5 Reasons I’m Excited to Minister with Crossroads Bible College 

I’m excited to announce that I have accepted the position of Vice President of Institutional Development and Chairman of the Biblical Counseling Department at Crossroads Bible College.

Crossroads’ main campus is in Indianapolis, Indiana with additional sites in Indianapolis at College Park Church and Northside New Era Church, along with sites in Gary, Indiana, Fort Wayne Indiana, as well as online programs.

I will officially begin my ministry at CBC on September 1, 2014, starting at 50% time. By ministering 50% time, I will be able to remain in my role as Executive Director of the Biblical Counseling Coalition.

At my request, the BCC’s Board of Directors has approved me moving to 50% time in January 2015 as the BCC Resource Director, with Garrett Higbee coming on in January as the new BCC Executive Director.

Here are 5 reasons I’m excited to start ministering with Crossroads Bible College… 

1. CBC Matches My Calling: Church and Para-Church Health and Growth 

I’ve been in ministry for 33 years now. In those 3+ decades, the Lord has consistently led me to ministries focused on church and para-church health and growth. They go hand-in-hand: healthy organizations grow. 

In my role as Senior Pastor at Uniontown Bible Church, when I arrived the church was around 100 people and pastor-centered. By God’s grace, in five years the church grew to 300 and became equipping-centered: church health and growth. 

In 1996, President Homer Heater of Capital Bible Seminary asked me to launch the seminary’s first MA in counseling. I remember asking President Heater, “So, if we have no students a year from now…” He finished my sentence. “…then you have no job.” No pressure. The Lord was good—very good. Over the next 17 years, our MA in Christian Counseling and Discipleship department grew to over 150 students each year, with 7 concentrations, and a unified faculty and staff of 18: para-church health and growth. 

In 2010, I was asked to be the founding Executive Director of the Biblical Counseling Coalition. It has been a joy to see us grow to a Board of Directors and Council Board of nearly 70 leaders in the worldwide biblical counseling movement, with a robust website with daily blogs, weekly book reviews, 1,000s of free resources, and 3 cutting-edge multi-authored books: para-church health and growth. 

In these ministries and others, the common denominator has been my focus on organizational health—healthy relationships among team members and servant-leadership as we’ve ministered to church members, community members, students, and counselees. 

Crossroads Bible College also is committed to health and growth. When I interviewed with the President’s Cabinet, I was amazed by how they obviously cared about, supported, and respected one another. No one talked about themselves; they all highlighted their colleagues in the room and the administration, faculty, staff, alumni, and students of CBC. That’s a team I want to work with—a healthy team! 

And CBC’s healthy team is committed to growth. I’ve already mentioned their many campus sites and their online program. CBC is also a pioneer in non-traditional and blended approaches to higher education, along with dual credit options for high school juniors and seniors. CBC is positioned to be on the cutting-edge of Christian higher education.

My Job Description shows CBC’s desire to be a healthy, growing institution: 

The VP of Institutional Development will be responsible, under the direction of the President, for the oversight of the implementation of the overall institutional vision. The VP of Institutional Development will recruit, equip, evaluate, and supervise personnel under his supervision as approved by the President, placing special emphasis on staff competency, contribution, character, and chemistry. The functional areas of emphasis in the office of the VP of Institutional Development are: participation on the President’s Cabinet, strategic planning and execution of the plan in support of the President’s institutional vision, and administrative leadership and care for staff and faculty under his supervision. 

Specific responsibilities include assisting the institution to assess how success is defined, where to focus resources, how change is managed, how to grow and leverage the vision—putting feet to the vision, and how to accelerate the impact of the institution in training Christian leaders to reach a multiethnic urban world for Christ.  

2. CBC Is Committed to Biblical Counseling 

From its earliest days, CBC has been a leader in equipping biblical counselors for multiethnic ministry. CBC’s President, Dr. Charles Ware, their primary biblical counseling professor, Lilly Park, and one of their primary adjunct professors, Pastor Andrew Rogers, along with myself, are all four members of the Biblical Counseling Coalition’s Council Board or Board of Directors, respectively.

As Chairman of CBC’s Biblical Counseling Department, I’m excited to join a team of leaders, educators, and equippers. While biblical counseling has seen a resurgence in recent years among seminaries, there are fewer undergraduate programs committed to biblical counseling, and fewer still with a wonderfully diverse student body and faculty/staff. Truly, CBC’s biblical counseling department is unique and poised to impact the world with Christ’s gospel of grace through equipping in the personal ministry of the Word. 

3. CBC Is Committed to and Living Out Multiethnic Ministry 

Many evangelical schools talk about and seek to highlight multi-cultural/multiethnic ministry. CBC lives it and breathes it. It is our mission statement: 

CBC Mission: To Train Christian Leaders to Reach a Multiethnic Urban World for Christ 

CBC is not for everyone. But it is for anyone who has a passion for equipping in multiethnic urban ministry.

CBC’s faculty, staff, administration, and student body embody multiethnic diversity. CBC’s site locations embody urban ministry. And CBC has a unique and vital degree in Urban Leadership. 

As many of you know, I have had a life-long ministry passion for multiethnic ministry. Capital Bible Seminary, where I served for nearly two decades, had no majority culture with a wonderfully diverse multiethnic student body. My third book, Beyond the Suffering, highlights the amazing one-another ministry of the historic black church and all that every Christian can learn from their example. I’m excited to join my passion with CBC’s mission. 

4. CBC Has a Balance of Traditional and Non-Traditional Students 

By traditional students, I mean your “typical” 18-year-old student fresh out of high school. By non-traditional, I mean your older “career changer” and mature people already active in ministry who desire further education and equipping. 

CBC attracts both types of students: the traditional and non-traditional—which makes for a wonderful educational environment. I love a classroom setting where an 18-year-old student sits next to a 58-year-old pastor—and both learn from each other—and I learn from each of them! I love equipping pastors who are already in ministry—coming alongside of them and encouraging and empowering them. And I love equipping young people with their youthful vision, passion, and energy to change the world. 

5. CBC Believes in and Practices Servant-Leadership 

I have yet to say much about CBC’s President, Dr. Charles Ware. And that’s exactly how Dr. Ware would want it—he does not focus on himself. Dr. Ware is a humble, godly, servant-leader. He is an internationally-sought-after speaker, but he would never highlight that. He is a gifted leader who relates to those who work for him as equals—as those who work with him. He is an accomplished author and an expert on multiethnic ministry, urban ministry, and in biblical counseling. I am honored to be working alongside President Ware. 

President Ware is just one example of an entire faculty and staff of servant-leaders. All could be working and ministering elsewhere for more money and more notoriety, but they choose to ministry at CBC. My assumption is they choose to minister at CBC for some of the same reasons I do: they believe it is a place focused on church and para-church health and growth, committed to biblical counseling, living out multiethnic ministry, equipping traditional and non-traditional students, and practicing servant-leadership. 

Join the Conversation 

How has Crossroads Bible College impacted you? 

If you listed 5 reasons for why you work and minister where you do, what would those reasons be? 

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth