The Story behind The MBI Story

Tonight we will kick-off our annual Founder's Week and mark the official release of The MBI Story: The Vision and Worldwide Impact of Moody Bible Institute. Enjoy this post from the book's author Jim Vincent.

By Jim Vincent, Senior Editor Moody Publishers

As a book editor, I know something about deadlines. My boss gives me deadlines regularly for when edited manuscripts are due into typesetting. I give deadlines to my authors, asking them to review my edits and submit corrections and revisions within a week of receiving the manuscript. But last year I faced my greatest publishing deadline—as the author, I had to write a history of Moody Bible Institute spanning 125 years.

That’s not too hard, I thought. After all, in 1986 I had updated for the Moody centennial the fine 1969 history written by Gene Getz. The MBI Story would be just an update of the past 25 years. Well, not exactly, I soon found out. A lot had happened in just the past 10 years. The undergraduate school launched its first branch campus in Spokane, Wash.; Moody Graduate School became Moody Theological Seminary; Moody Aviation, home to nearly one-half of all future missionary pilots, closed its hangar in Elizabethton, Tenn. and moved cross-country to Spokane; Moody Radio went global with three round-the-clock audio channels, and Moody Publishers entered the world of e-books and celebrated its first number one book on the New York Times bestsellers list.

Another big challenge was to change the tone from the 1986 version, which had been heavily into educational philosophy and innovation, being based on Dr. Getz’s dissertation for his doctor of philosophy (PhD). We’d keep some of the early statistics, key analyses and historical developments, but we needed stories, interviews and profiles to help modern readers catch the spirit of the two schools, radio network and book publisher that comprise today’s Moody.

All this would require time for research. Moody Publishers supplied me with a student researcher, who did a fine job in the Moodyana archives as well as back files of The Moody Standard, the student newspaper. Still, certain research would require personal interviews. I met with more than a dozen employees and officers, ranging from two associate deans to Chief Operating Officer Edward Cannon and President Paul Nyquist. I enlisted my oldest son, Jonathan, to help with transcriptions.

Jonathan reminds me of the fourth challenge. Six months of research and writing meant no summer vacation. Oh, I sent my three sons with wife, Lori, on vacation in June, but Dad was absent. I devoted several “vacation” days to writing the manuscript.

Jim Vincent

The final challenge turned out to be the easiest to conquer. The Moody Publishers editorial director, Betsey Newenhuyse, told me the book would have a sixteen-page photo spread in color. My first thoughts: Great! These are photos from the Moody archives, with color pictures not common until the 1960s. Where am I going to find color shots? The archives surprised me with a beautiful color postcard of the 1940s campus, a photo of Moody Aviation in Elizabethton, Tenn., in the mid 1960s, and several other pictures. Moody’s Marketing and Communications department had lively shots of students on campus and in the City. At the end, 22 of the 44 photos—exactly 50 percent—were in color.

And yes, all the sweat and tears were worth the final product, which releases this week as part of a special Founder’s Week 2011 celebration.

The MBI Story can be purchased on Amazon for $15.63 (hardcover) or $9.99 (Kindle edition). To learn more about Jim and his colleagues, check out Moody Publishers’ blog, Inside Pages.

Celebrating 125 on 1/25

By Paul Nyquist, President Moody Bible Institute 

The celebration started this Tuesday with a special President’s Chapel for Moody’s employees and students. For those of you who weren’t with us, here is a glimpse into how we kicked-off this milestone year.

Every Tuesday is a President’s Chapel at Moody, but we told everyone that this one would be different. We picked this day not only because it gave us a chance to start the celebration with our own employees and students before going public, but also because it fit numerically—Jan. 25 is 1/25, or a subtle hint to our 125^th anniversary.

Paul Nyquist speaking at the Kick-off Chapel

Torrey-Gray Auditorium (on our Chicago campus for those not familiar with our buildings) was packed, and we had a live video feed to our outlying locations so all employees and students, no matter location, could be included. Festive balloons graced the stage and banners displaying our new 125^th anniversary logo marked the corners of the room.

A student band led us in worship followed by four long-time employees from various areas of the Institute who gave short, heart-felt testimonies of what Moody has meant to them over the years. We also premiered the first of five installments of a documentary video series we have produced specially for the anniversary. The first one was a glimpse at our founder, Dwight L. Moody. I then gave a brief look at what we plan to do this year to not only celebrate our bold legacy but also ensure a dynamic future. To end the Chapel session, Dr. H.E. Singley cranked up the big pipe organ and we appropriately sang the hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness. God has been so faithful to Moody!

When the Chapel concluded, we served anniversary cake to everyone. We even made sure to have cake ready for our campuses in Spokane, Wash. and Plymouth, Mich. The students were a little late to their classes, but I don’t think anyone cared.

The momentum for this important year has already been launched and it will gain more speed next week at Founder’s Week. I hope you keep in touch as we march through this memorable year together.

It’s Our 125th Anniversary… And, We Hope You Join Us!

By Lindsey Zarob, Public Relations, Moody Bible Institute

It’s our 125^th anniversary at Moody Bible Institute, and we want to give you an inside look at our year-long celebration. No matter where you live or how you have been touched by Moody’s ministries, we want you to join in the fun with us!

Throughout 2011, we will have a variety of people stopping by this blog to keep you updated on Moody, our ministries, our people and our celebration.  We’ll have photos and videos to document anniversary-related events; our students will share their perspectives of the celebration and of their day-to-day activities; a broad swath of Moody leaders will post on where they see our ministries heading in this ever-changing world, and employees will comment on what it’s like to be at “ground” level. By the end of the year, we hope you’ll feel like you were here, even if you weren’t physically present.

Krystallin, Lindsey and Carly

There’s a small team of communications professionals at Moody that have made this blog a part of our working home. You probably won’t see much of us, but we will be responding to your questions and comments, as needed.

We are here to serve you and are committed to making sure this blog remains authentic, civil and relevant. Most importantly, we welcome comments and feedback, as well as suggestions on what you might want to learn about.

Our goal is to make this blog a place that you want to visit often. So, whether you are a Moody graduate, enjoy listening to Moody Radio or reading Moody Publishers’ books, attend one of our many conferences or are a current student, we hope you make yourself cozy—engage our contributors, bookmark this page and sign-up for the RSS feed.

It’s going to be an exciting milestone year of celebration, and we don’t want you to miss a thing!