“It started as a challenge, actually,” Pastor Dave Stertzbach reminisces about how one of the lines from a Ministry Team script became a running joke on campus. “The line is funny because while it points out what is obvious, it is also very true. And, of course, once I saw that the audience responded so well to it, then I worked it into the script several times. So the repetition became part of the joke.”
A faculty member speaking in chapel . . . or a student talking about a summer internship in another country . . . or choir singers talking to a freshman about why we are learning a song in a foreign language: any of them may say, “Well, the I stands for international.” And for an entire generation of IBCS students, that phrase elicits an eyeroll or a giggle or, at least, a grunt of recognition.
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stor Stertzbach describes how it came to be: “Pastor Nathan, Pastor Scott, and I were joking about how the worst part of any Ministry Team presentation from any college is the introductions. When the team members have to say their names, where they are from, and what they are studying, it can be so repetitious and boring. So Pastor Nathan challenged me to think of a different way to do it. That’s how we ended up with a reader’s theater style script that introduced the college and the students to the churches. At several points in that presentation, a team member points out, ‘The I stands for international.’ To be honest, the team members didn’t like it at first. They felt silly being silly. But I knew the average person in the average church would think it was funny.”
Who could have predicted that the phrase would go from being a throwaway laugh during the introductions of a Ministry Team presentation to a poignant reminder of who we are as a college. Of why we exist. Of our purpose. Of what God has called us to do.
Names are significant. And the name of IBCS was chosen to convey our specific mission and values. Each of the letters mean more than just our organization title. (Why we are a college and a seminary is a topic for another article. And another article yet [or several!] could be written on why the B.) But the International in both the name of the college and our partner, International Baptist Missions, states our purpose: to prepare students for effective local church ministry in the Western United States and around the world. IBCS partners with IBM to cast a vision to our students of worldwide ministry.
- IBM hosts missions trips, taking college students to the Philippines, Kenya, Mexico, and other places.
- Students are mentored through the process of setting up a summer internship with missionaries on the foreign field.
- Missions is taught in specific classes like A History of Global Missions.
- The truth of worldwide evangelism is emphasized in every class—from theology classes to practical ministry classes to choir!
- Chapel preachers emphasize missions and describe their ministries.
- Christian camps come on campus to recruit for summer ministry—both camps in the USA and camps abroad.
- Every fall, IBM hosts a missions conference through Tri-City Baptist Church.
To most people, “missions conference” means merely a few services with preaching on missions and a “missions medley” for the offertory. But the IBM Missions Conference is a huge event meant to shake us out of our spiritual stupor and focus us on God’s heartbeat. A week before the special evening services commence, 
the emphasis begins with special chapel services for college students and academy students. The College Choir sings an international song they have been preparing for months. They have sung in Spanish, Swahili, German, Ukrainian, Yoruba, and boring ol’ English. On Saturday, there is a Missions Prayer Breakfast for the men and a ladies Missions Brunch where we meet the missionaries for the week. By the time the prelude starts on Sunday morning, there is palpable excitement in the air. No one misses the emotion of the moment as children enter the auditorium with flags from different countries while the congregation joins the choir and orchestra in singing “For the Sake of His Name.” There are services, sermons, testimonies, missionary presentations, and, yes, thematic offertories. And the whole conference ends by celebrating other cultures with the International Banquet to which it is an honor to wear clothes from another country—a country you love, a country your family is from, a country you have chosen to pray for, or a country you have visited.
We have international students. We educate about and encourage experience with international cultures. We promote, emphasize, and honor international missions. Why?
Because “the I stands for international.”