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About

Who is SHBI?

SHBI is a not for profit tuition-free Bible centered educational environment founded in 1946. Our curriculum offers training for personal Christian growth and lay ministry as well as for career ministry. Our courses are offered in the evenings during the fall and spring semesters and are open to all people regardless of race, nationality, sex, or religious belief. We are not accredited but our academic standards are serious.

What is our Mission?

To offer daily studies in the Bible free of charge to all who will come regardless of race, sex or religious belief.

What is our Purpose?

• To train Christians to become strong servants of Christ.

• To prepare some of our students for formal ministry.

• To help establish good Christian marriages.

• To develop useful teaching materials.

• To offer workshops, seminars, extension courses, distance learning, counseling.

• To publish an electronic newsletter (free on request - email shbi@shbi.org)

• To reach out to the surrounding community

• To promote Christian unity

Foreign Students

We welcome foreign students at SHBI, but because we are not an accredited school, we are not able to issue I-20 forms to help students obtain a student visa. Also, being a small school, we do not have funds to aid foreign students with travel or living expenses. If a foreign student is to come and study with us, he or she must obtain a work visa, pay their own travel expenses, and be prepared to earn their living expenses in daytime while attending our evening classes.

Doctrinal Statement (Statement of Faith)

Doctrinally we are conservative and Christ-centered.

• We believe in the divine Trinity--God the Father, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit.
• We believe the scriptures are divinely inspired and authoritative in all matters of faith and practice.
• We believe salvation is by grace through faith and depends on Christ's atoning work on the cross, not on the perfection of our works.
• We believe in the virgin birth of Christ, his miracles, his sacrificial death, his bodily resurrection, and his second coming.
• We believe in the resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous, the final judgment, and eternal life for the saved and eternal damnation for the unrepentant lost.
• We believe true faith will express itself in a life of obedience to Christ's Lordship, and that Christian character is the fruit produced by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
• We believe that Christian maturity will manifest itself in an urgency to reach every possible person with the saving gospel of Christ.
• We believe in the unity of believers as prayed for by Jesus. We believe the scriptures teach that unity comes from:
  1. agreement on the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith, as for example, those listed by Paul in Ephesians 4:4-6,
  2. allowing each other freedom on the more disputable, controversial, secondary matters, as per Romans 14:1-15:7, and
  3. love and humility which are the fruit of the Holy Spirit, as per Ephesians 4:1-3 and Galatians 5:22,23.

We concentrate on the clearly revealed, fundamental basics of scripture and do not spend a disproportionate amount of time on secondary issues that have often divided conservative believers. Our students come from many backgrounds with a common desire to learn more of God’s will for their lives. Our classes are filled with a spirit of love and mutual respect and with reverence for Christ and the authority of his word.

Why is SHBI special?

We are more than just an academic institution. Our program is academically respectable, but our emphasis is on the spiritual, on inner change. We believe the purpose of all doctrine and worship is to help us become like Christ.

We are not just a school for career ministers. We do train ministers and are proud of those who have gone out from us. But most of our students are men and women who just want to seriously make Jesus Lord of their lives, lay ministries, marriages, careers, relationships.

We honor our past heritage but also train our students to be redemptive in today's world. If evangelism demands a choice, God's Biblical priorities come before human tradition.

Our students are a very special group characterized by a hunger for God and a humble desire to be used redemptively by him. There is a sense that God has drawn these students together in answer to prayer.

There is warm Christian love and encouraging fellowship. You will see our students ministering to each other, praying for one another, encouraging one another, accepting one another as Christ has accepted us.

Lives are changed at SHBI.

Some are building a new life after being broken by sin, some finding strength to cope with hard situations at home or at work, some escaping spiritual bondage. What is happening at SHBI is very real and God is working. Do you have faith to step out and become part of it?

How a Student Grows at SHBI:

* Believing that one can change with God's help
* Clearing up past wrongs
* Resolving doubts
* Overcoming the bondage of stubborn sins
* Developing self-discipline
* Learning to rule emotions
* Developing healthy self-worth
* Relating properly to authority
* Decisiveness, goal-setting
* Recognizing true values
* Setting Kingdom priorities
* Keeping right relationships
* Choosing the right mate
* Following God's Guidance

SHBI Finances

From SHBI’s Dean, G.B. “B.” Shelburne

SHBI does not charge tuition.

We want to make serious Bible courses available to many people who might be unable to afford normal tuition. We do accept donations but do not require them for attendance. We do ask students to donate our cost for textbooks used in some classroom courses. And we suggest a small materials fee in our classroom courses to offset the cost of handouts, if a student is able.

When my father, the late G.B. Shelburne, Jr., founded the Bible Institute in 1946, his great dream was to provide daily Bible teaching to all comers free of charge. Through the years, in our struggle to finance this ministry, we have occasionally wondered if we should abandon that dream and begin charging tuition. But the longer we operate, and the more we see the gratitude of people for an opportunity they could not otherwise afford, the more we know Brother Shelburne had the right dream.

When the directors asked me to lead the Institute at my father’s retirement, I told them my gift was teaching, not fundraising. And so it has been. I hope that as the Institute teaches effectively, people will see this and want to support it. Many times we have not known where the funds would come from, but God has always been faithful.

SHBI is financed by gifts from Christians and congregations in many places who believe in making Bible courses available to more people. It is also financed by earnings from a Permanent Endowment Fund. We are seriously in need of more current contributions to meet our operating budget as well as contributions to build our Endowment Fund. All contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

All contributions will be acknowledged. If you believe in what we are doing and would like to benefit our Endowment Fund or our Operating Fund with a contribution, estate gift, foundation grant, etc., contact me at bshelburne@shbi.org or call 281-990-8899 or write me at 14325 Crescent Landing Dr, Houston, TX 77062-2178.

Your contribution to the Endowment Fund can go on working to spread God's word long after your earthly life is over.

Checks for the regular operating fund should be made to “South Houston Bible Institute” and sent to SHBI at 14325 Crescent Landing Dr, Houston, TX 77062-2178. Checks for the Endowment Fund should be made to “HBTW Permanent Endowment Fund” and sent to the same address.