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Motto | "Your Ministry is Our Mission" | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type | Private, Theological Seminary | |||||||
Established | 1975 [1] | |||||||
Affiliation | Church of God | |||||||
President | Michael L. Baker [2] | |||||||
Academic staff | 17 [3] | |||||||
Students | 565 (Fall 2022) [4] | |||||||
Location | , , United States 35°09′45″N84°52′07″W / 35.1626°N 84.8685°W | |||||||
Campus | Suburban | |||||||
Colors | ||||||||
Website | ptseminary.edu | |||||||
The Pentecostal Theological Seminary is a private Christian seminary in Cleveland, Tennessee. While part of the educational ministry of the Church of God, the school accepts students of other denominations, particularly those interested in its emphasis on Wesleyan/Holiness theology and Pentecostal spirituality. It has trained ministers since 1975.
The school offers the M.Div, M.T.S., and M.A, degrees with concentrations in Church Ministries, Discipleship and Christian Formation, Theological studies and Counseling. Some courses and degrees are offered online. It also offers the D.Min. degree for ministerial leaders seeking to expand their study. [5]
Interest in a denomination seminary began in the 1960s and Charles W. Conn instituted a denominational Board of Education in 1968. This board appointed a committee (H.D. Williams, James M. Beaty, and R. Hollis Gause) to look at the possibility of such a seminary. During the early 1970s the denomination decided to pursue a graduation school for ministerial training and work began to launch such a school. The Seminary was granted a charter for graduate education by the state of Tennessee in 1975 as the Church of God Graduate School of Christian Ministries.
When it opened in the Fall of 1975, the school offered 2 degrees: the Master of Science in Religion and the Master of Arts in Religion. The offices and classrooms were in a renovated apartment building in Cleveland, Tennessee. It had two full-time faculty members, with one of those serving as Dean and Director. Opening with an enrollment of eighteen students, the graduate school increased to twenty-eight students the second term. At the first commencement on July 27, 1976, three students received the Master of Arts in Religion and two students received the Master of Science degree in Religion under the one-year curriculum. Eight more students graduated on July 26, 1977.
In 1979, the seminary Board of Directors authorized the purchase of property and the building of a new facility. Subsequently, property was acquired at the corner of 8th and Walker Streets near the Church of God Publishing House, North Cleveland Church of God and Lee University. On November 10, 1979, ground was broken for the erection of a facility to house the Seminary. In the Fall of 1980, the Seminary moved into a new building constructed to house offices, classrooms, and a chapel. The Squires Library and Dixon Pentecostal Research Center would be shared by the seminary and Lee University. In the late 1980s, Hamilton Court was built as a dormitory for students.
In 1995, the addition of the Curtsinger Ministry Center doubled the size of the academic space. Today several small buildings and houses are also owned by the seminary to serve as housing for various students, ministries and departments, including the Centre for Pentecostal Theology. [6]
The seminary has undergone several name changes in its history. It began in 1975 as the Church of God Graduate School of Christian Ministries. The name was changed to the Church of God School of Theology in 1978, and then became the Church of God Theological Seminary in 1997. These name changes were made to reflect the changing level of accreditation received by ATS and SACS. In 2004-2005 the name was changed again to Pentecostal Theological Seminary. [7] This was done with the hope of extending a broader invitation to other Pentecostals.
Until 1988, the President of the denominational seminary was the person elected as the General Overseer of the Church of God. Since 1988, the president has been appointed by the denomination but serves no other official position. [8]
The Centre for Pentecostal Theology (CPT) is a residential library dedicated to facilitating the conception, birth, and maturation of constructive Pentecostal Theology across the theological disciplines. Several PhD students are currently working with the centre to produce academic work in the area of Pentecostal Theology under the supervision of John Christopher Thomas and Lee Roy Martin. [10] Many of the students are working with Bangor University, Wales and the University of South Africa.
The Journal of Pentecostal Theology (JPT) was also birthed at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary. It is maintained by the CPT and published by Brill Publishers. The founding editors (Steven J. Land, John Christopher Thomas and Rickie D. Moore) were all faculty at the seminary. [11]
The seminary has been a center of Pentecostal Theology led by scholars in the field.
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is an international Holiness–Pentecostal Christian denomination, and the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. Although an international and multi-ethnic religious organization, it has a predominantly African American membership based within the United States. The international headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee. The current Presiding Bishop is Bishop John Drew Sheard Sr., who is the Senior Pastor of the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ of Detroit, Michigan. He was elected as the denomination's leader on March 27, 2021.
The Church of the Nazarene is a Christian denomination that emerged in North America from the 19th-century Wesleyan-Holiness movement within Methodism. It is headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas. With its members commonly referred to as Nazarenes, it is the largest denomination in the world aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement and is a member of the World Methodist Council.
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Rufus Hollis Gause, Jr., known as R. Hollis Gause, was an American Pentecostal theologian and pastor. He was affiliated with the Church of God. Gause was the first dean of the Pentecostal Theological Seminary.
Renewal theologians are those theologians who represent the Pentecostal, Charismatic and Neocharismatic movements. Notable Renewal theologians are noted under the grouping with which they are most closely identified.
Steven Jack Land is a Canadian renewal theologian within the Pentecostal movement who began serving as the president of the Church of God Theological Seminary, now Pentecostal Theological Seminary, in 2002. He is the first president of the institution to have been selected from the seminary faculty. He began teaching full-time in 1979 and is currently Distinguished Professor of Pentecostal Theology.
Western Theological Seminary (WTS) is a private seminary located in Holland, Michigan. Established in 1866, it is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America, a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States.
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Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
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Horizon College and Seminary is a multi-denominational Evangelical Christian College in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
United Theological Seminary is a United Methodist seminary in Trotwood, Ohio. Founded in 1871 by Milton Wright, it was originally sponsored by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. In 1946, members of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ merged with the Evangelical Church to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church, with which the seminary then became affiliated. When that denomination merged with The Methodist Church in 1968, United Theological Seminary became one of the thirteen seminaries affiliated with the new United Methodist Church (UMC).
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