Prospectus

Introduction

On this page you will find a short summary of our Prospectus, including our Mission, Board of Trustee members, term calendar and fee structure. For a complete Prospectus please download the PDF file here (1.3 MB) or email us on info@pathways.ac.nz to request a printed copy

Our Mission

If you want to love God and serve Him well, you need to keep theology and action together. Without deep Bible knowledge, ministry becomes shallow and secular. And without loving action, theology becomes stagnant and irrelevant. But if you can fuse theology and action together in the same learning experience, you have something powerful and life-changing, a living knowledge that pleases God in the real world.

This fusion of theology and action is what Pathways Internship Bible College offers you. As a Bible college, we are 100% committed to giving our students a deep theological base. As an internship, we also require our students to spend 50% of their time working practically in their fields of ministry. At Pathways, we believe this action/knowledge dynamic is how people truly learn and develop.

Our Vision

To make a significant contribution to the breadth and depth of the evangelical movement by equipping people to be effective Christ followers in mission, ministry and workplace contexts.

THE BELIEFS WE TEACH

We believe, affirm, and teach

1. God is. He exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is almighty, and has need of nothing. He is eternal.
2. God, who is spirit, has chosen to create space and time and matter, and all that exists. He has planned this in his wisdom, and created all things by his power. He has life in himself, and all life has its source in him. He continues to be Lord and active sustainer of this world and all that he has made.
3. The crown of God's creation is humanity, whom he has made in his image, and to reflect his glory. He has made Adam and Eve, male and female. To them he has given not only a physical body, but also the "spirit of life" that they might be "living souls" and able to have a personal relationship with their Creator. God has also given them the ability to make their own choices. Our first parents chose to disobey God, and have passed on their fallen nature to all humanity.
4. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, came to earth to be the Saviour of the world. He, and he alone, fully reveals God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, fully God and fully human. He lived among us on this earth, spoke the words of God, and did the works of God. He was crucified - an act of sinful men - but his death was also his own act of obedience to God by which he offered himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. He was raised to life again by the power of God, on the third day, left the tomb, and after showing himself alive to his disciples, ascended to heaven.
5. God planned before the world was created that there should be a way of salvation for sinful people. We ourselves are totally unable to achieve peace with God by our own efforts. God has acted in grace, and chosen to call men and women into his family and kingdom. At the same time, he invites all people to respond to him by faith in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice, and we are accountable for our choices. As we receive salvation, we are justified, forgiven, born of God, and have the gift of eternal life. By the Spirit of God, we begin to be changed to live according to God's design, and to become like Christ. Our growing likeness to Christ is evidence of our coming into relationship with God. God's greatest requirement of us is that we love him with all of our heart, and that we love our neighbours as ourselves.
6. At the time that anyone receives the gift of salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within them. It is by the Spirit of God that we are born again. The Holy Spirit is eternal and divine. He reveals Jesus Christ to us. He teaches the truth, and communicates the life and power of God to us.
7. The Holy Spirit has inspired the Scriptures (the Old and New Testaments). The Scriptures are God's Word. They are sufficient for our guidance and are our final authority in all matters of faith and conduct. Scripture is true and fully reliable. We do not judge Scripture - rather, we stand under its judgement, and seek in humility to understand it by the Spirit's aid, and then obey.
8. All who have received salvation become members of Christ's church. They are his disciples. To them is given the task and privilege of being his ambassadors to represent their Master to the world, and to proclaim the good news of reconciliation to God through Christ's sacrifice. The Church functions as a body. God by his Spirit gives gifts which equip every member to contribute to the church's ministry, and, for the church to be healthy, every member must be playing his or her part. All believers are priests, with access to God in prayer and worship solely on the ground of Christ's sacrifice. The typical pattern of church government presented by the New Testament is that of oversight by a group of elders. This provides the pattern for church leadership in our own day. Christ has asked his disciples to remember him regularly in the celebration of the Lord's Supper (or Communion). This is a focus of the shared spiritual life of the Church, and expresses the unity of believers in Christ. Baptism by immersion in water is a symbolic act in which believers publicly declare their commitment to Christ.
9. Evil is real. Satan, the enemy of God, is active in this world. There is a hell as well as a heaven. But Satan, sin and death have been overcome by Christ in his death and resurrection.
10. The salvation which God has planned for His people is not yet complete. Christ will soon return to this world as King of kings. Evil is yet to be finally put down in a process of judgement and in this process, God's people are vindicated. The truth of God's promises to Israel will also be vindicated in a time of blessing for the nation. The dead will be raised - those who have been born of God to eternal joy, and the unrepentant to eternal sorrow. Creation will be renewed, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. All creatures will sing God's praise.

Our Values

• Commitment to the authority of the Bible, the centrality of Christ's cross and the priority of mission.
• Inclusiveness - based on common loyalty to Jesus Christ, not primarily on the basis of doctrinal agreement or conformity to community expectations, though these are both important.
• Respect for Others - based on confidence in the Good News
• Personal Growth- in passion for God, the Bible and mission
• Self-Sacrificial Involvement- in the local church, the wider evangelical movement, and the world; this is love in action
• Integrity - in enquiry and academic study
• Team Participation - with flexibility and equality in service and in servant leadership
• Partnership - between churches and across cultural barriers; between manuwhiri and tangata whenua

Board of Trustees

Chairperson: John Buchanan B.Com., M.Com. (hons), Ph.D. (Hamilton)
Treasurer: Gordon Fountain CA, BBS, NZIM (Auckland)
Board Members:
Rosemary Diprose, Dip Tchg, Dip Child & Adol Psych, Adv Cert Couns. (Tauranga)
John Hodgkinson, director of GCIM (Palmerston North)
Peter Lemmon, (Wellington)
David Mulholland, Ed.D.(Auckland)
Lloyd Port, NZCQS (Cambridge)
Melaine Sagala - BA (Anthro), Dip Tchg, Dip TESSOL, Higher Dip Tchg. (Auckland)
Jay Gillett (Waharoa)
Ex Officio: Alan Peary, BA (hons), Dip Tchg, MI Dip (Executive Principal)

Typical Calendar Year

The Pathways College academic year runs from February to early December. There are two semesters. Semester break and study breaks fall during secondary school holiday periods. Pathways College observes all normal public holidays.

The 2010 Internship programme year:

• Semester One 15th February - 2nd July (midterm break 2nd - 11th April)
• Semester Two 19th July - 10th December (midterm break 27th Sept - 3rd Oct)