Dear Friends of the College,

We hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year and had time to reflect on the birth of Jesus amid the busyness of the Christmas season. The staff and students at the College are all back and the new term has truly begun. Please pray for us as we teach, administrate, and study together that we would continue to know unity and joy as we serve.

We have some exciting events planned over the next couple of months:

Hugh D. Brown Lectures

First, our annual Hugh D. Brown Lectures will take place on Zoom on Thursday 16th January. We’re delighted to have Dr Michael Reeves delivering two lectures on the topic of "Preaching: A God-Centred Vision". Even if you’re not a preacher, we hope it will be helpful to anyone who handles God’s word (Sunday School teacher, children’s worker, YF leader etc.) and even if you don’t do any of those things, it’s useful for all of us to think about as we listen to preaching each week. Please join us virtually from 7-9.15pm for these lectures and a brief Q&A. Tickets cost £10 and you can purchase them here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hugh-d-brown-lectures-2025-tickets-1088643274339?aff=oddtdtcreator (free for student or unwaged) or find out more information on the events page of our website.

Open Events

We had a great Open Day back in November and we plan to host another two on Monday 17th February (7-9pm) and Tuesday 25th February (9am-12.45pm). We would love to have you join us to sit in on some classes, meet the staff and students, and get a tour of the building. If you’re considering studying at the College at an undergraduate or postgraduate level, or if you’re interested in our evening classes you will be made very welcome. Why not check out what courses we offer? https://www.irishbaptistcollege.org/study-at-ibc/

Gospel Guardians

We are so conscious of our need for God’s help and your help as we seek to train others for future ministry. We want to make the College affordable and accessible for all who are following God’s call to study with us. So, even though it costs the College about £10,000 to train one ministry student for one year we only charge about £6,000. Our Gospel Guardians initiative aims to keep training affordable.

When the Gospel Guardians initiative was launched in 2021 we had 9 monthly donors, now we have 53! Although giving £10/€12 per month doesn’t sound like much, it can make such a difference when we all give. The reality, however, is we need 200 Gospel Guardians. While this might sound like a lot, it’s not really. To meet the target of 200 Gospel Guardians we need 2 Gospel Guardians per church. Does your church have 2 people who could spare £10/€12 a month? Would you stand with us financially so that more students can be trained, and therefore more people across our island, and our world, hear the good news of the gospel? Find out how to give here https://www.irishbaptistcollege.org/give/

College Podcast

We’ll be back very soon with another season of the podcast called “Help Me Teach”.  We want to explore how we can teach various topics such as Christian Thought, Prophetic books, and on money. We will hear from some regular podcast voices, but also other Association staff. Keep an eye out for it soon, but in the meantime, there are some bonus episodes we launched before Christmas which are available to listen to. We hear from Davy Ellison and Johnny McClaughlin on a few different topics including Raising Up Gospel Leaders, and also from Andrew Curry, Steve Auld, and Jeff Hay on Training On The Ground.

Graduation

Graduation will take place on Wednesday 14th May in Carrickfergus Baptist Church. More information to follow!