Investing In Tomorrow's Church Leaders
Our seminaries and Bible colleges do an excellent job of training young men in the classic disciplines from world class scholars. They deserve our full support and solidarity. But there are some things that are better learned in the local church—what a gospel culture can look like, how to confess sin to a brother, how to build a social environment of honor and encouragement, what it is to foster a culture of discipling, and what actual pastoral ministry looks like day in and day out. In short, we want to stamp young men with gospel culture for a lifetime of faithful ministry.
The Gospel Training Center is an enterprise being launched at Naperville Presbyterian Church in fall 2024 to give men a local church in which to incubate for a year, either before or after more formal accredited study. We will do a significant amount of reading at GTC, but it will be reading aimed centrally at the heart and character formation. In short, we recognize that young men today have many teachers and “guides” (1 Corinthians 4:15)—more than ever, in fact, through books and podcasts and internet resources. But young men exploring a call to ministry do not have many true “fathers” and older brothers. GTC is a safe environment in which spiritual fathers and brothers can open their hearts to young men and seek to help them flourish in Christ alongside each other as men prepare for ministry leadership.
For a full prospectus, click the button below.