Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We all love to celebrate milestones in our lives—birthdays, baptisms, weddings and anniversaries in particular. Another milestone is graduation, whether from grade school, high school or college. I vividly recall my graduations from high school and Ambassador College. Both marked significant achievements—and also brought feelings of relief!
At our recent GCI Denominational Conference in Orlando, we celebrated an important milestone. Eight students formed the first class to graduate from Grace Communion Seminary (GCS). Seven of those graduates walked across the stage to receive their diplomas, signifying their completion of the Master of Pastoral Studies (MPS) degree. Congratulations to them all!
As chairman of the GCS board of directors, I receive much satisfaction knowing that our seminary is accredited by a national accrediting commission, the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). On their website (detc.org), you’ll find our seminary listed among the institutions they have accredited.
Why expend so much time and effort to educate our pastors, ministry leaders and other members? As Mike Feazell put it in 2003 at the initial GCS planning meeting: “Every thriving denomination has a formal mode for educating its pastors.” Because we are committed to providing quality education and training to our pastors and ministry leaders, many people within our denomination have worked hard to develop two formal online education programs:
- Ambassador College of Christian Ministry (ACCM), which offers ten courses in leadership development, leading to a non-accredited undergraduate-level diploma. ACCM is administered from our office in Australia and is available to anyone with a high school or college-level diploma, or equivalent. Go to ambascol.org.
- Grace Communion Seminary (GCS), which offers an accredited MPS graduate-level degree with courses in biblical studies, theology and ministry. GCS is administered from our office in Glendora, California and is open to anyone with an accredited bachelor’s degree no matter what the person’s major was. Go to gcs.edu.
As befits a fully accredited seminary, we celebrated our GCS graduation in Orlando in a formal manner as seen in the pictures here and at www.gcs.edu/course/view.php?id=37. Graduates, faculty and administration wore the appropriate academic regalia (robes, hoods and colors), representing the collective learning gained from GCS’s fourteen-course program, which concludes with a carefully researched Theology of Ministry thesis as its capstone project. These papers add significantly to the contribution of scholarship in the topics selected by students and can be accessed on the GCS website by all GCS students.
The ceremony included the traditional “Pomp and Circumstance” processional and the singing of hymns. GCS President and GCI Vice President Russell Duke gave an academic address entitled “Reconciliation through Transfiguration,” reminding all present of what we learn of God and Jesus Christ in worship and in life. Participating in the hooding ceremony of our first graduating students was an emotional experience!
We are but one seminary among many that seek to understand our God and Savior and live at one in him. A distinctive feature of GCS is our emphasis on incarnational Trinitarian theology. Our intent is not to disparage other seminaries or denominations, but to rejoice in what we have learned from the Spirit, Scripture and centuries of “faith seeking understanding.” We intend to celebrate again at our next international denominational conference in three years with our second group of graduates. We hope that you will join us.
Let me encourage those with bachelor’s degrees to take a course from GCS. You can take one or two of your choice, or you can take a series of courses toward the master’s degree. To enroll, you must first fill out the application to be accepted into the seminary. Then you will be given access to register for courses. We believe that all pastors and many ministry leaders, should be pursuing some form of continuing education. To serve this need, we are pleased to offer our courses at an affordable price. We encourage local congregations to provide tuition assistance for their pastors.
We plan to expand GCS course offerings over the next three years as we continue to enroll more students. GCS faculty and administration are working toward adding courses in the next year in church polity/administration, preaching and theology. I’ll keep you informed of growth in courses as time goes on. The fall semester starts on September 9, so new students need to apply immediately. Here are the courses offered this fall (go to gcs.edu/course for a detailed description of each one, including required textbooks and assignments):
- TH05 Doctrine of the Trinity – Gary Deddo
- BT01 Pentateuch – John McKenna
- NT01 New Testament Background – Mike Morrison
- NT03 Acts of the Apostles – Dan Rogers
- CH02 Church History: The Second Millennium – Neil Earle
- CM01 Ministerial Leadership – Russell Duke
- CM06 Trinitarian Youth Ministry – Ted Johnston
- CM07 Experiencing the Trinity (begins Aug. 29) – Larry Hinkle
- CM08 Church Planting & Development – Randy Bloom
As we move forward as a denomination, we seek to help our pastors and ministry leaders maintain a deep relationship with Jesus Christ and grow in their understanding of our Christian Trinitarian faith. GCS and ACCM are some of the primary ways we do this—helping our leaders faithfully live and then share God’s love and truth so that the body of Christ is built up in the Spirit. Through our educational resources we seek to bring our pastoral leadership into a deeper understanding of who God is and what he is doing today. These programs are an important part of the way we join with Jesus as he ministers to us and through us to the wider world.
With love, in Christ’s service,
Joseph Tkach
PS: GCI Weekly Update is automatically distributed each week by email to all GCI pastors. We now are making this automatic email distribution available to any GCI member. Please let your members know of this opportunity and invite them to sign up by emailing their request to Ted Johnston at Ted.Johnston@gci.org. Please also let your members know that the current and all past issues of Update may be read online at update.gci.org.
