The congregation of Faith Baptist Church (FBC) has been committed to discipleship for ministry service since its birth in 1964. This commitment extended beyond the equipping of the church itself to include those preparing for pastoral ministry.  Numerous pastoral interns have been practically trained at FBC and subsequently have been sent out for vocational ministry both in the United States and around the world.  In addition, by the grace of God, FBC aslo became known for its emphasis on the sufficiency of Scripture and its corollary—biblical counseling.  Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries, a ministry of FBC, has also trained over 10,000 men and women in biblical counseling through the Biblical Counseling Training Conference and the Basic Training Courses.

As a result of the training emphasis in the church, the congregation of FBC included in its five-year strategic plan, developed in 2002, an initiative to consider and lay the ground work for a church-based seminary.  The congregation believed that a church-based seminary was a natural extension of what God has allowed FBC to do throughout its history.  Faith Bible Seminary (FBS) was legally established in 2005 by FBC as a limited liability corporation.  FBS began in the fall of 2007 by offering a Master of Divinity degree.

In 2007, the church decided to expand the potential influence of FBS by investigating the possibility of adding a Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling degree.  This program began in the summer of 2008. 

FBS Mission Statement

Faith Bible Seminary is a graduate-level training institution designed to glorify God by equipping students for effective, evangelical, Christian ministry.  In order to accomplish this mission, Faith Bible Seminary has the following core values:

Sufficiency of Scripture:  To instill in students a whole-hearted and exclusive commitment to the Scriptures that is displayed in a thorough knowledge of the Bible and the skills needed to properly interpret the Bible in order to minister the Word of God to others.

Academic Excellence:  To develop critical thinking skills, mastery of the subject matter, and the ability to evaluate reference works in order to clearly communicate truth.

Spiritual Development:  To encourage a more meaningful relationship with Christ displayed in both their godly character and their service.

Relationship Development:  To facilitate relationships within the student body for the purpose of godly encouragement and exhortation and to prepare students to develop godly relationships in their respective ministries.

Equipping for Service:  To prepare students for courageous and godly Christian ministry based on the truth of the Scriptures including the areas of leadership, community based outreach, and evangelism to the lost around the world.

Rationale and Vision

The congregation of FBC wanted to begin FBS in order to address some growing concerns with traditional seminary models while keeping the academic excellence normally associated with traditional seminaries.  There were three particular needs that the congregation desired to address: cost, time, and ministry experience.  First, the cost of seminary has quickly outpaced the ability of most seminarians to graduate debt-free.  In addition, many seminarians work full-time which makes being a husband and father particularly challenging.  Thus, too many seminarians are leaving school with a family unit in need of repair and indebtedness that potentially limits ministry opportunities.  Second, the congregation believed that students were taking too much time to complete the academic requirements, due in part to the high costs and the associated full-time work.  Third, the church believed that more practical ministry would have to be part of the program in order to properly equip leaders for ministry. 

Based on the rationale, mission statement, and core values of Faith Bible Seminary, the vision of FBS is to become a model for effective ministry training based on excellent academics, the development of meaningful relationships with God and others, and practical ministry training in order to equip students to make a significant difference for the cause of Christ in the United States and around the world.