A CHURCH in Okehampton has been chosen as an educational centre for bible study offering a high level of teaching for students throughout the South West.
Okehampton?s Inspiration, which belongs to the Church of the Nations family of churches, is launching the ?Inspiration Bible School? ? a registered Education Centre of ICI (International Correspondence Institute) bible study.
Inspiration?s senior pastor, Mike Davies, said: ?A lot of hard work has gone in to setting up the bible school and I was so excited when I received confirmation that we could now operate as an ICI Education Centre.?
The school will operate out of the Inspiration Church in Okehampton and will offer certificated courses running from a basic level to cover subjects like ?how to study the bible?, through to advanced level certification, including subjects such as Hebrew, Greek and the principles of preaching.
The degree levels on offer will cover bible/theology, missions, and religious education.
Mike Davies, who recently moved from the realms of running a busy investment department in an accountancy firm to heading a very pro-active church, said: ?These are challenging times for the Christian church in the UK, but we are beginning to see very promising signs of people returning to church and also coming along for the first time.
?We hope that the bible school, which is a vehicle for formal training, will prove to be popular.?
Mike, who will be dean to the school, is also supported in his work by pastor Chris Bourne, who has been appointed to the position of president of the school, and pastor Simon Bourne, who is currently working on starting a new youth initiative in Okehampton and West Devon.
Simon was recently a guest on BBC1?s Heaven and Earth show with Ross Kelly and Phillippa Forrester.
Inspiration offers a new approach to Christianity and in many ways is simply operating as the early churches did almost 2,000 years ago by working on basic biblical teachings and people relationships.
Mike believes that the church will soon experience rapid growth across all denominations and that this is the emergence of a period in history when the church will escalate in numbers and again be an influence and authority that the nation will respect and to which it will listen.
He added: ?Looking at the current state of the nation, and historical trends, I believe that we will very soon be entering a time that the church will refer to as ?revival?.?
The school is expected to attract students from across the South West and will be looking to appeal to students. particularly from Plymouth and Exeter.
Inspiration is also about to launch a Church Based Discipleship Training Course with YWAM (Youth With a Mission). The courses will run over a period of 12 weeks and will be held on Tuesday evenings.