common resource make for a fruitful endeavor. In a Fellowship as large and diverse as ours, we need a rallying point and a common connection to remind us we are part of something larger than ourselves.
As a BBFI pastor, I look at our colleges as my connection with the past. Strong and faithful leaders, at great personal cost, set the course and laid the foundation for a movement that would impact the world. We have a fruitful history, evidenced by the wonderful display during the international meeting in Seoul this spring.
But as Tom Messer said in his sermon during Fellowship Week, “The past is a point of reference, not a place of residence.” Our colleges are my connection to what God is doing right now in the present. As our churches grow and face challenges of an ever-decaying culture, we need the zeal and passion of youth to join us in the fight. New voices and fresh perspectives are not always welcomed, but they are needed if we are to break through the ever-increasing barriers erected by our post-modern culture. I am deeply encouraged by the passion for Christ I see in recent graduates of our colleges who are now entrenched in ministry in our churches and on the mission field.
Yesterday, I spoke with one of the “old guard” of our Fellowship about an alumnus of my generation who attended Fellowship Week this year for the first time in a couple decades. His comment was, “It does my heart good to see so many of you young guys stepping up.” I chuckled that he considered me a young guy, but I believe his observation is accurate. As I look around, I see a new generation of leadership arising in our Fellowship that I believe bodes well for our future.
Our colleges and their alumni associations serve as the connection between our past and our future. The alumni association challenges those who have benefitted from the resources of our Fellowship in the past and in the present to engage with and invest in those who will lead us into the future. We cannot afford to be short-sighted about this.
The founders of our Fellowship recognized the importance of having schools train those who would pastor our churches and serve as our missionaries. For over six decades, our churches have invested money, time, energy, and the lives of their students so the colleges of the BBFI would thrive and grow. That investment must not fall by the wayside.
I am thankful for my BBFI DNA. I am grateful for the network of friends and associates I have benefitted from over my years of ministry. And I am hopeful we can see continued blessings of God on our Fellowship from generation to generation until He comes.