Equipping Through Missions

Your giving opens the door between the classroom and the mission field.

For Regent University’s School of Divinity (SOD), preparing Christian leaders means more than filling their minds with knowledge — it means forming men and women ready to put what they’ve learned into practice, wherever God calls them.

In Mark 16:15, Jesus told His disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (NKJV). Donors like you help make it possible for Regent students to answer that call through your faithful prayers and generous support.

Dr. Corné Bekker, Dean of the School of Divinity, emphasizes that answering Christ’s call requires both sound preparation and a willingness to go: “A degree program forms a student’s mind and ministry competence. But a student should leave having been sent, not merely having studied what sending means.”

That conviction is exactly why one of the central goals of the new Center for the Great Commission (CGC) is expanding real, hands-on opportunities for students to serve on the mission field.

“The Center for the Great Commission seeks to train and equip Regent students and faculty for the missional calling God has placed on the church,” says Dr. Melissa Davis, a School of Divinity adjunct professor and post-doctoral fellow. “The center will give that Great Commission ‘legs’ as it helps students recognize their place in God’s mission.”

For Davis, pursuing that goal starts in her own classroom. “Seminary is a formational process,” she explains. “Through our educational journey, the Lord is shaping us to become the people we need to be to accomplish His calling in our lives. What I teach should help students become disciple-making disciples.”

It also means opening doors beyond the classroom. Outside her work at Regent, Davis is the founder of Equipping Ministries Global (EMG), a ministry that equips and trains men and women for the work God has called them to in East Africa — Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. As a Regent School of Divinity alumna herself, Davis shapes these trips with intention rather than providing a generic missions experience.

“I can offer Regent students the opportunity to get their hands dirty doing ministry alongside my East African ministry partners,” she shares. “As we come together as brothers and sisters in the global body of Christ, learning from and serving one another, we all become stronger.”

Recent SOD graduate Lee Leleux knows firsthand how such experiences can shape a student. During her Regent journey, she traveled to Tanzania and Kenya with Davis. “My experience there was one of the most meaningful parts of my Regent journey,” she recalls. “I went expecting to serve in a limited capacity but came home realizing how much God had to teach me through the people I encountered.”

She adds, “Mission trips aren’t just about what we bring to others; they are about what God does in us when we step outside our familiar environment and encounter the global Church.”

With the help of friends like you, the CGC is preparing for its first official mobilization trip, with training this fall, ahead of a planned April outreach to Kenya. Led by Dr. Davis, the experience is expected to give students opportunities to spend time with local ministry leaders, participate in church worship, assist with ministry conferences and workshops, and serve children and youth in an orphanage and school setting.

The CGC is also building relationships with other established ministries. Bekker says the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and Operation Blessing International (OBI) are already the center’s first strategic partners — CBN brings broadcast reach to target nations, such as Brazil and Japan, while OBI provides an on-the-ground presence and local trust in those same countries.

Looking ahead, the CGC hopes to form more partnerships like these, opening doors for students to pursue both research and hands-on ministry. In Brazil and Japan, for example, the center plans to build sustained research on evangelism, missions, and
church planting.

“The Missio Dei, the mission of God, began in the Father’s own love for the world long before it ever reached the School of Divinity,” Bekker insists. “We simply want to be found faithful stewards of it in our generation, and we want our students to leave here having heard and understanding that what they heard was never meant to end with them.”

That is the heart of your partnership with the School of Divinity: You help empower faithful servants who are prepared to go, serve, and make disciples.

Through your giving — and through the doors the Center for the Great Commission is now opening — Regent is turning theological education into mission-ready formation, sending leaders into a world that needs the gospel. Thank you for helping make that possible.