Rebirth And Rebuilding
As I write this, the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College class of 2022 has just graduated, and what a ceremony it was! This has been a phenomenal year at JSBC, and we are so proud of our students and all that they have accomplished both academically and spiritually. By the time this article prints and you read it, we will be in full preparation mode for the upcoming 2022-23 year. It’s hard to believe all that has happened these past five years. It was then that the Lord began to deal with me in prayer about the Bible college and what needed to be done for it to move it forward. Each morning in prayer, for a period of weeks, the Lord dealt with me, until finally I shared with my grandparents this burden that God had given me regarding the college. I didn’t say I wanted to be a part of it. I didn’t say I wanted to head it up. I just said that the Lord had given me a burden for it and that I thought we should restart the process of getting JSBC accredited. After much prayer, we all agreed to accreditation.
Now, as the president of JSBC, I am asked on a regular basis why, after all these years, do we want to go through the lengthy and arduous process of gaining accreditation for JSBC. I answer this question with four reasons:
1) We feel like it is the right thing to do and what God has instructed us to do.
2) We want to provide our students with the best education possible.
3) We want a degree from JSBC to be valued by the student, by other institutions of higher learning, and by job recruiters.
4) We want college credits earned at JSBC to be transferrable to other institutions should students desire to complete or complement their education elsewhere.
Another question I get: Will the process of accreditation force you to compromise or change the beliefs that JSBC was founded on? Absolutely not. In fact, the vice president of the organization we’re working with told our board of directors, “Seeking accreditation is not going to change who you are. We do not want to change who you are.”
We want to assure everyone that accreditation is simply an official stamp of sorts that says we follow through on everything we claim as an institution for higher learning, have the proper resources to do so, and will meet our mission and objectives related to equipping students to fulfill their God-ordained roles in world evangelism.
We will never emphasize intellect over the moving, operation, and anointing of the Holy Spirit. We will be bedrock and steadfast in upholding our beliefs in salvation, sanctification, the inerrancy of Scripture, the infallibility of Scripture, the message of the cross, the baptism with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, the pre-tribulation rapture, divine healing, the second coming—the very doctrines that are currently under attack in the theological world. Even in the Pentecostal world, people are questioning these foundational teachings. At JSBC, we are firm in our beliefs, and we are going to continue to teach and preach Christ and Him crucified and all of the benefits available to us because of the cross and what Jesus did at Calvary—that is the foundational message of this ministry and of Jimmy Swaggart Bible College.
Our faculty is a growing group of anointed men and women of God who are academically qualified and full of the Holy Spirit. The entire staff at JSBC is committed to preparing our students with everything they need so that when they graduate, they will be ready to evangelize, pastor, teach, or excel in the workforce of their choosing as so many of our alumni are.
The vision for JSBC in 1984 was to be so much more than an extension of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. This college was established to be and still is a practical, Spirit-filled training ground for ministers in every walk of life. We believe that everyone is called to be in ministry—ministers who are filled with the fire of God and end-time harvest workers who will bring in this end-time harvest.
As a prospective student, you have the opportunity to be in on the ground floor of something incredible that is taking place right here and right now—the rebirth and rebuilding of what God is doing on this campus, and we want you to be a part of it.
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