Philosophy of Education

The Evangelical Reformed Seminary holds a distinctive philosophy of education that we seek to apply consistently in all aspects of our training.

 

Our Purpose

Our Mission is to serve and strengthen the Reformed & Presbyterian churches and others in Ukraine and surrounding countries, that they may grow to the glory of God and the extension of his Kingdom. We do this by training up pastors and other leaders for service in these churches, basing our teaching on the Word of God, as understood in the historic Reformed confessions.

 

Our Values

We believe that it is necessary for the pastor, leaders in the church and church planters to be a man of wisdom and godly character, who is daily seeking to apply the Word of God to his own life and that of the congregation.  Thus we believe that this seminary should seek to facilitate in the lives of its students:

• affective growth (spiritual)
• cognitive growth (knowledge)
• skill growth (practical application)

 

Missionary

We believe that it belongs to the very essence of the church to actively spread the Gospel and the love of Christ in the world. This missionary calling must, therefore, permeate every facet of a person’s training for the ministry. In every discipline of the curriculum, our focus must include the lost and needy world.  As we pray, “Thy Kingdom come…” we ask that the church may both be preserved and increased by living out and preaching the Word of God to every tribe, tongue, and nation, unto the glory of the Lord and the coming of His Kingdom.

 

Ukrianian owned

This seminary should become Ukrainian owned and led. It is our goal that our faculty and board members, administrative staff, and students should be primarily Ukrainian. While we recognize that the Ukrainian church is not able to provide for all of these positions at the present time, we nevertheless wish to be clear in stating this as our aim. From the beginning, we have sought Ukrainian brothers and sisters to fill as many positions as possible. We pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up more Ukrainian laborers for this seminary over the next years.

 

Servant to the churches

Furthermore, we believe that the seminary should be the servant of the churches. Therefore, we believe that the churches should provide the primary guidance and oversight for the institution wherein her pastors are trained and developed.  Thus, this seminary is a ministry of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ukraine and Ukrainian Evangelical Reformed Church. The seminary is directly responsible to these two churches. Elected representatives from these two churches constitute the majority of board members.

 

Commitments

These convictions have a broad range of implications:

• The content of courses and the structure of the seminary will be such that the spiritual lives of students and their ability to practice what they are learning will be facilitated.
• Students are required to have a relationship with their own local church that provides them with an opportunity to fulfill practical requirements in their courses and program.
• Students are asked to have a mentoring relationship with their pastor. This relationship nurtures the development of spirituality and practical ministry skills within the student.
• Ukrainian is the official language of the seminary. As the use of the Ukrainian language grows, the seminary will reflect this progress in its publications and instruction. However, since there is still need, the seminary will employ both Ukrainian and other languages as appropriate. Because of the missionary vision of the seminary and the desire to serve students from throughout the former Soviet Union, international languages will continue to be used as needed.
• Because this seminary is designed primarily to train men for the pastorate and leaders in Reformed/Presbyterian churches, men representing these bodies will receive primary consideration for reception into the seminary program. However, students from other denominations and students with other goals are welcomed and will be accepted in so far as there is space within the program. Upon acceptance into the program, all students will receive equal treatment and be held to the same standards. Female students who wish to be trained Reformed Theology are also welcomed. For all students an official intake is required.
• We endeavor as an organization (including students, staff and board) to unite in propagating the Gospel and teaching others to do so. We seek to avoid hierarchy, with each person sensing the responsibility for “our” seminary.