Distance Learning Program
Gallery
Beginnings
God called Jim & Lois McNeill to leave 27 years in the U.S. pastorate to train pastors and church leaders.
In obedience, Jim & Lois McNeill founded the Trinity Bible College in a city in Central Russia in 1998 under the auspices of the Evangelical Free Church of America ReachGlobal Mission.
The Evangelical/Protestant church had been suppressed in Russia for over 70 years, but glasnost and perestroika provided an open door to teach God’s Word. Pastors and other church leaders were (and are) hungry for quality teaching and materials. Instructors were brought to the college, primarily from the United States to teach from their area of expertise.
Based out of facilities owned by Grace Church, this residential college graduated it’s 10th class in 2008 and has graduated over 140 students in its ten year history. These students came from various locations throughout Russia and the Ukraine.
During this time, God called Vitaliy Petrov and then called Igor Petrov to leave Russia to go to the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in America to receive further training and then return to Russia to serve Him through teaching and training others.
However, in 2005 several factors led the college leadership to consider a new paradigm – Distance Learning – as a result of several factors that were limiting the growth of the residential college:
- The residential program could accommodate no more than thirty students at a time.
- Evangelical/Protestant pastors in Russia are usually bi-vocational, so to leave their jobs and/or families to attend a two-year residential program posed an almost insurmountable financial burden.
- Russia itself covers eleven time zones and the geographical distance to the college was a barrier to many. Additionally, students from the former Soviet republics also have distance and/or visa issues as barriers to entry.
- Religious freedom in Russia is shrinking and government harassment/surveillance was making it impossible to stay at Grace Church.
Additionally, during this period, Igor Petrov was in the U.S., studying at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He realized what a privilege it was for him to study under some of the best Bible scholars in the world, and understood that only a tiny percentage of pastors in Russia could have the same experience. So he received permission to videotape three courses that could be translated into Russian and then distributed under the new paradigm of Distance Learning.