Northwest Baptist Seminary Information

We have developed a Church-based ministry leadership development program called Immerse, taking the seminary to the local church. You’ve no doubt heard them; those clichés about professors like, “Those who can’t do, teach.” and descriptions like, “ivory tower academic.” They reinforce an impression of Seminary as cloister, a retreat from reality to theory and a place of disconnection from church, community and culture. Those clichés and that image are wrong-and especially wrong if we’re Dr. Kent Anderson with studentstalking about Northwest Baptist Seminary and its team of faculty-pastors. Northwest professors are committed to academic excellence in the classroom to be sure. But they also personally embody passionate involvement in a broad range of grass-roots ministries. Cumulative past experience in pastoral ministry and missions among faculty can be numbered in the decades—in fact, that’s a strongly preferred qualification to teach at Northwest. There is also on-going, present involvement in pastoral ministry and missions—Northwest faculty do interim pastoral work, they are involved in church plants, and they are regularly available for “9-1-1″ and keynote preaching in our local churches. They are involved in personal and pre-marital counseling unrelated to the Seminary. They are engaged in their home churches in teaching, preaching and leadership, and they serve in a variety of capacities in our denomination. Very importantly, they are involved in personal friendships with and witness to non-Christians in their home communities and well beyond. Passionate doing energizes the teaching at Northwest, and commitment to excellence in scholarship informs that doing. Here’s a far more accurate saying, “They teach best who both do and teach.” That’s why Northwest Baptist Seminary at ACTS and its professors are ideally suited to kindle and prepare people for ministry.