Legacy in a Book Bag
By: Jim Jessup
Director of Church Relations
When my father Bryce Jessup passed away, I took ownership of a few boxes of my grandfather William Jessup’s sermons, class notes and radio sermons from his years of teaching and preaching. Much of the contents were illegible scribbles that I’m sure meant something valuable to my grandfather, but I decided to keep only that which had some context and was easily understood. I trimmed the amount of folders and spiral bound, handwritten notebooks into one “book bag” that belonged to my grandfather.
The book bag contains the most legible and meaningful material regarding my grandfather’s love of Scripture and passion for preaching and teaching the Word (along with some letters he kept that criticized his attempts at unity among the Church!)
I kept dozens of sermons and a few dozen notebooks on classes taught in those early years of San Jose Bible College (SJBC). My grandfather taught classes mostly on the New Testament gospels and epistles, Homiletics, and church leadership. His sermons were often focused on unity as he watched the Church divide over too many issues both methodological and theological. He was a preacher of Christ and the redemption that Christ brought to all who would receive the message. He urged his students to distance themselves from the sin in the world that so easily entangles mankind, while preaching and living out the love of God to those who find themselves far from Him. These are the principles upon which we are founded and still teach today.
My grandfather’s notes contain the foundation of SJBC which remains the current reason for Jessup University. Those notes are about the truth contained in Scripture and the importance of exposing that truth to a dying world because he knew that it was God’s Word that could transform lives and redeem culture if it was taught and preached well.
While Jessup University expands its menu of degrees and delivery modalities of Christian higher education, I believe that Jessup is still standing on this truth and that God has great plans for the journey ahead. Our legacy is now.
