ABC Continuing Education Summer Seminars 2014
Even during its summer break Ambassador Bible College never gets out of the education business! From June through August faculty members taught many exciting hours of Bible classes to brethren in four regions of the U.S.
The annual week-long seminar took place during the week of June 16 to 20 in the ABC Lecture Hall at the home office near Cincinnati, Ohio. Sixty young adult and older church members listened actively and took notes for six hours a day for five days. That’s almost as much as ABC students do every week of the school year, except they’re typically in class for seven hours of Bible classes per day!
The classes covered a panoply of topics from a series on the book of Obadiah by ABC director Gary Antion to “When Christ Returns—Will He Find Some Faith?” by church president Victor Kubik. ABC Dean of Faculty Steve Myers taught several classes including a series on the “Joshua 20 and the Cities of Refuge,” while outgoing Dean of Students Randy Stiver covered topics including “The Essential Hebrew Calendar” and “Is There a Holy Language?” Darris McNeely taught excerpts from his class on the Book of Acts and current Dean of Students Aaron Dean presented classes on financial management.
The weekend seminars were hosted by the Portland, Oregon; Phoenix, Arizona; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin congregations. Typically, two faculty members and their wives travel to each area and deliver a combined total of 10 hours of Bible classes plus deliver split sermons on the Sabbath. Four classes are taught on the Sabbath and the final six on Sunday.
On July 12-13 Frank McCrady and Randy Stiver taught between 100 and 120 church brethren for the Sabbath classes with over 150 for services. For Sunday’s six-hour of lectures almost 60 were excited to attend, soak up the learning, ask numerous valuable questions and enjoy the day’s fellowship. Mr. McCrady focused on the overview of the four Gospels (his main ABC class) and a lecture each on the setting and dynamics of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Mr. Stiver taught classes about the auto-biographical elements in each of the Major Prophets books.
The following weekend in Phoenix, Darris McNeely taught an abbreviated solo seminar with featuring five classes including two hours from his Doctrines Class and three hours on his World, News and Prophecy module class. He had almost 120 for the Sabbath Bible classes, with just over 60 attending the seminar on Sunday.
The final weekend seminar took place in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area on August 9-10. Pastor Dan Dowd had invited brethren from surrounding congregations and a number of them were happy to travel some distance to attend the classes. The Sabbath classes had an average of 67 attending and 44 were able to take in the full six hours on the Sunday. Gary Antion presented and overview of the General Epistles plus several classes covering the entire epistle of Second Peter. Randy Stiver taught “Where Did the 12 Apostles Go?” from his Bible Geography class as well as a Doctrines Class subtopic, “Is Messianic Judaism the Answer? Sabbath seminar attendance averaged 67, and 44 were able to take the Bible classes on Sunday.
Surveys filled out by attendees indicated considerable enthusiasm for sharing the ABC experience through the continuing education program. Nearly everyone expressed their desire to attend future seminars whenever they can. The continuing education seminars help promote the formal ABC education program to future students and share the Ambassador educational process with God’s brethren whose faithful support for His work continues to make the Ambassador Bible College possible.