Vantage Point
Names and Places
We have 21 of them, but they have had dozens of names and
locations.
A speaker in our headquarters chapel recently reflected back
on when he attended Eastern Bible Institute in Pennsylvania. That’s not
familiar to a lot of Assemblies of God folk now; its current name, Valley Forge
Christian College, is better known. The school changed its name in 1977 after
moving to the site of the former Valley Forge General Hospital.
I still run into people who attended Glad Tidings Bible
Institute in San Francisco. That was the original name of my own alma mater,
Bethany University, the oldest AG school, now in Scotts Valley, Calif.
Southern California Bible School, now Vanguard University,
started just a year later, in 1920.
The AG’s 21 recognized institutions of higher education have
all stretched and changed over the years.
Trinity Bible College in North Dakota was founded as
Lakewood Park Bible School.
Several of our schools are the results of the merging of
multiple entities. Since 1943, Southwestern Assemblies of God University in
Waxahachie, Texas, has had several names and emerged from three separate Bible
institutes.
Many are transitioning to the “university” distinction
— like North Central University, Northwest University and Southeastern
University.
Four indicate an ethnic group in their names: Latin American
Bible Institute-California, LABI-Texas, Native American Bible College in
Shannon, N.C., and American Indian College in Phoenix — which is also
home to Western Bible College.
Four are in Springfield, Mo.: Central Bible College, Evangel
University, Global University and Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. One
is even in Puerto Rico: Caribbean Theological College.
And though Zion Bible College in Massachusetts has dropped
only one word from its name (“Mount”) since its 1924 founding, it added AG
affiliation in 2000.
AG schools may have changed, but one thing about them
hasn’t: They are all places where you can depend on quality, Spirit-filled
education.
Ken Horn
E-mail your comments to pe@ag.org.
