THREE HILLS, AB—You can see a long distance on the rolling prairies of Alberta, but Jon Ohlhauser’s vision for the venerable Prairie Bible Institute is expanding horizons even further.

“One of my roles at this time in the life of Prairie is to promote the unique vision and mission that is developing. The way we are presenting God’s word is definitely happening in a more fresh and contemporary way than what had been happening,” he says.

Ohlhauser, 39, became president of Prairie in January 2003. It was a homecoming of sorts. He grew up on a farm about 20 minutes south of Three Hills and attended high school at Prairie, graduating in 1984. This early exposure, augmented by his wife’s family connections with Prairie, “has been a unique variable that’s positively affected my ability to lead,” he says.

These connections are helping him relate well to the school’s traditional constituency, which is proving to be extraordinarily open to a series of major changes Ohlhauser is ushering in. In just two-and-a-half years under his leadership, the institution has been shedding property and programs at a remarkable rate, gaining a renewed focus and generating significant forward momentum.

These changes include closing the graduate school; hiving off the elementary and high schools; clarifying the college’s relationship with a local church; totally revamping the college curriculum; getting raises for faculty; reducing debt; bulldozing old buildings and—coming in 2006—Prairie will be adding vocational school options to its program.

Always communicating
“One of the major roles in leading an institution like this is as a cheerleader,” says Ohlhauser, who graduated from Regent University in Virginia in 1998 with a Ph.D. in communication. “I’ll go back to my training. Leaders can’t take for granted the continual need to tell the story, especially as we move through change.”

While he’s been trying to communicate since his first days on the job, he is especially encouraged by some recent opportunities “to tell the story” and his team’s ability to find fresh and creative ways to relate it. “There’s been a possibility for controversy and division in some of what we’re doing, but we’ve been able to communicate in ways that are helping people be more willing to embrace the future as a result.

“God’s spirit has been very evident. I can’t explain why people have been as supportive to accept the change,” he says.

If Ohlhauser is uniquely equipped for the task at hand, he also is uniquely called. He previously served a short stint as vice-president for marketing and enrolment at Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto. “I didn’t anticipate I would only be there two-and-a-half years,” he says. “I thought it would be long term.

“We wondered why we would leave. Why did God give us this opportunity and take it away so quickly?” he asks. Good question. The work at Tyndale was just getting to a place where ideas he’d introduced were taking hold, and he enjoyed working with Tyndale president Brian Stiller (“a leading leader”). He had also settled into a home with his growing family—the Ohlhausers will soon be welcoming their seventh child).

Nonetheless, “God gave us a call we couldn’t ignore,” says Ohlhauser. He now understands that the time at Tyndale, which was the first evangelical Bible college to be established in Canada, was the perfect training ground for the responsibilities he now has at another historic institution. “It was the best place to prepare me in a short amount of time for the responsibilities I would soon be facing. I’m grateful for that experience,” he says.

Make it matter
When asked what kind of education he feels is the best Christian training for leadership in the workday world, Ohlhauser responds with the word “relevant,” adding that one major area of need is to provide an education where biblical literacy weds professional skill.

“Students today are looking for a relevant education,” he says. “That’s a good motivation for seeking post-secondary education. But what does it mean? To many students, relevancy is tied to what I can get: a job, a living.

“It’s a good question; it must be asked. But it can overlook the fact that in our attempts to engage culture, we also need to look for ways to be effective agents of our Christian faith. The church needs people who know their faith, who know what it means to be a believer in Jesus Christ and effectively articulate that into a complex world and a complex culture.

“The adult world starts early in a person’s life; things are complex, things are hard and emotions deep. You can’t be an effective agent with a superficial understanding of God’s word. The need to have a strong and adequate understanding of His word needs to be structured somewhere in the life of a student’s education track.

“Many people can find training for competencies in skills and abilities,” he continues. While Christian ministries certainly need specialists from all disciplines, many believers can do good work but are not schooled sufficiently in their faith and are therefore unable to share it well.

“Ministries need people who are professionals with competency in what they’re called to do, but who also have a strong solid foundation in their faith and in God’s work in order that they can speak it into God’s word and culture.”

Strangely for the president of a Bible college, Ohlhauser has no formal theological education in his resume. His three degrees (a B.Sc. from Liberty; M.A. from Wake Forest and Ph.D. from Regent) are all in communication.

He points out that the Ph.D. “was taken at a Christian graduate school that challenged us to integrate communication with theology,” and the ability to communicate is at the very heart of the Creator’s universe.

“God spoke the act of creation,” he says. “Communication was the genesis of creation, and the desire to commune is foundational. At the Fall it was broken. Misunderstanding is an element of Fall. Then came the Word. The mandate to communicate a part of God’s story and how He works.”