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Why choose Oak Hill?

We asked some of our students why they chose to train at Oak Hill: what made them commit to come here, study here, prepare for ministry here and do ministry here.

Here are some of their answers:

“I listened to people’s advice. The people that I knew here spoke very highly of their tutors and I had the privilege of being taught by one of these tutors on a course I was doing and he was exceptional. He taught with clarity and confidence in the scriptures. I asked him is everyone like that at Oak Hill and he said, to a man and a woman, they are evangelical and love the Lord. When I got here, they were like that. The other thing that struck me was the emphasis on constantly thinking ‘how is this
going to help pastoral ministry when I come out of college?’ It’s not an academic exercise; it’s the Lord equipping us for ministry.”
Tom Brown, Church of England Ordinand


“Getting experience of real life ministry alongside learning theology in an academic environment and hopefully have one inform the other was quite exciting to me. Being here myself rather than doing something that was an online course or more fragmented felt like the best of both worlds. I was convinced by the approach that the college takes in terms of looking into the bible, looking at the world around and then really all of that aimed at doing ministry with people in the local church. So I think that points to not just actually making my brain bigger but to serving God’s church.”
Adam Goddard, part time Independent student


“I never intended to actually go to theological college but I became convicted that if I wanted to spend the rest of my life teaching the word of God to children, I needed to know the bible well. The majority of the pastors who I’ve worked with in Hong Kong have come from Oak Hill and they recommended it. I then visited and asked students what they had gained from being at Oak Hill. The answers included having lifelong ministry friendships, spiritual growth and being able to learn how to critically think about doctrine, church governance and many Christian issues. Having the space to do that, you wouldn’t get anywhere else in the world.”
Mandy Tang, Independent student training for children’s, youth and family ministry


“I’ve had some contact with Oak Hill for years. I think the first was probably, in terms of being here, a summer school which gave me a good taste of joining the dots between theology and real life engaging with the world. And I thought I like this! I’ve had the Commentary publication from Oak Hill and been to a few events like ‘Why get ordained’. I sensed here that they want you to be the ‘best’ minister you can be.”
Ed Veale, Church of England Ordinand


“If we were going to be serving overseas we came to the conclusion we needed some more bible and cross cultural training. We realised that a big thing to work through is how do we hold onto the gospel but also be clear about what other things could change if we were working overseas. Being able to study the bible for ourselves, understand it and feed ourselves is really important in a different culture and we felt that the different courses at Oak Hill would enable us to do that. Oak Hill’s hold on the gospel message being taught and being central to mission even when it may well have lots of different aspects to it, was important.”
Rebekah and Mark Fox, Independent students training for cross-cultural ministry.

 

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