CBTS students will soon be learning what it is like to be the virtual pastor in a virtual church! Sweetbriar Baptist Church is being created as this is written . . . and students are going to become intimately acquainted with this imaginary church and its considerable real life problems!

Don’t worry—we haven’t traded our Hebrew grammar books for video games.  We have, however, started work on an exciting and innovative strategy for classroom training in leadership skills: the use of a “simulation environment.”

Through the years, our seminary has excelled at having a balance between strong academics and practical ministry skills. We have even earned the reputation of being “the practical seminary.” Even with our practical emphasis, we have recognized over the years a need to provide better preparation for our students in the area of strategic organizational leadership. Pastors sometimes feel bewildered by the “business” side of local church ministry: strategic planning, financial management, supervision of staff, etc. Ministry in the coming decades promises to be increasingly complex in this regard.

The Summit Christian Leadership Center, formally established in August 2006, is an arm of the seminary focused on strategic leadership development. God has brought to our team a uniquely gifted individual to serve as the Summit Center’s director, Mr. Ron Clark. Ron brings with him a rich background of leadership training experience, with a specialization in simulation training.

Simulations have been used extensively by the military, police academies, law schools, and other disciplines; however, we’ve never heard of anyone using simulation environments to teach leadership skills for local church ministry. That is, until now!
The Summit Center will focus in the first year on producing training tools for seminarians. After that, we hope to share similar training with sister churches. Stay tuned for more details!