As Trinity begins its second quarter-century, we anticipate continued growth in the number of students, especially those preparing for ordination, mission and evangelism, and youth ministry. Our graduates are already exercising leadership in their dioceses and in various organizations.
The Master of Divinity degree prepares students for ordained ministry or for leadership in a parachurch setting. The Master of Arts in Religion degree imparts a sound knowledge of academic theology to prepare students for advanced degrees or lay ministry in teaching or writing. In these and its other academic programs, through the rigors of biblical, and distinctly evangelical, theological studies, Trinity is equipping its students for ministry in the 21st century church.
The Stanway Institute and the Department of Mission and Evangelism, in particular, are making Trinity a primary place for training evangelists, missionaries, and youth ministers. With these programs and the mission organizations that have moved to Ambridge, Trinity has become a center for mission studies. The seminary offers a two-year Master of Arts in Mission and Evangelism with concentrations in youth ministry, global mission, and evangelism and renewal, and is also preparing programs to train church planters and urban ministers.
Trinity's Extension Ministries Office is making Trinity's resources increasingly available to people all over the country. Credit courses are being offered at our Rio Grande extension site, and in partnership with Northern Seminary near Chicago, serving men and women who are called to train for ministry but who are unable to attend the residential program.
Intellectually, we expect our faculty to make a deeper and deeper impact upon the Church through their scholarship and their preaching, teaching, and popular writing. Trinity's Professor of Biblical Studies, the Rev. Dr. Rod Whitacre, has published a major commentary on John's Gospel and a Patristic Greek Reader. The Rev. Dr. Grant LeMarquand, Academic Dean and Associate Professor of Biblical Studies and Mission, has just recently edited and published Why Haven't You Left? - a collection of missionary Marc Nikkel's letters from the Sudan. Dr. LeMarquand also recently started the Trinity Journal for Theology & Ministry, published twice a year, in order to provide mature theological reflection on some of the issues facing the Church in the 21st century.
The Very Rev. Dr. Justyn Terry, Trinity's Dean/President and Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, recently published The Justifying Judgement of God: A Reassessment of the Place of Judgement in the Saving Work of Christ. The Rev. Dr. Leander Harding, Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology, has published Flying Saucers and Christmas, a collection of Christmas Eve sermons. Our former Dean, The Rev. Dr. Paul Zahl, has published several books, including A Short Systematic Theology, Five Women of the Reformation, Grace in Practice and The First Christian, which made Booklist's "Best Books List" for 2003 in Religion. And former Dean, The Rev. Dr. Peter Moore, published a challenging book entitled, Can a Bishop be Wrong? Trinity is becoming a crucial place where biblical Christianity engages the challenges, needs, and concerns of contemporary society.
The Story We're Telling
We are excited about what God has done through the first quarter century of the School's life and what He is leading us to now. Created from nothing, nurtured through its early years of growth, and gifted and supported through the generosity of God's people, Trinity has always stood, and will continue to stand, for the authority of God's Word written, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit to change us from the inside out, to strengthen us to do the work of ministry. Trinity exists for God, because of God, and we glory only in him. No matter what challenges lie ahead, Trinity rests confidently on this foundational message.
