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The Church of Christ Bible School was established in order to train evangelists and leaders in the church. The School was established in 1988 in Serui and moved into permanent facilities in the village of Urei Faisei in 1992 where it is presently located. Currently the School has a six-month basic Bible training program. As a result many of the graduates are now leaders in the churches. The teachers consist of Indonesians and missionaries (David Buskirk and Cesar Basantes). Each teacher teaches a course for two to three weeks. During the time the missionaries are not teaching they work with the churches by conducting gospel meeting and seminars. The plan was that the missionaries would only teach for a couple of months and then have the rest of the year to focus on church planting and church growth. The Bible school students would return to their local congregations and would help to strengthen and mature the congregation.
You can view a video of the Bible School grounds and buildings.
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Video of Bible School grounds. "Video of Bible School."
Most of the students who come to the school know very little of the Bible. The curriculum consists of a basic Bible program in order to give the students some basic Bible knowledge and training in ministry. The following basic courses are being taught:
Old Testament Survey
New Testament Survey
Life of Christ
Acts of the Apostles
Gospel of Christ
Church of Christ
Hermeneutics
Homiletics
Evangelism
Evangelist and his ministry
Religious Differences (Denominational Doctrines)
Church Administration
We have had several students attend our Bible school who had previously attended a denominational Bible school and they always comment that they have never been taught this material in the denominational Bible school in the two or three years they were there, or that the denominational Bible school never taught this material in a way they could easily understand. We feel that these are basic courses that give the students a good grasp on the Bible and a head start in ministry.
We will continue to evaluate this curriculum from time to time and make changes as necessary. Of course with only a six-month program there is not much that you can teach. The courses cover much breadth but not much depth. A two or three-year program would be far more beneficial in training evangelists and ministers and leaders in the church; however, we do not yet have the staff and workers available to begin such a program.
In 1996 we began to use some ot the Indonesians to teach classes for two to three weeks. We had seven Indonesians to help teach at the school in 1996. However they were not getting paid to come and teach. They usually came for two or three weeks to teach one or two classes. At that time they didn't have any other jobs. They made bricks, gardened or found other odd jobs for income. So they had the time available to come and help teach at the Bible school.
In the following years one by one they stopped coming to teach as they found full-time jobs or got involved in other activities. There were only two Indonesians who taught from 2000 through 2003. They each taught two classes. Cesar Basantes, from Ecuador, helped teach a couple of classes in 2003. David Buskirk has done the rest of the teaching. The only Indonesian brethren who could come to teach would be those willing to use their vacation time from work to come and teach or those who don't have any full-time jobs or commitments and are free to just come and teach.
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