Nazarene Theological Seminary

Nazarene Theological Seminary has been awarded a grant of $500,000 from the Kern Family Foundation for the purpose of "Re-Imagining NTS: A Missional Seminary Serving a Missional Church.” NTS was selected as one of five seminaries (more than 70 were invited to submit proposals) to receive the grant in Kern's four year "Leading Through Change: Innovation in Theological Schools" program. According to NTS President Ron Benefiel, "We are very thankful for the partnership of the Kern Family Foundation in this project to re-imagine NTS as a missional seminary. We expect this to have a far-reaching impact in our preparation of people for ministry and in our overall service to the Church.”

Over the last three years, NTS’ faculty, trustees and administration have been in active dialogue about the challenges and opportunities of being a missional seminary serving a missional Church in a complex and rapidly changing world. The Kern grant will provide timely assistance to NTS as the seminary reviews curricula and delivery systems in light of being a missional seminary and moves strategically toward greater partnership with mentor pastors and local congregations in the preparation of people for ministry. 

Specific areas of focus in the Re-imagining NTS Project will include: embody the missio Dei in dispersed communities; design and implement a missional curriculum; expand the repertoire of learning strategies; contextualize missional training; and increase course delivery options.

About the Kern Family Foundation: The Kern Family Foundation seeks to enrich the lives of others by promoting strong pastoral leadership, educational excellence and high quality, innovative engineering talent. In practice, the Foundation intentionally focuses on systemic change, rather than charities. It seeks to target funding toward broad impact, long-term programs. The Foundation’s programs include a partnership with Project Lead the Way (a pre-engineering program for middle and high school students), the Pastoral Ministry Program, the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN), and the Education Reform Program. You can learn more about Kern at www.kffdn.org.