Student Hosted 2017 Graduate Appreciation Dinner

To outline the vision for a school on paper is one thing. To see that dream coming to fruition in the lives of young men and women is something else entirely.

Over the weekend, the student council of Reformation Bible College (RBC) joined with the leadership of Abide, RBC’s student-led study and prayer group, to host the annual Senior Appreciation Dinner. Two seniors, Caleb Gorton and Tyler Freire, spoke to the gathering of professors, students, staff, and family members. It was an encouraging time for the school as these young men stood to open the Word and encourage their fellow students and even their professors in the race of faith.

The gospel must be preached and affirmed anew by every generation. Likewise, the truths taught at RBC must be practiced in the lives and relationships of every class. The road from the book and the classroom to the mind and the heart, then out to the everyday actions of loving and serving is walked by individuals in a daily way that cannot be rushed or pretended.

It was a group of future leaders who gathered last night, for as Tyler noted, each is going out to a family, a vocation, a church—the world. It has been an intense period of study for each student; a time that stretched and strengthened them in ways they could not have anticipated. For this year’s graduates, bonds have been forged, prayers have been spoken, faith has been galvanized, and truth has been realized here at RBC. These students have seen a piece of Christ’s body in action as they have borne each other’s burdens and wondered together at the truths of the faith. Now they go forth to various cities, schools, and callings, leaving with a greater understanding of their holy God and His inerrant Word.

Knowledge can be dangerous, as Caleb noted, and to abuse it is the natural tendency of the human heart. For that reason, the professors at RBC handle the Word of God with care. Even as they teach, they come under it, they are subject to its influences, and humbled by
its precepts. God’s Spirit has worked powerfully through them, for the men and women graduating this spring are not the same people who enrolled.

God has declared that His Word does not go forth void, and He has fulfilled that promise yet again in the group who gathered last weekend. In less than a month, they will go their separate ways, yet their time here will not be quickly forgotten, and the repercussions will be felt for generations to come.