College of Biblical Studies – Houston

"They really amazed us!...."

Celebrating a legacy of more than 40 years of offering truth, training and transformation, the College of Biblical Studies – Houston offers non-denominational Biblical and theological training for the Christian community. As a fully accredited Bible college, the school pursues its mission of becoming the premier Bible College in Texas while furthering its impact on families, churches and communities. The school offers both on-campus and online courses leading to a variety of English- and Spanish-language certificates, associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in Biblical studies, counseling, and organizational and Christian leadership. The primary focus is on African-American and other ethnic minority groups, equipping students with a Biblical worldview for Christian service to the church and to the world.

In early 2018, the college was experiencing what President Dr. Bill Blocker calls a trifecta of extreme challenges in the midst of a merger with a similar college in Indianapolis. The CFO had just taken another position at a corporate institution. Meanwhile, the school was facing the year-end closing of its books to be followed by an audit that was critical to retain its accreditation and to complete the merger.

Not wanting to quickly hire a new CFO, and with no one in-house qualified for the position, the college opted to interview several outside companies to provide a temporary, “short-stop” solution.

“YPTC was the most sensible, practical and dedicated to what we needed,” Blocker recalls. “The other firms wanted us to keep them on permanently, but YPTC realized we were only looking for a short-term solution.”

Houston Manager Tanya Pal brought in a team of YPTC staff at this critical juncture. “They had to quickly learn our history and accreditation standards, find out what was necessary to give us a balance sheet, give our finance department leadership and coordination, and make sure all the T’s were crossed and I’s were dotted as we prepared for the audit. Our auditors thought it would be impossible to make the audit deadline,” he recalls. “But YPTC went above and beyond the call of duty. They really amazed us!”

Blocker commends the YPTC personnel for making an excellent assessment of the college’s needs and for collaborating with the department and the entire executive team to make everyone feel like they were part of the process. The college made the deadline and came through the audit successfully.

The college subsequently hired a CFO and keeps YPTC on a retainer to be used as needed. “I also commend YPTC for the way they executed the handoff to our new CFO. They preserved the business workflow and documentation to allow our CFO to pick up from where they had left off.

“I want to commend them for their professionalism, their depth of knowledge about nonprofits and institutions of higher education, and their ability, on a personal level, to navigate with us as a team. They knew how to talk the auditors’ language and that was a big plus for us. YPTC took us to the finish line and put us in a position to move from a local footprint to a national footprint.”