HISTORY
IBTI is a place that is full of life, diversity, and the presence of God. Over the course of 70 years, thousands of students have been through the training and dispersed into many different mission fields. In the midst of a world culture that is increasingly individualistic and self-serving, young people still enrol at the IBTI to become part of the Kingdom culture where God and His purposes are at the centre. But what made the IBTI what it is today?
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Shortly after the Second World War, evangelist Fred H. Squire travelled to Holland with the intention of bringing relief goods to those who had lived under the Nazi occupation. When he arrived, he was met with an overwhelming degree of suffering. Many people had starved to death, others had been killed. Those who survived lived under traumatic circumstances and were so poor that an entire family had to share a single pair of shoes. Squire was taken to see the battlefields of the war where he found himself surrounded by mass graves. Everywhere he looked he saw a little cross in the earth marking the place where a person’s life had been taken. Death was all that was around him. According to his reports, he simply wanted to shout out,
“O that men would turn to the living Christ, the only hope of the world.” That day changed his life forever and “at that moment, the IBTI was conceived in his heart.”
In 1947, two years later, the opportunity to do something for Europe presented itself. Squire attended the first Pentecostal World Conference in Zurich. The purpose of the gathering was for Christians in countries that had not been too damaged by the war to provide aid to nations that had been utterly destroyed. Terrible accounts of suffering and poverty were shared at that conference, revealing that in many countries, people lacked everything needed for life. But the extraordinary thing was,
“They did not ask for money, clothing, or food. They declared their greatest need to be spiritual. This was their plea—‘Please send us evangelists to preach the Gospel throughout our lands; send us Christian literature; train our young people to teach and preach and take a positive lead for God.”
So, Fred H. Squire responded. He immediately spoke to the delegates of different countries, telling them to find young people with the call of God on their lives and send them to him in England. He would train, feed, and keep them for two years, free of charge, then send them back home to preach the gospel to their people. And so it began.
In September 1947, the first session at the International Bible Training Institute in Leamington Spa took place with students from England, Italy, Holland, Indonesia, Finland, and Switzerland.
GROWTH AFTER THE EARLY YEARS
Very soon, the property in Leamington Spa was too small for all the students. So, in 1949, the IBTI moved to Hook Place in Burgess Hill (its present location). Students continued to pour in, first from Europe, then eventually from six continents. The IBTI became increasingly involved with relief work in Europe, especially in the aftermath of the Second World War; during the communist dominion; finally expanding its mission field to countries in Africa and other parts of the world.
In September 1947, the first session at the International Bible Training Institute in Leamington Spa took place with students from England, Italy, Holland, Indonesia, Finland, and Switzerland.
CAMP CONVENTION
From 1952 to 1999, the IBTI hosted an annual event called “Camp Convention”—a 10-day programme of daytime meetings, evening rallies, and children and youth activities. People would gather under a large marquee on the grounds of IBTI and experience God in transformational ways. Someone summarised the IBTI Camp Convention by saying, “It was like ten days of heaven on earth.”
REVIVAL FROM HEAVEN
Any account of the IBTI’s history would be incomplete without mentioning what happened in January 1955. Everything started when Fred H. Squire repeatedly made the statement that if the church would put everything aside to seek God for ten days, a revival would take place. Then, challenged to do it rather than talk about it, a plan was made for the beginning of the following term to spend ten days waiting on God.
According to reports, the first few days were very difficult; continuing in prayer and seeking God proved to be a real exercise of self-discipline. The breakthrough came one morning when, overcome by the presence of the Holy Spirit and being mightily empowered, Fred H. Squire went to morning chapel where he preached from Romans verse 12 and called for a response of complete surrender to Christ. While the congregation was still listening, everybody in the room experienced an extraordinary encounter with God. As Fred H. Squire said,
“The heavens were opened and we saw ourselves in our failure and unworthiness and were brought to ‘present our bodies a living sacrifice.’”
Someone else later claimed,
“No words can possibly express such a supernatural revelation of Jesus Christ to man... Acts tells us, ‘When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and spake the Word of God with boldness.’ I can only say, this is what happened to us on Friday morning, 7th January 1955.”
Through this first outpouring of the Holy Spirit, everyone at IBTI was so consumed with a desire to seek God that they even forgot to eat as “those who had no intention of fasting, found that they were.”
So, they continued in prayer, meditation in the Word of God, and corporate worship. Four days later on January 11, 1955, a second outpouring occurred. This time, the suffering in the world and the nation’s desperate need of Christ was in the foreground. People in the chapel felt broken by the Church’s responsibility for lost souls. The 10-day period lengthened and a third tangible encounter with God took place; many who experienced it claimed they would never be the same again. In fact, a genuine difference in character was evident in them and others could tell they had had a real encounter with God.
In those days, the news of the revival at IBTI spread rapidly. Churches and newspapers were notified and many came to the IBTI with a desire to be revived—and they were not disappointed. Will you, whoever you may be, whatever race, consecrate yourself completely, dedicating your every hour and all you have to the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you accept the challenge with hundreds of others to pray daily that God will send REVIVAL THROUGHOUT THE WORLD IN 1955?
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God.”
God is looking for men—who are dedicated unconditionally, men who will live for Christ, work for Christ, who will take up their Cross and follow Him to the end.
COOPERATION WITH AOG GB
In 1947, the Field Office of the European Evangelistic Society was located at the IBTI, later becoming the Administrative Offices of the AOG Action Europe branch of Missions. Eventually, the whole department of Overseas Missions was based at IBTI, with John P. Wildrianne fulfilling the role as AOG Mission Director for many years. Today, this past partnership has established a platform on which mission network and good relationship with many churches continues to create opportunities for placements and internships for our students. To this day, roughly half of the British AOG missionaries around the world are IBTI graduates, showing that the link with AOG GB continues.
John P. Wildrianne (Belgium) and Jean-Jacques Zbinden (Switzerland) had a vision for the IBTI to establish a Pentecostal church in Burgess Hill. So, in 1976 the Burgess Hill Pentecostal Church, now called Centre Church, was formed. It is part of the AOG GB movement and continues to passionately serve the community with the Gospel message.
A STORY BASED ON FAITH
To conclude this account of IBTI history, we cannot help but mention that it is an unmistakable witness to God’s grace. Be it the financial provision that enabled the IBTI to buy Hook Place completely debt-free, or the countless donations and support given to the college at just the right time, God has always been directly involved in the IBTI’s ongoing development. Looking back on 70 years, we are overwhelmed by God’s faithfulness. We look forward, full of faith and expectation, and confident of His favour and purpose for this college.
“For everywhere you go and on every continent, you will meet former IBTI students, serving their Lord and Saviour in different mission fields around the world.”
IBTI TODAY
We honour the weighty legacy of those who came before us. It is our privilege to keep building on the God-given foundation that has weathered storms, produced miracles, and cultivated men and women of faith, integrity, and godly love, pressing on with the same vision pioneered in 1947. We celebrate and honour those who came before as we “stand on the shoulders of giants” and step into a new season of the Kingdom of God manifested on the earth and the forging of an army of faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. In a generation of start-ups and the self-made man, we intend to maximise our multigenerational legacy by growing onwards and upwards, discipling people beyond the college doors, expanding with missions to the nations, and connecting with other like-minded ministries to strengthen the body of Christ and its impact across the world.
It is our privilege to serve one another and we can’t wait to see what God does with IBTI next.