Forty years on: remembering Birmingham Bible Institute and God’s faithfulness 

It’s 40 years since I packed my bags for Birmingham Bible Institute, writes Andy Glover — a 19-year-old with a Bible, a suitcase, and a heart full of questions and dreams.

Looking back, I can see how those years shaped the path that followed, and how God’s faithfulness has remained the golden thread running through it all

This month marks 40 years since I set off to Bible college; Birmingham Bible Institute, or BBI as we affectionately called it. It was October 1985, and I was 19 years old, just out of school, clutching a suitcase, a Bible, and a mixture of excitement and fear about what lay ahead.

I can still remember the feeling of stepping into No 6 Pakenham Road for the first time — that blend of eagerness and uncertainty, as if I were standing on holy ground without quite realising it. I didn’t fully know what I was signing up for. All I knew was that I loved God, wanted to serve Him, and felt this unmistakable tug to go deeper in His Word and in His ways.

Looking back now, I see that those years laid foundations that have shaped everything since. The lessons I learned, the the people I met, the prayers that were prayed — all of it became part of the scaffolding of my life and ministry.

BBI in those days had a real heart for revival. We weren’t just studying theology for its own sake; we longed to see God move in our nation again. I remember the Friday evening Pray for Revival meetings, days of Prayer and Fasting. These times of prayer and worship as we gathered in the chapel, crying out for the Holy Spirit to awaken hearts, to renew the church, to bring people to Christ. Those moments left a deep mark on me. They taught me that ministry isn’t about clever ideas or personal ambition, but about being hungry for God to move by His Spirit.

That’s something that has stayed with me ever since, the dual emphasis on the Word and the Spirit — that was a theme that ran through everything we did. We wanted to be people of the Word: grounded, faithful, biblically shaped.

But we also wanted to be people of the Spirit: open, expectant, responsive to God’s leading. That balance became, and remains, one of the great lessons of my life.

At 19, I couldn’t have imagined all the places God would take me or the people I would have the privilege of serving. Ministry has brought moments of deep joy — seeing lives changed by the gospel, witnessing people discover faith for the first time, standing in awe as God’s Spirit moves in ways that only He can. There is a unique joy in walking with people through every season of life, celebrating dedications, baptisms, and weddings, seeing answered prayers; watching faith take root and grow.
 
But there have also been seasons of pain and pruning — times when prayers seemed to go unanswered, when disappointment or loss weighed heavily, or when faithfulness felt costly.

There have been moments of weariness, of wondering whether I was making any difference at all. Yet, even in those places, I have known God’s quiet presence, sustaining, refining, and reminding me that the call is His, not mine to carry alone.

Through both the joy and the pain, I can trace the unbroken thread of God’s faithfulness. He has never failed to provide strength for each day, grace for each challenge, and fresh hope for whatever lies ahead. Looking back, I see how He’s used every season — the fruitful and the difficult — to deepen trust and shape character.

Now, all these years later, as I serve at Hoole Baptist Church, I see the same heartbeat that stirred at BBI — that longing to see God at work in His people and in the community around us. Whether it’s in Sunday worship, community outreach, or quiet conversations over coffee, I still find myself praying those same prayers we prayed as students all those years ago: Lord, revive us again.

My hope and prayer for Hoole is that we continue to be a people of Word and Spirit — grounded in truth, alive in faith, and open to all that God wants to do among us. The faces may have changed, the times certainly have, but the calling remains the same: to love God deeply, to serve our community faithfully, and to be ready for the renewing work of the Holy Spirit in our day.

Forty years on, I’m still learning, still growing, still amazed at the faithfulness of God. He has never changed. And the fire that was kindled in those BBI days still burns — sometimes quietly, sometimes fiercely — but always there, reminding me that the God who called is the same God who keeps.
 

Andy Glover is Team Leader of Fresh Streams and HBC Chester 

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