Commonwealth Bible College (New Farm)

Name: Commonwealth Bible College (New Farm)

Group: Institutional Location

Type: Religious College

Years at Location: 1949 [?]-1961

The history of the College outgrew its Melbourne-Brisbane roots and considerable time as sites was spent in Toowoomba and Katoomba. Over the years College has continued the evolution in the evangelical Pentecostal-Charismatic accumulated tradition. The College has campuses in every state capital city in Australia, with campuses in Auckland and in Finland, as Alphacrucis College. Much of the global expansion (since 1993 ),and the rebranding as ‘Southern Cross College of the Assemblies of God in Australia Ltd’, happened well after 1959. Prior to 1959, however, Glad Tidings Tabernacle acted as the major base for these AOG activities.

Fred Evans, a graduate of the college in 1960 (‘Class of 1958’), recalled that Pastor James Wallace told him, “Freddie, It is better to be Trained and not Called than Called and not Trained,” and that debates occurred among students on “Is Healing in the Atonement? Entire Sanctification, Are the Heathen lost? and the new Prosperity Doctrine that came out of America.”

Impact on Brisbane Society

Commonwealth Bible College commenced in 1948 in Melbourne at the Richmond Temple under the Commonwealth Executive of the Assemblies of God in Australia. In 1949 the college moved to Brisbane, first to temporary operation at Glad Tidings Tabernacle, and then New Farm. In 1961 the Brisbane campus was moved to Chelmer [?]. A larger campus was built at Katoomba (from 1949). The College Principle at the New Farm campus was James Wallace.