A Heritage of Church and Training

Dr. Nathan Busenitz, Academic Provost

As we look at the example of Paul in Scripture, it is clear that robust seminary training happens through a partnership with the local church.

To extend the apostolic teaching in the early church, the apostle Paul traveled to Ephesus, where he gathered disciples and instructed them in the Scriptures. In Acts 19:8-10, Luke describes the training school that Paul established:

He entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the Kingdom of God. But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Paul invested time and energy to instruct these disciples. Within the context of this training school, he made sacrifices to equip the next generation of Christian leadership. These men from the early Ephesian church would continue on to become pastors and evangelists, extending apostolic teaching to the rest of Asia Minor.

This gathering of Ephesian believers was the first seminary. Its essence was an education in sound doctrine. Its legacy is the faithful seminaries that share in its commitment of the gospel and pastoral training.

Throughout church history, faithful men have followed Paul’s example by establishing training schools to equip leaders for ministry in the local church.

The School of Antioch

The school of Antioch was known for its literal approach to interpreting the Bible. Around 350, its main teacher Diodorus of Tarsus, was a pastor at the Antioch church and a strong defender of a literal, historical hermeneutic. 

One of the most well-known expositors in early church history, John Chrysostom, was trained in Antioch in the 4th century. The school’s theological training, combined with Chrysostom’s skills as a preacher, shaped him into a passionate defender of biblical truth in the early church.

Calvin’s Geneva Academy

During the time of the Reformation, in 1559, John Calvin established an academy adjacent to St. Pierre’s Cathedral where he pastored. This academy included a seminary that trained men from all around Europe, equipped them for ministry, and then send them back to their home countries to pastor churches.

Calvin and his fellow pastors served as faculty members for the seminary. Students were instructed in Greek and Hebrew, Bible interpretation, theology, and the practice of preaching. As a result, the seminary in Geneva trained the next generation of Reformation leaders.

Spurgeon’s Pastor’s College

Three centuries after Calvin, in 1856, Charles Spurgeon started a Pastor’s College to train ment for ministry. In its earliest days, the College met in the basement of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, where Spurgeon pastored.

In 1892, When Spurgeon passed aways, more than 900 men had completed their training. As a result, more than 200  churches were planted, and one out of five of the Baptist pulpits in England at that time was filled by a graduate from Spurgeon’s training school. Graduates from the Pastor’s College were sent to numerous countries across the world, including China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and parts of South America,

The Master’s Seminary

More than a century after Spurgeon, in 1986, The Master’s Seminary was founded on the campus of Grace Community Church. Since that time the seminary has trained 1,808 men for gospel ministry, sending them out to pastor hundreds of churches in dozens of countries around the globe.

Our partnership with Grace Community Church provides our students with discipleship, ministry opportunities, and a daily reminder that they are being trained to serve a local community of believers.

Our professors lead this emphasis on local church ministry. They serve as pastors and elders at Grace Community Church, as well as other churches in the Los Angeles area. They aim to instill in our students a love for and desire to serve the local church.

Few seminaries in America share our close partnership with the local church. We stand in the legacy of faithful men who trained pastors in direct connection with the local church. 

Our emphasis on the local church starts by sharing a campus. It continues in every class, every chapel, and in every exhortation to shepherd the flock of God and to preach the Word in every season.