International Christian College
The foundation of the BibleTraining Institute, originally located in Bothwell Street, Glasgow, Scotland, can be traced to visits to Glasgow between 1874 and 1891 by the American revivalists Dwight Lyman Moody and Ira D. Sankey, and was one of several Christian initiatives in the city that owed their origins to their work - including the Tent Hall and various other missions that had a special appeal to the working classes of the day, who often felt uncomfortable mixing with the more middle class congregations of established churches.[1]
The Bible Training Institute was opened in 1892 and from 1898 was located in or alongside the Christian Institute building, which also housed the YMCA. In 1980 it moved to a former Church of Scotland building in the fashionable west end of the city, at the corner of Byres Road and Great Western Road and in 1990 it became known as Glasgow Bible College. Facilities here were more extensive than previous buildings, but the college soon outgrew them and relocated to an even larger property in St James Road, in what was previously a college of nursing and midwifery adjacent to Strathclyde University. This coincided with the change of name to International Christian College in Glasgow, Scotland, which was formed in 1998 as the result of a merger between Glasgow Bible College (formerly the Bible Training Institute) and Northumbria Bible College (formerly Lebanon Missionary Bible College).
In 2013 the college announced the sale of this building and its intention to move to a new location. Following further review, in 2014 it was announced that following prolonged and substantial falls in new student intakes and unsuccessful attempts to cut costs and to reverse these falls, the college would close in its existing form and explore options for a different kind of future. The combination of free student tuition funding at universities in Scotland and very limited tuition funding for Scottish students at ICC was the most significant factor in the college's predicament and this decision.
In 2015, the college was relaunched as Scottish School of Christian Mission. In partnership with Nazarene Theological College, it is able to offer full student funding for degrees validated by the University of Manchester. It is also an SQA-accredited centre. It offers a BA(Hons) in Theology (Youth and Community), a Certificate in Theology (Pioneer Ministry), an MA in Theology (Urban Mission) and an MA in Theology (Transforming Leadership). A variety of SQA-accredited qualifications are also offered or in development.
The college also moved its premises to Parkhead, Glasgow, in 2015, to reflects its historical and contemporary focous on urban mission.
Principals
Bible Training Institute (1892–1990)
- John Anderson (1898-1913)
- David McIntyre (1913-1938)
- Francis Davidson (1938-1954) had been invited by McIntyre as a visiting lecturer in Biblical and Systematic Theology some 5 years before he succeeded him as principal. He was also Professor of Biblical Criticism in the United Original Secession Church of Scotland.
- Andrew MacBeath (1954-1969)
- Geoffrey Watts Grogan (1969–1991)
Glasgow Bible College (1990–1998)
- C Peter White (until 1996)
- Alexander McIntosh (acting principal until 1998)
Northumbria Bible College (−1998)
Rev Frank Snow (1984 - 1990)
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International Christian College (1998-2015)
- Tony Sargent (1998–2009)
- Richard Tiplady (2010-)
Scottish School of Christian Mission (2015 onwards)
- Richard Tiplady (2015-)
External links
- Scottish School of Christian Mission introduction and history
- YMCA Glasgow history page
- Some basic dates added from G W Grogan's article (Bible Training Institute, Glasgow) in
Cameron, Nigel M de S (ed) (1993). Dictionary of Scottish Church History & Theology. Edinburgh: T & T Clark. ISBN 0-567-09650-5.
References
Coordinates: 55°51′50″N 4°14′25″W / 55.8640°N 4.2404°W