Why A Biblical Education From Florida Bible College

July 22, 2014 - PRLog -- The Florida Bible College Board of Trustees has appointed  Dr. Stan Ponz as its chief spokesman. Dr. Ponz has previously served on the faculty and as the Dean of Men of FBC, and currently ministers as the Senior Pastor of International Baptist Church in Honolulu, Hawaii.  His blog will appear on the FBC web site as the official source of information and perspective.

Why A Biblical Education From Florida Bible College

I recently read an article about a University of Virginia survey conducted in which the graduates were asked what type of education they would recommend to new students considering the careers they currently represented.  Ninety one percent of them answered that they would pursue a liberal arts degree.  It should not surprise us that this would be the answer from a secular school.

Then the article stated the University of Virginia discussed what they thought were the key skills any person should gain out of their college education.  Here is what they concluded:

Communication Skills – the ability to communicate well.
Interpersonal Skills – the ability to interact with people at a meaningful level and learn how to work alongside others.
Critical Thinking Skills – the ability to assess, analyze, and correlate information to come up with problem solving solutions.

These are without doubt key skills you want to learn in college.  It really isn’t important that you learn a particular strategy on making money (how to make a living), but it is much more important in these college years of a person’s life that students learn how to communicate well, how to work with people, and how to think analytically (in other words, how to really live).

From an educational point of view, these are three goals of Florida Bible College, but not the three goals of the college.  These and all goals must be founded on sound Bible doctrine with correct theological understanding. The education is to be Bible and Christ-centered.

Perhaps a simplified way to understand this is the education received from Florida Bible College would equip students to be:

Theological – Knowing the Word of God correctly…loving the Lord with their mind.
Applicational – Integrating God’s Word into their thought, talk, and walk as a believer in Christ…living for the Lord from the inside out with all their heart.
Relational – Caring for others by taking the Gospel and God’s Word clearly into every person’s world…loving their neighbors as they do the Lord.

It is our intimacy with the Lord through an accurate understanding and application of God’s Word that fuels our outreach for the Lord.  As the student goes deeper into the Word, it is likely they will go wider for the Lord.

Can you imagine the uniqueness of Florida Bible College?

A Bible college that has a theologically sound faculty and staff with a healthy balance of inward, upward, and outward commitment to modeling a Christ-like lifestyle while teaching and mentoring the next generation servant / leaders? Academically and spiritually living and learning to grow with the students!
A student body being taught how to effectively engage the secular culture locally and globally with apologetics and with the gospel being presented correctly, clearly, courageously, compassionately, consistently, concisely, and cheerfully? Helping unsaved people come to faith alone in Christ and then teaching them how to grow in grace to become fully obedient worshippers of God!
A campus with all the necessary facilities and resources through which a sound and thorough biblical education will be provided? An educational and ministry center that is safe, secure, and advanced to support the spiritual, physical, relational, intellectual, and theological development of the Florida Bible College “Family”!

So we could talk about our commitment to Christ, to the clarity of the gospel, to one-on-one discipleship, to understanding the difference between a secular and Christian world view, sending the students into the mission fields of the world; we could talk about ministry skills in them, making them a truly educated person; we could talk about excellence in everything we do.  But the deepest core value of this institution is the authority of the Word of God, because the basis of all truth is the life-changing agency of the Godhead.

With all my heart and soul, I truly believe what we are endeavoring to do at Florida Bible College is to bring together what real education is, teaching people the kind of skills that make them effective in the world using the Word of God as the very foundation.  If that is the kind of education you want students to have, then Florida Bible College is the best place to support, and we can commend it unhesitatingly to you!

Stan Ponz, D.Min.