by S. H. Sutherland President of Biola
STUDENT INVOLVEMENT
Christian Released Time Education, Youth for Christ, Campus Crusade and the like. Some participate in street teams and in missions. Hospi tals, jails, juvenile halls, are still other places of spiritual outreach. There are unique opportunities for witnessing through athletic Gospel teams. As an example, we have an outstanding wrestling team, but this is not an end in itself. Through con tests there are ways to testify, plus the fact that church young people’s groups and conferences invite our young people in for meetings. This provides a most intriguing means of presenting the Gospel. To see out standing Christian young athletes with a real purpose in life is most convincing. Our baseball team went to Mexico to play college teams, where they presented the claims of Christ both before and after sched uled games. The Biola Psychology Department has a very interesting program called, “Dialogue.” Only advance ma jors are allowed to participate. Two telephone lines are in existence here on Campus and high school and col lege young people know that if they have a problem, they can call in and talk with someone who has an under standing and compassionate concern for the needs of others. Our coun sellors are on the phones throughout the day and night. How thrilling it has been to hear of the spiritual vic tories won! It is tremendous to pre sent the claims of Christ in this manner. Here is another way in which the Gospel is made relevant to today’s needs. Every effort is made to keep in touch with these young people who have made decisions, so 13
H OW thankful we are for the many' wonderful and faithful friends whom the Lord has raised up in prayerful support of this min istry! Over the years, and certainly in an important way today, student involvement at Biola is a distinctive aspect of the Christian Education program. When the Bible Institute of Los Angeles was founded in 1908, it was the firm conviction that the best way to learn personal work was by doing personal work. The same was true of Bible-teaching, preach ing, and the other Christian minis tries. The purpose always has been to help the young people put their faith into action. Each student, ever since the school was started, has had a practical work assignment. This is one important way of maintaining a spiritual vitality. This is not to be a perfunctory type of activity in any sense. This weekly outreach is varied from semester to semester. The types of involvement are many and varied. You would be surprised and thrilled if you were aware of the wide vari ety of witnessing that is carried on. Several hundred go into the South Los Angeles district of Watts to work with the black young people. This is not social service because stu dents have an opportunity to present real Bible study and messages of salvation. The same type of work is going on in the Mead area among people of Mexican background. Addi tionally there are students involved in more than 300 churches through out Southern California. They teach Sunday school classes, preach, work with youth, and perform in the field of music. Other established programs in which our young people assist are
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