Eagle Christian College

I.   Philosophy - To Serve the Local Church

A.  The Local Church is the institution God Desires to Build.

God has ordained the local church.

In a society given to para-church ministries we believe that God desires a restored emphasis upon the development of the local church. We believe that God has established the local church, and that He desires to minister to it and through it to the world which He has made and is redeeming.

We are committed to serving the local church.

We are a service organization providing services, curriculum, and assistance to local churches, helping them estab­lish their own Equipping School to equip their own future leaders. We are not here to sell a program, or to raise money for our headquarters, or to assert authority over individual churches. We are here to serve the local church.

We model our philosophy by flowing out of a local church.

The Eagle-Lion Institute is from Marion Christian Center, which is a partnership ministry of the Christian International Ministries Network. Marion Christian Center is a vibrant, growing CI church under the leadership of Dr. Pat Watson. The church has numerous pastors, home groups, and many ministries, which reach out to its community. There is a constant demand for trained men and women to serve in these and other capacities. To meet this need, Eagle Christian College was established under the covering of Marion Christian Center in 1973 by Dr. John Watson.

The Bible College has a community-wide ministry, with many of our students coming from other churches throughout the Ohio area and the surrounding states. We draw our faculty from the gifted teachers within the Marion community plus from translocal faculty. Our school is not denominational, although it does have a Bible and Holy Spirit emphasis, and our instructors are all Spirit-filled.

B.  Goal is to Restore Education to the Local Church.

Church-centered Equipping Schools are on the cutting edge.

We see churches all around the world beginning to train their own lead­ers. Eagle-Lion is just one of several organizations which is providing training materials to local churches.

Not only is this trend on the cutting edge of what God is doing worldwide, it is a scriptural precedent set forth in the book of Acts. Acts 15:23 states that Paul “appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, (and) commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” The elders of New Testament churches were members of the local body who had demonstrated the gifts and calling of God to that position. Furthermore, when their gifts were recognized, they were not sent off to Jerusalem to be trained by the apostles. Rather, any training which was necessary was received at home, in their local body.

Church-centered Equipping Schools Have Certain Advantages.

1.   They allow you to train your own people including your leaders.

This is valuable for several reasons. First, these leaders stay in your church, rather than leave the area to go to a Bible school. This allows them to receive your philosophy, rather than another. Many pastors have found that when they send the cream of their crop off to Bible college, they either never come back, or if they do, they have another philosophy and spirit and have caused church problems upon their return.

Another value of training your future leaders within the context of your own church is that they are being trained in the context of a local church. They continue to be engaged in ministry throughout their entire training experience. In this manner, all growth is constantly being field-tested.

Dr. C. Peter Wagner has spent a great deal of time studying church growth trends and factors that contribute to church growth. In one of his excellent books, Your Spiritual Gifts, he discusses the role of the pastor and how pastoral training could be more effective. Among the drawbacks he sees in the traditional seminary training is that it “extracts the student from the real world for an extended period of time, socializes him or her in an academic context removed from the parish except for marginal ‘practical’ work assignments,” then sends him into a world he knows little about.

Dr. Wagner does see signs that this practice is beginning to change. One of the indications is the increasing tendency to draw staff members from within the local congregation, rather than “calling” them from the outside. There are many advantages to this kind of recruitment:

1.  It is done on the basis of ability and spiritual gifts, which have been recognized and confirmed by a loving body of believers.

2.  Generally, the new staff members are mature, having ministered in a lay, volunteer status for a time.

3.  They already know and are functioning within the philosophy of the local church.

4.  They have already accepted the leadership of the senior pastor and demonstrated their loyalty and willingness to follow him or her.

Dr. Wagner concludes by saying that he has heard of so many “homegrown” staffed churches that he sees it as a worldwide trend.

2.   They provide an alternative to the high cost of Bible colleges.

For many, the cost of being trained for Christian service is beyond their means. The costs in 1994 ranged from $6,000 to $12,000 per year. Prospective ministers must also leave their jobs, uproot their families, and move across the country. These are great hindrances to many that want to be trained for Christian service.

Your tuition costs can be kept at a fraction of most Bible schools because you utilize a church building and leaders from your area that are “apt to teach”. Our fees or tuition is within the range of all growing Christians and opens the door for their ongoing education in a way never before possible.

3.   They allow you to utilize your church building more effective­ly.

Many church buildings sit idle many hours each week. We believe these resources should be put to work in building the Kingdom of God. By establishing a church-centered equipping school, you are able to utilize your building much more effectively by holding classes in it throughout the week.

Many equipping schools begin by offering just two or three evening classes. As time goes on, they may grow until they are offering many courses each semester in many different time slots, such as Sunday morning and evening, Monday morning and evening, Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning and evening, Thursday evening and on Saturday mornings.

4.   They assist in establishing the church as an equipping organ­ism.

With over 150 courses in all areas and on all levels, we offer you a tool to disciple and train your entire church member­ship. No longer will intensive training be for just for a few. Now it can be for all Christians on all levels. The mandate to make disciples can be much more easily fulfilled through the continual training program offered through a church-centered equipping school.

5.   They are designed for churches from 10 to 10,000 members.

A church of 10 members can easily begin by offering one class and enlisting 3 interested students. A church of many thou­sands can begin by offering 10 to 20 different courses to meet the varied needs.

6.     You may promote unity among area churches by building a Christ-centered Equipping School.