Calvary Chapel Bible College: A Beautiful Legacy & an Exciting New Season

[00:00:02] It's not a school of ministry, but it's also not a Christian University. And we have no ambitions to be so. A Bible College is about providing a biblical foundation, regardless of the calling that the Lord is taking you to. Welcome to the CGN Podcast.

[00:00:22] My name is Nick Kady. I'm the pastor of Whitefield's Community Church in Longmont, Colorado. And along with Pastor Brian Broderson, I will be your host this season. The purpose of this podcast is to share with you the stories of what God is doing through Calvary Global Network.

[00:00:37] CGN is a family of churches, working together to proclaim the gospel, make disciples and plant churches. In the next two episodes, we'll be highlighting some of the training resources that we provide in order to equip people to carry out that mission.

[00:00:55] In this episode we speak with Pastor Justin Thomas, Justin is the President of Calvary Chapel Bible College in Twin Peaks, California. Calvary Chapel Bible College is about to celebrate 50 years of training people in the scriptures.

[00:01:09] And in this discussion, we talk about the school's recent move back up to their original location, as well as some new opportunities the school provides in regard to course offerings and accreditation. Here's the episode. Hey guys! Hello! Hey Nick!

[00:01:28] Well today on this episode, what we're going to be talking about is some of the training resources that exist within the CGN network. Justin, maybe introduce yourself to our listeners, tell us a little bit about your role and your history with that role. Sure!

[00:01:42] Yeah, I'm the President of Calvary Chapel Bible College, and I'm just coming up on the 20-year anniversary of when I was a student at CCBC while it was in Mirrietta.

[00:01:52] In the interim, I've been in the Seattle area 12 years of which I was the founding pastor of Calvary the Hill.

[00:01:58] And I just jumped at the opportunity to come back and serve the school that I love that was so significant to me and has been so significant to Calvary Chapel.

[00:02:08] And Pastor Brian, the Calvary Chapel Bible College, it was in Mirrietta for some years, but now it's back in Twin Peaks. So I'm sure people might have wondered, like, how did that happen? Maybe you can tell us.

[00:02:20] Yeah, well the Bible College started at Twin Peaks back in 1975 when I'll be gone. And then about 20 years later we relocated, we purchased a property in Mirrietta, California. And so we had relocated the Bible College down to that property there.

[00:02:41] It just at the time, it just seemed like it might be a better fit. It would accommodate many more students which over time proved to be the right decision at one point.

[00:02:51] You know, we had over 500 students on campus, so we could have never done that at Twin Peaks. But then again, as time went on and of course COVID was a big, big factor because the facility was not just a Bible College, it was a conference center.

[00:03:10] And COVID pretty much shut down our business entirely. So there was no way we could financially continue to maintain the property without an income. So we decided that we would put it up for sale and just kind of see what the Lord would do.

[00:03:28] And sure enough, a buyer came in. And then we were left with the decision of where do we go from here? Of course, we had never even thought for a moment about shutting the Bible College down. But it was, you know, where do we relocate to?

[00:03:46] So we looked at a few different options. We explored a few different properties and, you know, Twin Peaks was always there in the back of our minds. Like, you know, this is probably be the place that we would go back to where we started.

[00:04:05] And so we started to train with that idea and then funny enough somebody came who did have quite a bit of knowledge about the past history.

[00:04:14] And they informed us that it was not going to be possible to move back up the hill because when we left a lot of different things changed with the community up there and the coding and all of this, you know, many, many reasons it sounded very legitimate.

[00:04:31] Like, maybe we're, maybe we don't even have that option anymore. But, you know, it's funny because in the end as we explore some different things, I just had this gut feeling like, no, I think somehow we're going to go back up to Twin Peaks.

[00:04:46] We started a meeting and I began the meeting by saying it's 98% certain we cannot go to Twin Peaks. Three hours later, I said, I know I said it's 98% certain that we can't go to Twin Peaks,

[00:04:56] but I think we need to press on and go forward and, you know, going back to Twin Peaks. So I made a couple of calls. We did some investigation two weeks later. We, we had permission to move back up the hill.

[00:05:12] So that is how we ended up making the decision to go back up. So, the cover-tapable Bible College today is back to where it originally began. Well, 49 years now. Yeah. Coming up on the big anniversary. You know, do you have anything planned for it?

[00:05:28] I'm just to do the best we can to tell the history of the last 50 years and reunite with, you know, 50 years of students who have been impacted by this institution. So we're going to take this whole coming year just to plan that year. We're really excited about it.

[00:05:45] And do, is there any number on like how many students have been trained through Calribabob College over the years? Yeah. I mean, the school has changed its shape evolved over the years and keeping records as part of that evolution.

[00:05:59] And so I only have data that goes back into the mid-80s. But from then, I can tell you that we've had over 4,000 graduates from 49 states, 22 countries.

[00:06:10] And that's just the graduates. There's plenty of students who have passed through for a semester or for a year and been impacted, but not actually finished the programs. So the number of alumni is well in the tens of thousands of students over the last 50 years. Yeah, that's incredible.

[00:06:28] And so does that include those who have studied through distance learning and stuff like that? I, some of that, but it doesn't touch all of the other fellowship of Calvary Chapel Bible colleges throughout the world, which would add to these numbers even more. Yeah.

[00:06:44] Yeah. I know there's a network of them throughout the world. So tell us a little bit about what resources exist. Who are they for? Yeah. And how can people get in touch with them? Yeah.

[00:06:55] So Calvary Chapel Bible College is a Bible College, which is a specific type of institution. And so I like to point out that it's not a lay seminary. This isn't just a shorter or an earlier road for ministry education.

[00:07:13] It's not a school of ministry, but it's also not a Christian university. And we have no ambitions to be so. A Bible College is about providing a biblical foundation, regardless of the calling that the Lord is taking you to.

[00:07:27] And so our our associates degree is built with this in mind. The idea has come for two years. De Surn where the Lord is taking you gets the biblical foundation and the tools of living a faithful God honoring Christian life in these two years.

[00:07:43] And then go on to your nursing program. Go into the military. Go wherever God is calling you with that foundation in place. But we also have a bachelor's degree, a four year degree. It builds upon that two year foundation and it's four people who go,

[00:07:58] Okay, I believe that I'm called to Christian ministry proper or to serve in the local church. And so we try and build on that foundation not just a deeper step, but also tools and support for those vocations in particular.

[00:08:15] Yeah, and then we also just added a one year certificate in worship. And so not only can you come for a nine month program, get get some of our Bible courses and some of our Christian living courses.

[00:08:29] And then 15 credits that specialize in both the science, the art and the spiritual reality of worship ministry. You can grab those 15 credits as part of your bachelor's and get a bachelor's in biblical studies with a concentration and worship.

[00:08:44] So when you say that there's a bachelor's is this an accredited bachelor's, not accredited, has that work. We currently hold candidate status with the association of biblical higher education, which is a fellowship of Bible colleges that it's been around for about a hundred years.

[00:08:59] And so candidate status is like the the driver's permit of the of the accreditation process. We're not all the way through yet, but they're willing to vouch for us as being on the path and on our way.

[00:09:11] And so we have a five year window to continue to meet the standards and expectations of our accreditor to achieve that final status. Yeah, excellent. Pastor Brian, what would you say to those who might might say, you know,

[00:09:26] C. G. N. has too much of a focus or maybe they might even say it has shifted in focus from what coverage up originally was in regard to its approach to education versus just saying, you know these need to be untrained men who've been with Jesus.

[00:09:42] Yeah, and I mean, I think, you know, we all know the untrained men, the key was they had been with Jesus. They really weren't untrained. They just didn't go to the particular institutions that people thought they should have gone to.

[00:09:57] You know, you think back to Pastor Chuck. I mean, Pastor Chuck had a bachelor's degree. He went to Bible college out of high school. He went to life Bible college to attain a bachelor's degree. He was later granted an honorary doctorate degree.

[00:10:13] Chuck was very much into education, but also recognizing the limitations of education and not that it's not the the end all be all of ministry or is it absolutely necessary to be a good Bible teacher.

[00:10:30] I mean, we're, you know, we're all educated on on some level if we're teaching the Bible, we've got some sort of an education, whether we got it formally or informally.

[00:10:40] So this is just, we've just formalized the education a little bit more. And I think we've also realized that, you know, the study of theology, the study of church history and so forth.

[00:10:55] There's more depth to the scripture than we might originally think if we're just reading it in our own context as a group of people that have been around as a church movement.

[00:11:09] For, you know, safety years. But when we start tying it together with the historical perspective of scripture from the first century to today all we're really doing is enriching ourselves. So we don't.

[00:11:27] You know, none of us think that we want to replace the Bible with theology but there's a lot of theology that will help us to better understand the Bible and better apply it. So I think that's why we're approaching it the way we are today.

[00:11:42] Yeah, yeah, I, you know, I did some formal education and I felt that it was extremely helpful in helping me navigate some of the discussions.

[00:11:53] And also I felt that, you know, with this being my vocation, it's a vocational calling and it's the thing I plan to do for the rest of my life is pastor and teach the scriptures.

[00:12:04] I kind of just wanted to study up on it and get better at it. And I think that having some resources to do that that are trusted is really valuable. I think that's one of the things we provide us in that work is that we provide resources that are trusted and you can know that they match with our vision and values and our systematic theology.

[00:12:24] Yeah, I think sometimes the place we go we go wrong on this is we connect education to qualifications and this was often checks concern. You know he would say, God doesn't call the train. He trains the call.

[00:12:39] We've always recognized that we don't ordain men, we recognize God's ordination and Bible college can be a place where you sometimes discern those callings. But more importantly, once you have discern those callings it's a place where you begin that training.

[00:12:56] But the qualification mentality says, okay, once you're done, you've achieved that training and I think that's really the misunderstanding that that's skews this and like Brian said and even if you want to take the language of the new testament for disciple.

[00:13:11] We need to be lifelong learners and there are formal and informal ways. There's apprenticeships and mentorships and the school of hard knocks.

[00:13:19] All of those things are valuable and a Bible college is a facet of that and what I love about it is that foundational sense, you know Paul in the wilderness.

[00:13:30] Moses in the schools of Egypt, there does have to be this let's learn how to be a learner phase. Let's learn to love learning and if you talk with our students throughout history.

[00:13:42] Bible colleges a place where their lives are changed as they encounter Jesus in community, where they fall in love with the scriptures and where they receive the tools to nurture both of those things the rest of their lives.

[00:14:01] And that really hasn't changed and I think another misunderstanding comes from this idea of accreditation.

[00:14:07] And again, this is a thing that Chuck talked about a lot and what he was concerned about was government interference in what we were doing within school but the association for biblical higher education is a like-minded institution and beyond that they haven't told us what to do.

[00:14:24] They've said, tell us what you're doing, show us that you know that it works and make sure that you're telling your students what you're doing and that it works. And so they basically just asked us to identify our standards and live up to them.

[00:14:41] And so you know, our program is so similar to the program that I went to we have added general education classes but actually are two year degree even though it's less credits now has more Bible.

[00:14:54] And so our two year students will have read through the entire Bible they'll have had specific studies on eight named books of the Bible.

[00:15:03] They'll have summarized every chapter of the scriptures and so on and so forth there's there's a whole lot of Bible in this degree we like to say at CCBC you major in the scriptures, but I've our 60 credit degree it's almost 40 credits that are Bible.

[00:15:19] Yeah and I think that there's also an aspect to the Bible College which is discipleship focused and worship focus, I think that's a really good thing. Do you still do distance education what is that part of the story?

[00:15:31] We have an online school it reaches all the way back to the distance education before this which was correspondence. I did a few correspondence courses DVD in the mail packet mail everything in at the end of the semester.

[00:15:44] Our online courses are asynchronous which means you can fit them into your schedule their eight week terms and some of the faculty on there are from our on campus faculty some of them are not.

[00:15:59] I'm just very grateful for the same programs and the same courses online and on campus. Yeah and you don't want to one of the things I would say to.

[00:16:06] I'm just for clarification because many people have asked me this outside of coverage because they they just don't know so the assumption outside of coverage.

[00:16:14] Every cover, tell Pastor has gone through cover, tell Bible College that that is a prerequisite to become an pastor which of course I've told them well know that's actually not the case at all.

[00:16:23] So we do not have that requirement it is not mandatory for a person to end up in pastoral ministry even leading a church.

[00:16:33] It's not mandatory for them to have gone through any formal education we believe strongly in the call of God and some people you know I've come to firmly believe.

[00:16:43] God actually calls some people to get a higher education you call them to do it so if that's your calling you need to do that and if it's not you don't need to worry about it. Yeah, well said.

[00:16:55] Well thanks Justin thanks for giving us info and so where can people go to find out more about Calvary Chapel Bible College?

[00:17:02] If you can remember the name just put a dot com at the end Calvary Chapel Bible College dot com we'll get you right there to most of the information you'd ever want.

[00:17:10] And can you tell us a little bit about the broader network of colleges that are maybe outside of your location? Yeah, we have we have relationships with schools that are part of this 50 year legacy in Peru in England.

[00:17:27] There's a campus that offers a single semester experience in Jerusalem it's on hold right now with everything that's going on.

[00:17:34] But the leaders have a heart to turn it back on as soon as they can other parts of the world in the Philippines and do McGettie into police e Georgia and they have an incredible missions track there at that school.

[00:17:48] And so so yeah, there's there's lots of schools internationally and all of them over the years have specialized in things that are connected to the hearts of their leaders as well as the needs of their settings and so.

[00:18:01] If you're already discerning your calling looking through that list and finding a school that's perfectly suited for you as a good idea. And can people do like once a semester in California and then others?

[00:18:11] Yeah, we're working on some of the details of that again with COVID things have changed and we're communicating in this new season. But our heart is to find ways to work together.

[00:18:22] All of us have the same heart and the same mission but the settings the context and things are different. And so we're working on it now but we're committed to making that worthwhile.

[00:18:31] Gotcha and Pastor Brandon she tell me that there was some thought towards perhaps opening up the Austria campus again at some point. Yeah, actually we're looking to do that currently we're hoping to reboot the Austria campus so.

[00:18:46] Originally our European campus was in Austria many years ago and then we relocated that we were having problems with immigration for Eastern European, especially back at the time. They weren't able to get in to Austria so we relocated.

[00:19:01] Nick as you would know to hungry and the school was in hungry for many, many years then that school is a one that went to to police. Georgia. Yeah. But now that Europe has kind of opened up again we're hoping to start with a semester in the autumn.

[00:19:18] And probably a few years will do just one semester and then we'll see where it goes from there. Excellent. Alright, well thanks so much Justin. Yeah my pleasure. Thanks for having me. New episodes are released every two weeks.

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