The first class entered in 1962, with 93 students (one of them blind and using special equipment for studies). One of the things that makes LABTS the best Bible Institute in town is its consistenncy: Fifty years of steady ministry, equipping believers with knowledge of the Bible. McGee would later help with another major fund-raising project in 1977, raising $350,000 to get the school into an adequate building. McGee promoted the project to his vast radio audience, and LABTS was born. Vernon McGee, pastor of the Church of the Open Door at Biola’s historic downtown location of Sixth and Hope streets. It was founded by Jeremiah Rowe, a black pastor who wanted solid Bible instruction in his community. LABTS has just started its fiftieth year of service to the Christian community of Los Angeles. That school is the Los Angeles Bible Training School, located in Southgate just north of Watts. I know of several good ones here in Los Angeles, and in an age of declining biblical literacy, every one of them is a sign of hope.īut in Los Angeles, one Bible Institute stands out as the flagship, the standard-bearer for the whole movement. I don’t have any official numbers about this, but anecdotal evidence suggests to me that there is currently a movement of new, church-based Bible Institutes springing up. Many churches have Bible Institutes of their own, where members can expect to get a higher level of instruction (homework! quizzes! reading assignments!) than is possible in ordinary church life. I believe Biola has stayed true to its overall mission “to equip men and women to make an impact on the world for the Lord Jesus Christ,” but it has done so by ceasing to be a Bible Institute.īut other Bible Institutes have kept going without changing their form, staying at their task of teaching adult believers how to master the contents of their English Bibles, how to evangelize and disciple the people around them, and how to know God better through his word. It was big on purpose, and was planted in southern California (near Mexico and on the Pacific Rim) in order to be for the west coast what Moody was for the heartland: a major resource for all the churches of the region.Īs the twentieth century progressed, Biola intentionally shifted its institutional profile, morphing into a college, moving out of the urban core to a much bigger campus, adding graduate programs, and finally becoming a university. of L.A., BIOLA, was not just another of the small, church-based Bible Institutes. The Bible Institute movement was essentially launched by the famous Dwight Moody’s great school in Chicago, but around the end of the 19th century, it was an idea whose time had come: little Bible Institutes started popping up everywhere (see Virginia Brereton’s scholarly history of the movement for details). But they wanted to start something else: a place where adult Christians who were not professional ministers could get rigorous training in the Bible and evangelism, to equip them to serve Jesus more effectively. Torrey was a graduate of both Yale and its Divinity School). The founders of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles knew all about colleges (Lyman Stewart supported many colleges financially) and seminaries (R.A. I also work at Biola University, but that’s different.īiola was founded as a Bible Institute, way back in 1908. I teach classes at the best Bible Institute in Los Angeles.
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