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By Andrea Ykema
About of the 500 students at Abbotsford
B.C.’s Columbia Bible College are first-year students. Perhaps 100 of
them are directly involved in a one-year certificate program such as Quest
or iCert.
We have an impressive amount of first-year students
who never intend to study at Columbia for an extended period of time. This
realization is cause for concern to some, who centre the success of an
educational institution on student retention. Yet the story is not that
simple. As always in life, there are more layers than meet the eye –
and when evaluated through the lens of history, tradition and spirit,
Columbia’s abundance of first-year students can be seen as something
to be proud of.
I sat down with Professor Ron Voth to hear his
perspective on this feature of Columbia’s student community and found
that a history lesson was integral to my understanding of our current
state.
The mission among many Christians, especially
Mennonites, for many years, was to hold the Word central. The Word was
extremely important. So if your life was to be lived according to the Word,
then it stood to reason that you should know the Word. Schools sprang up all over the place for
people whose kids would go to the Bible school – not necessarily with
the intention of becoming a pastors, but just to learn scripture and grow
in personal devotion to God.
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It seems Bible schools were places not for employment
education, but for providing a theological foundation. This instruction was
often done in the period of one or maybe two years, and provided men and
women alike with the opportunity to understand the Bible at a deeper level
than would have been possible through independent study. It was only later
that four-year programs were added to Bible colleges, in keeping with
educational trends.
Ron recalled his own experience: “When I turned
17 or 18, it was customary that in my youth group about half of the people
would go to a Bible school. They would go for a year. The idea was a year,
maybe two years. There weren’t many three- or four-year
schools. It grew to be someplace where people could collect themselves
before they set out on other tracks.”
CBC has its roots in that kind of movement. We have
alumni with only one or two years on their record, which is a notably odd
concept. This tradition was apparent, and it continues to exist. As long as
Columbia offers more than vocational training, as long as our mission is
rooted in a passion to share knowledge of spiritual things, then this
overlooked demographic will continue. Students will continue to come
for a year, or perhaps two years, with the desire for a foundation and not
a degree.
It is a unique challenge to support a student body
that is not solely based on retention. And yet our history reminds us that
this is one of our strengths: to provide every person who comes through our
doors with something greater than a vocation. We provide them with a
perspective from which to encounter God.
Options Fall 2007
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