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MBC says goodbye to alumni director




Chris Repsold

Multnomah Bible College and Multnomah Biblical Seminary's alumni director, Chris Repsold, has stepped down to pursue full-time ministry within the community.

Mr. Repsold has worked for Multnomah for 27 years and has served as the alumni director for the last 12 years. Mr. Repsold said several reasons have led him to resign, including a growing dissatisfaction with the job.

"I'm 55 years old, and if I want to make a significant career change, I really need to do it now," he said.

With several hundred new alumni annually, most under age 30, Mr. Repsold said he feels a younger alumni director would represent Multnomah better. "Whether or not we intend to set the example, somehow when a gray-haired man steps up in front of the student body and he's 'Mr. Alumni,' they can't help but think, 'Well I'll be an alumni someday, but that's a long way off,'" he said.

Mr. Repsold and his wife, Gayle, also long to minister together.

Accompanied by prayer, these considerations have led Mr. Repsold to resign his position, he said. "This has become almost too much a place of safety so that it is almost a place of complacency where the road has become a rut," he said. "I think in my journey of faith, I am at a point where God wants me to trust Him in a way that maybe I've never trusted him."

Mr. Repsold said he believes that way is to minister to the community through local churches. "I'm convinced that the church has to earn credibility with the community before they can share the message," Mr. Repsold said. "One way the church has done that over the centuries is to minister to the needy.

"The most exciting possibility," he said, "[is] working together with Gresham churches and establishing a shelter for homeless families or women and children who are victims of abuse."

A recent editorial in the Gresham Outlook bemoaned the lack of a shelter for women, children and youth east of Interstate 205, even in Gresham itself, which has almost 90,000 residents, Mr. Repsold said.

"There is no doubt," Mr. Repsold said, "homelessness is a problem in our society, particularly for women and children. They need places of safety, but what they really need is some significant changes. They need change personally, which only Jesus Christ and faith in Him can bring. They need change in their marital relationships. They need to change in their thinking [and] in their habits. I don't simply want to have a shelter where you give them safety for a few nights. We want to do something that invites them to be transformed."

Mr. Repsold would like to model the shelter after Open House in Vancouver, Wash. Professional and volunteer staff could offer counseling, tutoring, medical and dental care, Bible studies, job training and even auto-repair services. The shelter will assist homeless men, women and children in transitioning into society.

"I see it as a win-win situation--the church becomes more the way it ought to be in the culture, and it opens the door for the culture to respond to the message of God."

When Mr. Repsold started working at Multnomah in April 1972, he said he would only stay for two years. "I've been on staff here for the last 27 years," Mr. Repsold said. "The first 15 I was the business manager."

As business manager, Mr. Repsold was instrumental in hiring Pioneer Food Services. Later, as the alumni director, he helped start the career development workshop, IDAK. He and his staff strive to stay in contact with all of MBC's alumni; more than 1,000 serve in foreign countries. The alumni department publishes a newsletter and coordinates the annual homecoming.

Multnomah vice president for advancement, Verne Davis, Mr. Repsold's supervisor said, "To me, [Mr. Repsold] represents the kind of person you like to see come out of Multnomah, one who is solid in the Word, is capable of establishing caring relationships with people, and can speak in the public with a degree of authority and clarity born of maturity and training."

Mr. Repsold stepped down as alumni director in mid-January. He is assisting Mr. Davis in advancement as he and his wife search for a full-time ministry position.