The College Mission
The mission of Roanoke Bible College is to educate men and women
for career and volunteer Christian service.
The College Passion
Educating extraordinary leaders.
Characteristics of the College
Roanoke Bible College is a private, coeducational college founded in 1948 and supported by independent Churches of Christ and Christian Churches. These congregations are part of the Restoration Movement, which seeks to restore the church to its New Testament model and promote Christian unity solely on the basis of the Bible. Following the pattern of the New Testament church, the Churches of Christ and Christian Churches are united only by ties of fellowship, not by any denominational structure, each congregation being under the authority of its own elders.
To achieve its mission, Roanoke focuses on preparing graduates to serve effectively in a Christian service career. The College recognizes the primacy of the preaching ministry in the New Testament. Since its inception, therefore, Roanoke has emphasized educating preachers for the cause of Christ. The College also realizes the need for leaders and servants in other types of ministry and thus educates graduates for a number of additional Christian service careers.
The College also welcomes students who intend to engage in Christian service on a volunteer basis while earning their livelihood in a secular field. Roanoke provides such students a foundation in Biblical and theological studies before they continue their studies at another college or enter the workforce.
Accreditation and Recognition
Roanoke Bible College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award certificates, associate, and baccalaureate degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Roanoke Bible College.
Roanoke Bible College is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the Association for Biblical Higher Education (Formerly the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges; ABHE, 5575 S. Semoran Blvd. Suite 26, Orlando, FL 32822-1781, Web site http://abhe.gospelcom.net, phone 407-207-0808), to award certificates, associate and baccalaureate degrees. The ABHE is an institutional accrediting body recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and the United States Department of Education (USDE).
Inquiries to the accrediting associations should relate to accreditation status. All other inquiries should be directed to the RBC Admissions Department at 1-800-RBC-8980.
Accreditation assures parents, students, and employers that Roanoke Bible College has been evaluated and meets the standards of quality determined by the higher education community.
Roanoke Bible College is also approved by the State of North Carolina to train veterans and dependents.
Philosophy of Education
The educational philosophy of Roanoke Bible College rests upon the conviction that all truth comes from God. Only the Bible, God’s Word, enables us to integrate all fields of knowledge into a meaningful unity; it alone answers the deep questions of the human mind and spirit. Hence, all courses at Roanoke are taught from the perspective of the Christian worldview. Roanoke provides a Christian education based on a threefold program of undergraduate instruction: Biblical and theological studies, general studies, and professional studies.
Roanoke believes that a Bible college program should cultivate development in all areas of a student’s life. The College seeks to accomplish this through its academic curriculum, its service-learning program, and its extracurricular activities. Academic work is designed to provide intellectual growth and maturity. The service-learning program is designed to integrate instruction with practical experience in Christian service. Extracurricular activities are designed to promote spiritual, physical, and social growth.
Nature of Degree Programs
Roanoke Bible College offers certificate, associate, and baccalaureate programs that educate students for career and volunteer Christian service. All four-year graduates major in Bible and theology and complete an academic program in a ministry area. While most programs are designed to prepare students to enter a Christian service career upon graduation, some prepare the student for graduate study in the field. Roanoke welcomes students who desire to serve in the local church on a volunteer basis but earn their livelihood through other employment. While Roanoke prepares such students for volunteer Christian service, they may need to gain additional education or training in their chosen career field.
Statement of Faith
The basic doctrinal position that underlies the educational program of Roanoke Bible College, stated when the school was founded in 1948 and unchanged today, is that:
1. Jesus Christ is the uniquely divine and only begotten Son of God, conceived without human father.
2. The Holy Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, infallibly recorded by men who were supernaturally guided by the Holy Spirit, inerrant in the originals in all the facts they attest and in all communications concerning salvation.
3. Every miracle recorded in the Bible happened truly and literally by the power of Almighty God.
4. There is salvation only in the blood of Jesus Christ, shed by grace upon the cross of Calvary, and applied to the heart of the sinner by his own faith and obedience to the terms of the Gospel.
5. There is an imperative necessity to restore the church of Christ, described in the New Testament, in order to remove division and to attain the unity of all believers, for which Christ prayed as the means of winning the world to Him.
Every officer, administrator, teacher, and staff member at Roanoke is required to reaffirm annually his belief, without mental reservation, in the above stated position.
Graduate Objectives
The following objectives describe the kind of graduate Roanoke Bible College intends to produce in order to accomplish its mission. These student-centered objectives are intended to be the result of a graduate’s total experience while at Roanoke, not just his or her academic experiences.
It is the goal of Roanoke Bible College that a graduate will:
1. Exhibit Christian character and conduct.
2. Be equipped with a general knowledge of the Old and New Testaments and biblical doctrine appropriate to his or her program of study.
3. Be equipped with the general knowledge and skills from traditional academic disciplines that form an essential foundation for Christian service.
4. Be equipped to serve competently in the field of Christian service for which he or she has studied.
5. Be equipped with the skills necessary to utilize information technology in the field of Christian service for which he or she has studied.
6. Express the desire for continued learning, either formal or informal.
7. Express the desire to support worldwide evangelism through prayer, stewardship, and other appropriate means.
8. Express the desire to recruit others for Christian service.
9. Express the desire to assist Roanoke Bible College in achieving its mission.
10. Put his or her education into action by engaging in career or volunteer Christian service in the United States or abroad.
History of the College
Churches of Christ in Eastern North Carolina in 1948 were so short of ministers that most had preaching only one or two Lord’s Days each month. It was not unusual for one minister to serve four or even six churches, preaching for each church once per month, whether on the Lord's Day morning, afternoon, evening, or on Saturday night. A sizable proportion of the men, although dedicated, had no Bible college preparation. Few lived on the fields served.
This shortage was caused when a once-loyal ministerial school serving the area began teaching German rationalism or “modernism” as it was called. Without the challenge of a divine Christ, few ministerial students entered and fewer graduated from this college. Furthermore, once the churches realized what was being taught, they refused to use student ministers or graduates from the school.
Congregations had died and others were weak spiritually, numerically, and financially. Meeting places consisted generally of small frame structures with plain auditoriums for worship and few Bible school rooms.
To answer this need, Roanoke Bible College was conceived during early 1948. The motto chosen was “A New Testament School—Set for the Defense of the Gospel” (Phil. 1:16 ASV). Leading this effort was George W. BonDurant, employed as evangelist of the Roanoke District Churches of Christ. Mr. BonDurant and his wife, the former Sarah Presley, had been instrumental in 1937 in organizing Atlanta Christian College in Georgia, where he had served as president and she as dietician and both had taught until moving to North Carolina. Mr. BonDurant became the president of Roanoke.
A Certificate of Incorporation was received on September 10, 1948. Classes began September 13 in a rented residence providing a dining room and women’s dormitory, with the men in a nearby rooming house.
The name “Roanoke” was chosen because nearby is Roanoke Island, on which Sir Walter Raleigh established in 1587 his famous “Lost Colony,” the first English-speaking settlement in North America.
During the first year a stately residence in the 700 block of Poindexter Street on the present West Campus was purchased and named in honor of Pattie A. Wilkinson, a generous patron. The second year opened in these larger facilities. By the third year it was necessary to begin construction of a dormitory, Faith Hall. Additional residences have been purchased by the college and have served various functions through the years. A number of faculty and staff have purchased or rented residences in the immediate vicinity as well.
In 1965 and 1969, Heritage Hall was constructed on West campus, providing classrooms, offices, chapel, library, and cafeteria.
During the Silver Anniversary year of 1972-73, Roanoke raised funds to pay in full for an 18.2-acre East Campus, providing playing fields, picnic area, and baptismal spots, adjacent to West Campus. Here a three-story dormitory to house 138 women plus house parents and five single staff women was begun in 1975. Named in honor of Pearl A. Presley, who taught at Roanoke from 1948 through 1993, the first floor of the building was occupied in 1976, the second in 1978, and the third in 1981. In 1979, Roanoke was accredited by the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges (now renamed the Association of Biblical Higher Education).
Ground was broken for a three-story dormitory to house 108 men and house parents in 1984. Named in memory of Harold C. Turner, Sr., one of Roanoke’s founders, the first floor was occupied in the fall of 1985, the second floor public areas the following January, the second floor rooms in the fall of 1990, and the third floor rooms in the fall of 2000.
President BonDurant retired in April 1986, and William A. Griffin was appointed the second president.
The Heritage Campaign, launched in 1995, sought 1.7 million dollars for a threefold capital gifts effort as the school neared its Golden Anniversary Year (1997-98) and a new millennium. This campaign enabled the building of the Albert Blanton III Campus Life Center and added over $250,000 to endowments in the RBC Foundation and $150,000 for bulk heading and other campus improvements. In 1999, Roanoke was accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
The Men for Ministry Campaign was launched in 2000 with a goal of $675,000 to a) complete the third floor of Harold C. Turner Hall, b) retire a large portion of the indebtedness on Albert Blanton III Campus Life Center, c) build the first married student quadruplex, d) remodel the lobbies of Harold C. Turner Hall for a student center, and e) begin an endowment for special projects for the preaching program. The campaign reached its goals by November 2002.
In 2005 Eastern Christian College in Bel Air, Maryland, closed. RBC received some funds, students, trustees, staff, library holdings, and equipment from ECC. RBC holds the academic transcripts of ECC students, and they are invited to participate in the activities of the College.
President Griffin concluded 20 years as Roanoke's president on June 30, 2006, and D. Clay Perkins, Ph.D., became the third president on July 1, 2006.
Roanoke Bible College is proud of its heritage of educating men and women and sending them forth to serve the cause of Christ. During Roanoke’s 59 years, alumni and students have served Christ in 47 states and 21 countries. Over 3,000 students have received training, including 1,033 graduates through 2006. The College’s most recent four-year graduation rate was 43.9%. Sixty percent of the College’s graduates from 1993-2002 are known to be in some form of career Christian service; however, if one were to add the volunteer workers, the percentage would rise to 94%. Sixty-one percent of the graduates are employed in the fields for which they were trained. The College family has founded more than 430 churches.
Location
Roanoke Bible College is located in historic Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The twenty-acre campus is on the banks of the Pasquotank River, five blocks from the US 17/158 bypass and three blocks from the downtown business district and waterfront (see map in Directory section of this catalog). The city of 17,000 provides opportunities for employment, recreation, and shopping. The College is less than two miles from Albemarle Hospital, College of the Albemarle, Elizabeth City State University, and The Museum of the Albemarle. In addition, Roanoke is within an hour’s drive of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the beaches of North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
The College is located in perhaps the thickest concentration of Churches of Christ on the Atlantic coast, from the metropolitan area of Norfolk, Virginia, 50 miles northward, to the rural counties of North Carolina, 100 miles southward. This strategic location affords many opportunities for involvement in church activities, student ministries, youth ministries, supply preaching, field education, and other Christian service.
In the fall of 2007, the College opened a second campus, this one in Western North Carolina at First Christian Church Ministries, Kernersville Campus (1130 N. Main Street, Kernersville, NC).
