Core Values

While many aspects of College life change from time to time, our core values represent what we regard as unchanging. These are emphases we deeply value. We want them to colour and shape all that we do. They flow out of our doctrinal beliefs, and they filter all that we do.

1. The Word of God must be central in ministry

We are committed to the centrality of Word ministries in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We therefore place high value on the importance of training people to know God's Word well, love it with all their heart, submit their lives to it, exegete it accurately and minister it boldly, faithfully and skillfully.

We believe effective Word ministry is built on a strong biblical theology. The Bible is the unfolding story of God's redemptive purposes in this world. We therefore value Bible training that exposes people to the whole story of the Bible, enabling them to see all the parts in the light of the whole, and teaching them to see themselves, the world and the work of the church today in the light of the biblical narrative.

2. Mission is at the heart of the church's calling

The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. It is to be spread throughout the world so that disciples are made of all nations and the church is built up to the full number of the elect. That is God's mission and it must be ours as well.

We therefore value ministry training that imparts to people a profound grasp of the gospel, models for them a passionate commitment to live and minister the gospel in every part of life, and equips them to live as missionaries. Our post-Christendom, post-modern context demands that churches and church leaders must think and operate as missionaries. We value training that creates in people a mission mindset and gives them the tools to be effective leaders of mission-driven churches.

3. Theology must speak to the culture of the day

We are committed to our theology speaking to the issues of our day, as it did at the time of the Reformation. Our commitment to the system of doctrine set out in the Reformed confessions must be a commitment not only to uphold the historic Reformed faith but also to address the issues of our culture. We therefore value the development of a distinctively Reformed apologetic for post-modern culture and the cultivation of a Reformed world and life view for the 21st century.

4. The local church must be integrally involved in all ministry training

We believe the local church is primarily responsible for the training and equipping of its members for ministry. Insofar as the church uses the special skills and resources of a theological college to assist in such training, the training must remain integrated with the local church context.

We therefore value training that is structured so that students remain strongly involved in local church ministry, theoretical studies are interfaced with extensive ministry experience, and local church ministry is the prime context for developing skills, shaping character and assessing competence.

We are committed to the College working closely with churches to equip a broad range of ministry leaders for local churches: teachers, preachers, pastors, leaders, evangelists, missionaries, church planters, home group leaders, disciplers, etc.

5. Ministry training must shape people's hearts and minds

We believe theological education must be both spiritually and academically formative. It should form people spiritually so that they are committed to growing in devotion to Christ, to passion for the gospel, to prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit and to seriousness about personal holiness. It should form them academically so that they are committed to studying, researching, analysing, evaluating, critiquing and writing with acumen in the fields of theology and ministry.

We therefore value theological education that combines these emphases and in this way helps students develop their full potential in Christ and enables them to serve God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength.

This formation must take place in the context of a spiritually vibrant community where there is constant encouragement and modelling of spiritual character, godly passion and rigourous study.