History
Briercrest Throughout the Decades
In the early 1920s,
Annie (Copeland) Hillson led a home Bible study in the village of
Briercrest with a friend who was shut in due to poor health. The
study soon grew to include several members of the community who
enjoyed solid Bible teaching from visiting preachers and community
women, including Mrs. Hillson and Mrs. Isabel Whittaker. Eventually
the group formed a new church, the Briercrest Gospel Assembly.
The people needed
a pastor to lead the church and the Bible school they felt God
calling them to open. A name that was brought forth time and time
again was Henry Hildebrand. At the time Henry was a student at
Winnipeg Bible Institute and a circuit riding preacher with CSSM.
Although he was young (only 23 years old), he had proved himself
faithful in his service to God and others.
Mr. Sinclair Whittaker,
one of the believers at Briercrest, was a successful businessman
and a member of the provincial legislature. He took it upon himself
to contact Henry, informing him of their need for a pastor and
their desire to open a Bible school. They had consulted many highly
respected Christian leaders about the idea, but received
discouragement from them all. Whittaker wrote to Hildebrand:
"We are, however, anxious to obey God rather than men. If He continues to lead us in this direction, we will follow, regardless of man's opinion. We fully realize that under the economic conditions prevailing here it will require a great deal of faith to proceed. We have had six crop failures. Ninety percent of the people are on relief. We are, however, blessed with some dozens of praying Christians who are endowed with enough faith to move mountains."
Henry agreed to join them.
Briercrest Bible
Institute opened its doors on October 19, 1935, and eleven students
enroled. A rented house served as dormitory, classroom, and office
for the school. Mr. Hildebrand was principal and Mrs. Annie
Hillson, Mrs. Isabel Whittaker, Jean Whittaker, and Margaret Rusk
helped with teaching and administration. Donald McMillan joined
them in the second term as assistant principal. By January 1946,
the student body had grown so much that the school rented all the
available space in Briercrest, including the disused Yale Hotel.
About six months before the end of the war, knowing that enrolment
would go up when the soldiers returned home, Mr. Whittaker said to
Mr. Hildebrand, Henry, from all I know, an airport is what we
will need after the war. Let us pray that God will give
one of them to us.
Mr. Whittaker used his
experience in business and politics to arrange the purchase of
Royal Airforce Base #33 in Caron for $50,000-five percent of its
value. The new facility was dedicated on July 1, 1946, and the
incredible task of converting the airbase into dormitories,
classrooms, offices, and staff housing began.
Caronport High School
opened in September 1946, and a grade school also began that year.
Enrolment grew in all of the schools and many new buildings (named
after the pioneers who helped build the ministry of Briercrest)
were constructed to accommodate the growing student body. The late
1960s were hard times for the schools as enrolment declined for
five consecutive years, the farm economy was in recession, and even
Christian people seemed to question the value of Christian
education.
In the early 1970s, the schools began to recognize the need for academic credibility. Briercrest became a candidate for accreditation with the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges (now the Association for Biblical Higher Education) in 1973, and earned full accreditation in 1976. Substantial investment was made in the library and the number of books grew from 9000 in 1971 to over 30,000 volumes in 1985 (and 70,000 today). In 1979, a distance learning program was launched. In 1982, the name Briercrest Bible Institute was changed to Briercrest Bible College. The seminary began in 1983 and by 1985, faculty members had an average of 8.6 years of post-secondary training. All of these developments were coupled with aggressive expansion of academic programs. College enrolment grew significantly from 285 in 1970 to 775 in 1985.
In the past twenty years, the schools have continued to pursue academic credibility and program quality. There have also been continued efforts to clarify the identity of the schools, which are now known as Briercrest College and Seminary, and their sister school, Caronport High School. Our mission statement is:
Evangelism and mission
outreach have always been central to the life and training of
Briercrest. From the first year, staff and students have gone out
from Briercrest to bring the gospel to the nations. Our first
alumni missionary, Reg Glen, was both a member of the first
graduating class and a faculty member. He and his wife, Kay, sailed
for Southern Rhodesia, Africa, in October 1941.
Throughout our 75-year history, we have had 5 presidents: Henry Hildebrand (1935-1977); Henry Budd (1977-1990); John Barkman (1990-1996); Paul Magnus (1996-2004); and Dwayne Uglem (2004-present)-Sinclair Whittaker served as president of the board until 1950. These leaders represent our schools' rich heritage of staff and faculty who give their lives in service to God through Briercrest-far too many to name here, but we are so thankful to God for their sacrifice and their service.
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| S. Whittaker | H. Hildebrand | H. Budd | J. Barkman | P. Magnus | D. Uglem |
As we move into the future, we are confident that God will continue to bless the ministry of Briercrest. We thank Him for the opportunity to provide students with spiritual and academic formation that equips them for lives of service to God and to others.
