About Oklahoma Bible College (adapted from The History of Randall University)
The merger of the northern movement of Free Will Baptists (the Randall movement) with Northern Baptists in 1911, left a scattered number of churches which did not participate in the merger. Those churches lost access to historic Free Will Baptist schools, such as Bates College in Maine and Hillsdale College in Michigan.
To fill this educational void, the Co-operative General Association of Free Will Baptist in the West opened Tecumseh College in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, in 1917. The first president was John H. Wolfe, a graduate of Hillsdale College in Michigan. Tecumseh College was destroyed by fire in 1927 and never completely rebuilt due to the Depression, dust bowl days, World War II, and the Korean Conflict.
During the decades after the fire at Tecumseh College, the churches of Oklahoma kept the higher education dream alive. Numerous resolutions encouraged support of and participation in the Bible Institute sponsored by the Oklahoma State Association of Free Will Baptists. A series of Bible institutes were located in various geographic areas by a rotation through the district associations, but Oklahoma Free Will Baptists had a vision for a permanent institution of higher learning.
These Bible institutes eventually culminated in Oklahoma Bible College (OBC). OBC officially launched in the basement First FWB Church, Tulsa, in January 1959. During its early years, the school met in various churches and locations: Wagoner starting in fall 1959; Northwest FWB Church, Oklahoma City, in fall 1961; and Capitol Hill FWB Church, Oklahoma City, in fall 1962.
On September 13, 1966, the college began operations on the present campus three miles south of Moore, Oklahoma. In 1971, as a symbolic gesture, the governing board renamed the institution Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College after Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, which began as a Free Will Baptist institution in 1844, but is no longer affiliated with Free Will Baptists.
On October 14, 2015, the Oklahoma State Association of Free Will Baptists voted to change the name of Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College to Randall University in honor of Benjamin Randall (February 7, 1749 – October 22, 1808) the founder of Free Will Baptists in the northeastern United States.
The newsletter contained below was published six years, from 1966 to 1971. The OBC Newsletter began just prior to the move to its present location and ceased publication after the name was changed to Hillsdale College. If you have additional issues of the newsletter to add to this collection, please contact the Free Will Baptist Historical Collection using the form at the bottom of the page.
1966 May | June | September | November
1967 January | February | March | April | May | June | August | September | October | November
1968 January | February | March | April | May | June | August | September | October | November
1969 January | February | March | April | May | June | August | September | October | November
1970 April | May | June | August | September | October | November
1971 January | February | March | April | May | June | August
If you own the missing issues of the Oklahoma Bible College Newsletter and would like to contribute them to the Free Will Baptist Historical Collection, please contact us using the simple form below.