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Abbotsford, B.C.
The glory days


“Let’s talk about the glory days of Columbia Bible College,” Board chair Michael Dick suggested as he opened the school’s Annual General Meeting, then added, “The glory days are still ahead.” The meeting of delegates from the supporting churches (the school is jointly owned by the B.C. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches and by Mennonite Church B.C.), held Oct. 24 in the school’s chapel, heard mostly good news – record enrollment, no debt and ambitious building plans.

The president’s report was shared by new president Paul Wartman and his wife Ruthanne, who described how God had confirmed that He was leading them to leave the pastorate and accept their new role at CBC.

The Columbia Singers sang three pieces; the quality of the music was affirmed by delegates’ enthusiastic response.

Kathleen Doll Jeremy Thompson

Testimonies by two students (Jeremy Thompson and Kathleen Doll), illustrated Paul Wartman’s assertion that the school is about people, not buildings. Both students, now in third year, said that they had come to Columbia with some uncertainty and had found it challenging but very rewarding as they learned to know, trust and serve God. Neither is sure where exactly they will end up, but both expressed a passion to work with people who need to know God loves them.

The elections saw five incumbent Board members re-elected in a ballot vote: Dan Rempel and Randy Redekop from Mennonite Church B.C. and Doreen Dahl, Leonard Klassen and John Wiens from the B.C. MB Conference.

In the only piece of bad news, controller Teri Jones explained how an employee had been able to steal over $15,000 from the College. The employee had used a College credit card to buy personal items, but had made the purchases by phone, so there were no receipts. The nature of the purchases was eventually discovered by the College’s accounting department, and procedures have been changed to reduce the possibility of such a thing happening again. The employee has now repaid 85% of the money taken, and the rest is expected to be repaid in the next six months.

Because of lower-than-expected enrollment and fewer-than-expected students living on campus, the College finished the 2001–2002 year with a small deficit, which reduced the College’s operating surplus by $36,192. The total revenue for the year was $4,398,694; of this, $2,163,169 came from tuition, $858,432 came from room and board paid by students, $491,150 came directly from the two supporting Conferences, and $356,100 came from fundraising.

Delegates approved the 2002–2003 budget with anticipated revenues of $4,663,770 and an anticipated surplus of $45,800. They also tentatively approved the 2003–2004 budget calling for revenues of $4,765,345 and an anticipated surplus of $65,000. The College hopes to increase its accumulated surplus to the point where it will have about $600,000 in cash on hand at the end of each fiscal year (April 30), so that it will not have to borrow any money over the summer.

One delegate objected that it was improper to vote on financial statements when delegates had been given only summaries of the statements rather than the full statements themselves. The College assured delegates that it would re-examine the process for next year.

President Wartman concluded the meeting with an appeal for delegates to pray about donating to the “Building on Strengths” campaign (see related story). He repeated that the College values people over buildings (the new Student Centre would facilitate inter-student relationships), builds for excellence rather than extravagance, and is committed to a “funds before facility” policy (that is, the College will not go into debt but will raise the necessary funds before starting building).

 – jc

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Last modified December 16, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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