BIG RIG BIBLE COLLEGE
Vision: A training facility for the ministers of the future in the transport industry and specifically within this ministry.
As there is no success without successors, Big Rig Bible College will play a key role in the longevity of this vision.
Mission: Provision of training that is theologically sound, culturally relevant and productive in application.
Building people who will build the future.
Concept: A series of certified modules leading to a diploma and or degree in practical ministry within the trucking industry.
Reason: As the growth of Faith Freighters and the duplication process of 5th Wheel Worship Centers rolls out, we are going to need trained people who understand not only the practical aspects of the ministry, but the heart and culture of the vision as well. Our goal is not for our graduates to end up as theologians - we are looking to create and build “fishers of men with breaking nets”. It is my belief that God wants to minister not just to truckers but through truckers.
Equipping believers will be a major focus of this ministry.
Earn & Learn:
A full time course where the theory and practice are of equal value. 5thWWC Students will work part time and study part time on site at the college facility. Course fees will be deducted from pay, thus avoiding debt. Work affords the opportunity to minister through service and workplace assessment becomes part of the overall course.
​
OTR students. It is our desire to be able to establish a working relationship with one or more trucking companies to create an “earn & learn” program that will see students combine driving and education; students that begin with a bigger reason than just driving a truck.
Big Rig Bible College’s Over The Road Learning would be packaged as a complete Christian adventure. Students would be supported by study mentors and companies interested in building people.
For younger men or young married or retired couples it would be an opportunity to combine education with productivity and a sound investment plan that would see them able to establish themselves financially at the conclusion of study. It would also be a recruiting bonus for trucking companies involved. Options on completion of courses would be to continue working and investing while still ministering on the road or come off the road and move into a role with 5thWWC or other ministry. The whole exercise would be the basis for a long term documentary series on a ‘warts and all’ working faith.
Courses: Various levels of study to suit - Earn & Learn (local & OTR) and Distance Courses specifically to facilitate drivers and anyone that chooses to participate
Training Materials: Because all driver students will need to study on the run, we’ll put the most gifted, anointed teachers of The Word and of the Christian Life right in the cab with them. Resources are plentiful and authority for accreditation from diploma to PhD is already secured.
CAMP BIG RIG
The Facility I see.
Following the lead of various sporting and military organizations in “reaching them while they’re young”, Camp Big Rig is about providing young people with a positive exposure to the trucking industry in a safe, supervised environment while simultaneously imparting Christian values that have been changing lives in youth camps for decades.
I see a facility that will capture the imagination of young and old alike and appeal to the kid in all of us. An uplifting and fun environment reaching the spiritual and stretching the physical.
Set on a hundred acre site I see a facility built to resemble a transport terminal. Backed up on three sides about 50 older tractor trailer rigs converted to bunk houses for ten campers and one leader each trailer.
Camp Big Rig will be different in that it will include many of the normal fun activities with a transport theme.
Young and disabled campers will enjoy rides in the tractors while camps for older youth will include the opportunity to drive a rig on the Faith Freighter driver training facility built near the property.
Everything will be done to give the young folks a positive image of trucking to take home with them, just another contribution to improving trucking’s image and hopefully ensuring a flow of younger talent to the industry in years to come.
Down the track I see participating companies offering scholarships to Transport focused educational opportunities leading to a comprehensive transport traineeship program including driving.
My prayer is that it will be a recruiting ground for Big Rig Bible College, working missionaries to an industry.
5th wheel media
“Publish or Perish” … Donald Sutherland - can’t recall the movie but never forgot the line.
People want to be involved with something bigger than themselves. Trucks are big, trucking is big and everything about this ministry will reflect the bigness of the industry it serves.
Let’s put it in the wind …… on paper …. and on the air!
· TO CONVEY A PASSIONATE MESSAGE OF HOPE
· TO RAISE THE MINISTRY PROFILE AND GET PEOPLE PRAYING
· TO SELL THE SIZZLE OF FAITH AS AN ADVENTURE IN LIFE
· TO IMPROVE TRUCKING’S IMAGE IN THE PUBLIC EYE
· TO MARKET THE MINISTRY SERVICES AND MERCHANDISE
The greatest story ever told is still being told in the lives of people all over the world, many in the transport industry. Utilizing every available technology, 5th Wheel Media will be responsible for all multimedia, online and electronic communications - as well as production of Diesel & Destiny, the TV Show & the Magazine of the same name. With their life at the coalface format they are also designed to be evangelism tools; equally as appealing to the Christian and non Christians alike.
They will help raise awareness, expand our partnership and prayer support nationally and internationally. We must do all we can to harness prayer support from the church at large.
Internationally, we already have a guarantee of national broadcast in Australia with the Australian Christian Channel and promotion on Vison FM radio @ 415 stations around Australia.
Our media ministry is not about a single entity - i.e. John Doe Ministries with John’s face on every page. That’s not to say it won’t have recognizable faces or characters, but it’s focus will be telling stories of changed lives. Real people with real problems and solutions; real dreams and victories and the encounter with God that facilitated it all.
diesel and destiny
“Because people are fascinated by people” …
CEO of OPTUS VISION speaking to a Christian forum about the grab of most popular shows.
THE TV SHOW
The show will have a variety format with something for the whole family. Professionally produced with a “common man” feel, it will be filmed on the road, encompassing “all things trucking” (and some things that aren’t ) and will provide most of the content for the magazine.
It is envisaged in the future to have a separate, more locally focused show just filmed in and around the 5th Wheel Worship Centre. To be broadcast via the internet. With thousands of truckers coming and going daily, there is bound to be any number of stories and characters walking through our doors. Broadcasting options may include video streaming via internet into truck stops and cable.
​
THE MAGAZINE
A quality gloss publication loaded with visual images and regular departments as well as features, it will be attractive to the eye and stimulating to the heart and mind. We hope it will be something folks will not be hesitant to pass on or encourage others to read. Much of the content will be taken from our TV show of the same name but, print will enable extra detail or a different lean on the story so it will not be identical. Binder sets will be available to add value and ensure a longer reading life per issue. Monthly bulk orders will be encouraged and heavily promoted among our partners and other churches to be used as a ministry tool and give away.
18 wheels of worship
The Concert
This will become an important annual event. Looking into the future, I am convinced that we will stage them on both the east and the west coast. I have been informed that a number of prominent country artists who are Christians would donate a night for the cause. We already have a recording guarantee for a theme song for the ministry when we are ready to move ahead. I am believing it will actually become the ministry’s first album CD.
The first concert will be a major part of the national launch of the ministry. Assuming that we can get enough prominent artists involved I am hopeful of Television coverage and simulcast on Trucker and Christian radio.
The event would have three main purposes.
1. Celebration / Worship service in conjunction with an annual conference for fellowship and teaching.
2. Fundraiser - via ticket sales, Video / DVD and CD sets.
3. Publicity - raising awareness and profile of the ministry and it’s purpose.
Indoor / Outdoor is still a question that I don’t have an answer on at this time.
It may well be in the 5th WWC itself as part of it’s opening.
​
Mile Marker -I have believed for a long time that this whole vision is so God sized that it would need to go national from the get go. I prayed for confirmation that this thought came from Him.
One day while speaking with pastor/friend Chas Gullo, he said go look at Isaiah 66. I did and wept.
​
“Vs 6. Hear that uproar from the city, hear that noise from the temple! It is the sound of the Lord repaying his enemies all they deserve. 7. Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. 8. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children. 9. “Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the Lord.”
reflections of faith
Four years ago in the midst of worship service the Lord hit the play button of my mind and I saw a “cat’s eye” reflector, yep the type they use to mark traffic lanes. It was on a carousel like in a jewelers window and as it turned the light hit it’s reflectors. I pondered asked and waited a little and then heard the still small voice - “if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father”. … I thought on it a little …ok so you were the reflection of God’s love to us in flesh and we’re supposed to be reflectors of your love to the world …great …got it!
It didn’t go away so I asked again, did I miss something?...what? there’s more? … He spoke again ..” sell them”. Sell them? ..You want me to go into the reflector business? … immediately I saw every curb, edge, inroad at the 5thWWC lined with reflectors, every twinkle a reflection of someone’s love for you , the American trucker, every reflector reminding them “if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father” I wept. Lord if only we could find a million people who would love them like we do.
One of the more desired fundraiser ideas is Reflection Sunday where hopefully a million believers across America will buy a reflector for $25. We’ll send one to them to put on their desk or driveway and put one on their behalf on the parking lot of the 5thWWC. It could be built debt free and a million believers will know they’re a part of something huge that God’s doing in their nation and then around the world. And in the process as we tell the story to truckers and the public alike we’ll turn every reflector on every highway into a silent evangelist; “Jesus is the reflection of God’s love to you”
​
Implementation
A simple vision pack with a video presentation and enrollment forms mailed out to every participating church with a reflector to show the congregation. 5 Weeks promotion.
