When we say TBI is a “church-based” theological and ministry training program we mean that TBI is a ministry of Bethlehem Baptist Church.

We are not just housing theological education coming from somewhere else (though we will welcome many adjunct professors and lectures from the greater Christian community); but we as a church are wholeheartedly investing in the leadership through the preaching, teaching, and many other ministries of the church. The TBI students, both undergraduate and graduate, will be folded into the life of the church, using their gifts to benefit the body and benefiting from the gifts of others in the body. 

One does not need to be a member to be admitted to or to graduate from any of TBI’s programs.

In general, we encourage our own students who are members of Bethlehem, but then leave to attend other colleges or seminaries, to become members of the church they are regularly attending. They are always welcome to join Bethlehem again if they return to Minneapolis. Likewise we encourage students attending TBI to become members while they are here. The principle is: in general it is best to be a full member of the church you are attending. We realize, however, there may be reasons why maintaining one’s membership in his or her home church is best, and we would support that.

Currently TBI is not accredited.

However, our INSIGHT students and our apprentices have been receiving academic credit through our partnering institutions. INSIGHT students have been receiving 32 semester units of credit through Northwestern College and our apprentices have been receiving up to 50 semester units of credit through seminaries such as Bethel, Gordon-Conwell, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Phoenix Seminary, etc. We are so grateful for these partnerships and look forward to these partnerships continuing until TBI earns its own accreditation (which is a several year process).

The TBI Affirmation of Faith was crafted in the early years of TBI.

It has since been embraced by Bethlehem Baptist Church as the body of doctrine, which all elders of the church and core faculty of TBI must gladly affirm. TBI is a confessional institution meaning that our aim is persuasively and winsomely to teach the “whole counsel of God” as we have come to understand it. This affirmation is not seeking to advance anything new or innovative but to pass on the historic Christian faith as it has been taught in the reformed tradition. The wisdom of being a confessional institution is that it will help preserve us from losing our biblical moorings and drifting away from the authority of the Scriptures. To read the TBI Affirmation of Faith click  Bethlehem Baptist Church Elder Affirmation of Faith.

TBI has many students in the Leadership Development Program who are part of other churches in the Twin Cities or around the country.

We are delighted with this and are eager to train anyone from any church who senses God’s leading to study in TBI’s Leadership Development Program. However, with regard to our college-level and seminary-level programs we will only admit students who intend to be part of the Bethlehem community during the course of their studies. This is because our degree programs are designed to be church-based and cohort-based.

Our passion is to do whatever we can so that as many people as possible learn more about how God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

Underneath the authority of the elders of Bethlehem Baptist Church Desiring God, Children’s Desiring God and TBI exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. Our passion is to do whatever we can so that as many people as possible learn more about how God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Desiring God does this through multiplying and distributing as broadly and affordably as possible the God-glorifying resources generated through the preaching and teaching ministry of Pastor John Piper. Children’s Desiring God is designing and distributing Sunday School material that captures this same vision of God and communicates to children through gifted teachers who themselves are being transformed through the curriculum. The Bethlehem Institute is seeking to do a similar thing for men, women and young adults. We are seeking to produce educational materials that can be used to facilitate learning of serious life-transforming theological truths and then to deliver these materials through the provision of church-based training curriculum and through proven methods of distance learning.

So much good can happen when a person hears a sermon or attends a seminar. Lives are changed. Thousands of testimonies come from around the country and around the world of how the resources coming out of Desiring God are transforming people’s understanding of the Bible, deepening their affections for God, and effecting their living out of the gospel in everyday life. But we have found that when people study these same truths in a systematic way, searching the Scriptures for themselves, reflecting on questions, solving theological problems and thinking truths through to application, a whole new level of learning and transformation can take place.

TBI wants to make our Leadership Development curriculum available to as many people as possible wherever they are located anywhere in the world. We are not going to confer college or graduate degrees through this program, we do intend it to offer a rigorous learning experience that will advance the knowledge and faith of serious men, women and young people and further equip them for Christ-exalting ministry.

We hope to launch our Distance Learning Program in the fall of 2010.

More information will become available as the development of our Distance Learning Program proceeds. 

We will not be offering the B.A. or M.Div. programs through distance education since they are designed to be church-based and cohort-based.

INSIGHT students are highly encouraged to live near downtown Minneapolis.

We believe that the educational and developmental experience is heightened when a student lives with his fellow students in community. This provides students with the opportunity to share life outside the classroom and be involved in the local ministry of Bethlehem Baptist Church. The INSIGHT housing coordinator will make arrangements for accepted students to live together in apartments, oftentimes located in the homes of Bethlehem families.

Resource Center, student residences, local cafes, homes of BBC families.

Discipleship, meeting with pastoral staff, events, retreats, informal get-togethers.