The Mission

Redemption Seminary helps adult Christians

grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18)

through quality distance education which enables learning within their ministry setting

Redemption’s mission is rooted in the Bible. Our mission statement comes directly from 2 Peter 3:18 which is the verse that concludes Peter’s epistles with a command and benediction for the church to remain steadfast in their direction and growth.

The Motivation

We love others because the Lord first loved us. Jesus demonstrated his sacrificial love for us by giving himself as a ransom to redeem the world. We seek to realize this redemption by empowering others to better understand, apply, and share the life-giving gospel preserved for us in the Bible. This is the proper aim of theological education. Redemption Seminary seeks to teach people how to increase the eternal impact of their life at any stage.

The Situational Problem

The theological education sector is not properly serving students, faculty, administration, or the church.

• Students are asked to spend an inordinate amount of their income or depend on subsidies to pursue a theological degree. This issue is escalated because students often must leave their ministry or reduce their income to enroll in theological programs. The sector is ripe for improvement in other key areas such as; providing high-tough relational mentoring, creating assignments for students that directly help others, and giving students all the resources they need to succeed during their program and after they graduate.

• Most faculty either cannot find teaching positions or must accept underpaid adjunct positions where they aren’t given enough support to invest their time in students.

• Academic administrations have tended to grow overtime. Following the model of industrial sectors, educational administrations tend to build hierarchical models that create an unhelpful relationship between the faculty and the administration. This model also skews how the school views the student, making them a product that the school produces rather than a customer to be served.

• The church is not properly served by the sector in several ways. Its congregants lose the help of students who leave the church to attend seminary or must pause their current ministry efforts for the sake of their studies. Churches also end up shouldering a portion of their leader’s educational debt from overly expensive tuition. Finally, seminaries often end up in some sort of theological tension with churches and the students they send.

Missional Goals

We know that we are succeeding in our mission when we hear students or faculty feeling that:

• Their mentors are invested in their success and growth (relational).

• Their education is beneficial (relevant) for their spiritual growth. This is evaluated in specific areas through how students demonstrate program outcomes and if they would recommend courses to others.

• The resources provided are appropriate and helpful for growth and progress through the program (resourced).

• The cost and convenience of the program allow students the option to decide if they want to make programmatic theological study a priority in their lives and callings (responsible).

The Vision

If we succeed in our efforts we expect to see significant changes like the following.

• The number of people enrolling in advanced degrees in theology will significantly increase. Seminary isn’t just for pastors or is limited to people who like to write theological papers. Quality theological education will be available and accessible to everyone who has an interest in learning how to study and apply the Bible at a scholarly level.

• The cost of such study won’t be prohibitive or saddle people with debt.

• Christians will be rewarded for their serious study and personal growth with advanced credentials to help their professional development.

• Those who pursue advanced theological degrees will have occupational options such as becoming a mentor for others.

Online education hasn’t solved these issues and most seminaries merely attempt to approximate their traditional educational models rather than seek to develop improvements to the traditional model. Traditional education has plenty of room to improve and must be transformed in order to accomplish such a vision.

History

Redemption Seminary established itself in 2018 as a not-for-profit 100% online theological school in the state of Arizona. It was founded by an independent board of evangelical Christians to serve non-traditional adult learners with quality programmatic masters-level education in theology with individualized live mentoring to help them apply their learning to their ministry context as they learn. This necessitated the school to be 100% online so students could learn within their context. So, the school only maintains an administrative office rather than a campus with classrooms. Without a campus and by directing instructional costs toward mentoring the school operates with low overhead costs and low tuition levels.

Key interests in the board for forming the school was to provide adult Christian education at home at rates that fit within average disposable income levels, with a self-paced low-stress curriculum that can be pursued alongside another career.

The school appointed Dr. John Schwandt as its founding president. The school obtained 501c3 charity status in 2019 and began enrolling its first students in 2020. Dr. Joel Wingo was hired as the school’s first academic dean in 2022. The school celebrated its first graduating class for the master’s degree program in 2022.

The school has immediately resonated with adult learners in the church that cannot be served by expensive, inconvenient and stressful traditional classroom models. You can connect with current students, hear what they are saying, and ask them questions at Faithlife.com/Redemption-Seminary