28 March, 2024

Interview with Terry Stine

by | 20 March, 2012 | 1 comment

By Paul Boatman

After a career in ministry and missions, Terry Stine is completing his fifth year as president of Boise Bible College in Idaho.

 

Many were surprised when you became president of Boise Bible College. How did that happen?

Well, my lifelong ministry objective is to preach the Word and go where God sends me. My end-of-life goal is to hear “well done, good and faithful servant.” Wherever God sends me, I go and I stay there until he moves me somewhere else. I”ve never looked to jump from one location to another.

 

But you have been in diverse ministries in diverse places.

I”m in ministry because I feel I was called by God. I had Christian mentors, ministers at my home church, ministers at church camp, and a Sunday school teacher who told me that I needed to be a missionary. In short, I became a missionary.

 

Not immediately.

[laughing] No, I started preaching as a sophomore at Ozark Christian College. Over the next 14 years I preached and did a bit of youth ministry from the Oklahoma prairie to suburban St. Louis, with stops in Arkansas and Southwest Missouri. Then for 20 years I was a missionary in Mexico City with Niños de México. The move to Boise seven years ago was to be a professor, but within two years the trustees and my predecessor, Dr. Charles Crane, asked me to be president. I, too, am a bit surprised to find myself in this role, but I am loving it.

 

How does being a missionary compare with being a Bible college president?

Some people might think these positions involve professional begging. Although they both involve some fund-raising responsibilities, I prefer to see this as finding friends who are excited about our ministry and who want to get behind it. In all of my ministries we just tell the story of what we are doing, what we feel called to do, and how people can help us. If people believe in what we are doing, they support us. I”ve always believed God”s people want to do godly things with their money.

 

What is distinctive about Boise Bible College?

I can”t speak for the other Bible colleges, but our distinctive is that we are a college with a Bible core in all degrees. We are focused on producing Christian ministers and missionaries, and that is all we do, but we do it well. We have not deviated from that mission since the school began in a church basement in 1945.

 

This was a rather small school for many years. How is it doing in these hard times for colleges?

It is growing. In the past eight years, our FTE [number of full-time equivalency students] has gone from just under 100 to about 200, with a record head count of 212. Parents and ministers tell me they are sending their kids because we remain focused. They want to find a college where their kids can be trained to be good Christian leaders, no matter what area of ministry they are going to be in.

 

You mention parents sending kids . . . what about adults?

We have adults retiring early, coming out of the military, and second-career people who have come to Boise Bible College. They want to be equipped for ministry and they prefer to stay in the Northwest. Some give up their businesses or careers to enter ministry, and they see BBC as the way to get into the ministry.

 

Some schools in your region have closed or changed direction. Do you have any assessment of why they haven”t been able to succeed as traditional Bible colleges?

From what I read, hear, and learn from colleagues, the patterns seem to include acquiring too much debt from building programs or losing their focus on ministry and moving more into Christian liberal arts. There is nothing wrong with Christian liberal arts, but in the current economy, kids can go to state universities cheaper than to small Christian liberal art schools.

 

Do you see yourselves somewhat out of sync with the general trend of Bible colleges?

I think we”re in sync with the traditional Bible colleges. I think we are out of sync with some of the colleges that feel they need to change their focus and become more relevant to the secular world or turn to liberal arts. We try to recognize our strengths and play to our strengths instead of going to an area where we lack expertise, causing us to lose “face” and credibility, both with the educational world and with the theological world. We are just remaining focused on the area where we have the expertise.

 

Are you in sync with area churches?

There was a perception that we were out of sync with the new church plants and the megachurches in the Northwest. But they are now learning we are actually teaching the things they are looking for. We keep adapting our classes to the needs of the churches that sponsor us and who want our students. I”m all about cultural adaptation. My missions background enhances that concern. It doesn”t matter where you go; the ministry student has to know how to meet the cultural requirements of the church””whether the church is small, large, dying, or growing.

 

What ministry options await BBC students?

I appreciate that question. Our focus is limited to ministry, but how and where you minister is limitless. Recently Boise State University announced that its degrees no longer guaranteed jobs for their graduates. At BBC, if a student wants to go into ministry or missions, they are guaranteed some ministry, somewhere in the world. We have more than 90 open ministries listed right now on the wall outside my office. So, for parents and students, it is an assurance that they are being trained for something that is valid and needed. And that does not take into consideration the new church plants springing up almost weekly in the Northwest.

 

What is in the future?

Our stated goal is 300 students in three years and 500 in five years. By that time we may have online classes and a couple of external campuses.

 

What else do you want to say to our readers?

I have no desire to criticize the leaders of other schools for the decisions they make. I”m just talking about Boise. This is our niche and we have made a serious determination that we are going to remain a Bible college. That”s who we are, and we are responding to the need we see. It doesn”t mean there aren”t other needs, but this is where we fit. We are focused on our ministry-centered mission.

Paul Boatman is chaplain of Safe Haven Hospice in Lincoln, Illinois.

1 Comment

  1. Wendell Messimer

    It is gratifying to read that BBC will focus mainly on being a Bible college. Too many of our Bible colleges are changing their emphasis to other secular disciplines. Thanks for continuing to teach the Word.

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Columns

Follow Us