Carey Baptist College:
As a Baptist Church we have a national theological college called Carey Baptist College, and it’s located right here in Penrose, Auckland. When God called me to pastoral ministry I was forty-one and a physiotherapist working happily in private practise. It wasn’t until my husband died suddenly in 2008 that I realised that God’s call on my life was still there. So, in 2010, at age 50, I began training at Carey for 3 years, doing a combined Diploma of Pastoral Leadership and Bachelor of Applied Theology. The workload was intense, and study became my life for those three years. However, when God calls you to do something for Him He also equips you for the journey. I found Carey to be a very inclusive, loving community, with highly skilled approachable lecturers.
Carey Baptist College does not just train Pastors. They also train people for mission and ministry. To do a degree you have to do 24 papers, but you can just choose to do 1 paper at a time. You may choose to go to the 3-hour lecture in person or attend via ZOOM. You spend another 7 hours per week reading and writing assignments. So, each paper takes 10 hours a week, and is completed in around 4.5 months. You can also choose to do block courses of between 2 to 5 days onsite. My favourite papers were biblical papers like Luke and John, and theological papers like Christology, and Spirit and Trinity. There were also mission papers like “The mission of God,” and cultural papers like “Hope and Humanity.”
You can find out all you need to know here https://www.carey.ac.nz/study/
This morning is “Carey Sunday” where Baptist churches around the country get to hear more about Carey and listen to John Tucker, the Principal of Carey, preach. I hope you enjoy it.
About Pastor Julie
I’m passionate about the church – building believers up in their faith, to be all God intended them to be; and I’m passionate about sharing the love and hope of Jesus with people who don’t know Him yet.