ADVANCE establishes partnerships for equipping around the world in places where there is little to no access to theological training. We begin these partnerships through invitations from the IMB or through contact from national Christian leaders.

Course Work

We enlist the help of professors from NOBTS and qualified pastors and leaders from the U. S. and other countries to teach the 8 courses required for the Biblical Ministries Certificate. These 8 classes are undergraduate level coursework. Each ADVANCE trainer functions as an adjunct professor from NOBTS. The seminary is the final authority in approving those who teach.

The schedule for teaching our schools is different for each school. Regardless of which approach is used the schedule is usually arranged so that the teachers are gone for about 9-10 days and miss only one Sunday. With 4 classes taken each year, students receive personal,  theological and practical training of the highest quality in 2 years.

• Each teacher pays their own expenses.
• Each class involves about 20 hours of content.
• Translators are provided.
• Exams are either written or oral and emphasize specific application of content to the student's ministry setting

Philosophy

We feel that if we train national leaders they can go places in their countries where we cannot go and do things that we could never do as well as they can. We depend on missionary personnel on site or national leaders to select the top 15-20 church leaders who can take our material and reproduce themselves in discipling leaders once the program is completed. With a small but committed group of students, we want to present the highest quality content of the materials covered. We pray for these pastors during the 2 year program and encourage them as much as possible. We try and address the practical problems they have in ministry through the class materials and discussions in and out of class.