Northland Baptist Bible College

I knew someone who went there for a semester and couldn't handle the isolation very well and ended up finishing at New Orleans Baptist. Being from West Texas didn't help matters much either I am sure.

 

Personally, I probably could have handled the boondocks part. I mean, after I was married, my wife and I lived in a town of less than 400 for nearly two years, and we're looking to do it again. If I were to go back physically to attend classes, it would be one I'd consider.

 

The isolation is a problem for some. Someone mentioned living in a town smaller than 400, well the campus is in the middle of the woods and the closest town is Dunbar, which is a few houses. As Dr. Bob said, to get a job off campus means a significant ride to Iron Mountain, etc.

Another factor has been several accidents by Northland students. I am not suggesting they are bad drivers or are driving reckless, but they are on a two-lane road and to get back to civilization they have to drive over an hour south. Last year they had an accident with fatalities and right now two students are critically injured because another driver crossed the center line and hit them head-on.

It is still a good school and one that IFBs should seriously consider.

 

I love this place! I am going there after graduate. One of the problems with it, as has been all ready mentioned, is it being so far away from a place to work. You almost have to work on campus.
My youth group goes up there every spring for Springfest, and it is a great time.

 

What Kalkaska out in the boondocks? Nooo! Come on now. My town has two stop lights. That is great right? We also have, get this, a grocery store! I bet all you big town people are really, really jealous!
To use a line from Even Stevens:
"My town is so small the walk signs say 'Mosey, and don't mosey'"
Your a great crowd thank you!

 

Amazinglove...what have you been smoking, and why ain't you a sharin' it??? LOL

 

Kalkaska is north of Traverse City, is it not?

Hey- Skowhegan's Wal-Mart just got- get this-

Self-checkout.

As soon as I can convince my church members this isn't the mark of the beast, we'll be making progress!

 

Sounds like my mom. She thinks that all these scanners are preparing the way for the Mark to come.

 

We've had self checkout here in TN for nearly two years. I've never used it. But, if I know about the upper Midwest (especially Wisconsin near a Bible college), they'll think it's the mark of the beast! LOL Just kidding, so don't have a cow!

 

Wow you know your stuff! Have you live in this area or something?

Wait a minute! Do you know a Michaud guy? He was a ex-teacher at the Christian school I used to go too. He lived in Maine.

 

Don't know a Michaud- but I just moved back to Maine a year ago after being away for 10 years, so I am just establishing and re-establishing contacts.

My wife is from Grand Rapids. Our pastor in GR had a friend who pastored a church in Kalkaska, I believe. I preached up in Manton once about 8 years ago.

 

I have a friend whose family owns a house on Torch Lake. We vacationed with them one summer -- what a beautiful part of the country.

Andy

 

Wow small world. Do you remember what church he pastored? There is Evergreen Bible Baptist, my home church, which is next to a potato farm. Then there is Calvary Baptist in town, that is a GARB church.
Did you preach at Pastor Hemis's church? He has the only Baptist church that I know of in Manton.

 

I think it was Calvary that my pastor's friend was at. Our church was a GARBC church, so it would make sense.

That pastor's name from Manton sounds familiar. I filled in while the pastor was gone, so I never actually met him.

Hope you enjoy your time at Northland. What will you be studying?

 

Was that pastor's name Graham? His wife was my first and second grade teacher.

At Northland, I will, Lord willing, be entering the speech major. I love acting on stage and God has given me a gift for it, so we will see what happens with that.

 

Northland Grad Speaking Out

I understand that this thread was started in 2004, but I have found many posts since then that allude to NBBC, so I feel this post is still relevant.

Let me start by saying I was curious about the Baptist Board and did a search for Northland to see if there were other alumni here. Through my browsing, I have become increasingly sure that I don’t really want to spend very much time here. The tone of many posts is not godly. Hiding behind “wanting to speak the truth and expose error” is the real desire to pull down others and puff up one’s self. That is the opposite of being an edifying Christian. And because my human nature tends to lean toward being critical, I don’t need the help. I am reminded of freshman college students spending hours on end debating “deep doctrinal issues”.

Don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I am all for exposing untruth and guarding against false doctrine. However, I am against spending time debating issues that are not going to be resolved by debating.

I am very familiar with Northland. I grew up attending summer and winter camps there and met many students. My older sister attended NBBC for 2 years. I was a volunteer kitchen worker for 2 summers and when I graduated from high school, I was hired to work in the kitchen before beginning my freshman year. From that time on, I lived year round at Northland working as the maintenance department secretary. I babysat for most of the faculty kids and house sat for some of the older faculty. I was a very close friend with many of the older faculty children. I graduated from NBBC in 1990.

Let me say that I am not infatuated with Northland. I have issues with some things that have happened over the years. When/If I feel strongly enough about these issues, I will personally call and speak to several faculty members. Until that time, those issues are not large enough for me to slander the whole school.

I am very perturbed after reading many of your posts. It is CLEAR that you had a bad incident or someone close to you had a bad incident with Dr. Ollila. However, your personal attacks on this man are unfounded and may be the result of his discernment and a lack of something on the part of the offended/offender.

I was very close friends with both his daughters and babysat for his grandson. I observed their family first hand for at least a hundred hours. I was treated like one of the daughters. DR. Ollila is one of the most humble, Godly men I have ever known. Everyone there lovingly calls him DOCTOR O. He is not proud of his honorary doctorate. He introduces himself as “Les”. I met him and his family when they were visiting campus before he was hired. I was just a teenager working in the kitchen and he was kind and gracious. He was the same man the last time I saw him years after I graduated and he visited the church I was attending.

My biggest issue with your many posts in regards to him is this: When you attended Northland, Dr. Wooster was president. DR. Ollila was not even there! Have you ever even met him personally?!

You stated:

“Northland Baptist Bible College had to ask its former president and now chancellor to stay home more! His daughter became pregnant out of wedlock while he was president.”

I sat in chapel the day he stepped to the podium and through tears announced he was resigning as president because his teen daughter was pregnant. His heart was broken on many levels. Then his daughter stepped to the podium and asked forgiveness for the damage she had done to her family, and in particular, her father and his ministry. She asked the student body to forgive her but to not let her father resign. As a whole, the student body and faculty immediately stood to their feet and clapped. Our student body was still small enough to have a family atmosphere. That was a day we will never forget and it drew everyone closer to each other and closer to God. I am not aware that anyone asked him to stay home more. I know his desire at that point was to reevaluate and to reconnect with his daughter. Knowing this daughter PERSONALLY as I do, I do not know that she would have behaved any differently if he had been home. And in saying that her pregnancy was a result of DR. O not being home, you are greatly insulting Mrs. Ollila.

But you haven’t mentioned the younger daughter. She married another faculty kid and after both graduated from Northland they went on to BJU where he earned his Masters and Doctorate and now they work at NBBC. And what about their son? Their son graduated from NBBC and is in full-time ministry. And the grandson also is serving the Lord.

You have harped on the fact that DR. O only has a B.A from an unaccredited college. He graduated from BJU. That is also where he received his honorary LLD after decades of Christian service. And he received his honorary DD from Faithway Baptist College. He has never attempted to hide the fact that these were honorary. In my mind, calling him Dr. is the equivalent of “Mr. or Mrs”. These are terms of respect. Your constant repertoire of insults in this regard is sickening.

And then there was this topic:


"What is it with these inane nicknames fundamentalists give to their founders. NBBC did the same thing with their founder. "Papa?"

Don't mean to offend, but at least in the case of NBBC, some of the founder's relatives found this to be embarrassing.

Yes, I did. I know that the "name" is meant as a term of endearment, but when are we going to put our focus on God and not on man? This is the great weakness of fundamentalism. It is man-centered, man-focused, and man-driven.

As each (and in most cases God-fearing) man carved out his part of the kingdom, the followers got to swooning over a "man" instead of giving full devotion to Christ.

We need to mature in our faith as fundamentalists and unite together in the kingdom for God's glory! Let's reserve "papa" for God (abba, Father)."

Papa Patz was a farmer. He was a brilliant inventor. He was a humble, generous man who donated 100 acres to begin a ministry – first as a camp for the poor children of Wisconsin and then later as a Bible Institute. His family was embarrassed that we called him “Papa”? Maybe that’s because all the interaction I had with many members of his family revealed that they were snobs and that they were likely bitter that he gave away 100 acres of their inheritance. ? Our focus was never on Papa Patz. We were grateful and we respected and honored him and his wife; but we never “focused” on them. He would speak in chapel despite having lost most of his tongue to cancer. He was so thankful to have had a small part in sending out so many educated young people into the world as God's servants. (As for calling God “Papa” I personally find that irreverent.)

Seeing that the boards are all about being able to speak one’s opinion (and in your case, over and over and over) I wanted to note these facts for the record. I would not want anyone’s perception of NBBC to be derived from your continual posts. No college is perfect because it is comprised of PEOPLE. Northland is not perfect. BIG DEAL. In your efforts to expose hypocrisy, I believe you have exposed something of your character that is not attractive; and I have not observed one post that would contribute toward UNITY.