My name is Bill Whetstone. I’m a senior pastor at El Dorado Springs Church of the Nazarene in El Dorado Springs, Missouri. I’m also the study board secretary for the Chaplain District for Core Studies. My link to NBC is that I’m a graduate of NBC when it was on campus back in the late '70s, and I love NBC. It’s a great place.
Even as a study board secretary and even though our district has its own group, I try to suggest getting involved with NBC to as many people as possible, both because of the quality of education at NBC and the knowledge that they’re going to get an education that’s going to be Nazarene.
There were so many wonderful memories back at NBC that I could go on for a long time. But I think the best memory of NBC — and my heart is saddened a little bit that we closed the campus down, because there was something about giving everything up and making that call that God gave us a priority. Especially being the study secretary, I think sometimes a lot of the people put the studies on the back burner because they’ve got everything else going on in their life, and they don’t finish, it takes forever, or they’re having troubles or struggles. And it’s a huge difference when you say, “Yes, Lord,” put everything aside, and pack it and go.
But some of my favorite memories were of the interactions with the leaders — and there were a lot of them, like Dr. Bowman, who was wonderful, probably my favorite teacher, or Dr. Floyd Perkins. I grew up as a pastor’s son, and I’ve got two family members — in fact, my one brother, Pastor Jerry, teaches online for NBC — but the interaction with them and the ability just to say, “I need help with this” far exceeds anything that’s going on. It’s just a wonderful atmosphere, and working with them now as study secretary, from the help they give when I have students from other denominations come in with other things, going to them, helping me do cross-references is wonderful, and I’m glad that they’re still around.
I’d like to see them take over the setup of what educational qualities it takes to be ordained for the entire district. Honestly, I said that today in the meeting, and I think that would be great. I'm also excited about the new president. He came and preached at our church, and that was wonderful.