We’re excited to share our new Ordination Resources. These resources have been on our minds for several years and it’s a joy to share them with you now.

Our vision for these resources is to help equip church leaders who are pursuing ordination. While these resources do not immediately result in ordination and are not required for ordination, we believe they are valuable training and materials that can assist a pastor’s pursuit of ordination in Sovereign Grace Churches.

We currently offer 4 stand-alone courses:

• Biblical Theology

• Homiletics

• Systematic Theology 1

• Systematic Theology 3

We’re excited to see how these courses (and any future courses/resources that we add) will serve to provide a deeper understanding of Scripture and theology for the purpose of pastoral ministry!

Greetings from the Pastors College! 

We’re off to a wonderful start this year, grateful once again for the fine students our churches have sent to Louisville. Despite Covid’s persistence, I’m grateful that things have opened up a bit, which means I’m eagerly anticipating having SGC pastors visit us again in the PC.

In that light, I want to draw your attention to two unique course offerings in the spring.

Special Course

In addition to our core curriculum, each year we offer at least one specialized course designed to serve not only our students but also the pastors of Sovereign Grace. These courses provide the opportunity for pastors and pastoral teams to gather, grow, and learn together. 

“Pastoral Life and Ministry: Learning from Calvin and the Reformers”: Dr. Scott Manetsch

One of the most fascinating books I’ve read in recent years on pastoral ministry is Calvin’s Company of Pastors, authored by Dr. Scott Manetsch of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. In this book Manetsch explores both the pastoral theology and the ministerial practice of the men who served with and succeeded Calvin as pastors in Geneva and its environs. Here were men whose deep commitment to Scripture and the theological vision it imparts found energetic expression in the practicals of daily ministry. So I am particularly delighted that Dr. Manetsch will be joining us to teach this course, based on his outstanding volume and his wider scholarship. In addition to Calvin, Scott will roam more widely, drawing lessons from the life, theology, and pastoral practice of some other Reformed luminaries, such as Baxter, Perkins, and Oecolampadius. I invite you to come and be encouraged, strengthened, and equipped by the wealth of wisdom and compelling example of these pastors. We would love for you to join us in Louisville for Dr. Manetsch’s course, March 8-11, 2022.

Systematic Theology 5: Pneumatology

I’m creating a new course this year to serve this important part of our core curriculum. In the past we’ve invited different professors to teach this course, most notably Wayne Grudem, whose material we’ve continued to utilize. But for some time now I’ve wanted to create more of an “in-house” class to cover this material which has been a distinctive part of Sovereign Grace’s history and ongoing theological emphases (representing our 3rd “Shared Value”). I’m looking forward to exploring and celebrating this vital aspect of God’s work in our lives, the church, and the world. Please consider joining us for Pneumatology as well, offered April 12-15, 2022.

My prayer is that these courses will not only provide fruitful training for our Pastors College students but will also serve to equip those of you who are already faithfully laboring in the fields. We would be honored if you would join us. 

Jeff Purswell is the Director of Theology and Training for Sovereign Grace Churches and the dean of the Sovereign Grace Pastors College. He also serves as an elder at Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville, KY.

At the beginning of this month, we kicked off the 23rd academic year of the Sovereign Grace Pastors College. Below you can see the names and pictures of our students. What you can’t see are the stories behind these names and faces. It has been humbling to learn of the roads these folks have travelled to the PC, the challenges they’ve encountered, the sacrifices they’ve embraced, the faith they’ve exercised. All of this has increased our expectations, already high, for what the Lord has in store for these men, their wives, and their families.

This year we have eight students, ranging in age from 24-40. Seven are married, one is single. They bring with them 13 children, two born in the past three months and one on the way, due in January. For the 2nd year in a row we have a 2nd generation PC student—Philip Vanderweide, whose father Brian graduated from the very first PC class I had the privilege of leading in 1999 (when Philip was seven). Hailing from seven different churches and coming from a range of backgrounds, they have all arrived obviously eager to embrace the opportunities this year will afford for learning and growth.

Let me introduce you to the class of 2022.

Back row: Tim Owens (Pasadena, CA) • Gabriel Magill (Philadelphia, PA) • Matt Groen (Sioux Falls, SD) • Philip VanderWeide (Glen Mills, PA)

Front row: Merrick Potter (Copley, OH) • Eddie Spuler (Arnold, MD) • Caleb Collins (Louisville, KY) • Mark Christenson (Sioux Falls, SD)

All of our labors and good intentions profit nothing without the Lord’s hand of blessing. Would you please join us as we pray for our students and their families? We’re asking that: 

• A hunger for God and his Word would be kindled and burn bright and continuous throughout the year;

• Marriages and families would be strengthened and find new life and joy and godliness;

• Minds would expand and grasp truth and its contours and relationships and implications;

• A passion and faith for God’s purposes in the local church would be galvanized;

• Gifts for ministry would be discovered and sharpened and empowered;

• Dimensions of God’s calling would be discerned and vision for ministry clarified and inflamed;

• Teachers would be strengthened and sharpened and graced to teach their courses like never before;

• In everything, every context and in every way, Christ would be magnified in every mind, heart, and life associated with the Pastors College. 

It is a privilege to partner together with the churches of Sovereign Grace in the training of these dear folks for the work of ministry. Thank you so much for your encouragement, prayers, and support.