Executive Summary:

Great organizations thrive under the direction of great leaders, but effective leaders can be hard to find. Old-style classroom training has proven inadequate to produce the quality of leader that will allow an organization to thrive. Northwest Baptist Seminary has reverse-engineered the training process, radically changing the way that ministry leaders are formed. Now, Northwest is known across North America as the leading provider of “competency-based theological education.”

The Immerse program, launched in 2012 in partnership with Fellowship Pacific, places gifted students in qualified ministry contexts, under the direction of trained mentors. These students are lead to develop mastery of a set of comprehensive, integrated outcomes with the full participation of the eventual employer of the student. This is an accredited graduate level degree program that does not require classrooms, semesters, or syllabi. It is a stripped-down approach which leads students beyond the hypothetical, developing and displaying the necessary knowledge, skill, and character through the actual practice of ministry on the ground.

The result been immediate and significant, affecting every measure of program success. Enrollment went up dramatically. Donors started to give more. Constituencies became more engaged. Best of all, mission fulfillment improved significantly, such that Northwest became the subject of close attention from peer schools and institutions on both sides of the border. Northwest is now in constant demand for consulting and project leadership around this paradigm shift in theological education.

Northwest wants to share its success, allowing others to benefit from the models, insights, and opportunities that it has been able to develop. The demand for such service is already there. Northwest is currently in discussions with groups like the C2C Church Planting Network, the Canada Institute of Linguistics, SemBEQ (Montreal), Fellowship Pacific, Baptist Housing, and the Acts 29 Network. Potential clients are many. However, this unprecedented need has put considerable strain on our resources. We are seeking a Stronger Philanthropy grant of $95,000.00 to establish a sustainable consultation platform. We propose specifically, (a) the development of a suite of online and print materials that can be used to help organizations understand and utilize the model, (b) the construction of a broadcast quality technology studio that will allow ongoing real-time training at distance, and (c) the development and deployment of a team of qualified consultant trainers who have demonstrated their capacity to help others prosper.

The Northwest story is of a small Canadian school which leveraged its size to the advantage of many. We desire that this advantage could be multiplied as Northwest is enabled to significantly empower the mission of many Canadian schools, ministries, networks, through a more effective and efficient development of leaders and personnel.

Measurable Outcomes:

The outcome for the proposed funding is the development and resourcing of a team of consultants who will provide significant support to at least 30 organizations by the end of 2018, with at least 15 of these churches, missions, schools, and networks documenting significant resultant improvements in their mission fulfillment by the year 2019.