Biola is praised for its Christ-centered atmosphere. Biola’s mission to impact the world is one worth taking seriously during our time here; however, for a student to be fully equipped to do so, one must take advantage of the primary way in which God has been impacting the world for 2,000 years, the local church.

I firmly believe that the vast majority of Biola students truly desire to follow Christ wherever he leads. The success of organizations, such as the Student Missionary Union, Evangelical Mormon Interaction, California School Project and many more, is the result of students who take seriously both their personal faith and how their faith must be at work in the world. The problem is that service within a local church context has often been treated as simply one of many options to serve while at Biola.

Of 50 Biola students surveyed online, 75 percent are not actively involved with a ministry at a local church while school is in session. Two things are true if a statistic such as this is representative of the entire Biola student body. One, Biola students are missing out on an opportunity to expose themselves to a variety of ministries in a context that is not offered at Biola. Two, local churches are being deprived of much-needed help that Biola students can offer in a variety of ministries.

What the Local Church Offers Biola Students

Although there are numerous ministries at Biola, none of these can quite duplicate the environment of a local church. The local church provides an environment for Biola students both to serve others with their gifts and receive valuable mentoring by older, more mature believers. Furthermore, the local church provides a universality that Biola will likely never achieve. For centuries, the local church has been the primary place for Christian evangelism, worship, service, discipleship and fellowship. If a Biola student seeks to engage in such communities of Christ beyond their time at Biola, they would be well-off to begin while still at Biola.

What Biola Students Offer the Local Church

It is well known that Biola students are required to take 30 units of theology and Bible classes. This is a critical part of the “equipping” that Biola’s mission statement seeks to achieve. Biola students, then, become a valuable resource within a local church, which ultimately can help keep the theological paths of the local church straight. I don’t want to advocate approaching a local church as a reformer, but there is a need for tough theological questions to be asked within the church setting. We must be a bridge that takes the theological conclusions of the academic world to the practical ministry that happens daily in the local church.

Finally, I’d like to challenge every reader to reevaluate how seriously you take the grace that has been given to you and the calling to service that comes with it. If you are currently involved with a local church, keep looking for ways to continue to bless those around you. If you are not in such a situation, I challenge you to ask the simple question, “Why not?” The answer to such a question might be that you do not have the spare time or that you do not want to over-commit. It might be that you are from another state and cannot see yourself getting involved for such short stretches of time. Maybe you do not think the local church needs what you have to offer. The truth is that any of these reasons for not seeking the opportunity to serve in a local church must be weighted with the fact that the local church needs Biola students. There is no greater calling and there is certainly not a more obvious choice for service than the local church.