• Campus program
• Online program

Enhancing our Missions Program to Meet 21st Century Needs

From our start, GBSC has included a strong focus on global ministry — this is why our founder included “missionary training home” in our institutional name. Just as “missionary training home” is still part of our official name, we’re still passionate about missions and the global nature of our mission as a college.

That’s why we are excited for a new approach to missions education and training!

A New Approach

Over several years we have engaged in prayer, planning and discussion about how missions education can best be done today. Our discussions have included missionaries, missions educators and missionary leaders from conservative holiness denominations, Bible colleges and missions organizations, from Florida to Pennsylvania to Indiana and around the world.

Every single missionary and missions leader has agreed: a standalone “missions major” isn’t the answer.

In response, we have developed a different approach that provides missions education in three ways.

1. A standalone 2-year missions degree
2. A missions minor open to every GBSC BA student, as well as all GBSC alumni with a bachelor’s degree
3. A missions cognate that can be included in the Biblical and Theological Studies major or the Integrative Studies major

Combined, these approaches open missions training to every single GBSC student!

GBSC Chancellor Michael Avery, himself a past missions leader, comments,

Taking the Gospel to the unreached people groups of today’s world holds enormous challenges — challenges that can and must be faced with new thinking, a variety of approaches and flexible training methods.

 

GBSC’s new approach to missionary training is a bold response to this daunting challenge.

A New Vision

Our vision includes graduates prepared for a range of vocations with a deep passion for and understanding of missions work. Success looks like…

• Long-term missionaries who use professional skills to open doors for missionary outreach
• Missionaries who serve a shorter period on the field and then bring their missions experience to US churches and ministries
• Pastors, teachers and others who knowledgeably support missions work and share their passion with others
• Laity who support missions organizations financially and with services

In addition to curriculum structures that enable missions to permeate the college, we’ve also begun a Visiting Professor of Missiology program. Each year, we’ll bring a current or recent missionary or missions leader to campus multiple times for teaching, preaching and mentoring.

These visiting professors will connect our missions students directly with God’s frontline work in various fields, providing them with multiple perspectives on how mission work can be done.

Our Visiting Professor of Missiology

We’re blessed to have Dr. Tim Boyd serving as our Visiting Professor of Missiology for 2019-2020.

Dr. Boyd brings years of experience as a missionary and missions educator to the classroom, along with his undergraduate (Union Bible College) and graduate degrees in missiology (Columbia International University). Since 2003, Tim has served as a missionary with Hope International Missions, returning annually to Ukraine. From 2004-2009, Tim taught in Ukraine at Kiev Wesley Bible College and Wesley Bible College in Uzhgorod. Since 2013, Dr. Boyd has taught missions and theology at Union Bible College, where he currently chairs the ministerial department.

Dr. Boyd’s publications include John Wesley’s Christology and Factors Advancing or Limiting Evangelical Mission in Ukraine, which was translated and published in Russian. Tim is not only fluent in Russian, but also teaches Greek and Hebrew.

During this academic year, Dr. Boyd will teach missions courses during his frequent visits to campus, in addition to coaching missions students as they prepare to fulfill their calling.

Past visiting Professors of Missiology:

Steve Stetler – 2017-2018
Tim and Becky Keep – 2018-2019

• Campus program
• Online program

Enhancing our Missions Program to Meet 21st Century Needs

From our start, GBSC has included a strong focus on global ministry — this is why our founder included “missionary training home” in our institutional name. Just as “missionary training home” is still part of our official name, we’re still passionate about missions and the global nature of our mission as a college.

That’s why we are excited for a new approach to missions education and training!

A New Approach

Over several years we have engaged in prayer, planning and discussion about how missions education can best be done today. Our discussions have included missionaries, missions educators and missionary leaders from conservative holiness denominations, Bible colleges and missions organizations, from Florida to Pennsylvania to Indiana and around the world.

Every single missionary and missions leader has agreed: a standalone “missions major” isn’t the answer.

In response, we have developed a different approach that provides missions education in three ways.

1. A standalone 2-year missions degree
2. A missions minor open to every GBSC BA student, as well as all GBSC alumni with a bachelor’s degree
3. A missions cognate that can be included in the Biblical and Theological Studies major or the Integrative Studies major

Combined, these approaches open missions training to every single GBSC student!

GBSC Chancellor Michael Avery, himself a past missions leader, comments,

Taking the Gospel to the unreached people groups of today’s world holds enormous challenges — challenges that can and must be faced with new thinking, a variety of approaches and flexible training methods.

 

 

GBSC’s new approach to missionary training is a bold response to this daunting challenge.

A New Vision

Our vision includes graduates prepared for a range of vocations with a deep passion for and understanding of missions work. Success looks like…

• Long-term missionaries who use professional skills to open doors for missionary outreach
• Missionaries who serve a shorter period on the field and then bring their missions experience to US churches and ministries
• Pastors, teachers and others who knowledgeably support missions work and share their passion with others
• Laity who support missions organizations financially and with services

In addition to curriculum structures that enable missions to permeate the college, we’ve also begun a Visiting Professor of Missiology program. Each year, we’ll bring a current or recent missionary or missions leader to campus multiple times for teaching, preaching and mentoring.

These visiting professors will connect our missions students directly with God’s frontline work in various fields, providing them with multiple perspectives on how mission work can be done.

Our Visiting Professor of Missiology

We’re blessed to have Dr. Tim Boyd serving as our Visiting Professor of Missiology for 2019-2020.

Dr. Boyd brings years of experience as a missionary and missions educator to the classroom, along with his undergraduate (Union Bible College) and graduate degrees in missiology (Columbia International University). Since 2003, Tim has served as a missionary with Hope International Missions, returning annually to Ukraine. From 2004-2009, Tim taught in Ukraine at Kiev Wesley Bible College and Wesley Bible College in Uzhgorod. Since 2013, Dr. Boyd has taught missions and theology at Union Bible College, where he currently chairs the ministerial department.

Dr. Boyd’s publications include John Wesley’s Christology and Factors Advancing or Limiting Evangelical Mission in Ukraine, which was translated and published in Russian. Tim is not only fluent in Russian, but also teaches Greek and Hebrew.

During this academic year, Dr. Boyd will teach missions courses during his frequent visits to campus, in addition to coaching missions students as they prepare to fulfill their calling.

Past visiting Professors of Missiology