by David Melton
I know most of you don’t get to Boston very often. That’s a shame. You should come. Our city is one of the world’s great cities and our campus may well be as important to God as anything else in this city.
If you don’t wade into the water of 21st century ministry education every day, it is easy to not see what is going on. Then, on those occasions when pastors get together at meetings, conversations about Boston are usually the necessary discussions about enrollment and budgets. Riveting! Now, don’t get me wrong, I care about student head counts and cash flow (so if you want to interpret that as a fundraising pitch, go ahead and take it that way!). But I wish you could really know what happens at Boston Baptist College.
Sure, Bible college life has lots of laughs (like that synchronized table thing Rebekah, Donnie, and Stacey were teaching me in the cafe after lunch!). Our students are healthy, savvy, “normal” young people. New couples form (and un-form), new songs get played, new haircuts come and go, and new phones are admired and acquired.
That’s all “salad” though. In Boston, “steak” is still our specialty. The meat of God’s Word is what we do. We work at it hard, and we don’t sidestep or talk more about philosophy than textual mandate. We do Bible, and we are not bashful about it.
We are right in the middle of Senior Seminar season right now. Every senior works hard on biblical worldview with Dan Burrell, charges through the aberrant new wave theologies with Bruce Garner, and then comes the committee work. Every senior, as the capstone of his or her Biblical Studies program, works through an integrative biblical topic and presents to a faculty committee. It is the impressive pinnacle of a world-class Biblical Studies program.
We spend four years getting students ready for that seminar. Mike Patterson takes them through the Old Testament. A student may not know a Jeroboam from a Jersey boy when he arrives on campus, but we will fix that! Ken Gillming gets the doctrine ball rolling at freshman level.
I know that some think today’s young undergraduates don’t or can’t do real exposition of Scripture. Ha! Ask our students about a Snavely Expo. Dr. Snavely will have them with their sleeves rolled up digging deep in the Scripture … learning how to harvest those divine treasures for themselves.
I teach a course on Jesus. I have to work hard because I don’t want my course to be the caboose! We groom Boston students to work hard in the Scriptures. The truth of God is still the only hope for any age. That’s what the men and women at Boston Baptist College do. I wish you could see it.
As a matter of fact, why don’t you? The September 2011 BBF meeting is here at our place. This is your personal invite to come see Boston for yourself.